Recommended trap processing design

Recommended trap processing design presents the recommended design for trap processing. This configuration relies on two instances of the SNMP Trap Adapter to handle trap processing and performs well under the stress of high volumes of traps.

Instance 1 of the adapter is configured as a trap exploder that receives and forwards traps. In this configuration, the trap exploder does not process traps into notifications or use any ASL scripts for sophisticated trap processing. The trap exploder’s sole function is to filter and forward traps as follows:

• IP Availability Manager-required traps are forwarded to IP Availability Managers.

• Traps required for other VMware Smart Assurance domains are forwarded to the proper domain.

• Other useful traps are forwarded to Instance 2 of the SNMP Trap Adapter for processing into notifications. These traps provide meaningful or actionable information to the administrators of the network.

• Traps may be received in SNMP v1, v2c, or v3 formats; however, they are forwarded on to the Adapter Platform or to other Domain Managers as SNMP v1 or v2c only.

• Other traps that administrators do not consider useful can be forwarded to an unused port to reduce overhead at the SNMP Trap Adapter. Normally, the adapter logs an error message for each trap that is not forwarded. This practice eliminates the processing associated with error message logging. Another benefit is that forwarding these traps to a location permits you to set up a tool to collect the traps.

  Instance 2 of the SNMP Trap Adapter performs the typical processing of traps into notifications and may invoke ASL scripts for advanced processing. This instance does not forward any traps.

  The two SNMP Trap Adapter instances are invoked using different configurations. The following is the typical configuration when the instances are on a single host:

• The trap exploder, Instance 1 of the SNMP Trap Adapter, uses BASEDIR/smarts/local/conf/trapd/trapd.conf. This trapd.conf file includes trap forwarding statements and indicates the port to use when listening for traps.

• Instance 2 of the SNMP Trap Adapter processes traps into notifications and uses BASEDIR/SAM/smarts/local/conf/icoi/trapd.conf and BASEDIR/SAM/smarts/local/conf/icoi/trap_mgr.conf. This instance of the trapd.conf file does not include trap forwarding statements. (If the Trap Adapter was installed as a service, these traps will be forwarded to the Adapter Platform by default). The trap_mgr.conf file includes definitions for all traps that will be forwarded as notifications.

  Note:

  The trapd.conf files installed with IP Availability Manager and IP Performance Manager can be configured to permit the IP Availability Manager and the IP Performance Manager to forward traps by using their built-in trap receivers. This capability should not be used except for testing deployments or when migrating traps from multiple locations to one destination. The VMware Smart Assurance Service Assurance Manager Adapter Platform User Guide provides a complete description of the SNMP Trap Adapter.

  Figure 1. Recommended trap processing design