Conflict Resolution in Network Insight

Figure 15.27 Locating Conflicts and Beginning Their Resolution

You can sometimes encounter conflicts when defining port reservations for IPAM-managed objects such as Fixed IP addresses or host records. The quickest way to locate any conflicts in Grid Manager is to open the Conflicts Smart Folder as noted in Figure 15.27.
Numerous types of conflicts are possible:

• Device Information conflict;
• Port Reservation conflict, including Used Port Reservation conflicts (usually resulting from a request to reserve a port that has already been assigned to another IPAM object);
• Fixed address conflict;
• IP Address conflicts;
• DHCP Range conflicts (such as: Discovered address is within an existing DHCP range but does not match an existing lease, fixed address, or exclusion range);
• MAC Address conflict (such as: Discovered MAC Address conflicts with existing fixed address).

Note: When you execute discovery (Discovery -> Discovery Now from the Toolbar), the appliance does not send SNMP trap if it finds any conflicting information between the NIOS data and the discovered data.

The Conflict Resolution wizard automatically recognizes the object associated with the conflict (which is listed in the Related Objects pane as noted in Figure 15.27) and ensures that changes you make during resolution are applied correctly to the object. An example appears in Figure 15.28.
Figure 15.28 Conflict resolution example

Resolving Port Reservation Conflicts
Sometimes, administrators may accidentally request a device port to be reserved for an IP address when the port is already reserved for another object, or try to apply a different port to an object that already has a port reservation. When these cases arise, Grid Manager reports a conflict.
To resolve port reservation conflicts:

1. Click the link provided in the Conflicts Smart Folder.
2. Expand the Toolbar and click Resolve Conflict, as shown in Figure 15.27.
   The Resolve Port Reservation Conflict dialog opens, showing the differences between the reserved and discovered information.
3. Choose from the following options:
   • Change the reserved port to be the same as the discovered port.
   • Keep the configured port reservation and clear the conflict for the next 1 day(s).
     

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     Note: In the Grid Discovery Properties–>Advanced tab, the Ignore Conflict Duration setting governs the default time duration to ignore (clear) certain types of conflicts that may occur when defining IPAM objects that are associated with discovered and managed devices, interfaces, or IP addresses. Increments can be defined in Hours or Days. For more information, see Defining Seed Routers for Probe Members.
     

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4. Click OK to save changes.
   

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   Note: For other conflict examples, see Resolving Multiple Conflicts.
   

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   Another category of conflicts involves incorrectly defined device information for the object:

• The reserved Device Type information provided is different from the discovered vendor and device type (Router vs. Switch, for example);
• The defined Device Vendor information does not match with the discovered information.
• A User Port Reservation conflict occurs when an unmanaged IP address attempts to use a port that is already reserved by an IPAM object on a different IP address.
  
  You can choose from the following options:

1. • Change configured information to discovered information.
   • Keep the current device configuration and clear the conflict for the next 1 day(s).

In virtually all cases, replacing the configured information with the discovered information successfully clears the conflict; click OK to commit changes or to temporarily clear the conflict.
Resolving Multiple Conflicts
You can define objects for IP addresses, attempt to apply a port reservation, or incorrectly specify a value such as a MAC address or a vendor name, and accidentally cause multiple conflicts after creating the new object.
When multiple conflicts need to be resolved for a particular IP address, you use a Resolve Multiple Conflicts wizard:

1. To quickly locate any conflicts, open the Smart Folders panel and open the Conflicts list.
2. Click the IP address for any entry in the Conflicts list. The IPAM page opens for the selected IP address, with the top panel highlighted in pink to indicate the conflict.
3. Open the vertical toolbar and click ResolveConflict.
4. If multiple issues are involved with the conflict entry, the Resolve Conflicts wizard lists each of them as shown in Figure 15.29. 
   Figure15.29 ResolutionofMultipleConflicts
   
   
   

5. Select the conflict that you want to resolve first and click Next. For example, consider choosing to resolve the MAC Address conflict as shown in Figure 15.29. The second step of the wizard appears, listing the differences between the Existing and Discovered information for the conflict as shown in Figure 15.30.
   
   

Figure 15.30 troubleshooting the first selected conflict

1. 1. In this case, the MAC address specified in the last fixed address object configuration, for that object, conflicts with the discoveredMACaddress associated with the IP. (You can verify this by checking the RelatedObjects tab in the IPAM page for the IP address.) Choose from one out of two options:
      • Change the configured MAC address to be the same as the discovered MAC address;

      • Keep fixed address and ignore this conflict for the next 1 day(s).
        In this example, the Discovered information for the MAC address associated with the Fixed Address object is
        one digit off from the Existing MAC information, which was entered incorrectly by the administrator. The
        DIscovered MAC, shown in red, is the correct value and should be used to overwrite the record for the conflict.

   6. Select the Update... with discovered data option and click Resolve.
2.     The wizard updates with a return to the first step, in which you select the next conflict to resolve. A banner shows the result of the first resolution.
3. 7. Select the next conflict to resolve and click Next. As an example, Figure 15.31 shows a device configuration conflict.

Figure 15.31 Device Information conflict for an object

1. 1. To resolve the conflict, the Configured information must be overwritten with the Discovered information:
      • Change configured device type and vendor to be the same as the discovered device type and vendor;
      • Keep current device configuration and clear the conflict for the next 1 day(s).
                Other conflict types have similar language.

 Figure 15.30 troubleshooting the first selected conflict 

8. Select from the above choices and click Resolve.
9. Continue through the wizard to resolve the last conflict associated with the IP address.

Note: In the Polling tab –> Advanced page of the Grid Discovery Properties editor, the Ignore Conflict Duration setting governs the default time duration to ignore (clear) certain types of conflicts that may occur when defining IPAM objects that are associated with discovered and managed devices, interfaces, or IP addresses. Increments can be defined in Hours or Days. This setting cannot be modified when resolving conflicts.