To automate the conversion of IP addresses of discovered entities from "unmanaged" to "managed" in a specific network view, you can configure conversion rules that Network Insight uses to automatically create new DNS records or update existing data for the discovered IP addresses. Network Insight automatically converts newly discovered IP addresses to host records, A and PTR records, or fixed addresses based on your configuration. You can define templates that Network Insight uses to create new records by using supported variables and functions. For information about supported variables, see Supported Variables for Templates below.
Note that corresponding DNS zones in a selected network view must already exist in order for Network Insight to add DNS records during the conversion. Otherwise, Network Insight does not add any DNS records and it logs a message to the syslog.
Network Insight automatically adds DNS records based on the following conditions:

• The corresponding DNS zones must already exist in the NIOS database. Network Insight does not automatically create DNS zones for the records.
• To create a PTR record, the corresponding reverse-mapping zone must exist.
• A DNS zone cannot be associated with more than one DNS view. Network Insight does not create DNS records for zones that are associated with multiple DNS views.
• NIOS adds new DNS records only if the discovered_name for the discovered IP address is available and there is no conflict with information about the associated network view.

On subsequent discovery jobs, if an IP for a VM is removed, the corresponding DNS records are removed accordingly. If the IP for a VM is changed, the IP address in the corresponding DNS record is changed accordingly. If the DNS record name template is changed, all the DNS records are replaced with the DNS records using the new template. All administrative actions for these change are recorded in the audit log. Summary of the changes are logged in the syslog.

Configuring Automatic Conversion Rules

To add automatic conversion rules:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and click Edit –> Grid Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.
2. Click the Conversion Policy tab and complete the following:
   • Enable the automatic conversion rules defined for newly discovered IP addresses: Select this checkbox to enable the automatic conversion of unmanaged IP addresses of newly discovered entities to managed objects in a specific network view. This is disabled by default.
   • Update discovered data for managed objects: Select this checkbox if you want the appliance to update discovered data for all corresponding NIOS objects (if they exist in NIOS), such as A records, PTR records, host records, and fixed addresses, with the discovered data. If you do not select this checkbox, the appliance updates only the discovered data for unmanaged objects. None of the managed data will be updated. This checkbox is selected by default, but is disabled if you do not enable the automatic conversion feature.
     
     Click the Add (+) icon and Grid Manager adds a row to the table (this table is enabled only when you enable the automatic conversion feature). Complete the following:
   • Network View: From the drop-down list, select the network view in which your conversion rule will take effect. Note that this rule applies only to objects in the selected network view. If you have multiple network views, you must configure a separate policy for each network view.
   • Template: Define a naming template that Network Insight uses to automatically create DNS records for the unmanaged IP addresses in the network view. You can use the following syntax: ${substitution}, where substitution can be a supported variable or function. Note that each IPv6 address substitution is unwrapped into dotted presentation. For information about supported variables and functions, see Supported Variables for Templates below.
     For example, when you enter ${discovered_name}.corpxyz.com and the discovered_name for the asset is XYZ, the DNS name for this IP becomes XYZ.corpxyz.com . When you enter  $dev-{ip_address_octet3}.corpxyz.com and the IP for the asset is2dba::db8::1 , the DNS name for this IP becomes dev-3.corpxyz.com . When you enter ${ip_address[7]}.corpxyz.com for an IPv6 address and if the IP for the asset is 2001:db8:acad::1 , the DNS name becomes b.corpxyz.com.
     You can also use the following functions in the naming template: dashed, reversed, and underscored. For example, when you enter ${dashed(${ip_address})}-corpxyz.com and the IP is 1.2.3.4, the DNS name becomes 1-2-3-4-corpxyz.com. When you enter ${reversed(${ip_address})}-corpxyz.com  and the IP is 1.2.3.4 , the DNS name becomes 4.3.2.1-corpxyz.com.
   • Conditions: Enter the matching conditions for the conversion rule. You can use magic variables, supported variables, operators, and functions in the condition. When Network Insight finds IP addresses that match this condition, it will convert the IP addresses into DNS records (Hosts, A/PTR records, or fixed addresses) based on your selected conversion type. For information about supported parameters, see Supported Conversion Parameters below.
     For example, if you want to match IP addresses that do not have an FQDN in the discovered_name , you can enter this condition: ${is_fqdn(${discovered_name})} == false AND ${discovered_name} == 'unknown'. That is, you can use unknown as the filter value for IP addresses that do not have FQDN.
     If you want to match devices from the network 192.168.1.0/24 with the name starting with " Serial0 ", you can enter this condition: ${ip_belongs_to("192.168.1.0/24")} == true AND  ${discovered_name} like "Serial0".
     ConversionType: From the drop-down list, select the DNS record type that you want Network insight to convert the unmanaged IP addresses into. You can convert an unmanaged IP into Host, A/PTR, or FixedAddress. When you select A/PTR, Network Insight converts each IP into A and PTR records simultaneously.
     Comment: Enter description about this policy to distinguish it from others. For example, if the policy is used to identify and convert IP addresses with discovered_name that does not contain an FQDN, you can enter "No FQDN in discovered_name." as the comment to remind yourself about this conversion rule.

Supported Variables for Templates

The following table list the supported variables and functions that you can use in templates.
Supported Variables

vm${1}-example.com

vm${2}-example.com

vm${3}-example.com

vm${4}-example.com

iface-${discovered_name}.example.org

${ip_address}.example.org

${ip_address[7]}.example.com

dev-${ip_address_octet1}.example.com

dev-${ip_address_octet2}.example.com

dev-${ip_address_octet3}.example.com

dev-${ip_address_octet4}.example.com

Supported Functions

${dashed(${ip_address})}-vm.example.com

${reversed(${ip_address})}-vm.example.com

${underscored(${ip_address})}-vm.example.com

Supported Conversion Parameters

The following table list the supported magic variables, variables, operators, and functions that you can use to build the formula for the automatic conversion rules.

Magic Variables for Conversion Rules
Some of the functions or predicates use the following magic variables to calculate the matching results.

Supported Variables for Conversion Rules
This table lists all the variables you can use in the condition syntax.

Supported Operators for Conversion Rules

Operators always result in boolean value: true or false. Therefore, you can use them only in logical expressions.

${discovered_name} like "[vV]m-[0-9]+.devnet.org"

${ip_address} == "167.45.13.29"

${mac_address} != "00:50:56:00:00:01"

Supported Functions or Predicates for Conversion Rules

Predicates accept either none or one argument. Depending on the predicate, it could accept both variables and strings or only one of them. The predicate can be compared only to boolean value: true or false.

${is_interface} == true

${is_ipv4} == true

${is_ipv6} == false

${ip_belongs_to("10.0.0.0/8")} == false

${is_fqdn(${discovered_name})} == true