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Device Groups and Interface Groups are the primary organizational units in NetMRI. You can create device groups in a nested structure, with some device groups subordinate to other device groups. You can apply device group membership criteria in the same ways with nested device groups as for device groups from earlier releases of NetMRI, which used a flat data structure and enforced all device groups as existing on the same peer level. You can now create a hierarchical list of device groups, comprised of top-level groups, with child device groups subordinate to them, and with child device groups further subordinate to their parent groups. For more information, see Creating Device Groups.
NetMRI uses device groups to organize device discovery results, generate separate scorecards, filter issues, and manage polling and processing for each device in the network. Device groups also offer control of Switch Port Management processes, including the ability to immediately carry out Switch Port polling in a device group.
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Use the Connect connect command to connect to network devices from any SSH client. Users only need a connection to the NetMRI Management interface to connect to any managed devices. Users can connect to devices in groups to which they have valid permissions. You can view the audit logs for all events when the users use the Connect connect command to access network devices.
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ARP (Refresh device caches) | Indicates whether member devices in the group will have their ARP caches refreshed before collecting discovery data. NetMRI uses ARP cache refresh to control LAN switches from which switch-forwarding data is collected. For more information, see Notes on ARP, Switch Data Collection, and End Hosts. |
SNMP | Indicates whether the device group is set to enable SNMP data collection for member devices. SNMP collection can also be enabled/disabled for groups and devices. |
PS (Port Scan) | Indicates whether members of the device group will be scanned for open protocol ports. If enabled, NetMRI probes the TCP and UDP ports listed at Settings icon –> Setup –> Port List, to determine whether they are open. For more information, see Defining Group Data Collection Settings. |
FP (Fingerprint) | Indicates the device group setting to use the Identify device using fingerprinting setting for member devices. (This setting is dependent on the Probe for Open ports feature.) A polling technique to identify each network device based on the response characteristics of its TCP stack. This information is used to determine the device type. In the absence of SNMP access, fingerprinting is usually the only way to identify non-network devices. For more information, see Defining Group Data Collection Settings. |
C (Collect configs) | Indicates the device group setting to allow config file collection for all members in the group (Collect config files). |
CCS (CCS scripting) | Indicates the device group setting to allow CCS script file execution for all members in the group (Allow Script Execution). |
| PP (Privileged Polling) | Indicates whether the option CLI polling in privileged mode (i.e. privileged exec (enable) mode) is enabled for the group the device belongs to. You can override this setting for an individual device in the Device Viewer. |
DC (Default Credentials) | Indicates the device group setting for Test for Default Credentials, used to scan for the presence of vendor default credentials for all members in the group. |
A (Issue Analysis) | Indicates the device group setting to allow Issue analysis for all members in the group (Analyze for Issues). For more information about Issue analysis, see Viewing Issues in the Network. |
CL (Config Lock) | Indicates the device group setting to collect config data but to consider all member device configs locked and not to be changed through NetMRI (Regard configurations as 'locked'). For more information, see Defining Group Data Collection Settings. |
| UGPF (Use Global Polling Frequency) | Indicates whether the device group uses the global polling frequency value. For more information, see Setting Polling Frequency for a Device Group. |
| PF (Polling Frequency) | Indicates whether the device group uses a custom polling frequency value. For more information, see Setting Polling Frequency for a Device Group. |
NB (NetBIOS Scan) | Device polling method to collect the NetBIOS name for endpoint devices in the network. Device groups also enable NetBIOS scanning. For more information, see Defining Group Data Collection Settings. |
DB (Discovery Blackout) | Indicates the device group setting to impose discovery blackouts. For more information, see Defining Blackout Periods. |
CB (Change Blackout) | Indicates the device group setting to impose configuration change blackouts. For more information, see Defining Blackout Periods. |
SPMC (SPM | Indicates the device group setting to allow switch port data collection (Switch port data Collection). For more information, see Device Groups and Switch Port Management. |
SPMS (Polling Schedule) | Indicates whether the device group provides a polling interval or scheduling for switch port data collection. This setting is dependent on an enabled Switch port data Collection setting for the device group. |
MC (Membership Criteria) | Hovering the mouse over the checkbox in this column shows the complete regular expression for the selected device group. For more information, see Understanding Device Group Membership Criteria. |
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By default, a new top-level device group is inserted at the bottom of the list, denoting a lower ranking. Creating a sibling group allows you to insert a device group into a specific position in the list of device groups, defining different ranking for the new group. You can insert the new sibling group immediately above or below the selected upper-level group.
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- Open the Settings icon > Setup > Collection and Groups > Groups.
- Do one of the following:
- To add a top-level device group, click Add in the bottom-right corner of the groups window.
- To add a sibling group, right-click a top-level group and select Add > Sibling Above or Sibling Below from the shortcut menu.
The Add Device Group dialog appears.
- In the Parent ID field, NetMRI automatically sets the ID of the parent group. It is "0" for a top-level or sibling group.
- Enter a Name for the new group. The group name is shown in all group-related displays and reports, so the group name should be meaningful without being too long.
- Enter a Membership Criteria regular expression. See Understanding Device Group Membership Criteria for details.
- For Type, select either Basic or Extended. By default, Basic is selected. For more information about extended device groups, see Creating Extended Device Groups.
- Click Save & Close or Save & New.
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Child device groups should only contain devices belonging to their parent group. Creating a child device group of the top-level group “Routing” and using a device group criteria regular expression to filter other devices (e.g., firewalls) will result in an empty device group.
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Nested device groups also operate with Issue Analysis. For information, see Issue Analysis in NetMRI and its subsections. Nested device groups inherit their Issue settings from their parent device groups, and may need editing to suppress Issues that are not relevant to them. |
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To create an Extended device group, complete the following:
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14. Click Save & Close or Save & New.
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You can set global or individual polling frequency for an extended device group. You do so by specifying a polling frequency modifier. This is a coefficient by which the default NetMRI setting is multiplied. The higher the coefficient, the more frequently devices in the current group are polled.
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