Use this guide to monitor intermittent outages on a Metro Ethernet connection and review the affected interface’s recent behavior.
What is Metro Ethernet?
Metro Ethernet, or MetroE, is a carrier-provided Ethernet service that connects sites over a metropolitan or wide-area network. The service usually presents an Ethernet handoff through a provider device or customer-facing interface.
A MetroE service may include:
- A provider demarcation point or customer-premises equipment
- A dedicated Ethernet handoff interface
- A point-to-point or multipoint Layer 2 connection
- One or more VLANs or tagged services
- Link aggregation or redundant handoffs
- Carrier-managed transport that is not visible in Auvik
Auvik can monitor the customer-facing interface and the device connected to it. However, an interface alert does not necessarily identify which part of the carrier’s network failed. If the handoff remains physically up while traffic is being disrupted, interface status alone may not detect the outage. In that situation, use an appropriate connectivity or service check in addition to the interface alert.
Alerting setup
Use the Interface Online Status alert condition in Alerts v2.
- Go to the alert configuration area.
- Create or open an Alerts v2 alert definition.
- Select the Interface entity type.
Set the condition to:
Interface Online Status = Offline
- In Scope, select only the interfaces that carry the Metro Ethernet service.
- Set the severity and alert delay appropriate for the service.
- Add the notification channels and recipients who should receive the alert.
- Save the alert definition.
Alerts v2 can target specific interfaces independently, which allows you to monitor a MetroE handoff without alerting on every interface on the device.
Choosing an appropriate alert delay
A short delay can prevent alerts caused by brief interface flaps while still reporting a sustained outage.
Consider the following:
- Use a shorter delay for a critical MetroE handoff where rapid notification is important.
- Use a longer delay when the provider or handoff is known to experience brief transient interruptions.
- Review the interface’s historical behavior before selecting the delay.
- If the interface frequently goes down and up, investigate the cause instead of relying only on a longer delay.
For a service that can remain operational while the physical interface is still up, consider adding a separate connectivity check. This can help distinguish a carrier handoff failure from a wider MetroE service interruption.
Verify the interface selection
Before saving the alert, confirm that the selected interface is the actual MetroE handoff.
Use interface details such as:
- Interface name or description
- Device name
- Port number
- VLAN or service identifier
- Provider circuit label
- Physical or logical interface type
- Connection to the carrier demarcation device
Clearly label the interface in the device configuration or Auvik inventory where possible. Consistent naming makes it easier to select the correct interface and interpret reports later.
Review Metro Ethernet behavior
To investigate intermittent outages:
- Open the affected device or interface in Auvik.
- Review the interface status and recent metric history.
- Compare the time of each outage with alert timestamps.
- Look for repeated down/up transitions, errors, discards, or unusual utilization.
- Compare the observed behavior with carrier maintenance windows or provider incident records.
- Check the connected device and customer-side handoff for link flaps or physical errors.
Also review whether the interruption affected:
- The physical interface
- A logical subinterface or VLAN
- A redundant or aggregated link
- The carrier-facing device
- The wider site or only the MetroE service
If the interface remains online while traffic is unavailable, the issue may be occurring beyond the monitored handoff. Use a connectivity check or service monitor to test the path through the MetroE connection.
Report on recent behavior
To review the last few days:
- Go to Documentation > Reports.
- Open a report that includes alert or interface activity.
- Set the date range for the period under investigation.
- Filter by the device and MetroE interface.
- Review interface status, alert events, and available performance metrics.
- Export the results if they need to be shared with a carrier, customer, or internal team.
When comparing timestamps, confirm the timezone used by Auvik, the report, and any carrier or device logs.
What to look for in the results
Look for patterns such as:
- Repeated down/up events at regular intervals
- Outages that occur only during business hours
- Interface errors or discards before the outage
- Increased utilization before the outage
- A physical interface remaining online while the service is unreachable
- Simultaneous events on a redundant or aggregated handoff
- Alerts that clear shortly after they trigger
When to contact the carrier
Contact the Metro Ethernet provider when:
- The handoff repeatedly flaps without a customer-side explanation.
- The interface is up but the service path is intermittently unavailable.
- Multiple sites or services using the same carrier are affected.
- The outage times align with carrier maintenance or incident windows.
- The provider needs interface, circuit, demarcation, or service identifiers to investigate.
Provide the carrier with:
- Circuit or service identifier
- Customer site and demarcation location
- Affected device and interface
- Outage timestamps, including timezone
- Down/up event history
- Interface errors and discards
- Relevant Auvik report exports
- Any customer-side maintenance or configuration changes