Populating the NetSight Database

The NetSight database contains device models that represent the actual devices on your network. The models store attributes for your devices and make it possible to maintain an array of access levels and present status in Console's views. Console provides three methods for populating the database with device models.

  • Discovery, using IP Range or CDP Seed IP discovery
    • IP Range Discover -- performs a discover based on one or more IP address ranges. An IP Range Discover discovers all devices within the specified IP address range(s). The steps below will get you started by performing an IP Range discovery.
    • CDP Seed IP Discover -- performs a single discover of all CDP-compliant devices in the network, starting with a CDP seed device. To learn more about CDP Seed IP discovery, refer to the CDP Seed IP Discover section in How to Discover Devices help topic.
  • Manually adding device models
  • Import from a file - refer to How to Export/Import a Device List for more information on this method.

Discovering Devices

Discovery lets you to discover the physical elements (devices) of your network, and add them to the NetSight database. You can perform a discover on a specified range of IP addresses, or perform a CDP (Cabletron Discovery Protocol) discover for CDP-compliant devices. Discover automatically explores a specific network segment and creates a list of discovered devices. You can then save the all or a subset of the discovered devices to the NetSight database. Devices that are added to the database are automatically placed in the appropriate groups in the left panel of the main window.

Here's how to do an IP Range Discovery. Begin by opening the Discover window:

  1. Select Tools > Discover from the menu bar or click the Discover button   in the toolbar. The Discover window opens.

    Deciding what type of discovery to use depends on your specific network configuration. Generally, if your network has all CDP-compliant devices that are configured with the same SNMP access parameters, the CDP Seed IP Discover is recommended. If your network has no CDP-compliant devices, or a mix of CDP and non-CDP-compliant devices, the IP Range Discover is recommended.

  2. Select the IP Range tab.

    At the top of the tab is a table where you specify the IP address ranges. Each row defines a single range. When you first open the tab, a default range is displayed based on the IP address of the Console workstation. You can edit this row to specify a different range and add new rows to specify additional discovery ranges.

  3. To add a new range, right-click on an existing row and select Insert Row. A copy of the selected row is added as a new row immediately above it. (Tabbing past the last row also adds a new row to the end of the table.)

    The position of a row determines the range's Precedence, as indicated in the second column. Precedence determines which parameters will be used if a device is in more than one range (the lower number yields higher precedence). For example, if a device is in two ranges -- one range with a precedence of 1 using an SNMPv3 profile, and the other range with a precedence of 2 using an SNMPv1 profile -- the device will be saved with the SNMPv3 profile because that range has the higher precedence.

  4. To edit a range, simply tab through the parameters and either enter a new value or use the drop-down list to select a value.
    1. Enabled - Select the checkbox to enable Discover for this IP address range. Only enabled ranges are searched when a discover operation is performed.
    2. Start IP - Enter the IP address at which the range should begin.
    3. End IP - Enter the IP address at which the range should end.
    4. Profile - Use the drop-down list to select the access Profile that will give the Discover tool read access to the devices you wish to discover. This list contains a default profile, all of the profiles that you've created and a Ping Only choice. Ping Only allows discovering devices, such as workstations and other devices that are not configured for SNMP. If Ping Only is selected, the Poll Type must be set to Ping. Click the Profile Details button to open the Authorization Configuration/Device Access Window - Profiles/Credentials Tab where you can create and edit Console profiles. If you discover an existing device using a different profile than the device is already using in the database, saving the device will overwrite the profile currently being used in the database.
    5. Poll Type - Use the drop-down list to select the Poll Type used to discover devices: SNMP, Ping or Not Polled. When SNMP is specified, the SNMP version (SNMPv1, SNMPv2, or SNMPv3) is determined by the Profile specified for the IP Range. If the Profile is set to Ping Only, the Poll Type must be set to Ping. If you discover an existing device using a different poll type than the device is already using in the database, saving the device will overwrite the poll type currently being used in the database.
       NOTE:On a Windows platform, device operational status cannot be determined for devices with their Poll Type set to Ping unless you are logged on and running Console as a user with Administrative privileges.
    6. Poll Group -- Use the drop-down list to select a Poll Group for the discovered devices. Console provides three distinct poll groups (defined in the Status Polling view of the Suite-wide Options window) that each specify a unique poll frequency. When you save newly discovered devices to the database, they will be polled with the poll group specified here. If you save discovered devices that already exist in the database, the poll group specified here will overwrite the poll group currently being used in the database.
       NOTE:If a Poll Type of "Not Polled" is specified, the Poll Group will only be used if/when the Poll Type is changed to SNMP or Ping.
    7. Vendor -- Use the drop-down list to specify whether you want to discover all devices or only Extreme devices.
  5. Click Discover to begin the discover operation. Discovered devices are listed in the Discovered Devices table. The progress of each range discover is displayed as a percentage in the corresponding Progress column.
     NOTE:When a Discover operation is initiated, all rows (including Disabled rows) are checked for validity. If any rows have invalid parameters, the Discover will not be performed. An error message will alert you to the invalid entry, which must be corrected or deleted before the Discover operation can be performed.

  6. After the discover is complete, click Save All to save all the discovered devices to the NetSight database, or select the desired devices in the Discovered Devices table and click Save to save those devices to the database. To remove a device from the table, select the device and click Remove.
     NOTE:If the IP Range includes broadcast addresses (.0, .255, .127, .128, depending on the subnet mask), the addresses may be discovered as "devices". To make the polling of devices in the Console tree as efficient as possible, these addresses should be removed and not saved to the database.
    It is recommended that you backup the NetSight database (File > Database > Backup) after you have saved your discovered devices.
  7. To delete an IP range, right-click on the table row and select Delete Row. You can select and delete multiple rows.
  TIP: Specify as narrow an IP address range as possible. The wider the range, the longer it will take to perform the discover. For example, if you are discovering IP addresses 111.111.111.20 through 30, and 111.111.111.240 through 250, it is faster to create two separate discovers for each range rather than performing one discover for 111.111.111.20 through 250.

Adding Devices Manually

You can manually add individual device models to the NetSight database:

  1. Click the right mouse button on the group to which you want to add a device and select Add Device from the right-click menu. The Add Device window opens, where you can define the IP address and Profile for the device being added.
  2. Type an IP Address.
  3. Use the Profile drop-down list to select one of the SNMP profiles that have been defined for device access. The Edit button lets you create a profile if one does not already exist.
  4. You can use the default nickname or click Specify to assign a unique nickname to this device. The default nickname for SNMP devices is the sysName MIB object, or if no sysName has been assigned, the device's IP address. The default nickname for pingable devices is the IP address.
  5. Click Apply. The new device appears in the group and is automatically added to the All Devices group.

Related Information

For information on related topics: