GatherNetworkInventory
Overview
The Unified Assurance Topology Gather Network Inventory application gathers information about the network from devices in the device catalog using SNMP and enters it into inventory tables. This information is also used to create topology layout in the graph database. Here are types of information that will be discovered by default:
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ARP entries
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Bridge ports
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CDP neighbors
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Cisco VLANs
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Interfaces
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IP addresses
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LLDP neighbors
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MAC addresses
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Ports
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Routes
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Trunks
Gather Network Inventory Setup
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Devices must exist in the Device Catalog for this application to be able to function. Devices can be created in several different ways:
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Using the Device Auto Discovery application (Core Device Auto Discovery). See the application documentation for additional information.
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Using the Manual Discovery UI:
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Manually entering all values using the Devices UI:
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Devices must by SNMP discovered for this application to be able to get data from the devices. See the Device SNMP Discovery application (Core Device SNMP Discovery) for additional information.
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Enable the default Job, unless a specific configuration option is needed.
Default Scheduled Job
Field | Value |
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Package Name | coreCollection-app |
Job Name | Topology Gather Network Inventory |
Job Program | bin/core/collection/GatherNetworkInventory |
Job Arguments | |
Job Description | Gather network inventory details from routers and switches |
Failover Type | Standalone (Supported: Standalone, Primary/Backup) |
Status | Disabled |
Privileged | (Checked) |
Minutes | 0 |
Hours | 11 |
Days | * |
Months | * |
WeekDays | * |
Default Configuration
Name | Value | Possible Values | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
BaseRules | collection/topology/inventory/base.rules | Text, 1-255 characters | Relative path to Base Rules. |
BranchDir | core/default | Text, 255 characters | relative path to Rules dir. |
IncludeRules | collection/topology/inventory/base.includes | Text, 1-255 characters | Relative path to Include Rules. |
LoadRules | collection/topology/inventory/base.load | Text, 1-255 characters | Relative path to Load Rules. |
LogFile | logs/TopologyGatherNetworkInventory.log | Text, 255 characters | Relative path to Log File. |
LogLevel | ERROR | OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG | Logging level used by application. |
Threads | 3 | Integer | Number of processing threads created. |
TimeOut | 5 | Integer | The time out for the SNMP connection. |
DBThreads | Integer | Optional - Number of database threads to be created. If not specified, defaults to a third (rounded up) of "Threads" application configuration. | |
DeviceGroupID | Integer | Optional - This entry is used to get a more specific list of devices to be polled for data. If 0, all device groups are gathered. | |
DeviceZoneID | Integer | Optional - This entry is used to get a more specific list of devices to be polled for data. If 0, all device zones are gathered. | |
InterfaceType | Text, 1-255 characters | Optional - Overrides which value is used when creating the interface vertices. Possible values are "IfName", "IfDescr", "IfAlias", "IfIndex". | |
Limit | Integer | Optional - Limits routes retrieved to this number. Defaults to 200 if no value is provided. | |
PreferIPv4 | Disabled | Enabled/Disabled | Optional - When present and set to true, GatherNetworkInventory will attempt to connect to remote devices using IPv4 if available. |
Skip | Text, 255 characters. | Optional - Comma separated list of items not to be retrieved. Possible values are "Int", "IP", "Route", "CDP", "LLDP", "Trunk", "ARP", "VLAN", "MAC". |
Best Practices
The following list shows you best practices for gathering network inventory.
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The Topology Gather Network Inventory job is configured to run at 11:00 am every day.
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Some devices with high interface counts can have trouble returning usable inventory data to the application using the default get-bulk SNMP request method. While the application may fall back to a get-next request, it slows down the discovery as it has to make multiple requests for the same data from the device.
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The following warning indicates issues with using get-bulk SNMP requests for a device:
[WARN] abc.example.com(xxx) [Interface Names]: "No Values Returned [The message size exceeded the buffer maxMsgSize of xxx]"
To optimize the gather for these high interface count devices, add the following MetaTag to the device to indicate the application should use get-next SNMP requests to obtain the data more reliably:
Type: SNMP, Value: ForceGetNext
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Administration Details
The following list shows the technical details you will need for advanced administration of the application:
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Package - coreCollection-app
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Synopsis - ./GatherNetworkInventory [OPTIONS]
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Options
-c, --AppConfigID N Application Config ID (Service, Job, or Request ID) -d, --DeviceID N DeviceID (Optional) -?, -h, --Help Print usage and exit
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Threaded - Multi-Threaded