To ensure a successful discovery, complete the following configurations for the Grid and Grid members that are acting as the Consolidator and Probes before you start a discovery:

• Define polling methods and schedule. 

• Define advanced polling settings for TCP scanning and Ping sweeps. Also, specify routers and logging options. 

• To collect data from SDN and SD-WAN devices, add and configure them as described in Configuring Discovery for SDN and SD-WAN below.

• If you use SNMP or CLI collection as the polling methods, define device credentials for data collection. .

• Assign credentials to device groups. 

• Enable and schedule blackout periods for discovery and port configuration. For more information, see Defining Blackout Periods.

• Configure automatic network view mapping for unassigned VRFs that have been discovered. For more information, see Configuring Automatic VRF Mapping.

• Configure settings to monitor the lifecycle and vulnerabilities of discovered devices. For more information, see Configuring Advisor Properties below.

The following sections describe in detail how to configure discovery for the Grid, Grid members, and networks.

Defining Basic Polling Settings

Grid polling settings apply to all Probe members and all discovery networks that are assigned to a Probe. You can override the Grid settings at the Probe member and network levels.

To define basic polling settings, complete the following:

1. For the Grid: From the Grid tab, select Grid Manager > Discovery service, and then select Edit > Grid Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.
   For Probe members: From the Grid tab, select Grid Manager > Discovery service, select a member, and then select Edit > Member Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.
   For networks: From the IPAM tab, click a network name, and then click the Edit icon.

2. In the Grid Discovery Properties or Member Discovery Properties editor, click Polling > Basic.
   In the Network editor, click Discovery.

3. If you want to override the inherited Grid settings for Probe members and networks, click Override and define the following settings.

4. SNMP Collection: Select this to execute SNMP protocols to discover and collect information such as traceroute/path collection, vendor and model, SNMP credential collection, routing and ARP tables, switch port data, and VLAN configuration data. If you disable SNMP collection, previously discovered data remains available for viewing.No new data is added and no existing data is removed.
   Some devices may not support SNMP, and some devices may not enable SNMP by default.
   Note When you disable SNMP collection on a network with enabled discovery, Network Insight still attempts to authenticate the SNMP credentials of devices that are newly discovered under this network. All newly discovered devices are automatically bound to a default group with enabled SNMP collection.

5. CLI Collection: Select this if you expect to use Network Insight to discover devices that support CLI connectivity through Telnet or SSH, and that you possess admin account information. NIOS can use device admin account logins to query network devices for discovery data collection, including IP configuration, port configuration, routing and forwarding tables, and much more.

   Note that for SNMP and CLI Collection methods, configure device polling credentials in the Credentials tab of the editor. For more information, see Configuring Device Credentials below.

6. Port Scanning: Select this to probe the TCP ports. Ensure that you go to the Advanced tab to configure more settings for this option as described in the next section. If you disable Port Scanning, NIOS attempts no port probes other than SNMP on any device.

   • Profile Device: If enabled, NIOS attempts to identify the network device based on the response characteristics of its TCP stack, and uses this information to determine the device type. In the absence of SNMP access, the Profile Device function is usually the only way to identify non-network devices. If disabled, devices accessible via SNMP are identified correctly. All other devices are assigned a device type of Unknown. Profile Device is disabled by default for network polling.

7. Smart IPv4 Subnet Ping Sweep: Select this to execute Ping sweeps only on subnetworks that are known to exist but no IPs can be found within the subnet, such as through ARP or other means.

8. Complete Ping Sweep: Select this to enable brute-force subnet Ping sweeps on IPv4 networks. This method executes Nmap that uses ICMP echo requests, ICMP timestamp requests, and TCP SYN to ports 161, 162, 22, and 23 (for the SNMP, SNMPTRAP, SSH, and TELNET services correspondingly). Subnet ping sweeps are used as a last resort in the discovery process. Perform a subnet ping sweep if NIOS cannot identify any network devices in a given subnet. Subnet ping sweeps should be performed no more than once per day, and will stop on a given subnet once NIOS Discovery locates a network device and is able to collect data from it. Ensure that you configure advanced settings for this option in the Advanced tab as described in the next section.
   Note that NIOS does not perform Smart Subnet Ping sweeps on subnets larger than /22. NIOS also does not perform Ping sweeps on IPv6 networks, because of the dramatically greater scale of network addresses in the IPv6 realm. The Complete Ping Sweep differs from the Smart Subnet Ping Sweep in the following ways:

   • The Complete Ping Sweep will run only against the specified range.

   • The sweep will run regardless of the range size.

   • The sweep will run regardless of the number of discovered devices within the specified range.

9. NetBIOS Scanning: Select this to enable NIOS to collect the NetBIOS name for endpoint devices in the network. This feature can be enabled only by users with SysAdmin privileges. This feature is globally disabled by default (and also for device groups) to prevent unexpected scanning of the network by a new collector.

10. Automatic ARP Refresh Before Switch Port Polling: Select this to enable refreshing of ARP caches on switches and switch-routers in the managed network before NIOS performs polling of switch ports. Enabling this feature applies only to switched Ethernet devices. This feature enables more accurate detection of all endpoint devices on L2 switches. Without ARP refresh, some endpoint devices may not be detected. This feature is globally disabled by default. Individual ARPs can also be set to enable or disable this feature.

11. Switch Port Data Collection: Select this to enable the Probe member to poll L2 enterprise switches. You can completely disable switch port polling by deselecting this checkbox. You can also separately schedule polling for switch port data collection as follows:

12. Periodic Polling: Define regular polling time periods. Choose a polling interval of 30 or more minutes or 1-24 hours.

13. Scheduled Polling: Schedule recurrent polling based on hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly time periods. Choosing this option, click the Calendar icon and a Polling Scheduler appears; click the Edit icon to make scheduling changes. Choose a recurrence pattern of Once, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. In all cases, you must choose an Execution Time.

14. Save the configuration.

Defining Advanced Polling Settings

If you selected any polling settings that involve the TCP scanning and Ping sweeps, configure additional settings for them. Advanced SNMP polling settings consist of choosing the TCP Scan Technique, along with a number of specialized settings for Ping Sweeps and other operations.

To define advanced Grid-wide polling settings for TCP scanning and Ping sweeps, complete the following:

1. For the Grid: From the Grid tab -> Grid Manager tab -> Discovery service, select Edit -> Grid Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.
   For members: From the Grid tab -> Grid Manager tab -> Discovery service, select Edit -> Member Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.
   For networks: From the IPAM tab, select the network checkbox and click the Edit icon.

2. In the Grid Discovery Properties, Member Discovery Properties, or (IPv4 or IPv6) Network editor, click Polling -> Advanced and define the following settings.

3. If you want to override the inherited Grid settings for Probe members and networks, click Override and define the following settings.

4. TCP Scan Technique: Select the TCP technique you want to use for the discovery. The default is SYN. For more information, see TCP.

   • SYN: Select this to quickly perform scans on thousands of TCP ports per system, never completing connections across any well-known port. SYN packets are sent and the poller waits for a response while continuing to scan other ports. A SYN/ACK response indicates the protocol port is listening while an RST indicates it is not listening. The SYN option presents less impact on the network.

   • CONNECT: Select this to scan IPv6 networks. Unlike the SYN option, complete connections are attempted on the scanned system and each successive TCP protocol port being scanned.

5.  Specify the TCP ports settings:

   • In the table, select the checkboxes of the TCP ports you want to discover. To select all ports, click the checkbox in the header.

   • To add a new port, click the Add icon.

6. Specify other advanced polling settings:

   • Purge expired assets data after: Removes records of discovered assets that are no longer reachable after a specified period of time. The default is set to one day.

   • Purge expired device data after: Removes records of discovered network infrastructure devices that are no longer reachable after a specified period of time. The default is set to seven days, a more forgiving value given that devices sometimes require maintenance, upgrades or repairs, or in cases where hosts leave the network on long trips.

   • ARP Aggregate Limit: Sets a limit for the number of entries (IP addresses) per MAC address in ARP tables. If there are too many entries associated with a MAC address, this can be treated, for example, as a "honeypot". Therefore, MAC addresses with more entries than the specified limit are ignored and filtered out during data extraction and parsing. The default limit is 30 ARP table entries (IP addresses) per MAC address.

   • Route Limit: Limits the size of the routing table that discovery is required to collect from any given device. Some routers can have tables in the hundreds of thousands of entries, and collecting such a large body of data can impose performance problems in the network and in discovery data collection. This setting defaults to 3000, and automatically excludes BGP routes from the collection. Consult Infoblox Technical Support before making changes to this value.

   • Ping Sweep Timeout (ms): Period of time allowed, in milliseconds, before a Ping times out to any given device.

   • Ping Sweep Attempts: The number of attempts on each address in a Ping sweep before the sweep continues.

   • Ping Sweep Frequency: Defaults to 1, because ping sweep should not be executed more than once a day when the feature is enabled at the grid level or for a given discovery range. This setting affects the Smart Ping Sweep and Complete Ping Sweep features under Grid Discovery Properties.

   • ARP Cache Refresh: Defines the time period between ARP refreshes by Network Insight across all switch ports. Before any other switch port polling and discovery operations take place (including any global discovery polling operations initiated by the administrator), another ARP refresh is carried out by the Probe appliance regardless of the time interval. The default is five minutes, because switch forwarding tables are frequently purged from LAN switching devices. The default on Cisco switches is five minutes/300 seconds. Network Insight primarily uses ARP Cache refreshes to improve the accuracy of end-device discovery. Without this feature, some endpoints may not be discovered and cataloged.

   • Ignore Conflict Duration: Used when resolving conflicts and when choosing the option to Ignore the conflict when resolving it. The length of time during which conflicts is ignored is defined with this settings. Increments can be defined in Hours or Days.

   • Number of discovered unmanaged IP addresses per notification: The maximum number of unmanaged IP addresses that the appliance discovers before it sends SNMP and email notifications, if enabled. The appliance resets the counter after it hits this number and sends notifications. The default is 20.

   • Interval between notifications for discovered unmanaged IP addresses: This number determines how often the appliance sends SNMP and email notifications, if enabled, when it discovers the maximum number of unmanaged IP addresses (configured for Number of discovered unmanaged IP addresses per notification ). This is the time interval between two notifications for discovered unmanaged objects. Select the time unit from the drop-down menu. The default is five minutes.

   • DNS Lookup Option: Specify whether you want to perform a reverse DNS lookup from discovered IP addresses. Select one of the following from the drop-down list:

     • Network Devices: Select this to resolve network device (switches and routers) IP addresses. This option is selected by default.

     • Network Devices and End Hosts: Select this to resolve both network device (switches and routers) and end host IP addresses.

     • Off: Select this to turn off reverse DNS lookups for discovered IP addresses.

     • DNS Lookup Throttle: This is the value in a percentage that throttles the traffic on the DNS servers. Setting a lower value reduces the number of requests to DNS servers. You can specify a value between 1 and 100. The default value is 100.

   • Disable discovery for networks not in IPAM: Disables executing discovery on any infrastructure networks that are not presented in the Infoblox IPAM system; e.g. present and managed in a network view or network container.

   • Authenticate and poll using SNMPv2c or later only: For credential discovery and device polling exclusively using SNMPv2c and up, preventing use of SNMPv1, enable this checkbox.

   • Use DHCP Routers as Seed Routers: Select this so the Probe members can use the default gateways for associated DHCP ranges and networks as seed routers to more quickly discover and catalog all devices (such as endpoint hosts, printers and other devices). All such default gateways are automatically leveraged by discovery, and no further configuration is necessary unless you wish to exclude a device from usage.
     Use this option carefully and avoid continuous updating of DHCP routers by a third-party component such as Microsoft servers, as it may trigger a discovery service restart when attempting to apply the new configuration.

     Ensure to check for a list of configured DHCP seed routers for any discovery Probe member in the Seed tab -> Advanced tab of the Member Discovery Properties editor.

   • Log IP Discovery events in Syslog: Sends a message to the configured Syslog service when an IP address of an active host is discovered.

   • Log network discovery events in Syslog: Sends a message to the configured Syslog service when a network discovery process takes place in the Grid.

7. Save the configuration.

Configuring Device Credentials

Credentials apply to devices at the following levels:

• The Grid: Settings apply across the Grid and all Probe appliances licensed for Discovery.

• Discovery Probe appliances: You can use inherited Grid settings or override them.

• Individual devices: You can use inherited Grid or Probe settings or override them with device-specific settings.

You can configure the following types of device polling credentials:

• SNMPv1/v2 Credentials

• SNMPv3 Credentials

• CLI Credentials

Once configured, you can test the credentials.

For more information on configuring device credentials, see the following sections:

• Configuring SNMPv1/v2 Credentials

• Configuring SNMPv3 Credentials

• Configuring CLI Credentials

• Defining CLI Credentials for Objects

• Testing SNMP and CLI Credentials

If any SNMP or CLI credentials become obsolete, you can reset them for all affected devices at once. After that, Network Insight re-guesses the credentials for each device. This does not apply to CLI credentials manually set for specific devices. For more information, see the reset snmp and reset cli Administrative Shell commands.

You can assign a credential to a credential group that is specific to a particular device group. For more information about credential groups, see Configuring Credential Groups below.

Configuring SNMPv1/v2 Credentials

An SNMPv1/v2 community string is similar to a password in that the discovered device accepts queries only from management systems that send the correct community string. This community string must exactly match the value that is entered in the managed system.

To add an SNMPv1/v2 credential, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and then click Discovery.

2. For the Grid: Click Edit -> Grid Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.
   For the Probe member: Select the member checkbox, and then click Edit -> Member Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.

3. Click the Credentials tab.

4. To override the inherited Grid settings for a Probe member, click Override.

5. Click the Add icon and specify the credential details in the corresponding cells:

   • Read Community: Enter a text string that the management system sends together with its queries to the network device during discovery.

   • Credential Group: For the Grid, select a group to which you want to assign the credential. For the Probe member, the table displays settings that were configured on the Grid, but only the default credential group is used for the member. You can edit the credentials list making up the default group by clicking Override.

   • Order: The order for attempting the use of the credential.

   • Comment: A text comment about the credential.

6. Optionally, you can test the credentials you added to the list. You can test SNMPv1/v2c and SNMPv3 credentials against any device or any IP address, at the Grid level or from any Probe member or network view. For more information, see Testing SNMP and CLI Credentials below.

7. Click Save & Close to save changes.

To find a specific string in the SNMPv1/v2 tab, enter the value in the Go To field and then click Go.

To remove a community string entry, select the checkbox and click the Delete icon.

To export the entire list of community strings in a table file readable by a spreadsheet program, click the Export icon and choose Export Data in Infoblox CSV Import Format. To export all data in a different format, click the Export icon and choose Export Visible Data.

Configuring SNMPv3 Credentials

SNMPv3 allows the use of two secret keys for every credential — one for authentication and another for encryption. Network Insight allows flexible application of keys — authentication but no encryption, for example. You define users in one of the three following ways:

• SNMPv3 user with no authentication or privacy credentials.

• SNMPv3 user with authentication but no privacy credentials.

• SNMPv3 user with both authentication and privacy credentials.

To add an SNMPv3 credential, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and then click Discovery.

2. For the Grid: Click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.
   For the Probe member: Select the member checkbox, and then click Edit > Member Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.

3. Click the Credentials tab > SNMPv3 tab.

4. To override the inherited Grid settings for a Probe member, click Override.

5. Click the Add icon and specify the credential details in the corresponding cells:

   • Name: The username for the credential.

   • Auth Protocol: Select one of the listed authentication protocols.

   • Auth Password: The password to use with the authentication protocol.

   • Privacy Protocol: Select one of the listed privacy protocols.

   • Privacy Password: The password to use with the privacy protocol.

   • Credential Group: For the Grid, select a group to which you want to assign the credential. For the Probe member, the table displays settings that were configured on the Grid, but only the default credential group is used for the member. You can edit the credentials list making up the default group by clicking Override.

   • Order: The order for attempting the use of the credential.

   • Comment: A text comment about the credential.

6. Optionally, you can test the credentials you added to the list. You can test SNMPv3 credentials against any device or any IP address, at the Grid level or from any Probe member or network view. For more information, see Testing SNMP and CLI Credentials below.

7. Click Save & Close to save changes.

To find a specific SNMPv3 entry, enter the value in the Go To field and click Go.

To remove an SNMPv3 authentication entry, select the checkbox and click the Delete icon.

To export the entire list of community strings in a table file readable by a spreadsheet program, click the Export icon and choose Export Data in Infoblox CSV Import Format. To export just the subset of data that is visible in the dialog, click the Export icon and choose Export Visible Data. A Show Passwords option allows the secret keys to be visible in the import.

Configuring CLI Credentials

SNMP protocols provide a powerful means of querying devices for broad arrays of information. The CLI discovery feature is required for port control tasks including port configuration and network provisioning and de-provisioning, but is not used for other discovery operations or to otherwise manage devices. By default, Probe appliances inherit their member discovery properties, including CLI credential sets, from the Grid level. Enable passwords are entered in separate records and kept as a separate list in Grid Manager.

For CLI credentials, you define a global set of Admin account/password tuples, as well as Enable passwords, at the Grid level. You can also specify credentials and Enable passwords for individual devices at the member level. Should such a credential not work for a given device, or if command-line access is lost for a device, Network Insight re-guesses credentials from the Grid-level credential list, including vendor defaults if available.

To add a CLI credential, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and then click Discovery.

2. For the Grid: Click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.
   For the Probe member: Select a member checkbox, and then click Edit > Member Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.

3. Click the Credentials tab > CLI tab.

4. To override the inherited Grid settings for a Probe member, click Override.

5. Click the Add icon to add a new CLI username/password entry to the list. Select the Credential Type, which can be one of two choices.

6. In Login Credentials, click the Add icon and specify the credential details in the corresponding cells:

   • Protocol: Select SSH or Telnet. Infoblox recommends the use of SSH.

     • SSH: SSH credentials require both a username and a password. The default protocol is SSH.

     • Telnet: In Network Insight, Telnet credentials must use both a username and a password.

       Note that should you choose to use a Telnet-based credential, Network Insight requires both the username and password for the login account. This also applies when you override the CLI credentials on objects such as a fixed address, host, or IPv4 reservation. For more information, see the section Defining CLI Credentials Settings for Objects below.

   • Name: Username for the CLI login account.

   • Password: Login password for the CLI login account.

   • Credential Group: For the Grid, select a group to which you want to assign the credential. For the Probe member, the table displays settings that were configured on the Grid, but only the default credential group is used for the member. You can edit the credentials list making up the default group by clicking Override.

   • Comment: A text comment describing the CLI login account.

   • Order: By default, Network Insight inserts the new credential record at the bottom of the credentials list, which is reflected by its Order value, showing the order used for attempting the use of CLI credentials. Enter a new value in the Order field if you want the new credential to be in a position other than the last in order.

7. In Enable Credentials, click the Add icon and specify the credential details in the corresponding cells:

   • Protocol: SSH or Telnet. Infoblox recommends the use of SSH.

   • Password: Enable password for device configuration access.

   • Credential Group: For the Grid, select a group to which you want to assign the current credential. For the Probe member, this setting is inherited and cannot be changed.

   • Comment: A text comment about the credential.

   • Order: By default, Network Insight inserts the new record at the bottom of the list, reflected by its Order value, showing the order used for attempting use of the CLI credentials. Enter a new value in the Order field if you want the new credential to be in a position other than the last in order.

8. Optionally, you can test the credentials you added to the list. For more information, see Testing SNMP and CLI Credentials below.

9. Click Save & Close.

Defining CLI Credentials for Objects

You can define CLI credentials and enable password credentials for individual devices through associated IPAM objects:

• Fixed addresses

• IP reservations

• Hosts

For a quick way to locate all objects of a certain type in the Grid, you may create a smart folder with settings such as Type > Equals > IPv4 Fixed Address. Title the smart folder appropriately.

To define and test the CLI credentials for an IPAM object, complete the following:

1. From the Data Management tab, select the IPAM tab.

2. In the IPAM IP List page or the IPAM IP Map page, navigate to the required network and then to the IP associated with the object you want to edit.

   Note for each network, the IP list page provides a Type data column showing the IPAM object type that is associated with any IP address. Also, check the MAC Address column in the IP List page for information about associated objects.

3. Click the IP address. On the IP address page, click the Related Objects tab.

4. Select the checkbox for the object in the Related Objects panel and click Edit.

5. In the object editor, click the Discovery tab.

6. Click Override CLI Credentials.
   By default, CLI credential definitions use SSH at the object level. Select Allow Telnet if you want to allow both SSH and Telnet credential usage. Infoblox recommends SSH because of better security.

7. Enter the Name and Password values and the Enable Password value.

8. Click Test CLI Credentials to test the CLI discovery credential settings applied to the object.

9. When finished, click Save & Close.

Testing SNMP and CLI Credentials

After configuring SNMP and CLI credentials, you can click Test Credentials in the SNMP Credentials or CLI Credentials panel to test the credentials. Credential testing ensures that the configured credentials work for as many devices and networks as possible. The procedure in this section applies to both the Grid and the member levels. You can override the Grid settings at the member level.

For CLI credentials, you can test an admin login name and password tuple as well as a following enable credential, if necessary. You can also override CLI credentials and enable credentials for IPAM objects such as fixed addresses, IP reservations, and host objects. You can test any credential set, an enable credential, or both in combination against any device within any network view. Network Insight sets the login sequence to match the command-line standards for the selected device.

To test SNMP credentials or CLI credentials, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and then click Discovery.

2. For the Grid: Click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.
   For a Probe member: Select a member checkbox, and then click Edit > Member Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.

3. In the Grid Discovery Properties or Member Discovery Properties Editor, click the Credentials tab > SNMPv1/v2 tab, SNMPv3 tab, or CLI tab.

4. Select the checkbox or checkboxes for the Login credentials and/or Enable credentials (if applicable) you want to test.
   For a Probe member, click Override, and then select the credential checkboxes.

5. Click Test Credentials.

6. In the Test SNMP Credentials or Test CLI Credentials dialog box, complete the following:

   • IP Address: Select this to test the credential against an IP address of a reachable device in a network (even if it has not been discovered or managed through NIOS) within a specified network view. Enter the IP address in the field. Ensure that you select the respective network view in which this IP address resides.

   • Network View: If you have multiple network views, select the network view in which the IP address resides from the drop-down list. If you have only one network view, which is the default view, the Network View drop-down list is hidden by default. NIOS conducts credential testing for the IP address in the selected network view.

   • Device: Select this to test against a selected device. Click Select Device and the Device Selector appears. If you have multiple network views, you must first select the network view in which the device resides from the Network View drop-down list, located at the upper left-hand corner of the selector. If you have only one network view, which is the default view, the Network View drop-down list is hidden by default. You can check the device categories under All Devices to locate discovered switches and routers or any unmanaged devices previously detected by discovery under NIOS. You can explore categories including Discovered Switches/Routers, Microsoft Windows Devices (this can include items such as Windows Servers of various types), Router and Wireless Access Point Devices, Unmanaged, and others. By default, all devices previously discovered appear in this selector. If you have a long list of devices, you can enter a device name search value or a search expression in the Find field and click Go. You can also click Show Filter to narrow down your selection by selecting available filters. Click OK after you have selected a device and its corresponding network view.

7. Click Start to begin testing the credential against the IP address or selected device. The communication and testing processes appear in the lower panel of the editor.

Configuring Credential Groups

You can organize specific credential sets into groups that you can use to guess device credentials by assigning different credential groups to IPAM objects such as networks. For example, when a credential group is assigned to a network, Network Insight runs the guessing process only over credentials of this group for devices in this network.

You can use credential groups for credential guessing on the following levels:

• The Grid

• Probe members

• IPAM networks and network containers

• DHCP networks and DHCP ranges

A default credential group preexists on the Grid. The default credential group is automatically pre-assigned to the Grid, members, and IPAM objects such as networks, network containers, or ranges. You can create custom credential groups and add credentials to them. After that, you assign credential groups to the Grid, Probe members, and IPAM objects.

For more information, see the following sections:

• Creating a Credential Group

• Adding SNMP and CLI Device Credentials to a Credential Group

• Assigning a Credential Group

• Viewing Credential Group Used for Device

Creating a Credential Group

You can create, edit and delete custom credential groups. As for the default credential group, you can rename it, but not delete it.

To create a credential group, complete the following:

1. Go to Grid > Grid Manager > Discovery.

2. In the Toolbar, click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties.

3. Select the Credential Groups tab.

4. Click the Add icon.

5. Type a name for the credential group and press Enter.
   Note that the Name field does not support the Unicode encoding.

6. Click Save & Close.

To edit a credential group, click the group name in the table cell and edit as required.

To delete a credential group, select the group and click the Delete icon.

Adding SNMP and CLI Device Credentials to a Credential Group

You populate a credential group with credentials in the Grid Discovery Properties. For Probe members, you can edit the credentials list inside a group for the default credential group only. choose to inherit the Grid credential groups settings or to override them with the default group. If the deafult group contains credentials from both Grid and member and it is assigned to a network, Network Insight uses only member-level credentials.

See the following sections on how to add device credentials of different types to a credential group:

• Configuring SNMPv1/v2 Credentials

• Configuring SNMPv3 Credentials

• Configuring CLI Credentials

Assigning a Credential Group

Probe members, networks and ranges inherit the credential groups assignment from the Grid. You can override this assignment with another credential group for networks and ranges. For members, you cannot assign a credential group as they always use the default group for credential guessing.

Assigning a Credential Group to the Grid

To assign credentials to the Grid, complete the following:

1. Go to Grid > Grid Manager > Discovery.

2. In the Toolbar, click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties.

3. On the Polling tab.

4. For Credential Group, select the required credential group.

5. Save the configuration.

Assigning a Credential Group to Network or Network Container

To assign credentials to an IPv4/IPv6 network or network container, complete the following:

1. Go to Data Management > IPAM or DHCP.

2. Click the name of an existing network or network container.

3. Click the Edit icon.

4. Click the Discovery tab.

5. Credential Group: The field displays the selection inherited from the Grid unless you override it. Click Override and select the required credential group.

6. Save the configuration.

Assigning a Credential Group to DHCP Network or Range

To assign credentials to a DHCP range, complete the following:

1. Go to Data Management > DHCP.

2. Click the name of an existing IPv4/IPv6 network.

3. Click the Add or Edit icon > Range.

4. Click the Discovery tab.

5. Credential Group: The field displays the selection inherited from the Grid unless you override it. Click Override and select the required credential group.

6. Save the configuration.

Viewing Credential Group Used for Device

To view which credential group was used to guess credentials for a particular device, complete the following:

1. Go to Data Management > IPAM or Devices tab > Discovery Status.

2. Hover the mouse over SNMP or CLI credential status of a device.
   A tooltip mentioning the credential group name appears.

Defining Seed Routers for Probe Members

Seed routers can be defined only on Probe appliances. You can define seed routers that NIOS uses in quickly performing network discovery. The definition of seed routers is highly recommended for IPv4 networks and is required for IPv6 networks. For the discovery of any IPv6 networks, you must use seed router values that comprised of at least one well-connected IPv6 router, preferably with routes to all other networks to be managed. In some cases, seed routers may not have the full routing tables or be unable to provide full information for some reason. The general rule of thumb is that more seed routers are better, but the connectivity of seed router(s) also helps determine how many seed routers you need. Avoid having more seed entries than necessary.

You must associate each seed router with a network view so the appliance can properly discover virtual networks when using multiple seed routers.

You can check Discovery Status to see whether a seed router is successfully being reached and whether the seed is providing information. By reviewing discovery status for each seed router, you can determine whether Network Insight should be able to discover the network successfully, or if there are possible configuration errors preventing network discovery, without having to wait to see what Network Insight finds. For seed routers, Reached Status and Overall Status should both read as Passed.

To add, view, or delete seed routers for a Probe, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and click Discovery.

2. Select the checkbox for any Probe appliance on the Discovery page and click Edit > Member Discovery Properties from the Toolbar.

3. In the Member Discovery Properties Editor dialog box, click Seed.

4. To add a seed router, do the following:

   1. Click the Add icon. The Grid Manager adds a row to the table. 

   2. In the new row, do the following:

      • Click the Router field and then enter the IP address for the IPv4 or IPv6 seed router. Note that you can assign a seed IP address to different network views if your deployment has overlapping IP addresses.

      • Click the Network View field and then choose the network view you want to assign to the interface. A newly added seed IP does not have any associated network view by default. 

      • Click the Comment field and then enter information about the seed router.

You can delete a seed router by selecting it and then click the Delete icon. Note that you cannot delete any seed router that is a default gateway.

IPv6 Seed Router Usage

For the discovery of any IPv6 network, you must use seed router values, comprised of at least one well-connected IPv6 router, preferably with routes to all other networks to be managed. In some cases, seed routers may not have the full routing tables or be unable to provide full information for some reason. The general rule of thumb is that more seed routers are better, but the connectivity of seed router(s) also helps determine how many seed routers you need. Avoid having more seed router entries than necessary.

Configuring Advisor Properties

For information about Advisor, see Monitoring Device Lifecycle and Vulnerabilities Using Advisor.

See the following pre-requisites:

• You have purchased the Advisor subscription.

• You have access to the internet, either through one of the Consolidator interfaces or through a proxy server.

• You have a Consolidator with the discovery service working on it.

• You have a local DNS resolver working on the discovery node. For more information, see Enabling DNS Resolution.

To configure Advisor properties, complete the following:

1. From the Grid tab, select the Grid Manager tab, and then click Discovery.

2. Click Edit > Grid Discovery Properties in the Toolbar.

3. Click the Advisor tab.
   

4. Select Enable Advisor Application.

   Note this checkbox is available if a Consolidator exists in the Grid and the discovery service is working.

5. Network Interface: Specify one of the network interfaces of the Consolidator that runs Advisor. This interface is used for the internet connection to obtain the lifecycle and vulnerability data.

6. Execution Interval: Specify how often the Advisor service should be executed every N days or weeks.

7. Execution Hour: Specify the server hour when the Advisor service should be executed.

   Note the Advisor runs not at the exact hour specified, but at any minute of the specified hour.

8. If you do not want to expose your Grid member directly to the internet, select Use proxy server. Ensure that the proxy server has access to the internet.

9. Specify the following information for the proxy server:

   • DNS Name or IP Address

   • Port

   • Credentials to connect to Proxy Server (username and password)

10. Under Advisor Central, specify the following data:

    • API Endpoint Address: The IP address of the Advisor API endpoint.

    • API Endpoint Port: The port of the Advisor API endpoint.

    • Authentication: Select Token or Credentials.

    • If you selected token authentication, specify the authentication token value.

    • If you selected credentials authentication, specify the username and password.

11. In Minimum Severity, specify the severity threshold for vulnerabilities data that you want to obtain for your devices. To see possible values, hover the mouse over the field. The popup window displays the following values:

    • Critical: 9.0-10.0

    • High: 7.0-8.9

    • Medium: 4.0-6.9

    • Low: 0.1-3.9

    • None: 0.0

12. Last Scheduled Execution Result: Displays the timestamp of the last successful or unsuccessful scheduled execution result.

13. Last Run Now Result: Displays the timestamp of the last successful or unsuccessful immediate execution result.

14. Test connection to central: Central refers to the server where the application for Network Insight Advisor is running, that is the Advisor server. NIOS sends a POST query to the Advisor server from Discovery Consolidator, when you click Test connection to central. In the API Endpoint Address, the server address is specified. If the query enters the Advisor server successfully and returns a correct response, then OK is displayed else Not OK is displayed.

15. If you want to launch Advisor immediately, click Run Now.

16. Save the configuration.