Consolidator and Probes

Consolidator–The central repository of discovery data for the entire managed network. The Consolidator is a single appliance that contains data about all devices detected through discovery. The Consolidator communicates with the Grid Master as a normal Grid Member and transfers all its data to the Grid Master, as indicated in Figure 15.1. The Consolidator compiles information from one or more associated Probe appliances. The Consolidator appliance requires the Discovery license. If you have one or more Probe appliances or virtual appliances, the Consolidator performs no discovery on its own. If you plan to use a single dedicated appliance for discovery, that appliance must be licensed for discovery and be configured as a Consolidator. Note that the Grid Master cannot be licensed as a Consolidator.
Probes–A Probe is a Network Insight appliance or virtual appliance that performs the direct querying, probing and polling of network devices and the initial data collection. Probe appliances also require the Discovery license.
Infoblox recommends using one or more Probe appliances with the Consolidator. Each Probe can override the Grid level discovery credentials with its own discovery credentials.
Data synchronization occurs continuously between the Consolidator and all associated Probe appliances and between the Consolidator and the Grid Master.

Note: You assign each Probe appliance to a single network view, and multiple Probe appliances can share the same network view. You can change network view assignments for Probe appliances at any time. On ND-1400, ND-1405, ND-2200, ND-2205, ND-4000, ND-V1400, ND-V1405, ND-V2200, and ND-V2205 Network Insight appliances, you can assign multiple VLAN interfaces on the same Probe to different network views.

Consolidator-Probe Appliance–You may also choose to operate a Consolidator-Probe appliance as a single discovery system. In this deployment, the appliance operates as both a Consolidator and a Probe, performs all discovery operations, aggregates all databases within it, and synchronizes with the Grid Master.
Standalone discovery appliances cannot be installed in a network that already has existing Probes and a Consolidator. For more information, see Defining the Discovery Member Type and Mapping Discovery Interfaces to Network Views.