Interface Utilization

Interface Utilization monitor provides performance and capacity measurements for network interfaces associated with the current device. Interface Utilization monitors are applied automatically to network devices.

Note: You can view Interface Utilization measurements, history, and trends using the RealTime Performance Monitor or the Interface Utilization Report.

Select management protocol and target interfaces

Depending on the management scheme configured on the device, WhatsUp Gold Interface Utilization monitors can retrieve network interface statistics using:

WMI. Measurements and attributes stored in WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) objects on the device.
SNMP. Contents of Management Information Base Objects ("MIBs") stored on the device.

Tip: Select either SNMP or WMI to view collection information associated with discovered interfaces for the current device.

Filter and view discovered interfaces

The discovered interfaces table populates after you discover a device with the appropriate WMI or SNMP credentials (or both).

Interface. WhatsUp Gold gets the value for Interface from one-of-three fields. It typically uses the first non-blank field it finds in this order: ifAlias (administrator-assigned name), ifDescr (manufacturer and product name), ifName (name from the OS, for example "WLAN adapter 1"). Please note, a Null interface represents traffic discarded or generated by a router.
Index. The numeric designator (typically ifIndex) of the individual interface for the selected device.
Type. Interface type (typically ifType) object value returned.
Speed. Nominal interface speed reported by the interface. This value is used for calculating interface capacity utilization.
(Speed settings) If the nominal speed is different than the configured speed, constrained by factors surrounding the interface, or if it is simply unpopulated, you can define a custom value that WhatsUp Gold will use for reports and calculations.
If nominal network interface speed used to calculate bandwidth capacity utilization is incorrect or unpopulated at the device's management object, you can define a custom speed using the Configure Interface Speed dialog.
- Specify a custom speed for this interface. Click this check box to enable the In and Out text boxes.
- In and Out. Define the speed of each traffic direction. WhatsUp Gold uses this value to calculate bandwidth capacity as a percentage of the total interface speed. Enter the upper limit of the interface in bps (bits per second). Common interface speeds expressed in bps are:
  - 1 Gbps = 1,000,000,000 bps
  - 100 Mbps = 100,000,000 bps
  - 10 Mbps = 10,000,000 bps
Status. Ready state of the interface. Either of the following: Active / Inactive.

Option to record error statistics and discarded packet count

Collect errors and discards... Record measurements of error and discards. This option is useful for debugging and visualizing incidents using the Interface Errors and Discards report.

Polling interval

Collection Interval. Define the normal period to wait between data collection attempts.

Advanced settings

Timeout. Time to wait before timing out the polling request.
Retries. Number of times WhatsUp Gold attempts to send the command before the interface is considered down.
Determine Uniqueness by. Determine uniqueness by Disk Description, Memory Description, or Interface Description and prevent collecting data under a different identity when a re-index occurs.
- Index. Track and identify the interface by its interface index.
- Interface Description. Track and identify the interface by its description (descriptions assigned during hardware manufacturing, for example).
Poll Interface Traffic Counters. Used to determine if interface uses regular (RFC1213) or high capacity (RFC2233) counters.