arista-evpn-vxlan-clab/monitoring/QUICKSTART.md

Quick Start Guide - EVPN-VXLAN Monitoring Stack

Prerequisites

1. ContainerLab topology deployed with management network named evpn-mgmt
2. Docker and Docker Compose installed
3. gNMI enabled on all switches (should already be configured)

Deployment Steps

1. Deploy the Monitoring Stack

# Navigate to monitoring directory
cd monitoring

# Start all services
docker-compose up -d

# Verify all services are running
docker-compose ps

# Expected output:
# NAME         STATUS          PORTS
# gnmic       Up (healthy)    0.0.0.0:9804->9804/tcp
# prometheus  Up (healthy)    0.0.0.0:9090->9090/tcp
# grafana     Up (healthy)    0.0.0.0:3000->3000/tcp

2. Verify gnmic is Collecting Metrics

# Check gnmic logs
docker logs gnmic

# Should see successful subscription messages like:
# "starting connection to target 'spine1'"
# "target 'spine1' gNMI connection established"

# Check metrics endpoint
curl http://localhost:9804/metrics | grep gnmic_interfaces | head -5

# Should see interface metrics:
# gnmic_interfaces_interface_state_counters_in_octets{...} 12345
# gnmic_interfaces_interface_state_counters_out_octets{...} 67890

3. Verify Prometheus is Scraping

# Check Prometheus targets
curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets | jq '.data.activeTargets[] | {job, health}'

# Should show gnmic target as "up":
# {
#   "job": "gnmic",
#   "health": "up"
# }

# Query a specific metric
curl -G http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query \
  --data-urlencode 'query=gnmic_interfaces_interface_state_counters_out_octets{source="spine1"}' \
  | jq '.data.result[0]'

4. Access Grafana

1. Open browser: http://localhost:3000
2. Login (optional): admin/admin
   • Or use anonymous access (Viewer role)
3. Navigate to dashboards:
   • Dashboards → Browse
   • Select "EVPN-VXLAN Fabric Flow Topology"

5. Generate Traffic (Optional)

To see bandwidth visualization in action:

# From your lab directory (not monitoring/)
cd ..

# Generate traffic between clients
# (Assumes you have traffic generation scripts)
bash scripts/generate-traffic.sh

Accessing the Stack

Service URLs

Service	URL	Credentials
Grafana	http://localhost:3000	admin/admin or anonymous
Prometheus	http://localhost:9090	None
gnmic metrics	http://localhost:9804/metrics	None

Available Dashboards

1. EVPN-VXLAN Fabric Flow Topology (fabric-flow-topology.json)

   • Interactive flowchart of fabric topology
   • Real-time bandwidth overlays on links
   • Spine and leaf interface graphs

2. Fabric Overview (fabric-overview.json)

   • General fabric statistics
   • Device health overview

Troubleshooting

Problem: gnmic not collecting data

Check switch gNMI configuration:

# SSH to any switch
ssh admin@172.16.0.1

# Verify gNMI is enabled
show management api gnmi

# Should show:
# Enabled: yes
# Transport: GRPC

If not enabled, add to switch configs:

management api gnmi
   transport grpc default

Problem: Prometheus shows no data

Check:

# 1. Verify gnmic is exposing metrics
curl http://localhost:9804/metrics | grep gnmic

# 2. Check Prometheus logs
docker logs prometheus | tail -20

# 3. Check Prometheus config is valid
docker exec prometheus promtool check config /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Problem: Grafana dashboard shows "No Data"

Check:

1. Prometheus datasource: Configuration → Data Sources → Prometheus

   • URL should be: http://prometheus:9090
   • Click "Save & Test" - should show green "Data source is working"

2. Query in Explore:

   • Menu → Explore
   • Select "Prometheus" datasource
   • Run query: gnmic_interfaces_interface_state_counters_out_octets
   • Should return results

3. Time range: Ensure dashboard time range shows recent data (last 1h)

Problem: Flow diagram not rendering

Check:

1. Plugin installed:

   docker exec grafana grafana-cli plugins ls | grep agenty
   

   Should show: agenty-flowcharting-panel

2. If missing, reinstall:

   docker-compose down
   docker-compose up -d
   

Stopping the Stack

# Stop all services
docker-compose down

# Stop and remove volumes (fresh start)
docker-compose down -v

Updating Configuration

Update gnmic subscriptions

1. Edit gnmic/gnmic.yaml
2. Restart gnmic:

   docker-compose restart gnmic
   

Update Prometheus scrape config

1. Edit prometheus/prometheus.yml
2. Reload Prometheus (no restart needed):

   curl -X POST http://localhost:9090/-/reload
   

Update Grafana dashboards

1. Edit JSON files in grafana/dashboards/
2. Restart Grafana:

   docker-compose restart grafana
   

   OR update via UI and export

Next Steps

1. Explore metrics: Use Prometheus Explore to see all available metrics
2. Create custom dashboards: Build specific views for your use cases
3. Add alerting: Configure Prometheus alerting rules
4. Add more visualizations: Enhanced BGP, VXLAN, and MLAG dashboards

Useful Commands

# View logs for all services
docker-compose logs -f

# View logs for specific service
docker-compose logs -f gnmic

# Restart specific service
docker-compose restart prometheus

# Check resource usage
docker stats gnmic prometheus grafana

# Execute command in container
docker exec -it gnmic sh

Support

• gnmic: https://gnmic.openconfig.net
• Prometheus: https://prometheus.io/docs
• Grafana: https://grafana.com/docs
• Flow Plugin: https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/agenty-flowcharting-panel/

For issues specific to this lab, check the main repository documentation.