About TrapServer™
Low Cost Monitoring System
The TrapServer™ is a low-cost monitoring system designed for the telecommunications environment. SchoRen clients realize cost savings because the TrapServer:
- consolidates fault events from many device types in a multi-vendor environment.
- has modular software API whereby monitoring modules can be used more than once, at no additional cost.
- supports open standards, such as SNMP, which facilitates the monitoring of many different device types.
Indeed, the typical SchoRen client adds devices to the TrapServer -- devices that they did not initially plan on -- the moment they realize how much the TrapServer can do.
TrapServer™ Supports Many Device Types
The TrapServer can monitor many devices because it supports open protocols such as SNMP. Furthermore, due its protocol translation capabilities, the TrapServer can be outfit to monitor proprietary protocols. For example, the TrapServer currently supports proprietary protocols such as Badger 481, LarScan and Larse 3000, and MCS-11.
The type of equipment that the TrapServer monitors is typical of the telecommunications environment. The following list will be familiar to those who are involved with telecommunications.
- SONET Transport
- digital cross-connects
- telephone switches
- microwave radios
- 2-Way radio equipment
- timing sources
- remote terminal units
- AC and DC power equipment
NetManager Protocols Certified By Badger
In order to provide its customers the ability to upgrade to the latest in hardware and software technology, Badger Alarm & Control has formed a partnership with SchoRen to implement the four NetManager protocols on the TrapServer. These protocols are:
- Badger 481
- Badger LarScan
- Badger Larse 3000
- TSM-2500 MCS-11
The Badger 481, LarScan and Larse 3000 protocols have been developed with full support form Badger Alarm & Control. This includes all applicable protocol-related documentation. As a result, the TrapServer now provides the most reliable and feature-rich Badger monitoring on the market.
When it comes to monitoring your Badger protocols, accept no imitations. These imitations have been developed without the proper protocol documentation and cannot reliably support all the features that you deserve.
Standard Features
Each TrapServer is replete with the following set of standard features:
- Access Control
- Per-User Area of Responsibility
- SNMP Trap Forwarding
- SNMP Trap and Get Monitoring
- Console Event Viewer (color-coded text events)
- Console Area Viewer (color-coded icon events)
- Browser Current Event Status
- Browser History Reports
- Redundancy
- Access for 30 Concurrent Users
- Multiple X-Windows Client Support (secure with full functionality)
- Server Class hardware (Rack or Desktop Mounting)
Standard Browser-based Reports
The TrapServer stores at least 10 years of event history and provides the following reports to analyze that history:
- Form-driven History Report
- Current Event Status
- Current History Report
- Standing Alarms Report
- Alarm Event Total Report
- Alarm Event Summary Report
- Alarm Event Duration Report
- Event Count by Device by Month
- Element Availability Report
- Nuisance Report
- Generator Run Report
Upon request, SchoRen is happy to create custom reports. Please do not hesitate to inquire about a custom report if the report you require does not exist.
Optional Features
The TrapServer can also be equipped with the following optional features:
- Notification
- Trouble Ticket
- Protocol Conversion
- SNMP Message Translation
About Notification
Notification automatically alerts users when there is a critical problem on their network requiring immediate attention. Users can be notified via the following methods:
- SMS (wireless phone)
- TAPXIO Text Paging
- Beeper
The TrapServer notification interface also contains an intuitive, user-friendly, scheduling calendar so that on-call duty schedules can be declared ahead of time, in 3-month increments. Once the schedule is entered using the calendar, all notifications will automatically be sent to the proper person at the proper time.
About Trouble Ticketing
Trouble Ticketing is a browser-based user interface that helps personnel track and resolve problems. It contains a search form so that tickets can be searched, thus directing personnel to solutions, leading to quicker resolution. Tickets can be manually entered by qualified personnel. The TrapServer can be configured to automatically generate tickets based on certain criteria.
The Trouble Ticketing user interface has these capabilities:
- Open Ticket Manually
- Open Ticket Automatically
- Close Ticket
- Search Tickets (For trouble resolutions!)
- View Ticket
- View Ticket History
Protocol Conversion
We have already established that the TrapServer supports open protocols such as SNMP. However, sometimes it is necessary to monitor proprietary protocols. The TrapServer has a protocol conversion interface that provides such functionality.
The TrapServer protocol conversion interface employs Python programming language. Python has been adopted by SchoRen primarily because it leads to the rapid application of protocol conversion modules. It also has a large set of utilities that are helpful when developing protocol conversion modules. Finally, it is a modular, object-oriented language which allows multiple instances of modules to be used at the same time.
The aforementioned Badger 481 module has been developed in Python. As a result, the SchoRen customer can purchase a single module, and use it to simultaneously monitor many polling channels. One module, many channels, only a single fee!
TrapServer SNMP Message Translator (SMT)
When equipped with the TrapServer™ package, the TrapServer SMT becomes an SNMP message translator that can manipulate traps. The following components of a trap PDU can be converted:
- Version (v1 to v2c and v2c to v1)
- IP Address / host name
- Enterprise OID
- Host Table (multiple hosts, simultaneously)
The benefit of these trap manipulations is that they allow the traps to fit an existing trap processing scheme. For example, if a NOC has an SNMP manager that expects a certain OID, then the TrapPro can be configured to insert that OID into all traps. Now the NOC SNMP manager is monitoring the traps and no administration was necessary.