General IntraVUE FAQs

Why does a blank window or no window appear when I click on a menu item?
Why does a blank window appear when I browse to IntraVUE?
How to get more information when the 'Test Email' button doesn't work.
How long does it take IntraVUE do find new devices?
What are auto inserted nodes (n/a in IP View)?
What does the red message 'data out of date' mean?
I have a 16 port switch. Why does intravue show port numbers like 35 or 958?
Can non-Ethernet devices be displayed in the IntraVUE software?
Why does all the threshold data go to zero sometimes?
How can I set all devices to be enabled for email alarms?
Why do theshold values get smaller when I look at older data?
How can I stop and start Intravue services on my laptop?

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    0120 100016 event: Device 10.1.1.67 reconnected
    0120 100054 event: Device 10.1.1.90 moved from 10.1.1.244:9 to 10.1.1.16:2
    0120 100054 event: deleted child node at 10.1.1.244:9
    0120 100111 event: 10.1.1.32 Ping Response Threshold Exceeded
    0120 100122  received mod request send test email 0 0
    0120 100122 send test email
    0120 100123 EmailTask runs: Intravue has been instructed by the admin to send a test email. Please see http://10.1.1.59:8765/
to [unused]
    0120 100123 Unexpected Exception thrown - stacktrace follows:
    javax.mail.MessagingException: Unknown SMTP host: smtp.somewhere.com;
      nested exception is:
	    java.net.UnknownHostException: smtp.somewhere.com
	    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:1211)
	    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.protocolConnect(SMTPTransport.java:311)
	    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:233)
	    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:134)
	    at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:86)
  	    at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.connect(SMTPTransport.java:144)
	    at javax.mail.Transport.send0(Transport.java:150)
	    at javax.mail.Transport.send(Transport.java:80)
	    at database.EmailTask.run(EmailTask.java:76)
	    at java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Unknown Source)
	    at java.util.TimerThread.run(Unknown Source)
    0120 100146 device 10.1.1.67 disconnected
    0120 100146 event: Device 10.1.1.67 disconnected
    0120 100207 device 10.1.1.90 reconnected

Below is an image from IntravueHelp showing some fields that could cause an issue.

How long does it take IntraVUE do find new devices?

The answer gets technical.

There are 4 speed settings in 'scanner tab' of System Configuration that effect discovery.

A 'speed' setting effects the time between outgoing packets and how many devices which never responded to a ping, will be pinged in a scan cycle.

SLOW = 60 msec between outgoing packets, 20 unknown devices per scan cycle
MEDIUM = 15 msec between outgoing packets, 64 unknown devices per scan cycle
FAST = 4 msec between outgoing packets, 64 unknown devices per scan cycle
ULTRA = 1 msec between outgoing packets, 64 unknown devices per scan cycle

A scan cycle is the time to do all the messages above, wait 2 seconds for replies, send a second round of data based on initial results, wait another 2 seconds, and process the final results. It is nominally 6 to 10 seconds in networks of less than 256 devices, and can be up to 25 seconds for networks bigger than 700 devices.

Take the total possible devices in your scan ranges and subtract the number of found devices. Divide that by the value above and that is how many will be found in one 10 - 15 second scan cycle.

In a class C with 100 found devices, there would be 155 unknown ip addresses and it would take about 8 scanner cycles to get thru the list one time at SLOW and 3 at any other speed.

In a class B subnet, mask 255.255.0.0, with 65,000+ possible addresses it will take more than 1000 scan cycles to go through the list one time when faster than SLOW. If the scan cycle time were 15 seconds, it would take a little over 4 hours to go through the list one time.

What are auto inserted nodes (n/a in IP View)?

With Ethernet, only one physical wire can attach any two devices. When Intravue scans a network if finds all the port-for-MAC information available.

An extreme example would be a network with no managed switches. In this case Intravue would not find any devices (MAC addresses) being claimed by any switches. Physically all these devices can not be directly connected to the Intravue host computer. Intravue reasons that there must be SOMETHING between the host and all these devices. An auto-inserted node represents that device - it could be an unmanaged switch, a hub, a managed switch with an unknown community, devices on the other side of a router, ....

Another example would be a single managed switch removed from the host computer by several layers of hubs/unmanaged switches. In this case all the devices further away from Intravue will be shown on the ports of the managed switch. All the devices 'closer' to the Intravue host will be reported on the uplink port of the managed switch. Since there are no other managed switches to claim these devices and clearly these devices are not all attached to the Intravue host, an auto inserted node represents whatever these devices are connected to.

If one of the children of an auto-inserted node is an unmanaged switch, you can configure it as an unmanaged switch in its Device Configuration dialog. It will then take the place of the n/a node and all the 'peers' or adjacent devices will become its children.

What does the red message 'data out of date' mean?

It means the scanner is no longer active although the network is not in off-line mode.

The message appears if the browser has been up for 3 minutes or more and the last threshold sample is older than 3 minutes from the current time.

If you right click on a connecting line, there will be a data/time stamp under each threshold graph telling you the last time the scanner was active.

The most common cause is that the mysql or 'autoip i-server' service has been stopped or has not started.

If starting the services does not solve the problem, please call tech support.

I have a 16 port switch. Why does intravue show port numbers like 35 or 958?

This happens when "stackable" switches are stacked. The firmware in the stacked switches use a method to determine port numbers. IntraVUE reports the same numbers as the switch reports.

It may also happen in some routers (layer 3 switches) that also do layer 2 switching.

Intravue supports a file that can change the port numbers displayed to the user. Check the Intravue Help for 'Handling Trunking in Switches'.

Can non-Ethernet devices be displayed in the IntraVUE software?

Yes, because IntraVUE works on the premise of IP identity, you will have to manually add any device that is not detected or which not respond to pings. This is useful for full visualization and the topology of the network.

Login as administrator and select Add Child from the System Menu on a device that will be the "parent" of the non-Ethenet device. This adds a new node that is a user node, such as a Device Server (Serial to Ethernet converter).

Another example is to have a PLC with a serial port connection to the Device server. This allows the user not only to view the Ethernet device but also the connected device. The PLC would be able to have a device property and even Web Links (via proxy) without the device containing an embedded Ethernet port.

To be clear, the actual properties of the PLC would not be "viewable"; but IntraVUE could be used to show what is connected to the Device Server and information (such as html files) could be associated with the manually inserted device. A field bus to Ethernet device can also be manually inserted in this manner.

Another example are media converters, such as copper to fiber and fiber to copper. In this case you would probably want to add two manually inserted devices, one attached to the other, and then move the IP device to the last manually inserted node.

There is an excellent video showing this process in action on distribution CD #2.

Why does all the threshold data go to zero sometimes?

There are several possible causes of this. If one of the ones listed below does not work for you, please call tech support.

If you have hundreds of devices that have been discovered and you have set the scanner speed to SLOW in the System Configuration's Scanner tab, the delays that are inserted between each request the scanner sends may cause the time to collect data to exceed 30 seconds. This will cause the symptoms discussed below. Try setting the speed to medium before changing mysql. (If you have over 500 devices you may have to go at least FAST.)

Bandwidth data is stored in devices as a cumulative number. Any time an APPLY operation is done in one of IntraVUE's dialogs the scanner re-reads the Intravue database to get the change made by the admin. This causes the scanner to lose its stored value for the last cumulative bandwidth data. The result is there will be no bandwidth data for the minute in which an APPLY operation is done.

How can I set all or many devices to be enabled for email alarms?

By default email alarming is not enabled.

You must enable email alarming and setup Intravue for the email server in the System Configuration dialog's email tab.

Once you have done that you must enable any device you want to receive email alarms about in its Device Configuration dialog. By default the checkbox 'Enable Alarms to Default User' is not checked.

NOTE: The only event currently sent by email is a device disconnect.

Use Import/Export and open the exported data in a spreadsheet program. Go to the far right of the spreadsheet and there will be many columns for data located on the general tab of Device Configuration.

Sort the spreadsheet in a convenient way, then set a 1 in the 'SendToDefaultUser' column for any device to be enabled for email. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv file and then import it back into Intravue.

Why do theshold values get smaller when I look at older data?

The 3 and 6 hour data is data based on collectioning data once a minute. The bandwidth data is collected at the 0th second of each minute and at the same time the 6 to 15 ping samples (response and failure) within that minute are averaged to become one data point.

So that the database does not quickly become large, after 360 one minute data points, we take the last 10 and record their average and the peak value as one 10 minute sample. This is the 15 and 30 hour data.

When we have 360 of those, the last 12 10 minute samples become one 2 hour sample with the average and peak values during that period, this is the 15 and 30 day data.

So in the 15 or 30 day graph, one data point is actually 12 10-minute averages made into one statistic, and each one of those had previously represented the average of 10 one minute samples.

Both the Threshold graphs when you click on a line and the Multiple Threshold graphs have a choice to look at average or peak values. You should use 'peak values' anytime you are looking at data older than 6 hours. If there was a 'spike' that occurred in just one sample and all the others were 'normal', each time the data is 'averaged' the 'average values' will become much smaller.

In order to see the one minute data again, you could restore a previously saved database for that period on a different machine. We recommend you install Intravue on two machines. One for 24x7 scanning and one to look at saved databases.

How can I stop and start Intravue services on my laptop?

If you are using a laptop for diagnostices you probably want to go to the Window's services dialog and set the 'AutoIP Auto Bootp' service to Stopped and Manual or Disabled.

You can stop the remaining services from a DOS command prompt as shown below.

     net stop "apache tomcat etomcat"
     net stop "autoip i-server"
     net stop "autoip ping daemon"
     net stop mysql

Putting the above commands into a batch file, like stopiv.bat, would easily stop all of the services. In a batch file like startiv.bat, replace the stop's with start's.

Tomcat and mysql are required to view off line databases but the other services are not.