Flash probe is used to identify whether a certain network alert is generated. It can be used via SNMP/CLI parser variable or can be used by external monitoring systems.

A properly defined flash probe usually has the following key characteristics:

•Single device analysis unit: flash probe is designed to check the anomaly for a single device based on its SNMP/CLI data; it cannot be used to check the anomaly across multiple devices.

•Retrieved and executed in front server: the data retrieved for flash probe analysis is stored and analyzed in front server. To make the entire solution more scalable, any raw data will be discarded after the analysis completes.

From the Monitoring Probe tab of Preventive Automation Manager, you can define the following three types of flash probes:

•Primary Probe: Primary flash probes can be polled frequently at the desired frequency. Two types of primary flash probes are currently supported:

oAlert-based Flash Probe: triggered by device-generated anomaly.

oTimer-based Flash Probe: triggered by timer and can be used for scheduled CLI/scheduled NI tasks.

•Secondary Probe: Secondary flash probes will not be polled periodically like primary probes, instead, they can be triggered by:

oPrimary Probe (of the same devices or other devices)

oExternal probe

•External Probe: External probes are used for integration with other monitoring system. Once the integration is completed, the alert triggered by 3rd party systems can implicitly generate external flash probes.