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Assure1 Topology Gather Network Inventory

Overview

The Assure1 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 Orient Database. Here are types of information that will be discovered by default:

  • ARP entries

  • Bridge ports

  • CDP neighbors

  • Cisco VLANs

  • Interfaces

  • IP addresses

  • LLDP neighbors

  • MAC addresses

  • Ports

  • Routes

  • Trunks

Gather Network Inventory Setup

  1. Devices must exist in the Device Catalog for this application to be able to function. Devices can be created in several different ways:

    1. Using the Device Auto Discovery application (DeviceAutoDiscovery). See the application documentation for additional information.

    2. Using the Manual Discovery UI:

      Configuration -> Device Discovery -> Manual Discovery

    3. Manually entering all values using the Devices UI:

      Configuration -> Device Catalog -> Devices

  2. Devices must by SNMP discovered for this application to be able to get data from the devices. See the Device SNMP Discovery application (DeviceSNMPDiscovery) for additional information.

  3. Enable the default Job, unless a specific configuration option is needed.

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs

Default Scheduled Job

Field Value
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.

  • The Topology Gather Network Inventory job is configured to run at 11:00 am every day.

  • 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.

    • 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

Administration Details

The following list shows the technical details needed for advanced administration of the application:

  • Package - coreCollection-app

  • Synopsis - ./GatherNetworkInventory [OPTIONS]

  • Options

     -c, --AppConfigID N   Application Config ID (Service, Job, or Request ID)
 -d, --DeviceID N      DeviceID (Optional)
 -?, -h, --Help        Print usage and exit

  • Threaded - Multi-Threaded