BROCADE-TCAM-MIB

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Organization: Extreme Networks, Inc.

Last Updated: 2018-05-29

Category: Quality of Service, Vendor: Foundry/Brocade

Description: Monitors TCAM (Ternary Content-Addressable Memory) utilization and resource usage on Brocade switch ASICs.

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What Is BROCADE-TCAM-MIB?

BROCADE-TCAM-MIB is a Brocade (now part of Broadcom/Extreme's networking lineage) enterprise MIB describing usage of Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM), the specialized hardware memory used by switch ASICs to store forwarding, ACL, and QoS lookup entries. It exposes a per-slot, per-processor usage table broken down by feature and internal database/container identifiers, reporting each entry's configured size, current usage, maximum limit, and free-entry count. Its monitoring purpose is squarely hardware resource-exhaustion status: bcsiTCAMUsageCurrentUsage approaching bcsiTCAMUsageMaxLimit for a given bcsiTCAMUsageFeature signals that a switch is running out of hardware table space for that feature (e.g., ACLs, routes, or QoS rules), which can cause silent policy or forwarding failures. It is a self-contained Brocade platform MIB describing chassis-internal ASIC resources rather than extending a standard IETF MIB. It is typically deployed on Brocade/Foundry-derived data center and campus switches where administrators need to track TCAM headroom as ACL, route, and QoS configurations grow. Engineers can download the BROCADE-TCAM-MIB file directly to load it into their MIB browser.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in BROCADE-TCAM-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.

Supported Devices

Brocade (Foundry-derived) data center/campus switch

Monitoring Examples

An administrator would poll bcsiTCAMUsageTable/bcsiTCAMUsageEntry, keyed by bcsiTCAMUsageSlot, bcsiTCAMUsageProcessor, and bcsiTCAMUsageFeature, to compare bcsiTCAMUsageCurrentUsage against bcsiTCAMUsageMaxLimit and catch a feature (such as ACLs) approaching hardware capacity. bcsiTCAMUsageFreeCountContainer would be checked to see remaining free entries in a specific container/database (bcsiTCAMUsageContainerId/bcsiTCAMUsageDBId) before pushing a large new ACL or route set. bcsiTCAMNotification would fire a trap when a monitored TCAM resource crosses a critical threshold, prompting immediate remediation before forwarding is impacted.

What Can Be Monitored

TCAM current usage per feature
TCAM maximum limit per feature
free TCAM entry count
TCAM usage by slot/processor
TCAM resource threshold notifications

Imported Objects

From Brocade-REG-MIB

bcsiModules

OBJECT-IDENTITY

From SNMPv2-SMI

Gauge32
MODULE-IDENTITY
NOTIFICATION-TYPE
OBJECT-IDENTITY
OBJECT-TYPE
Unsigned32

From SNMPv2-TC

TEXTUAL-CONVENTION

How to Use in IPNetwork Monitor

Example using bcsiTCAMUsageCurrentUsage OID:

Select a Brocade (Foundry-derived) data center/campus switch as the target host to create a monitor — the SNMP service should be up and running on it. Click New Monitor, then check SNMP Custom on the Favorites tab, click Next, and confirm the host. On the next page, click Select... to open the built-in SNMP MIB Browser and type bcsiTCAMUsageCurrentUsage into the Find box to locate it in the OID tree, selecting the specific row/instance you want to monitor since this is a table column, then select it and click OK. This object indicates the current usage of TCAM entries by this feature. On the monitor's Main parameters page you can set the target's SNMP port (default 161), credentials, polling interval, and other settings — see the SNMP Monitor help for details. On the State conditions and Alerting tabs, configure when the monitor should change state and trigger an alert; since this is a Gauge32-type OID, Value bounds is the most useful condition here — trigger an alert if the value drifts significantly from its normal baseline (in Entries), since an unexpected change often points to a real underlying issue. Click Finish to create the monitor; you can adjust any parameter later.

OIDs

OID symbolic	OID numeric	Type	Access	Description
bcsiTCAM	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14			The MIB module to describe generic objects for the usage of Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM).
bcsiTCAMNotification	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.0
bcsiTCAMObjects	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1
bcsiTCAMGlobals	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.1
INT bcsiTCAMProfile	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.1.1	INTEGER	read-only	This object identifies TCAM partition profile. Each profile adjusts the partitions to optimize the device for corresponding applications.
bcsiTCAMUsageGroup	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2
bcsiTCAMUsageTable	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1		not-accessible	A list of bcsiTCAMUsage entries. This table contains information of the entity's TCAM usage.
bcsiTCAMUsageEntry	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1		not-accessible	An entry containing management information applicable to TCAM usage
U32 bcsiTCAMUsageSlot	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.1	Unsigned32	not-accessible	A number which uniquely identifies a linecard in the device
U32 bcsiTCAMUsageProcessor	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.2	Unsigned32	not-accessible	A number which uniquely identifies the network processor within a linecard in the device
INT bcsiTCAMUsageFeature	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.3	INTEGER	not-accessible	This object identifies the feature within the linecard and network processor.
U32 bcsiTCAMUsageContainerId	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.4	Unsigned32	read-only	This object identifies the bank container which can refer to a single bank or multiple TCAM banks.
U32 bcsiTCAMUsageDBId	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.5	Unsigned32	read-only	This object identifies the logical database.
INT bcsiTCAMUsageSize	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.6	INTEGER	read-only	This object indicates if the size for this feature in the current profile is fixed or dynamic.
G32 bcsiTCAMUsageCurrentUsageEx	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.7	Gauge32	read-only	This object indicates the current usage of TCAM entries by this feature.
G32 bcsiTCAMUsageMaxLimit	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.8	Gauge32	read-only	This object indicates the Maximum Limit of TCAM entries available for this feature.
G32 bcsiTCAMUsageFreeCountContainer	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.9	Gauge32	read-only	This object indicates the number of free entries in the Container that is associated with the TCAM logical database used by this feature. Used for debugging purpose.
G32 bcsiTCAMUsageFreeCountDB	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.10	Gauge32	read-only	This object indicates the number of free entries in the TCAM logical database used by this feature. Used for debugging purpose.
G32 bcsiTCAMUsageFreeCountFeature	1.3.6.1.4.1.1588.3.1.14.1.2.1.1.11	Gauge32	read-only	This object indicates the number of free entries available for this feature. Used for debugging purpose.

RFC description

Describes Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM) usage and profiles for packet processing on switches.

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Download BROCADE-TCAM-MIB