NetMRI discovery depends on a collection of under-the-hood features to ensure that polling and addition of devices in the network proceed smoothly and accurately. This chapter describes the three following critical tasks.
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Use the Settings icon –> Setup –> NIOS IPAM Sync tab to configure NetMRI to populate the NIOS IPAM database with the IP network discovery data compiled by a NetMRI instance. During a run, device data (IP addresses and other data), subnets/DHCP networks, or both are exported. A synchronization can be run immediately or scheduled for future times. For how to add, edit, and delete a sync configuration, see Configuring IPAM Sync. For how to synchronize IP address data between NetMRI and a new NIOS appliance, see Synchronizing Between NetMRI and NIOS Appliances.
NetMRI tracks the last time it has successfully communicated with a device via NMAP (used for fingerprinting), SNMP, and telnet/SSH/HTTP. This timestamp information appears in the Network Explorer –> Discovery page. To provide the most accurate possible timestamp, the protocols used to generate the timestamps also includes ICMP Ping and NetBIOS communications protocols. This allows NetMRI to track the last time it communicated with a device across any related protocols. Ping and NetBIOS data results are not directly displayed in the Network Explorer –> Discovery page.
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- Network Views: Be aware of overlapping subnets and IP addresses. If you execute IPAM Sync several times, do not export different NetMRI network views to the same NIOS network view. Otherwise, some discovered data may be lost.
- Device reachability: Once a device became unreachable, it remains visible in NetMRI for some time, but it will not be exported to NIOS. If you see the device in NetMRI, but not in NIOS, check the device interfaces and reachability. Some of the interfaces may become disconnected. Additionally, check if the corresponding device subnet is displayed in the list of subnets in NetMRI.
See For how to add, edit, and delete a sync configuration, see the next section, Configuring IPAM Sync.
For how to synchronize IP address data between NetMRI and NIOS, see Synchronizing Between NetMRI and NIOS Appliances.
Also, see the following sections for additional information about NIOS IPAM Sync:
Configuring IPAM Sync
To add a sync configuration, complete the following:
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- Network sync: Newly-imported subnets are imported as “managed”.
- If the imported subnet conflicts with an existing subnet, it is not accepted. The imported subnet can go into a container as long as there is no conflict.
- If the subnet already exists, no changes are made.
- If the subnet is in IPAM but not in NetMRI, it is left in IPAM.
- IP address sync: New IP addresses are added and marked as “unmanaged”. If an IP address already exists, the field values is overwritten during the import.
- Before NetMRI 7.1.4 and NIOS 8.1, if the IP address exists in IPAM but it is not in the import file, it is left in IPAM.
- As of NetMRI 7.1.4 and NIOS 8.1, if the IP address exists in IPAM but it is not in the import file, its discovered data is cleared out. You can control the time that the IP address stays in the NetMRI database after it is no longer discovered under NetMRI. To do so, go to Setup -> General Settings -> Advanced Settings.
Delivering NetMRI Discovered Data to IPAM
Fields related to Cisco ACI data (tenant, bridge_domain, endpoint_groups) are specific for SND SDN elements and controllers. Fields Wireless Access Point Name, IP, and SSID are related to the wireless access points to which a device is connected. Attached device information usually means neighbor switch or router to which a given device is directly connected. Only IP Address, MAC Address, Last Discovered, and First Discovered fields are filled for end hosts collected from ARP tables. VRF information is specified for corresponding interfaces of infrastructure devices.
The following table helps to locate places in NetMRI where the discovered data appears.
| Discovered Data Field |
|---|
| Discovered Data |
|---|
| in NetMRI UI | |
|---|---|
| IP Address | Network Explorer -> Discovery |
| Last Discovered | |
| First Discovered | |
| MAC Address | Interface Viewer |
| OS | Device Viewer |
| Discovered Name | |
| Device Model | |
| Device Vendor | |
| Device Location | Device Viewer -> Device/Network Explorer -> Device Identification |
| Device Contact | |
| NetBIOS Name | — |
| Device OUI | — |
| Attached Device Data | |
| Attached Device Vendor | For an attached device: Device Viewer |
| Attached Device Address | |
| Attached Device Name | |
| Attached Device Type | |
| Attached Device Model | |
Attached Device Description | For an attached device: Device Viewer -> Device/Network Explorer -> Device Identification |
| Attached Device Location | |
| Attached Device Contact | |
| Attached Device Port Description | For an attached device: Device Viewer -> Interface -> Configuration |
| Attached Device Port Name | |
| Attached Device Port | |
| Port Data | |
| Port Duplex | Interface Viewer |
| Port Link | |
| Port Speed | |
| Port Status | |
| VLAN Name | Device Viewer -> Interfaces -> Configuration |
| VLAN ID | |
| Cisco ACI Data | |
| ACI tenant | Device Viewer -> ACI |
| ACI bridge domain | |
| ACI endpoint groups | |
| VRF and BGP Data | |
| VRF Name | Device Viewer -> Router -> VRF table |
| VRF Description | |
| VRF RD | |
| BGP AS | Device Viewer -> Router -> BGP |
| Wireless Access Point Data | |
| Wireless Access Point Name | Device Viewer -> Wireless |
Wireless Access Point IP | |
| Wireless Access Point SSID | |
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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NetMRI automatically supports an Infoblox utility, Cisco Discovery Service, that enables network administrators to provide Cisco-validated reporting and analysis. NetMRI operates as a Cisco Discovery Service-enabled system supporting discovery of network systems for analysis and management. You can use the CDS Integration Tool as part of a new NetMRI installation, or use the tool to extract further insight and value from an existing deployment. Cisco Gold Partner status is required for effective use of the software utility.
NetMRI supports CDS API version 2.0 and uses a NetMRI device or virtual machine to inspect all aspects of a network's Cisco infrastructure to collect the following information:
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