Content Comparison

...

Anchor
Discovery with a New NetMRI Deployment Discovery with a New NetMRI Deployment

Anchor
bookmark96 bookmark96

Discovery with a New NetMRI Deployment

Complete the following series of procedures procedure to perform your first network discovery.:

1. If necessary, install your NetMRI appliance or appliances. For more information, see the Infoblox Installation Guide for your NetMRI appliances. Ensure that you have the full feature licensing and device licensing entitlements for your deployment. For more information, see Understanding Platform Limits, Licensing Limits, and Effective Limits. If you are upgrading your NetMRI installation, check the installation instructions in the Release Notes for your software (and see the section below, Discovery with an Existing NetMRI Platform.
   Also, read the section Preparing for NetMRI VRF Access for information on checking and configuring VRF-aware devices to which NetMRI will connect for managing virtual networks.
2. Configure your first network views for network management.
   For new installations, NetMRI automatically provides an initial network view, named Network 1, as part of the initial setup. For the initial discovery of the network, you may only need this first network view. For more information, see Configuring Network Views.
3. You combine network views with scan interfaces to separate and manage networks. For new installations, the Network 1 network view is automatically bound to your appliance's LAN1 port. This may be the only interface you need for initial network discovery. This interface connects to the router through which NetMRI begins to discover the network. For more information, see Configuring Scan Interfaces.
4. Configure your discovery settings. They include discovery IP address ranges, possible static IP addresses of devices you explicitly want to discover in your networks, a seed router for network discovery and possible device hints to improve odds of finding devices. The seed router might be, for example, the router to which NetMRI first connects for discovery of the network. For more information, see the sections Configuring Discovery Ranges, Specifying Static IPs, Adding Seed Routers, Configuring CISCO APIC, and Adding Device Hints.
5. Add the necessary device SNMP credentials, and CLI admin login and Enable password credentials. For more information, see Adding and Editing Device Credentials and its various sections. You can also add and test credentials for individual devices; for more information, see Adding and Testing SNMP Credentials for a Device.
6. Associate discovery settings to network views. Add your discovery settings from Step 4 to the network views and begin to discover the network. Initial discovery of your networks begins automatically after the discovery ranges and other discovery settings, such as a seed router, are added to the network view, which also must have a scan interface connection. For more information, see Discovery Using Network Views.
7. Watch data collection. Network data collection and virtual network detection take place during your initial network discovery, which begins automatically when the network connection is established from NetMRI, to the network to be discovered. Perform the following to view discovered information about your network:
   • View summaries of discovery events: Click the All Devices device group in the right panel, and open the Network Explorer –> Discovery page to see a table of all devices being discovered by NetMRI. For more information about the features on this page, see Viewing and managing Discovery Results.
   • View a list of devices your appliance has recently discovered: Click the All Devices device group in the right panel, and open the Network Explorer –> Inventory page to see tables of all member devices. For more information about the features on this page, see Viewing Network Inventory.
   • View summaries of recently discovered network phenomena: Includes summary information of routed networks, VLANs, route targets, and virtual networks (VRFs). For more information about the features on this page, see Summarizing Network Topologies.
8. Map virtual networks. If your network has virtual networks, NetMRI automatically discovers them on the devices where they are configured, and alerts you through System Health banner messages at the top of the screen to map those VRF-aware devices to the network views where they belong. By mapping each virtual network to network views, you provide more information to the discovery process. For more information, see Mapping Virtual Networks to Network Views.

...

Discovery processes can occupy significant resources within the network when discovery is taking place. You can avoid possible interference with latency-sensitive network applications by creating time periods when NetMRI will not communicate with devices or networks for discovery. These time periods are called discovery blackout periods. You can create discovery blackout periods for each discovery range you define in NetMRI. Discovery blackout periods are optional and can be enabled and configured, or disabled, at any time. All communications are stopped with a given device, including but not limited to the following:

...

• Globally across the entire NetMRI deployment. For more information, see the next section, "Configuring a Global Discovery Blackout or Change Blackout".
• Discovery IP ranges (only discovery blackouts). For more information, see Configuring Discovery Ranges.
• Strategic individual devices (only discovery blackouts). For more information, see Creating Blackouts for Individual Devices.
• Device Groups. For more information, see Creating Device Groups.

...

Configuring a Global Discovery Blackout or Change Blackout

Scroll bookmark
bookmarkId Bookmark_Global_Blackouts

You can separately configure discovery blackouts and change blackouts. No dependencies exist between blackout types. You may configure either type without defining new settings for the other type. At the Global level, discovery blackouts and change blackouts apply across all network views, discovery ranges, device groups, and devices unless otherwise disabled at the range or device group level.

Complete the following:

1. Choose Settings icon –> Setup –> Collection and Groups.
2. On the Global page (which appears by default), check the Enable Discovery Blackout check box and click its Scheduling icon. The Discovery Blackout Scheduling gadgets appear.
   • In the Recurrence Pattern drop-down, choose how often you want to execute the blackout period. You can select Once, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
   • If you choose Once, complete the following:
     • Choose an Execution Time from the drop-down list.
     • Enter the date of the blackout, in the Day_of_ field.
     • Specify the Duration: 10 or more Minutes, Hours, or Days.
   • If you choose Daily, click either Every Day or Every Weekday.
     
     • Choose an Execution Time from the drop-down list.
     • Specify the Duration: 10 or more Minutes, Hours, or Days.
   • If you choose Weekly, complete the following:
     • Choose an Execution Time from the drop-down list.
     • Check the check boxes for one or more days from Sunday through Saturday.
     • Specify the Duration: 10 or more Minutes, Hours, or Days.
   • If you choose Monthly, complete the following:
     • Choose an Execution Time from the drop-down list.
     • Day __ of every __ month(s): Specify for the discovery blackout to be executed on day-of-month X of every Y month. Month numbering starts with January. You can see some examples below.
       Day 5 of every 1 month(s): means the blackout is executed on the 5th of the current and each next month.
       Day 5 of every 2 month(s): means the blackout is executed on the 5th of January, March, May, July, and so on.
     • Specify the Duration: 10 or more Minutes, Hours, or Days.
3. If necessary, select the Enable Change Blackout check box and click its Scheduling icon. The Discovery Blackout Scheduling gadgets appear. Follow the steps above to define the change blackout schedule.
4. Click Save to save your changes.

...

For discovery of any IPv6 network, at least one well-connected IPv6 router (preferably with routes to all other networks to be managed by NetMRI) must be placed in the Seed Router list. In some cases, seed routers may not have the full routing tables or be unable to provide full information for some reason. The general rule of thumb is that more seed routers are better, but the connectivity of the seed router(s) also helps determine how many seed routers you need. Avoid having more seed entries than necessary. Also, note that seed routers are included in the CIDRs count that should not exceed 1000 per the recommendation in the Infoblox Discovery Best Practices Guide.

...

NetMRI allows you to collect and manage data from SDN and SD-WAN environments. Currently, you can discover Cisco ACI and Cisco Meraki.

You can do the following in Settings icon –> To do so, go to Settings icon –> Setup –> Discovery Settings –> SDN. You can do the following on this tab:

• New: Add a new Cisco APIC or Cisco Meraki configuration. See Adding and Configuring Cisco ACI Discovery and Adding and Configuring Cisco Meraki Discovery.
• Edit: Modify information about a selected configuration.
• Delete: Remove a selected configuration from the list.
• Import: Import a CSV file containing Cisco ACI or Cisco Meraki information. For information about syntax formats, see Discovery Settings Import Formats.
• Show/Hide Credentials: Display or hide the user name and password credentials of added configurations.
• Discover Now: Start the discovery process immediately for a selected configuration.
• (For Operations Center only) Filter by Collector: Filter the added SDN configurations by Collectors that perform SDN discovery. Collector filter also displays respective device limits and licensing limits.

You can also define general SDN and SD-WAN settings as described in Configuring SDN and SD-WAN Polling Settings.

...

1. Make sure that you enabled SDN and SD-WAN polling in Settings icon –> Setup –> SDN/SD-WAN Polling. For more information, see Configuring SDN and SD-WAN Polling Settings.
2. Choose Settings icon –> Setup –> Discovery Settings –> SDN.
3. Click New.
4.  In SDN Type, select Cisco ACI.
5. Complete the following:
   
   • Fabric Name: Specify a short and unique name for the current Cisco ACI configuration.
   • Addresses: Click Add and enter the hostname or IP address of the Cisco APIC controller. If your fabric includes more than one controller, click Add again to add more addresses.
   • Network View: Select  Select the network view to identify the corresponding network interface for connectivity with the Cisco ACI. Also, this network view will be In parentheses next to the network view name is displayed the name of the associated collector. The network view and collector are assigned to discover devices from this the ACI fabric.
   • Protocol: Select HTTP or HTTPS.
     If you select HTTPS, you must use a Root CA or Intermediate CA certificate to allow communication with the Cisco APIC as described below. 
     If your ACI fabric includes multiple controllers, use a combined PEM certificate. To do so, copy the ASCII data from all of the certificates into a single file.
   • CA Certificate: Perform one of the following:
     • Select a previously imported CA certificate. To learn how to import a CA certificate in NetMRI, see Installing CA Certificate.
     • Click Import CA Certificate and select a CA certificate directly from your machine.
       For how to prepare a CA certificate, see About CA Certificates for Cisco APIC. The APIC controller address must match either the certificate subject or one of subject alternative names.
   • Username: The login name for the Cisco ACI.
   • Password: The login password.
   • Use Global Proxy Settings: Select if you want to use a Proxy server for connectivity to or from the with the Cisco ACI. For more information, see Configuring Proxy Settings for SDN Discovery.
6. Click Test Connection to check if the fabric is reachable and the provided credentials are correct. The connection test results are also written to the syslog.
7. Click Add or Add & Discover.

...

NetMRI classifies Meraki cameras and phones as end hosts and other Meraki devices as network devices.

To add and configure Cisco Meraki discovery, complete the following:

1. Make sure that you enable SDN and SD-WAN polling in Settings icon –> Setup –> SDN/SD-WAN Polling. For more information, see Configuring SDN and SD-WAN Polling Settings.
2. Choose Settings icon –> Setup –> Discovery Settings –> SDN.
3. Click New.
4. In SDN Type, select Cisco Meraki.
5. Complete the following:
   
   • Config Name: Specify a short and unique name for the current Cisco Meraki configuration.
   • Network Interface: Select  Select the interface that will be used to access the device. In parentheses next to the interface name is displayed the name of the associated collector. As Cisco Meraki infrastructure may have overlapping IP addresses in different network views, you should explicitly specify a network interface exposed to the internet.
   • Protocol: HTTPS by default.
   • Address: Enter the hostname or IP address of the Cisco Meraki Dashboard API. By default it is api.meraki.com.

   • API Key: Access key required to use Cisco APIs.

   • Use Global Proxy Settings: Select if you want to use a Proxy server for connectivity to or from with the Cisco Meraki device. For more information, see Configuring Proxy Settings for SDN Discovery.
6. Click Test Connection to check if the device is reachable and the provided credentials are correct. The connection test results are also written to the syslog.
7. Click Add or Add & Discover.

...

Anchor
Configuring Proxy Settings for SDN Discovery Configuring Proxy Settings for SDN Discovery

Configuring Proxy Settings for SDN Discovery

Based on your NetMRI deployment type, you can define Proxy settings in the following ways:

• Standalone: you can define one proxy server for the standalone appliance.
• Operation Center with collectors: you can define a separate Proxy server for each collector.

To configure a Proxy server for SDN and SD-WAN connectivity, complete the following:

1. Choose the Settings When creating a new or editing an existing SDN configuration in Settings icon –> Setup –> Proxy Settings, select Use Global Proxy Settings.
2. In the Setup panel, select Proxy Settings.
3. In the Proxy For drop-down list, select a specific collector.
4. Select Use Proxy Server.
5. Complete the following:
   
   • Name or IP Address: An FQDN or IP address of the Proxy.
   • Port: The port number of the Proxy.
   • Username: The username that NetMRI will use to log in to the Proxy.
   • Password: The password that NetMRI will use to log in to the Proxy.
6. Click Save.

...