POA and MTA agents show with a question mark in GroupWise Monitor.

  • 3863908
  • 16-Apr-2007
  • 26-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell GroupWise Monitor
Novell GroupWise 6
Novell GroupWise 7
Novell GroupWise 6.5

Situation

GroupWise Agents show with a question mark (unknown) in GroupWise Monitor.
Monitor status for the agents show as"Unknown".

Resolution

Several reasons / solutions for this issue have been noted and are as follows and may not apply to all versions:
1) The community string is incorrect for the POA, MTA or Gateway object in ConsoleOne. Check this in ConsoleOne | properties of the agent | GroupWise tab | Identification page check to make sure that the "get strings" have not been changed from"public".
2) Invalid HTTP address for POA, MTA or Gateway. In ConsoleOne | properties of the agent | GroupWise tab | NetWork Address tab Insure the HTTP port is set and unique for the agent on the server. IE: HTTP port is set to 8182. Test to insure the HTTP port is working and accessible by going in a Web Browser to HTTP://agent server IP address:8182. If HTTP is working you will see a Web Interface for the agent.
3) SNMP is not loaded on the server. (for older agents or agents that do not have HTTP available)
4) Verify in monitor that that "Force Polling to be done through SNMP" is not checked under File | SNMP. (for older Monitor applications)
5) Invalid IP address set in the POA, MTA or Gateway: In ConsoleOne | properties of the agent | GroupWise tab | NetWork Address tab Insure the IP address is correct.

6) (setting to check for Pre- GroupWise 7 Monitor applications) There could be an index mismatch between the domain database and that of the Monitor. To check this, start the POA and in its initialization, in the POA log, the POA Index number will be written. Compare this number to what Monitor has for that agent by going to that agents Properties (in Monitor) and check the listed Index. If there is a mismatch, the field can be manually edited to be the same as the on the POA. Then force a Poll of Monitor, or click on the Update Button on the tool bar. This will pull the index number from the domain database and write it to the Monitor's database.

Additional Information

The Unknown status is generated when there is no response from the server for the SNMP or XML request.
By default, the Monitor Agent in GroupWise 6, 6.5 and 7 communicates with other GroupWise agents by way of XML. However, if XML is unavailable, the Monitor Agent automatically uses SNMP instead.
For More information on Configuring Monitor and GroupWise agents see:
For GroupWise 6, 6.5 and 7 use XML:
GroupWise POA, MTA, Gateways and Monitor Agent must have HTTP port configured to use XML
Prior to the GroupWise 5.5 Enhancement Pack, GroupWise agents did not support XML, so the Monitor Agent must use SNMP to monitor these older agents. If you need to monitor older agents, see Section 59.3.2, Configuring the Monitor Agent for SNMP.

Formerly known as TID# 10011073