[BBLISA] statistics-based zero config network management: why doesnt this exist?

[Brian O'Neill]

On 8/4/2013 3:25 PM, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, 4 Aug 2013, Edward Ned Harvey (bblisa4) wrote:
>
>> The thing is:  Very rarely is SNMP sufficient.  For most devices, it
>> counts no more than a ping monitor.  If you want reliable statistics of
>> cpu, disk, network, memory usage, you have to install an agent.  I
>> emphasize reliable.  Because although SNMP technically supports all
>> that, I've never seen it usable for that purpose.
>
> Should a switch record dropped packets somewhere? When we have network
> problems pinging across the network to printers and other reliable devices
> shows many dropped packets, but the (Dell) switches don't ever seem to
> show a significant number of errors. Is a dropped packet not an error?
> Could packets be lost some other way?
>

I'm actually in the process of trying to track down if the number of 
RX-DROPs I'm seeing on the Linux side (seen in SNMP and netstat), but 
not seeing on the switches (netgear managed switches), is a sign of a 
switch issue or something else. It's not like the typical duplex issue, 
where you see issues on each side.

-Brian