CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-MIB

MIB Reference — IPNetwork Monitor · Updated October 05, 2026

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Organization: Cisco Systems, Inc.

Last Updated: 2009-10-26

Category: Cisco Devices, Network Interfaces

Description: Manages virtual NIC (vNIC) provisioning, bandwidth allocation, and statistics for virtualized Cisco server adapters.

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What Is CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-MIB?

CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-MIB manages virtual NIC (vNIC) provisioning on Cisco virtualized server/networking platforms, such as the Nexus 1000V virtual switch, where a virtual switch spans one or more virtualization (hypervisor) hosts and each host's virtual Ethernet ports connect to VM vNICs or special hypervisor ports (e.g., vmk, vswif). It belongs to the server-virtualization/virtual-networking management category, exposing a table of virtual Ethernet interfaces with their host association, port-profile assignment, and administrative state. Its monitoring value is on software/service status of the virtualization fabric: cvnVethIfAdditionalState and cvnVethStateReason reveal why a virtual interface is not fully operational (for example a port-profile mismatch), while cvnVethHostID/cvnVethHostAddr identify which physical virtualization server hosts a given vNIC. It builds on standard interface MIB concepts and Cisco's virtual switch line-card/slot abstraction described in the module. It is deployed in Cisco Nexus 1000V-based data-center virtualization environments where network administrators need visibility into VM network connectivity independent of hypervisor management tools. Engineers can download the CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-MIB file directly to load it into their MIB browser.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-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

  • Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch / virtualized server adapters

Monitoring Examples

An administrator would poll cvnVethIfTable/cvnVethIfEntry to check cvnVethIfAdditionalState and cvnVethStateReason for a given cvnVethInterface, revealing that a VM's virtual NIC is down because its cvnVethPortProfileUsed does not match an expected port-profile, a common cause of VM network connectivity loss after a vMotion/migration. cvnVethOwner and cvnVethHostID/cvnVethHostAddr let the admin trace which physical virtualization server currently owns a given vNIC, useful for auditing VM placement. The ciscoVirtualNicMIBNotifs group can also be watched for traps signaling vNIC state changes without continuous polling.

What Can Be Monitored

  • virtual NIC administrative/operational state
  • port-profile assignment per vNIC
  • host association of each vNIC
  • vNIC additional state and state-change reason
Imported Objects

From CISCO-SMI

ciscoMgmtOBJECT-IDENTITY

From IF-MIB

InterfaceIndex

From INET-ADDRESS-MIB

InetAddress
InetAddressType

From SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB

SnmpAdminString

From SNMPv2-CONF

MODULE-COMPLIANCE
OBJECT-GROUP

From SNMPv2-SMI

Integer32
MODULE-IDENTITY
OBJECT-TYPE
Unsigned32

From SNMPv2-TC

MacAddress

How to Use in IPNetwork Monitor

Example using cvnVethIfAdditionalState OID:

Select a Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch / virtualized server adapter 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 cvnVethIfAdditionalState 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 additional state of the virtual ethernet interface. none - no additional state. participating - interface is up and participating. 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 an INTEGER-type OID, Value bounds is the most useful condition here — trigger an alert if the value is 'suspended' or 'errDisabled', since those indicate the virtual ethernet interface isn't passing traffic normally. Click Finish to create the monitor; you can adjust any parameter later.
OIDs

RFC description

Manages virtual network interface cards (vNICs) on Cisco virtualized switching platforms and VM environments.

Start monitoring Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch / virtualized server adapters with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

Download CISCO-VIRTUAL-NIC-MIB