Monitoring and Troubleshooting Direct Collection
  
Monitoring and Troubleshooting Direct Collection
Direct collection is the gathering of configuration data from network devices for the purpose of building a network model (as opposed to the purpose of gathering performance metrics). NetIM performs direct collection by means of the following:
• The command-line interface (CLI) of network devices. NetIM connects to devices by Telnet, SSHv1, or SSHv2.
• The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). NetIM uses SNMP to access device configuration data that may be stored in devices’ Management Information Bases (MIBs).
• The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service of Windows hosts.
As NetIM attempts to build a network model through direct collection of device configurations, it stores statistics on the success and failure of those attempts. Those statistics, plus per-device settings in the Device Manager, make it possible to troubleshoot direct collection on a per-device basis.
Both SNMP and WMI are also used to gather performance metrics, but SNMP and WMI activities for the purpose of gathering performance metrics do not affect the direct collection statistics described in this chapter.