Fault Management; Rogue Detection; Verification - Nortel 2350 User Manual

Fault Management

The Fault Management System is a feature included in WMS to make it easier to manage faults (alarms) that occur in the
network. A fault or alarm (these two terms are used interchangeably) is generated by a trap, a rule, a status, or a
threshold-exceeded event. The Fault Management System monitors traps from Nortel and OEM devices.
The Fault Management System also monitors certain traps for third-party applications, and offers administrators the
ability to add new trap support when necessary. The type of trap and IP source determine how new trap support should
correlate with existing trap support.
WMS incorporates a powerful and flexible display interface for all alarms collected by the system. Alarms are stored on
a per-WSS basis and are collected continuously. Create custom filters to drill down to specific information in the event
log database. You can filter alarms based on the following:
• Category
• Severity
• Date and time ranges
• WSS
• WMS client and services log
• Specific text string matches

Rogue Detection

A rogue AP is an access point that is not authorized to operate in or near your network. You can use the Fault Manage-
ment System to identify and locate rogues in your network, and then use RF countermeasures to deny service to or from
a targeted rogue AP, rendering them ineffective. Once a rogue AP is detected and reported, the closest Nortel AP is
assigned to perform RF countermeasures. By spoofing various 802.11 control messages, the AP's countermeasures
disrupt association and authentication attempts to the rogue AP by any new clients. This also disrupts any active commu-
nications between any existing client and rogue AP.
The Fault Management System allows you to collect statistics and view reports about the following:
• Current rogue list, aggregated for the whole network
• Current hour rogue list
• Current day rogue list
• 30 days of rogue history, using best listener data
• Rogue lifecycle events (when the rogue was first seen, by whom, and when it went away)
• Counter-measure activity

Verification

Both configuration verification and network verification rules are checked for any inconsistencies or problems. Verifica-
tion rules include "instant fix" resolutions. Instant fix resolutions are errors that can be automatically fixed, or
alternatively provide a hot link to the object containing the error.
You can selectively disable any rule. Disabling a rule is useful if you wish to ignore a warning and do not want it to
display. Reporting
Planning and Managing Your Wireless Network with WMS 49
Nortel WLAN Management Software 2300 Series User Guide