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Autodiscovery
The autodiscovery task is a powerful and easy method for discovering the baseline network topology. This automatic network discovery process is based on the MPLS, OSPF, and ISIS protocols. Since each router in these networks contains the entire topology database for the MPLS-enabled network, an OSPF area or an ISIS area, retrieving the topology database from a single router first will therefore discover the remaining routers within the network.
In the autodiscovery process, a complete router profile is also constructed assuming that the login, passwords, etc. are identical for all routers. If some routers in the network have different logins and passwords, then the auto-discovery mechanism will not work. In this case, the user needs to supply these other logins and passwords manually.
Figure 22: Task Parameters Window
Table 15: Autodiscovery Task Parameters
Task Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
Collection Directory | This is the target directory where the CLI Collection data will be stored using relative path name only. The path can be specified directly in the text |
Router Profiles | This drop-down menu selects a profile that was previously created in the Router Profiles window. Once a router profile is selected, the table on the left will be populated with all routers from the profile. Select which routers to include in the data collection by selecting routers from the left table and clicking the Add button to move them to the right table. |
Data Collector Instruction - Access Method | This indicates whether the collection will use Telnet or SSH to access the routers. Options include telnet only, ssh only, telnet first and ssh if it fails, ssh first and telnet if it fails, or the setting given in the router profile. |
Archive Old Data | This allows IP/MPLSView to archive data that was collected in a previous session. |
Incremental Updating | Updates the data collected on an incremental basis. |
Update Live Network | If this option is not selected, a router profile will be created with the discovered devices, but will not be collected. If this option is selected, the discovered devices will be collected to update the live network. |
Merge with existing IP/MPLSView files | Reuses existing muxloc, nodeparam, and vpn files to construct the network files. |
Autodiscovery Protocol | Autodiscover the network topology using the OSPF, ISIS, or MPLS protocol. |
Table 16: Data Collector Parameters
Data Collector Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
No. of retries | The number of times that a collector should attempt to collect data from a router before “giving up”. |
No. of processes | The number of processes (similar to threads) that are launched to collect the data. |
Time Out (seconds) | The number of seconds the collector should wait on a router before “giving up” on this try and either retry (depending on the No. of retries), or proceed to collecting the next router. |
Turn on trace | Collection errors are logged in |
The Data Collector Parameter options allow you to tweak data collector parameters to improve the efficiency and speed of the collection. For example, suppose your Time Out is set to 300 seconds (or five minutes), and the data collection has launched four separate processes, or collectors, to collect network data. Suppose each of your four collectors encounter some bottleneck in your network and have trouble retrieving network data from four respective routers. In this case, your collection will be stalled for up to five minutes, waiting for a response. If this happens, you may wish to reduce the Time Out period (to drop those far away or problematic routers more quickly) or increase the No. of processes. Once the collection has finished, you can then check up on those problematic routers separately.
