About Network Discovery
- Viktoryia Varapayeva (Deactivated)
When network discovery starts after the Wizard setup or platform upgrade, it runs continuously as a background task, staying up to date with device and network changes as they happen. You can watch the progress of discovery as NetMRI learns your network, and adjust discovery settings to control what it finds and how it collects data.
Note
To change discovery settings, click Settings icon > Setup > Setup Wizard or Settings icon > Setup > Discovery Settings.
You can also flexibly define discovery blackouts at the network, discovery range, device group, and device level to prevent discovery protocols and traffic from occupying network bandwidth at inopportune times, such as latency-sensitive trading or video applications operating during daytime hours. For information, see Configuring Network Discovery Settings and Defining Blackout Periods.
To perform network discovery, you use several fundamental tools: Network Views, Scan Interfaces, Discovery Settings, and SNMP/CLI credentials.
- Network Views: NetMRI uses network views to create separate management domains for your networks and devices, including VRF-based virtual networks. You manage every network, including virtual networks, through a separate network view. For more information, see Configuring Network Views.
- Scan Interfaces: You configure scan interfaces to physically or logically connect to multiple networks, enabling discovery and management in different network domains. Every scan interface you create maps to a network view. For more information, see Configuring Scan Interfaces.
- Discovery Settings: You specify the IP prefixes, also called discovery ranges, to define the IP address space that is managed on each network. Another key setting is called a seed router, which is a gateway routing device considered to help speed discovery across more network spaces. For more information, see Configuring Network Discovery Settings.
- SNMP and CLI Credentials: NetMRI requires SNMP for most discovery tasks. Many discovery and data collection tasks, including VRF discovery, also require the use of CLI and Enable password credentials to access device configurations. You collect and add these values to NetMRI through a Credentials page. For more information, see Adding and Editing Device Credentials.