error when dual nic have same label about snmp_exporter HOT 12 CLOSED

I've made an alternative default module on https://github.com/alfh/snmp_exporter/tree/master_use_ifname_instead_of_ifdescr

This works fine for me.
I you think this makes sense, I can make a pull request.
Alternatively, I could make a couple of "sed" expressions, which one could add to the documentation, to switch from using ifDescr to ifName in the whole snmp.yml file.

Comments appreciated
Alf

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The reason ifDescr is used is because that is what many switches use, instead of ifName.

You can include both the index and description labels by doing something like this:

    - name: ifSpeed
      oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.5
      indexes:
        - labelname: ifIndex
          type: Integer32
      lookups:
        - labels: [ifIndex]
          labelname: ifDescr
          oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2

This will keep the ifIndex label for SNMP uniqueness, and ifDescr for labeling.

You could include both by doing this mapping:

    - name: ifSpeed
      oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.5
      indexes:
        - labelname: ifIndex
          type: Integer32
      lookups:
        - labels: [ifIndex]
          labelname: ifDescr
          oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2
        - labels: [ifIndex]
          labelname: ifName
          oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.1

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Yes, you can remove the lookups.

In this case you should probably be using the node exporter as that looks to be a Linux box.

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I realize the node exporter would be better however I have a large number of production systems that already have snmpd running on them and because of internal QA processes it's going to take a fair bit of time before I can actually roll it out.

In the mean time I would like to start gathering metrics with SNMP.
If I remove the lookups how would the interfaces be identified within prometheus?

Does the following comment #37 (comment) require a patch to the exporter to implement $ifDescr ($index) or can it be done with a config modification?

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If I remove the lookups how would the interfaces be identified within prometheus?

By number, 1-4 in this case. It's just a config change.

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Hi
I have the same issue, I have virtual machines (linux) with several network interfaces, all using SR_IOV, so they have virtual network cards (intel igbvf), tied to a physical network card (intel igb) on the host.

So I get name collision on ifDescr, since all virtual cards have the same description.

Why do you use ifDescr and not ifName ?
Is this because the "default" module is more geared towards network hardware (routers, switches) and not computers (linux or other OSes) ?
(I will try to replace all ifDescr with ifName, and see how that looks)

I know I could run the "node exporter" on my linux machines, but I want to use the SNMP infrasturcture I have in place already.

Maybe there should be a defaultlinux module, which uses the ifName instead of ifDescr ?
If time permits, I will also look into making a module exposing metrics for Eaton UPSes, using SNMP.

Here is some sample output from my virtual router, running IPFire on Linux.

ifName

[alf@somehost ~]$ snmpwalk -v2c -c .... 192.168.1.1 |grep IF-MIB | grep ifName
IF-MIB::ifName.1 = STRING: lo
IF-MIB::ifName.2 = STRING: green0
IF-MIB::ifName.3 = STRING: red0
IF-MIB::ifName.4 = STRING: blue0
IF-MIB::ifName.5 = STRING: imq0

ifDescr

[alf@somehost ~]$ snmpwalk -v2c -c ... 192.168.1.1 |grep IF-MIB | grep ifDesc
IF-MIB::ifDescr.1 = STRING: lo
IF-MIB::ifDescr.2 = STRING: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection
IF-MIB::ifDescr.3 = STRING: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection
IF-MIB::ifDescr.4 = STRING: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
IF-MIB::ifDescr.5 = STRING: imq0

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I had to edit the Grafana Dashboard, https://grafana.net/dashboards/1124, replacing all ifDescr with ifName, to get the grafing to look like before.

So maybe I should just leave the ifDescr label, but only change the actual OID used, to point it to ifName instead of ifDescr ?
Comments ?

Alf

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In my case I'm also interested in additional metrics from the systems such as CPU, memory and disk activity. It would be nice if there already was a linux module that covered all the standard OIDs.

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@wtip We do not recommend using SNMP for Linux, the node_exporter covers these things in much higher detail, with less overhead.

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@SuperQ I understand. See my earlier comment #92 (comment)

I have about 180 linux servers I need to monitor. I would rather have some metrics than no metrics.

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@SuperQ So I ran into this issue again when trying to monitor several Dell PowerConnect switches. They all return this.

An error has occurred during metrics gathering:

786 error(s) occurred:
* collected metric ifHCOutMulticastPkts label:<name:"ifDescr" value:"Ethernet Interface" > untyped:<value:0 >  was collected before with the same name and label values
* collected metric ifConnectorPresent label:<name:"ifDescr" value:"Ethernet Interface" > untyped:<value:1 >  was collected before with the same name and label values
* collected metric ifHCOutMulticastPkts label:<name:"ifDescr" value:"Ethernet Interface" > untyped:<value:0 >  was collected before with the same name and label values
* collected metric ifMtu label:<name:"ifDescr" value:"Ethernet Interface" > untyped:<value:10240 >  was collected before with the same name and label values
* collected metric ifOutDiscards label:<name:"ifDescr" value:"Ethernet Interface" > untyped:<value:0 >  was collected before with the same name and label values
......

So I think it would make sense for the default module to use your last suggestion of having both the ifDescr and ifName as the label

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With the version at head, you can try the default_ifname and default_ifentry modules to see if they work.

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