Mapping Virtual Networks to Network Views

User action is required to clearly associate each discovered virtual network with its correct network view in the Network View Editor. This provides additional context to collected data and enables NetMRI to fully discover and model the network topology. If you define any new network views in this step, you will also need to configure scan interfaces based on the steps in Configuring Scan Interfaces. If a network view does not have an assigned scan interface, discovery will not take place on that network.

If you do not wish to perform extensive management of VRF-based virtual networks in your deployment and receive a System Health banner alert reporting unassigned VRFs, do not ignore the alert. Simply map all the discovered VRF-based virtual networks to your existing network view (VRF examples include (Default) IOS (for Cisco IOS), default (for Cisco Nexus), or master (for JunOS), which are the global VRFs that may be present in some networks). Doing so automatically instructs NetMRI to use collected VRF data for further discovery.

To add a discovered VRF to a network view, perform the following:

1. Click the Settings icon > Setup > Network Views.
   The Network Views settings page appears, listing all currently defined views.
2. Hover over the Action icon for the chosen network view and select Assign. 
   The Define and Configure Networks editor appears in a popup window.
3. To see all currently discovered VRFs, click Search VRF Names.
   All discovered VRF instances in all devices are listed alphabetically. Unassigned VRFs appear in white in the left panel, and assigned VRFs are highlighted in gray. If you see more VRF entries then you can easily navigate, check the Show unassigned VRF Only check box.

4. To see all VRFs listed as discovered on each device, click Display VRFs per Device. All VRFs are listed under their respective device names.

5. To see all VRF instances that are associated with any Network View, click Display VRFs per Virtual Network. All VRFs are listed under their respective virtual networks. The same network view can manage all VRFs in a single virtual network.

6. To set an entire virtual network to the selected network view, check the check box for all discovered VRF routers in the list that are identified by a specific VRF Name (such as red or blue). In this case, each instance of the same VRF in the list shows its own unique Device Name.

1. • For each discovered virtual network, you will see one or more devices that are running VRF instances in that virtual network.
   • To easily select an entire virtual network for the network view, select the Display VRFs per Virtual Network option. Then, check all the device checkboxes listed for that network.

7. In the right panel of the editor, select the network view from the Network View drop-down to which you want to assign the virtual network.

8. Click Add (–>) to add the selected VRFs to the network view. To remove a VRF from the view, select it from the right panel and click Remove (<–).

9. Click Save or Save and Close to commit the changes. Clicking Save keeps the Define and Configure Networks window open.

Your changes are saved into the network view. To begin seeing the practical effects of this action, go to Network Explorer > Summaries and open the VRFs accordion panel. Click View All VRFs in the panel if necessary, and click a network view link in the Network View column in the center panel.