Accumulating Telemetry for Customized Dashboarding

This text is authored by Matt Schmitz,
Technical Options Specialist,
Cisco’s World Digital Engineering (GVE) DevNet crew.
Go to the GVE DevNet GitHub web page 

Networks proceed to get extra advanced with so many new units and providers to assist – however there’s one fixed that by no means modifications: the necessity for good monitoring instruments! It’s all about having the appropriate knowledge factors on the proper time and introduced in the appropriate manner.
With IoT sensors changing into extra frequent & many units coming with embedded sensors, now we have extra info accessible than ever earlier than. Now the query turns into: “How will we use all of this info?” Whereas some sensors might supply their very own customized instruments or reporting software program, others may solely expose an API. In both case, the metrics gained’t be useful if we are able to’t discover or use the information in a manner that works for us.

So how will we carry all of our sensor telemetry right into a single place and show it in a helpful manner? One methodology is to put in writing scripts to question all our sensors & units, then push these knowledge factors right into a time-series database, like InfluxDB. As soon as now we have all that knowledge collected in a single place, we are able to use Grafana to create customized dashboards to maintain observe of what we care about. This manner we are able to pull all of our telemetry into one single reporting instrument, then construct customized graphs & dashboards to show the information precisely how we want it.

What might this appear to be in apply? Properly, let’s check out just a few examples of the place our crew helped Cisco clients construct customized reporting instruments.
Whereas every instance beneath had distinctive units and challenges, the final purpose was the identical: Acquire telemetry to make use of for customized dashboarding, reporting, and/or alerting. In every case we utilized a bit little bit of customized code to gather metrics from units & import them into an Inflow database. Then, we constructed dashboards in Grafana to show historic & real-time knowledge in a manner that helped handle the client’s distinctive challenges.

DOM Telemetry Monitoring

On this instance, we labored with a buyer who was on the lookout for a greater option to proactively monitor their massive fiber-based community. Utilizing the Digital Optical Monitoring (DOM) telemetry provided by the fiber transceivers, they might look ahead to efficiency traits & get alerted rapidly when points occurred. Our crew used a mix of Python & Ansible to periodically question community units for the optical telemetry. The collected telemetry was used to construct a dashboard that confirmed real-time & trending well being statistics. Optionally, the client might allow Webex push notifications when transceivers exceeded predefined thresholds. This enabled the client to rapidly reply to degrading connection well being & handle points earlier than service-impacting outages occurred. Take a look at pattern code & directions within the DOM Telemetry repo.

Meraki MT Dashboard

On this instance, we had a buyer who needed to maintain observe of temperature deviations between sizzling & chilly aisles of their knowledge middle. The shopper had already bought Meraki MT temperature sensors and deployed them to every rack. Nonetheless, they needed a greater methodology of aggregating & visualizing the temperature and humidity knowledge. To fulfill the client’s wants, we constructed a customized flask dashboard that displayed every row of racks & the present temperatures on every sensor. This helped create a simple visualization for buyer engineers to find temperature deviations in every row. This dashboard included mixture graphs to show historic & trending knowledge for every sizzling or chilly aisle. Take a look at pattern code & directions within the Meraki MT repo.

PoE Measurement

For our closing instance, we wanted to supply a customized system to watch vitality utilization inside a brand new industrial constructing. The constructing was geared up with good lighting powered by Cisco’s Catalyst Digital Constructing (CDB) Switches. Since the entire lights within the constructing can be powered by Energy over Ethernet (PoE), we have been in a position to question the CDB switches to gather energy consumption on a per-port foundation. Offering this telemetry in a dashboard format allowed the client to maintain observe of vitality utilization inside the constructing, which enabled them to fulfill their value & sustainability targets. Take a look at pattern code & directions within the PoE Measurement repo.

Get pattern code & directions

Nowadays there may be greater than sufficient knowledge accessible to handle our monitoring & reporting wants, however we simply want to determine one of the best ways to make the most of that info. With a bit little bit of customized code & just a few nice open-source instruments, it’s simpler than ever to construct easy monitoring and reporting dashboards.

If you happen to’re excited about studying extra concerning the examples, try the hyperlinks beneath. Every repository comprises the pattern code & directions for how you can use it in your individual community:

About our GVE crew

The World Digital Engineering (GVE) DevNet crew works with Cisco clients to assist carry their automation concepts to life. Along with Cisco Account Groups, we discover alternatives the place clients want a bit assist getting began with automation or integration tasks. We develop easy examples to showcase what is feasible with a bit little bit of customized code. Many of those instance tasks are revealed on the GVE DevNet GitHub web page and shared with the group.

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