Data Collection Techniques

NetMRI discovery depends on a collection of under-the-hood features to ensure that polling and addition of devices in the network proceed smoothly and accurately. This chapter describes the three following critical tasks.

• Defining Data Collection and Device Groups: You must define important settings for network polling. This topic involves the processes of data collection and polling of devices across the network, including polling of switched Ethernet devices. The definition of device and interface groups is discussed in other topics later in this Guide. For more information, see Defining Group Data Collection Settings. For information on the Groups tab and its associated functions, see Creating Device Groups. 

• Managing SNMP and CLI Credentials: Credentials are a critical component for discovery and Configuration Management. You can define global default values for admin account logins, enable passwords, and also define admin account logins and enable passwords on individual devices. For more information, see  Adding and Editing Device Credentials.
• Debugging and Managing Collection Results: When data collection and polling stops for any reason, NetMRI provides methods for determining the cause of the failure and ways to fix it. For more information, see Debugging Issues in Discovery and Data Collection and Running Discovery Diagnostics.