Additional Hardware Alert Notifications

[franco2444]

Please add additional email/app notifications for the following:

1. Hardware issues
   • I have an issue with a port but was never notified by it and assumed it was an issue with my ISP
2. Configuration Changes
   • Assuming you have multiple admins it would be great to see who changed what and when.

[hidden0]

Hey @franco2444 

These are great ideas! I'm always on board with the hardware and app behaving intelligently to help us find problems more quickly.

In your case, what was the port issue? I'm curious to know if it is something we could readily act on, or if the problem you faced would require some heavy lifting to get the job done in terms of providing an alert.

We could certainly look into a changelog feature. If you were using this, where would you expect to find it, and how would you like to interact with it? I'm hoping to find out how much functionality you would need for searching through potentially large lists with a lot of data. Perhaps being able to export a change log would be a path we could take, it all depends. We're all ears! 

Edit: I may be overthinking it - just alerts or push notifications for configuration changes?

[franco2444]

Re - Port issue - While the switch isn't reporting an issue, the port is. Uplink from GS to GX. GX not reporting issues. Issue persists when changing uplink and even after factory reset. Been reported to support and mentioned they would get devs involved. Likely a software issue.

-- FWIW initially port was being negotiated at 100mbps, but reseat resolved.

In app Notifications/Emails would be great for both issues and network changes

As for placement of changes, based on how app is currently, I think what makes most sense it to put it within the settings to centralize ALL changes. Better this than within the individual hardware as it will be clunkier. If multiple tenants, select tenant first then see access to changes.

-- Goal is to have something similar to how Meraki Dash currently manages changes.

[hidden0]

I see, so the switch port itself has some sort of state on it that we don't report, but we do report issues successfully when they are generically about the switch itself. Am I capturing this correctly? I will get in touch with support, learn more about the issue, and see what we can do better.

Knowing about changes is a really good idea. More often than not, too many chefs in the kitchen will leave some configurations out of sync with what they should be. Having a push alert or email notification of a change could be helpful. I think it could be noisy to do everything, though. Are there particular changes you'd be interested in being notified about? I can also see being able to toggle which changes should provide alerts, but I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves.

[franco2444]

That seems to be the case with the port issue. And it persists between different ports, and ONLY the Uplink port. I have yet to reset the GX just to test and see if there is some communication/negotiation issues that is causing this.

Link to what I'm seeing in the App

- Previously my Uplink to my GX on switch page was reporting as bad/red. Now it's showing as green, but details mention issue with the port.

Changes Ideas

1. Added hardware
2. Network changes
   1. VLAN added/destroyed
   2. Ports Tagged/untagged
   3. SSIDs Created/destroyed
   4. DHCP pool exhausted
3. Added Admins

I agree that getting an alert for everything may be noisy. But an idea is log all changes for those who do want to seek it out, and only alert for some of the things above that could be mission critical.

[hidden0]

That link is extremely helpful @franco2444 - this is definitely something we're working to sort out across all products, and I'll be sure we capture this scenario (i.e. specific port alerts on the GS).

There are some changes coming down the pipe that include what the actual error is, and steps to take if applicable. Support should be able to shed some light on the problem for now, for example what the actual error message is on the port.

The feature request for change alerts or push notifications is under consideration.

[Adam_Lanuza]

Hello,

We had a similar issue today where half of the MS210-48FP switch was being Denied PoE power. This did not trigger any alerts and from my understanding, there is currently no Alert to capture an issue like this. Also, the dashboard was not reflecting any issues with the switch itself. We had to drill into each individual switch to find the issue. We were able to reboot the switch and clear the issue. We reached out to support and they stated that the switch and ports looked fine now but to not reboot and reach out if the error occurs again. Unfortunately, the wait time for my support call today was 2 hours. We cant tell a customer to hold production for 2 hours. 

We would like to request more robust alerts as well and also perhaps different thresholds that would affect the health of hardware on the dashboard. This would at least help us get ahead of the issue and maybe buy us time for that long support call.