Overview of LifeKeeper Event Forwarding via SNMP

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) defines a device-independent framework for managing networks. Devices on the network are described by MIB (Management Information Base) variables that are supplied by the vendor of the device. An SNMP agent runs on each node of the network, and interacts with a Network Manager node. The Network Manager can query the agent to get or set the values of its MIB variables, there by monitoring or controlling the agent’s node. The agent can also asynchronously generate messages called traps to notify the manager of exceptional events. There are a number of applications available for monitoring and managing networks using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

LifeKeeper has an event notification mechanism for registering applications that wish to be notified of specific events or alarms (see the sendevent(5) man page). LifeKeeper can be easily enabled to send SNMP trap notification of key LifeKeeper events to a third party network management console wishing to monitor LifeKeeper activity.

The remote management console receiving SNMP traps must first be configured through the administration software of that system; LifeKeeper provides no external SNMP configuration. The remote management server is typically located outside of the LifeKeeper cluster (i.e., it is not a LifeKeeper node).

LifeKeeper Events Table

The following table contains the list of LifeKeeper events and associated trap numbers. The entire Object ID (OID) consists of a prefix followed by a specific trap number in the following format:

prefix.0.specific trap number

The prefix is .1.3.6.1.4.1.7359, which expands to iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.7359 in the MIB tree. (7359 is SteelEye’s [SIOS Technology] enterprise number, followed by 1 for LifeKeeper.) For example, the LifeKeeper Startup Complete event generates the OID: .1.3.6.1.4.1.7359.1.0.100.

• This trap may appear multiple times if recovery fails on multiple backup servers.