Monitor NCache Using SNMP Counters

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), is considered to be a standard protocol through which different devices on a network communicate and share information with each other.

NCache has now simplified the management of SNMP monitoring by supporting the publishing of counters on a single port. In previous versions, individual ports were required for each cache.

Configure NCache for SNMP Monitoring

To monitor NCache counters using SNMP, follow the steps mentioned below:

Prerequisites

NCache Service must be running.
The cache(s) that you wish to monitor must be up and running.

Configure NCache Service Config

The Alachisoft.NCache.Service.dll.config config file shipped at %NCHOME%\bin\service allows you to enable and disable cache counter monitoring via SNMP through configurable tags. These tags are as follows:

    <add key="NCacheServer.EnableSnmpMonitoring" value="true"/>
    <add key="NCacheServer.SnmpListenersInfoPort" value="8256"/>
    <add key="NCacheServer.EnableMetricsPublishing" value="true"/>

Important

The value for NCacheServer.EnableMetricsPublishing tag must be set to true, to monitor NCache counters using SNMP.

Set NCacheServer.EnableSnmpMonitoring tag as true. It allows you to enable/disable the monitoring of NCache cache counters via SNMP. This tag is set to false by default.
Set NCacheServer.SnmpListenersInfoPort tag as true. It allows you to configure the port to which SNMP listens. By default, the value of this is set to 8256, but you can change this value as per your requirements.
Set NCacheServer.EnableMetricsPublishing tag as true. It is used to enable/disable metrics publishing to the NCache Service. By default, this tag is set to false.
Save Changes: After updating the values of the above tags, save the config file and restart the NCache Service, cache host process, and client application(s) on all client and server machines for the changes to take effect. For Monitoring Bridge Counters make sure you restart the bridge service after configuration.

Note

Make sure to restart the NCache Service after you have made the respective changes to the service config files

Monitoring Using SNMP

MIB (Management Information Base) is a key component of SNMP. It is a text file where SNMP network elements are described as a list of data objects. Consider the MIB as a dictionary of the SNMP language, where every object that is being referred to an SNMP message must be listed in the MIB. If a network component isn't described in the MIB, it practically doesn't exist.

NCache now provides a single MIB file alachisoft.mib for the counters which can be monitored with SNMP. It informs you about all the ports where the cache, bridge, bridge cache, lucene cache, persistence cache, and client counters are being published. It is shipped at %NCHOME%\bin\resources. You can browse the MIB file with MibBrowser Free Tool to view the counters.

SNMP

You can monitor the specific attributes in the SNMP Table. Select the desired attributes and click View from the top-menu bar before you select the SNMP Table. The table will show you the respective values of the counters.

SNMP Table

Previously, there were multiple MIB files for bridge, bridge cache, lucene cache, persistence cache, and client counters, etc., which have now been consolidated into a single MIB file.