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Sun Management Center 3.6.1 User's Guide

Chapter 4 Adding Objects to the Topology Database Using the Discovery Manager

You can use the Discovery Manager to populate administrative domains automatically. Automatically populating administrative domains is very useful if you have a large network. For information about how to add members manually with the Create Topology Object window, see Chapter 3, Manually Adding Objects to the Topology Database.

The following topics are described in this chapter:

Discovery Manager Concepts

The Discovery Manager can find hosts, routers, networks, and subnets as explained in Overview of IP Addressing. The Discovery Manager also discovers objects where a Sun Management Center agent is configured to a different server context as described in Sun Management Center Server Context and Security.

The Discovery Manager can also find and group topology objects. These objects can be related either to a single hardware platform or to a group of cooperating hardware platforms. This discovery and grouping feature enables convenient management of the related objects. This technique is described in the add-on supplement for those machine architectures that have this grouping requirement.

Note –

For additional information, refer to your platform supplement. The supplement contains important platform-specific information about discovering objects.

You can create one or more discover requests. Each request runs as a separate process and adds the discovered objects to the administrative domain. The Discovery feature is supported only for administrative domains and not for any subordinate groups. You can add requests only for an administrative domain.

You can also schedule requests to look periodically for new hosts.

Note –

Every discover request is assigned a Request ID. This ID is a unique Sun Management Center internal identifier of the request. The Request IDs might not be in sequential order. The Request ID displays in the Request Details portion of the Discover Requests Window.

About the Discover Objects Window

The Discover Objects window contains the fields that are described in the following table.

Table 4–1 Fields in the Discover Objects Window

Field 

Description 

Name 

A name that you create for the request. You can have multiple requests with the same name. 

Scheduled 

“Yes” if the request is scheduled, “No” if not scheduled 

Status 

Reflects the current state of the discover request. The status can be one of the following states: 

  • New – A new request was added but not processed.

  • Queued – A request has been sent to the server but processing has not yet started.

  • Running – The request is currently being processed.

  • Succeeded – The request has been successfully processed.

  • Failed – Processing of the request has failed.

  • Stopped – The user has stopped the process.

  • 0 Hosts Added – The request did not find any hosts that passed the filter limits.

Request Details 

Provides summary information about the selected discover request. 

The Discover Objects window contains the buttons that are listed in the following table.

Table 4–2 Buttons in the Discover Requests Window

Button 

Action 

Add 

Create a new discover request through the New Discover Request window. 

Modify 

Change the selected discover request. 

Duplicate 

Create a copy of the selected discover request. 

Delete 

Delete the selected discover request. 

Start 

Start the selected discover request. The selected request must not be running and must not be scheduled to run.  

Stop 

Stop running the selected discover request. The selected request must be running. 

Log 

View a log of the results that the selected discover request generated. 

Making and Modifying Discover Requests

This section describes how to initiate and change a discover request.

ProcedureTo Start the Discover Objects Window

    Start the Discover Objects window in one of two ways:

    • When you create an administrative domain through the Create Domain dialog box, select the Populate Now option.

      For more information about creating administrative domains, see Creating Administrative Domains.

    • Select the administrative domain in the Sun Management Center Administrative Domains pull-down menu, then choose Discover Objects from the Tools menu in the main console window.

    The Discover Objects window appears.

ProcedureTo Define and Initiate a Discover Objects Request

You can discover hosts by using the ping command or by using routing tables.

Before you initiate a discover request that uses routing tables, read Appendix B, Internet Protocol Routing. The appendix explains the basic concepts of routing, network classes, and netmasks.

Note –

You must have esdomadm privileges to perform any operations on a Discover Request. For more information, see Chapter 18, Sun Management Center Security.

  1. Open the Discover Objects window as explained in To Start the Discover Objects Window.

  2. Click the Add button in the Discover Objects window.

    The New Discover Request window is displayed. The Discover tab is selected by default.

    Tip –

    To copy an existing discover request, select the existing request and click the Duplicate button in the Discover Objects window. For information about how to edit the settings for the new discover request, see To Modify a Discover Objects Request.

  3. Type a new name for your discover request in the Request Name field.

    Multiple requests are listed in the Discover Objects window, which enables you to select a request and to edit the related search pattern.

  4. In the Discover Using field, select the method that should be used for discovering the network.

    The discovery methods are either Ping or Routing Table.

    • If you select Ping, the discovery process uses both ICMP and SNMP ping commands. The discovery process searches for hosts, routers, and composite objects in the specified IP address range. The process then places the hosts in the appropriate networks and appropriate subnets based on the netmask.

      Note –

      A composite object includes various groupings of hardware and software, such as Sun FireTM systems. These objects do not appear within a subnet or similar structure, but are instead visible at the root level of the domain.

    • If you select Routing Table, the discovery process starts from the Sun Management Center server host . The process then goes through the specified number of hops to report subnets and hosts n hops away. The number of hops limits the “distance” of destination hosts from the host on which the Topology manager or Sun Management Center server is running.

      Note –

      Routing Table discover requests assume that you run an SNMP agent at port 161. The agent can be a Sun Management Center agent, snmpdx, or any SNMP agent provided by your network management package. To use a different port number, see Step 9.

      For more information about routing tables, see Appendix B, Internet Protocol Routing.

  5. Type the IP address from which to begin the discovery process in the Start IP Address field.

  6. Type the IP address at which to stop the discovery process in the End IP Address field.

    Note –

    You only need to do this step if you selected Ping as the discovery method.

  7. Type a netmask value in the Netmask field.

    Note –

    You only need to do this step if the following criteria apply:

    • You selected Ping as the discovery method.

    • You need to use a netmask other than the default value (255.255.255.0).

  8. Type a number in the Number of Hops field.

    The term hop refers to the number of routers through which a packet passes before the packet reaches its destination. For example, a value of 0 (zero) would limit the discovery process to the current subnet.

    Note –

    You only need to do this step if the following criteria apply:

    • You selected Routing Table as the discovery method.

    • You want to limit the size of the discovery process.

  9. To use a port number other than the default (161), enter a port number in the Also Check Port field.

    Tip –

    To check only the port number that you enter, deselect Use Default Port. When you select Use Default Port and you add a number in the field, the discovery process checks both the default port number and the port number that you provide.

    Tip –

    If Sun Management Center agent runs on non-default port, say 1161, and non Sun Management Center agent runs on default port (161), deselect Use Default Port. Otherwise, the discovery process discovers the non Sun Management Center agent and ignores the Sun Management Center agent.

  10. To start the discovery process, click the OK button.

    A confirmation window appears.

    To customize your discover request, see the following sections:

  11. To run the discover request immediately, click the Yes button.

    When you start the discovery process, the following events occur:

    • The discovery process finds all nodes that are running the Sun Management Center agent, including agent nodes that belong to another Sun Management Center server context. Nodes that are running Sun Management Center agents in a remote Sun Management Center server context are included. Extensive information is gathered for Sun Management Center agent nodes.

    • The discovery process finds all nodes that are running an SNMP agent. Limited information is gathered for SNMP agent nodes.

    • The discovery process finds all nodes that are running neither a Sun Management Center agent nor an SNMP agent. These are listed as ping hosts. Very little information is gathered for ping hosts.

  12. If a Sun Management Center server or agent is incorrectly reported to be a ping host or is not discovered, rerun the discovery process with larger timeout and retry values.

    Note –

    If a host is extremely busy, a discovery process that is gathering data for that host might time out. If a timeout occurs for a host that is a Sun Management Center agent, the host might be reported as a ping host . Alternatively, the host might not be discovered at all. If a timeout happens, you might want to increase the ping and SNMP timeout periods and re-initiate the discovery process. See To Set Preferences for a Discover Objects Request for more information.

ProcedureTo Set Preferences for a Discover Objects Request

  1. In the New Discover Request window or the Edit Discover Request window, click the Preferences tab.

  2. To stop writing discover request information to a log file, deselect the Log Discover Request Progress check box.

    By default, information is written to a log that you can access from the Discover Objects window. For more information, see To View the Discover Objects Log.

    If you disable the log feature, information about the discover request process status still appears in the main Discover Objects window.

  3. If needed, edit the information in the Timeout field in the Ping section of the Preferences.

    This field enables you to increase the amount of time in seconds that the Discovery Manager waits for a response to a ping request. By default, the Discovery Manager waits for one second for a response before the Discovery Manager times out.

  4. If needed, edit the information in the Retries field in the Ping section of the Preferences.

    This field enables you to increase the number of times that the Discovery Manager sends a ping request to a potential managed object. By default, the Discovery Manager pings each potential object one time.

  5. If needed, edit the information in the Timeout field in the SNMP section of the Preferences.

    This field enables you to increase the amount of time in seconds that the Discovery Manager waits for a response to an SNMP request. By default, the Discovery Manager waits for three seconds for a response before the Discovery Manager times out.

  6. If needed, edit the information in the Retries field in the SNMP section of the Preferences.

    This field enables you to increase the number of times that the Discovery Manager sends an SNMP request to a potential managed object. By default, the Discovery Manager sends one SNMP request to each potential object.

  7. If needed, edit the information in the Community String field in the SNMP section of the preferences.

    This field enables you to change the default community string for SNMP. The default value is public. To change this value, add one or more character strings separated by a pipe (|) character.

  8. If needed, edit the value in the Maximum Hosts field in the General section of the preferences.

    This field enables you to limit the number of objects that can be added to the topology database. The default value is 256.

  9. If needed, edit the value in the Maximum Time field in the General section of the preferences.

    This field enables you to limit the amount of total time that the discovery process runs. The default value is 1000000 seconds, or approximately 280 hours or slightly more than 11 days.

  10. Click the OK button.

    Your preferences are applied. The New Discover Request window closes. The discovery process starts.

ProcedureTo Limit a Discovery Process by Hardware, Software, or Object Names

You can choose to include or exclude managed objects by host name, operating system, or platform type. Filtering uses the grep command to search for the supplied value.

  1. In the New Discover Request window, click the Filters tab.

  2. To filter managed objects based on the object name, select Host Name or Label.

    1. Type a text string in the Host Name or Label field.

    2. Click the Add button to add the text string to the filtering criteria.

    3. Determine whether to include managed objects that contain this string.

      To include objects that contain this string, click the Include button.

      To exclude objects that contain this string, click the Exclude button.

    To remove a name filter, click the text string in the list on the right, then click the Remove button.

  3. To filter managed objects based on the object platforms, select Platform Types.

    Platforms include both hardware objects and composite objects that contain a logical grouping of hardware and software.

    1. In the Platform Types list on the left, select a platform type on which to filter .

    2. Click the Add button to add the platform type to the filtering criteria.

    3. Determine whether to include managed objects for this platform.

      To include objects for this platform, click the Include button.

      To exclude objects for this platform, click the Exclude button.

    To remove a platform types filter, select the platform type in the list on the right, then click the Remove button.

  4. To filter managed objects based on the operating environment, select Operating Systems.

    1. In the Operating Systems list on the left, select an operating environment on which to filter.

    2. Click the Add button to add the operating environment to the filtering criteria.

    3. Determine whether to include managed objects for this operating environment.

      To include objects for this operating environment, click the Include button.

      To exclude objects for this operating environment, click the Exclude button.

    To remove an operating environment filter, select the operating environment in the list on the right, then click the Remove button.

  5. To filter managed objects based on the Sun Management Center modules that reside on those objects, select Modules.

    1. In the Modules list on the left, select a module on which to filter.

    2. Click the Add button to add the module to the filtering criteria.

    3. Determine whether to include managed objects for this module.

      To include managed objects for this module, click the Include button.

      To exclude managed objects for this module, click the Exclude button.

    To remove a module filter, select the module in the list on the right, then click the Remove button.

  6. Click the OK button.

    Your filters are applied. The New Discover Request window closes. The discovery process starts.

ProcedureTo Schedule a Discover Objects Request

  1. In the New Discover Request window, click the Schedule tab.

  2. To define a schedule, select Schedule Discovery Request.

  3. To set the request to run on a day other than today, provide a date in the Start Date field.

    You can edit the information in the Start Date field manually, or you can click a date in the calendar to select the date.

  4. Select an hour and minutes from the Start Time pop-up menus.

    Hours are based on a 24–hour clock. For example, 16:30 is the same as 4:30 PM.

  5. Choose how often the request should run from the pop-up menu next to Repeat Interval.

    Choosing a Repeat Interval enables you to automatically update the database according to your defined schedule. For example, if your network environment changes often, you might want to run your discover request on a weekly basis to keep your database current.

  6. To exit from the New Discover Request window, click the OK button.

    The discover request is placed in a queue according to your defined schedule

ProcedureTo Modify a Discover Objects Request

If you have previously created a periodic discover request, you can change the parameters for that discover request through the Edit Discover Request window.

  1. Choose Discover Objects from the Tools menu in the main console window.

    The Discover Objects window is displayed.

  2. Select the name of the discover request that you want to modify.

  3. Click the Modify button.

    The Edit Discover Request window is displayed. The top bar of the window displays the ID of the request, and the Request Name field displays the name of the request.

  4. Select the Discover, Preferences, Filters, and Scheduling tabs and change settings as needed.

    Settings are the same as the settings that you created or changed when you defined the discover request. For more information, see:

  5. To exit from the Edit Discover Request window and to accept any changes that you made, click the OK button.

    A dialog box appears, offering several choices for running the modified discover request.

    • To start the discover request and to run the request immediately, click the Yes button.

    • To schedule the discover request but not run the request immediately, click the No button.

    • To cancel the running of the discover request entirely, click the Cancel button.

ProcedureTo Start, Stop, or Delete a Discover Objects Request

If you have previously created a discover request, you can start, stop, or delete the request through the Discover Objects window.

  1. Choose Discover Objects from the Tools menu in the main console window.

    The Discover Objects window is displayed.

  2. Select the name of the discover request that you want to start, stop, or delete.

  3. Click the Start, Stop, or Delete button.

ProcedureTo View the Discover Objects Log

  1. In the Discover Objects window, select the name of the discover request whose log you want to view.

  2. Click the Log button.

    The log file appears in a read-only window.

    Tip –

    If the log file is longer than the visible part of the window, use the side scroll bar to view the rest of the file.

  3. If the request is running, click the Refresh button to update the log file view.

  4. To exit from the log file, click the Close button.