Hoping there's an easier way to do this

[snapon_admin]

So, currently I'm monitoring our switches, routers, ASAs, etc. via SNMP by using the Switch configuration wizard. This works well enough for the initial setup, but I run into a problem if I need to add ports to be monitored. Say, for example, I add a switch called "Chicago-Core"" and it monitors ports Gi0/1, Gi0/2, Fe0/1, and Fe0/14. These ports are uplink ports to other switches and say, server ports or something. Well, later on down the road we need to add 2 more ports because now we have 2 more servers plugged into the core that need to be monitored. I've been told that the only way to do this is to re-run the wizard and just add the ports that I need and they will just be added to the existing host.

This works, I'd say 80% of the time, but the other times I get a "/var/lib/mrtg/xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx_10101.rrd does not exist" error. The only way we've been able to figure this out is to dig through the config file and delete the old rrd files for this switches IP so that it's only referencing the new one, with the new ports. Since we have hundreds of switches monitoring thousands of ports, not to mention anything else in the config file, this is incredibly tedious, and near impossible.

I run into the same issue if I need to change the description on a port. If the Ip address of a node changes, or if the node physically moves to a new port, we change the description on the switch for that new information. But that doesn't update Nagios. In order to update that info in Nagios I have to do the wizard again, which often results in the above error. We also currently use Solarwinds (Nagios is still being deployed), and that program works a little differently in that updating the description on the switch will automatically update the port description in Nagios as well. It's also a lot easier to add/remove monitoring ports. I know it's different software and it works in different ways, but I'd really like similar functionality and I'm not sure if I've just been instructed to do this the wrong way (re-running the wizard), if I am not properly understanding the way this is supposed to work, or if this is just a case of poor implementation.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[abrist]

Your issues mainly relate to the structure of mrtg configs and its current implementation in nagios XI. The mrtg config in monolithic in its current form, though there are plans to change this for the next major XI release. Adding additional ports through the wizard will only work some of the time. I think you may find the following document interesting and of some use:
http://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nagi ... Router.pdf