Discovering Devices

The following section explains the device discovery process, as well as the different methods of adding devices to Unified Assurance.

Objectives

The following list shows you the objectives of this section:

  1. Create a Device Zone

  2. Create a Device Group

  3. Prepare the Device Auto Discovery job

  4. Discover Devices

  5. Prepare the Device SNMP Discovery job

  6. Create SNMP Access Profile(s)

  7. Create a Metric SNMP Network Interface Discovery job

  8. Create a Topology Gather Network Inventory job

  9. Create Polling Policies

  10. Run the Metric Poller Discovery job

  11. Create and run polling apps

  12. Enable the Metric Standard Thresholding Engine service

  13. Configure Device Configuration Profile

  14. Configure Device Configuration Policy

  15. Enable the Config Discovery job

  16. Enable and run Config Gatherer job

Prerequisites

Before adding devices to Unified Assurance, there are a few questions that should be asked and answered to simplify the process.

Create a Device Zone

Grouping specific devices into a particular zone can be used for organization or for polling purposes. This provides scoping for discovery and pro-active polling, ensuring that devices within a zone are accessed by monitoring components in that zone. Multiple devices with the same IP address must be in separate zones for proper polling.

Note:

  1. Go to the "Device Zones" UI:

    Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Zones

  2. Click on the "Add" button to add a new zone.

  3. Enter a name for the zone.

  4. Click on the "Submit" button to create the zone.

Create a Device Group

Device Groups is the concept of associating devices together and providing common additional functionality. Usually this is used for Navigation, Security, Command/Control, and/or limiting the number of devices for Polling.

Note:

Unified Assurance supports non-mutually exclusive groupings of Devices. One Device can belong to multiple Device Groups.

Unified Assurance uses device grouping in several ways, including the following:

Hierarchies of Device Groups can be created through the establishment of parent and children groups. At the top level of the hierarchy, there is a single group "Root" which contains all devices. Subgroups or children can be created off the main level. Additional child groups can be created within each subgroup to categorize devices within groups, thus creating a hierarchical structure.

  1. Go to the "Device Groups" UI:

    Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Groups

  2. Select the "Root" device group and then click on the "Add" button to add a new device group.

  3. Enter a name for the group.

  4. Click on the "Submit" button to create the group.

Updating an existing Device Group

When updating the devices that are part of an existing device group, the "Devices" picker is used to select the devices that should be added to the group, or remove devices that should not be part of the group.

WARNING:

A device must be a member of at least one device group. If trying to update a group to remove a device and a warning is shown, that device must be added to another group before it can be removed from the existing group.

The "Remove from other groups" checkbox can be used and when selected, any devices added to this group will also be removed from any other groups.

Prepare the Device Auto Discovery job

The Device Auto Discovery application uses the defined Inclusion Profiles and Exclusion Profiles to find and record new devices on the network. After a device has been discovered and added to the database, the device information is sent to rules for additional custom processing that may be needed. All initially discovered devices appear in the Devices UI with a Status of "Verified".

A job should be created to discover the devices in the new zone, and can also put the devices in the new group.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Device Auto Discovery" job, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Device Auto Discovery - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Check the "Scheduled" checkbox, then make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every Friday at 23:59.

    3. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceGroupID" to the newly created device group.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    5. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/DeviceAutoDiscovery-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    6. Optional: If using sharding and the devices will have data stored on a different shard, in the "Configuration" section, change the "ShardID" to the correct value.

    7. Optional: In the "Configuration" section, change the "Threads" to a larger value. More threads means more system memory will be used, but discovery will complete faster overall.

    8. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    9. Click on the "Submit" button to create the job.

Discover Devices

Devices can be discovered using one of two methods.

  1. Create discovery Inclusion Profiles, and optionally, Exclusion Profiles, to discover a list of devices using different inclusion profile types.

  2. Use the "Manual Discovery" UI to specify a list of devices to discover.

Create discovery Inclusion Profile(s)

"Inclusion Profiles" is a standard configuration interface to maintain the various profiles used by the "Device Auto Discovery" scheduled job to provide criteria for the devices that should be discovered and added to the Device Catalog. A profile can specify a seed list of IPs and/or DNS Names, a range of IPs, a CDP scan, or an LDAP scan. One or more profiles can be created to discover the devices within a network. Configure a profile and enable it to allow the "Device Auto Discovery" scheduled job to find the devices using the profile settings. There are four profile types to choose from:

  1. Ping Scan: Defines an IP address range (for example, 192.0.2.*) to be pinged by the Device Auto Discovery scheduled job.

  2. Seed Scan: Defines a list of specific IP addresses (and/or DNS names) of devices to be discovered (reduced search time over Ping Scan).

  3. LDAP Scan: Active Directory query-based scan.

  4. CDP Scan: A scan based on the Cisco Discovery Protocol (Scans for devices and their directly connected neighbors).

Steps to create a profile:

  1. Go to the "Inclusion Profiles" UI.

    Configuration -> Device Discovery -> Inclusion Profiles

  2. Click on the "Add -> Ping Inclusion Profile" to create a new profile, then fill in the following information:

    1. Change the name to something appropriate for the environment.

    2. Set "Device Zone" to the zone the devices should be added to.

    3. Enter the IP address range to scan into the "IP Address Regex Range" text field (for example 192.0.2.*).

    4. Set "CIDR" to the correct type based on the IP range entered.

    5. Click "Submit" to save the profile.

  3. Add additional inclusion profiles as needed.

After inclusion profiles have been created, unless exclusion profiles are also needed, the "Device Auto Discovery" job for the zone should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

After discovery has completed, go to the "Devices" UI to see the devices that have been discovered.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

You can also go to the "Devices" navigation to see the devices listed.

Create discovery Exclusion Profile(s)

"Exclusion Profiles" is a standard configuration interface to allow users to define a list or range of IP addresses or DNS Names for which discovery should never be attempted. These allow a small number of IPs to be exempted from discovery, even if they would have been included in a larger range of a discovery profile. For example, an inclusion discovery profile is created for 192.0.2.*, but 192.0.2.129 should never be discovered. An exclusion profile accomplishes this without splitting the single discovery profile into multiple profiles.

  1. Go to the "Exclusion Profiles" UI.

    Configuration -> Device Discovery -> Exclusion Profiles

  2. Click on the "Add -> IP Range Exclusion Profile" to create a new profile, then fill in the following information:

    1. Change the name to something appropriate for the environment.

    2. Set "Device Zone" to the zone where the devices should be ignored.

    3. Enter the IP address range to ignore into the "IP Address Regex Range" text field (for example 192.0.2.129).

    4. Click "Submit" to save the profile.

  3. Add additional exclusion profiles as needed.

After exclusion profiles have been created, the "Device Auto Discovery" job for the zone should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

After discovery has completed, go to the "Devices" UI to see the devices that have been discovered.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

You can also go to the "Devices" navigation to see the devices listed.

Using the Manual Discovery

"Manual Discovery" is a special configuration interface for the middle ground between full auto-discovery with profiles and manually entering all of the device details. It is logically equivalent to creating a new discovery profile, populating it with a single IP, and running the "Device Auto Discovery" job on just that profile. Users can simply enter an IP address or DNS name and Unified Assurance will run the "Device Auto Discovery" application on the server specified using a SOAP request. If the device is ping-able, it will be discovered, added to the device catalog, and have its basic device information populated. Manual Discovery will place the device in the device zone, group, shard, etc, set for the "Device Auto Discovery" application that is used ("Default First Zone" by default).

  1. Go to the "Manual Discovery" UI.

    Configuration -> Device Discovery -> Manual Discovery

  2. Select the Unified Assurance server that you intend to use to run discovery from the "Run on Server" combo box.

    1. For a single-server install, there should be only one server available.

    2. In a multi-server install, there may be more than one server to choose from.

    Note:

    Only servers that have an instance of the "DeviceAutoDiscovery" binary with the "Status" set to "Enabled" will be listed here, but the "Scheduled" option for the job can be unchecked so it does not start automatically. If no jobs are enabled, an error will be returned. See the Jobs UI for additional information.

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  3. Select the specific job instance that you intend to use to run discovery from the "Discovery Jobs" combo box.

  4. In the "Devices (DNS/IPs)" field, enter the DNS name or IP address of the device to discover (for example, 192.0.2.22).

    Note:

    You can manually discover multiple devices at once, by comma-separating the IPs/DNS names (for example, 192.0.2.2,198.51.100.3,203.0.113.4).

  5. Click the "Discover" button (bottom right of the UI). The device discovery process will begin.

After discovery has completed, go to the "Devices" UI to see the devices that have been discovered.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

You can also go to the "Devices" navigation to see the devices listed.

Prepare the Device SNMP Discovery job

The Device SNMP Discovery application utilizes SNMP and SNMP Access Profiles to obtain additional information about devices marked as "New" or "Verified" in the Device Catalog. The application will also periodically re-test SNMP Access Profiles for devices that had been previously discovered. Unified Assurance uses this information to apply a Device Type to the device in the Device Catalog. Rules files can also be utilized with this application to further customize the Device Catalog record for the device based upon the returned data. If discovery was successfully completed via this application, the device State appears as "Discovered" in the Device Catalog.

A job should be created to SNMP discover the devices in the new zone.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Device SNMP Discovery" job, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Device SNMP Discovery - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Check the "Scheduled" checkbox, then make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every Saturday at 23:59.

    3. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/DeviceSNMPDiscovery-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    5. Optional: In the "Configuration" section, change the "Threads" to a larger value. More threads means more system memory will be used, but discovery will complete faster overall.

    6. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    7. Click on the "Submit" button to create the job.

Create SNMP Access Profile(s)

"SNMP Access" is a standard configuration interface for adding, editing, and removing SNMP Discovery access profiles. Each profile contains SNMP information used to access SNMP on devices. The Device SNMP Discovery scheduled job attempts to assign one of these profiles to each device. Once an SNMP access profile has been assigned to a device it can be used by other SNMP-based components.

Unified Assurance provides a "Default Public" version 2 SNMP Access profile by default, which uses the "public" community string. If your SNMP-enabled devices also use the public community string and SNMPv2, then the "Default Public" profile can be used for SNMP Discovery. If your devices use a different SNMP version and/or different community strings, then a new SNMP Access profile must be created with the relevant information.

  1. Go to the "SNMP Access" UI.

    Configuration -> Device Discovery -> SNMP Access

  2. Click on the "Add" button to add a new profile, then fill in the following information:

    1. Set "SNMP Version" to the correct version that will be used.

    2. Set "Profile Name" to something appropriate for the environment.

    3. Set "Priority Order" to an appropriate value for the environment.

    4. Change the "SNMP UDP Port" value if needed for the environment.

    5. Change the "MTU" value if needed for the environment.

    6. Set "Device Zone" to the zone where the profile should be used, or select "[All]" if the profile should be used in multiple device zones.

    7. Set the SNMP access with the appropriate settings for the environment.

      1. If using the "v1" or "v2c" SNMP version, enter the SNMP community string to be used for access.

      2. If using the "3" SNMP version, enter the different settings needed to be used for access.

    8. Click "Submit" to save the profile.

  3. Add additional access profiles as needed.

After SNMP access profiles have been created, the "Device SNMP Discovery" job for the zone should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

After discovery has completed, go to the "Devices" UI to see the devices that have been SNMP discovered.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

You can also go to the "Devices" navigation to see the devices discovered.

Create a Metric SNMP Network Interface Discovery job

The Metric SNMP Network Interface Discovery Agent is used to connect to devices and find the interfaces available for polling. Using rules, metric instances are created, which will be used for future polling.

A job should be created to discover the network interfaces from devices in the new zone.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Metric SNMP Network Interface Discovery" job, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Metric SNMP Network Interface Discovery - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. The "Scheduled" checkbox is already checked, but make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every Sunday at 00:59.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    5. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/MetricSNMPInterfaceDiscovery-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    6. Optional: In the "Configuration" section, change the "Threads" to a larger value. More threads means more system memory will be used, but discovery will complete faster overall.

    7. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    8. Click on the "Submit" button to create the job.

After the job has been created, the job for the zone should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

Create a Topology Gather Network Inventory job

The 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:

A job should be created to gather data from the devices in the new zone.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Topology Gather Network Inventory" job, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Topology Gather Network Inventory - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. The "Scheduled" checkbox is already checked, but make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every day at 11:00.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    5. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/MetricSNMPInterfaceDiscovery-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    6. Optional: In the "Configuration" section, change the "Threads" to a larger value. More threads means more system memory will be used, but discovery will complete faster overall.

    7. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    8. Click on the "Submit" button to create the job.

After the job has been created, the job for the zone should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

Create Polling Policies

"Polling Policies" is a standard configuration interface for adding, editing and removing the polling policies that can be used by the Metric Poller Discovery scheduled job. The scheduled job uses polling policy settings to search for devices and instances to process, create the metrics entries to poll the devices based on selected poller templates, and then assigns thresholds based on the selected threshold group. Essentially, this is a simple, automated and dynamic way to create and maintain Metrics and Threshold settings for certain devices and instances rather than manually creating them using the Polling Assignments interface.

  1. Go to the "Polling Policies" UI:

    Configuration -> Metrics -> Polling Policies

  2. This step will create a profile for ping polling. Click on the "Add" button to add a new policy, and in the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Configure Ping Polling".

    2. Change the "Match -> Instance -> Match" option and set it to "REGEXP".

    3. For the "Match -> Instance -> Name" option, enter the text ^Device$.

    4. Change the "Match -> Instance -> Type" option and set it to "Unknown".

    5. Change the "Assign -> Method" option and set it to "NA".

    6. Change the "Assign -> Poller Template" option and set it to "Default Ping".

    7. Change the "Assign -> Threshold Group" option and set it to "Default Ping".

    8. Change the "Assign -> Poll Time" option and set it to "300".

    9. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    10. Click on the "Submit" button to create the policy.

  3. This step will create a profile for network interface polling. Click on the "Add" button to add a new policy, and in the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Configure Network Interface Polling - ((INTERFACE NAME))".

      Note:

      The value used here will greatly depend on the environment, and how interfaces are named is highly configurable. One example is "eth0", so the policy name should be "Configure Network Interface Polling - eth0"

    2. Change the "Match -> Instance -> Match" option and set it to "LIKE".

    3. For the "Match -> Instance -> Name" option, enter the name of the interfaces to be processed, for example, "eth0".

    4. Change the "Match -> Instance -> Type" option and set it to "SNMP Interface".

    5. Change the "Assign -> Method" option and set it to "SNMP".

    6. Change the "Assign -> Poller Template" option and set it to "Default Network Interface".

    7. Change the "Assign -> Threshold Group" option and set it to "Default Network Interface".

    8. Change the "Assign -> Poll Time" option and set it to "300".

    9. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    10. Click on the "Submit" button to create the policy.

  4. Additional policies may be needed for additional network interfaces. The existing policy can be cloned, but with a different "Match -> Instance -> Name" values for the different names that are possible.

Run the Metric Poller Discovery job

The Metric Poller Discovery application uses the configured Polling Policies to create metrics that will be polled from a device and associate thresholds. This is accomplished by using instance information already gathered by other applications and put into the Unified Assurance database.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Metric Poller Discovery" job.

After the job has been selected, it should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

Create and run polling apps

Now that all of the configuration steps have been completed, it is time to start the following pollers:

Steps:

  1. Go to the "Services" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Services

  2. Select the "Metric Generic SNMP Poller" service, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Metric Generic SNMP Poller - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/MetricGenericSNMPPoller-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    5. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    6. Click on the "Submit" button to create the service.

  4. Select the "Metric Network Interface Poller" service, then click on the "Clone" button.

  5. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Metric Network Interface Poller - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/MetricNetworkInterfacePoller-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    5. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    6. Click on the "Submit" button to create the service.

  6. Select the "Metric Ping Latency Poller" service, then click on the "Clone" button.

  7. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Metric Ping Latency Poller - ((DEVICE ZONE NAME))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. In the "Configuration" section, change the "DeviceZoneID" to the newly created device zone.

    4. In the "Configuration" section, change the "LogFile" to "logs/MetricPingPoller-((DEVICE ZONE NAME)).log".

    5. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    6. Click on the "Submit" button to create the service.

After the pollers are configured, they will be automatically started and polling for data.

Enable the Metric Standard Thresholding Engine service

Now that all of the pollers have been configured, it is time to start the Metric Standard Thresholding Engine.

  1. Go to the "Services" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Services

  2. Select the "Metric Standard Thresholding Engine" service.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Optional: If using event or metric sharding, click on the "Clone" button instead of changing the default service, then change the "Name" to something more descriptive, for example, "Metric Standard Thresholding Engine - Event Shard ((#)) Metric Shard ((#))".

    2. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    3. Optional: If using event sharding and the events should be stored on a different shard, in the "Configuration" section, add the "EventShardID" option, and change it to the correct value.

    4. Optional: If using metric sharding and the metrics should be retrieved from a different shard, in the "Configuration" section, add the "MetricShardID" option, and change it to the correct value.

    5. Click on the "Submit" button to save the changes or create the service.

Configure Device Configuration Profile

"Profiles" is a standard configuration interface for managing topology device configuration profiles.

  1. Go to the "Profiles" UI:

    Configuration -> Device Configuration -> Profiles

  2. Select the "Default Server SSH Profile" profile, then click on the "Clone" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Server SSH Profile - ((USER NAME))".

    2. Change the "User" to the user name that will be used when connecting to devices.

    3. Change the "Password" to the password that will be used when connecting to devices.

    4. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    5. Click on the "Submit" button to create the profile.

  4. Create additional profiles as needed.

Configure Device Configuration Policy

"Policies" is a standard configuration interface for managing device configuration policies. These policies are used by the Topology Configuration Discovery application to create the collections needed for the Gather Configurations Agent application.

  1. Go to the "Policies" UI:

    Configuration -> Device Configuration -> Policies

  2. Click on the "Add" button.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Name" to "Device Configuration Policy for ((DEVICE TYPE))".

    2. Change the "Device Type" to "[Any]".

    3. Change the "Category" to "Server".

    4. Change the "Meta Type" to "[None]".

    5. Change the "Profile" to the one created in the previous section.

    6. Change the "Action" to the "Default Servers SSH Actions".

    7. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    8. Click on the "Submit" button to create the policy.

  4. Create additional Policies as needed.

Enable the Config Discovery job

The Topology Configuration Discovery uses configuration Policies to identify devices where configuration files should be collected, then creates entries as needed for the Gather Configurations Agent application. This is an automated utility that can be utilized to perform the same function as manually creating entries using the Collections UI.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Config Discovery" job.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    2. The "Scheduled" checkbox is already checked, but make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every hour at minute 59.

    3. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    4. Click on the "Submit" button to save the changes.

After the job has been selected, it should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

Enable and run Config Gatherer job

The Topology Gather Configurations Agent is used to gather configuration information from devices and saves the output as files. These configuration information files are then tracked in the SVN repository and differences can be viewed in the Config DDO of a device in the Topology tab. Gathering configurations can be done via SSH or Telnet.

  1. Go to the "Jobs" UI:

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

  2. Select the "Config Gatherer" job.

  3. In the form that is opened, change the following.

    1. Change the "Status" to "Enabled".

    2. The "Scheduled" checkbox is already checked, but make any changes as needed to the schedule. The default schedule is to run every noon and midnight.

    3. Other changes can be made as needed in the environment.

    4. Click on the "Submit" button to save the changes.

After the job has been selected, it should be run manually, or if applicable, wait for the job to run as scheduled.

Device Management

"Device Management" is a special configuration interface to perform a single action on a large number of devices at a single time. These actions can be done on a device group, or devices can be manually selected.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Management

You can make the following changes to multiple devices at once using this interface:

Device Type Categories

"Device Type Categories" is a standard configuration interface for adding, editing, and removing device type categories from Unified Assurance. A device type category is used when creating "Device Types", and will be assigned to a device during SNMP Discovery or by setting a "Static Category" on a device. When viewing the device list, the image assigned to the category will be displayed.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Type Categories

Device Types

"Device Types" is a standard configuration interface for adding, editing, and removing the different device types that can be associated with discovered devices. Some example device types include firewalls, switches, and routers.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Types

It is best practice to routinely verify that all devices discovered in Unified Assurance have a valid Device Type. This will help in device categorization and maintenance.

Maintenance Windows

"Maintenance Windows" is a standard configuration interface to configure device-based maintenance windows. Specifying maintenance windows allows for special rules processing for events during the window, but this functionality needs to be enabled in the rules for the application.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Maintenance Windows

Maintenance Window processing is available but may need to be enabled in the "base.load" rules files for different applications. See the Enabling Maintenance Windows in Event Rules guide for additional information.

Meta Types

The "Meta Types" UI is used for adding, editing and removing Meta Types. Device Meta Type tagging is the concept of associating additional device information to a set of devices. The Meta Types can be associated manually or dynamically with rules. Tagging devices with Meta Types also provides for device-based enrichment such as Event correlation, as well as special polling of devices.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Meta Types

Unified Assurance uses device-based meta tags in several ways including the following:

Note:

Meta Tags can be added using either the Manage Devices (single device at a time) or Device Management (multiple devices at a time) interfaces.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Device Management

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

Vendors

The Vendors interface is used for adding, editing and removing Vendors/Manufacturers from the Unified Assurance system. Vendors can be used for grouping Device Types.

Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Vendors