Setting Up User and System Preferences

Accessing the Preferences Page

To open the Preferences page, click in the Network Director banner and select Preferences as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Accessing the Preferences Page

The Preferences page opens with User Preferences as the default tab.

Choosing Server Time or Local Time

All users can specify whether Network Director displays local time or the server’s time in monitors and reports on the User Preferences tab. The default setting is to display local time. To change the setting to display the server’s time:

1. In the Preferences page, select Use Server Time from the list.
2. Click OK to save your changes or click Cancel to close Preferences.

Specifying Search Preferences

Network Director indexes the device inventory data periodically to enable users to perform efficient searches. You can specify a time interval after which Network Director initiates the next indexing on the Search tab. You can also specify to stop indexing while devices are imported into Network Director. If you are running short of system memory, selecting this option helps save some memory and speed up the discovery and import of new devices. By default, this option is selected and the search index update interval is set to 900 seconds.

Enabling Import of Configuration Group Data from Ethernet Design

For Network Director to be able to import configuration group data.

1. In the Preferences window, select the Config & Deploy tab.
2. Select the Enable migration from Ethernet Design check box to enable import of configuration group data. By default this check box is not selected.
3. Click Save to save and close the preferences.

   For detailed steps on importing configuration group data from Ethernet Design, see Importing Configuration Data from Junos OS Configuration Groups.

Selecting the Approval Mode

1. Select the Manual Approval mode if you want an approver to review and approve the changes before they are deployed.

   By default, Auto Approval mode is selected. Use this mode if you want to deploy the configuration changes without a prior approval.

2. If you select the Manual Approval mode, add one or more approvers’ e-mail addresses to notify the approvers every time a change request is submitted.
3. Specify the rollback limit, which is the number of change requests that can be rolled back.

   The default value is 50. You can roll back a maximum of 1000 change requests.

4. Specify the time after which a change request elapses after the time it was created.

   The minimum and maximum number of days that you can specify after which a change request elapses is 1 day and 365 days respectively. The change requests are highlighted in the following colors that indicate their overdue status.

   • Red color—Indicates that the change request is in overdue status.

   • Orange color—Indicates that the change request is due in less than 2 days.

   • Green color—Indicates that the change request is not yet due.

5. Click OK to save the changes.

Setting up Auto-resynchronization Preferences

If you enable auto-resynchronization in Network Director, any configuration changes made on the physical device, including out-of-band CLI commits and change-request updates, automatically trigger resychronization on the device.

1. Select the Config & Deploy tab in the Preferences window.
2. Select the option Purge unassigned system profiles after resynchronizing configuration, which removes unassigned profiles generated by Network Director after resynchronization or deletion of a device.Note

   While upgrading Network Director, the profiles that are in unassigned state are not removed even if you select this option.

3. Specify the time interval in Auto Resync TriggerWait Interval(sec). Network Director waits for this time interval before triggering auto-resynchronization.

   The default time interval is 120 seconds.

4. Click OK.

Retaining Network Director Reports

By default, Network Director retains reports for 30 days. However, Network Administrators can change the retention period within the range 0 through 365 days. To change the setting, move the slider right or left on the Report tab of Preferences to the new setting. Click OK to save the setting.

Changing Monitor Mode Settings

• Disabling Data Collection for Monitors

• Changing the Polling Interval

• Enabling and Disabling Collection for Managed Devices

• Specifying Database History Retention

• Specifying the Data Learning Engine (DLE) Settings

Disabling Data Collection for Monitors

Network Director internally gathers data for monitors by using a set of data collection processes. You can disable these data collectors if they do not pertain to your installation. For example, if you do not use Virtual Chassis, you can disable the data collection processes used for Virtual Chassis.

The data collection processes are divided into the following categories:

• Client

• Equipment

• FM

• Traffic

• Virtual

1. Determine which monitors are used by the data collectors. Use Table 1 to determine the relationship between the data collectors and the monitors.

   Table 1: Monitor Mapping for Data Collectors

   Monitor	Data Collector	Category
   Current Sessions	Client Monitor Collector and SessionCountCollector	Client
   Error Trend	PortTrafficMonitorCollector	Traffic
   Logical Interfaces	EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Find End Point	EquipmentMonitorEndPointCollector	Equipment
   Port Status (physical)	EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Resource Utilization	EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Session Trend	ClientMonitorCollector and SessionCountCollector	Client
   Switch Status	EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Traffic Trend	PortTrafficMonitorCollector	Traffic
   Top Sessions by MAC Address	ClientMonitorCollector	Client
   Top Users	ClientMonitorCollector	Client
   Unicast vs Broadcast/Multicast	PortTrafficMonitorCollector	Traffic
   Unicast vs Broadcast/Multicast Trend	PortTrafficMonitorCollector	Traffic
   Virtual Chassis Topology	EquipmentMonitorVCStatsCollector and EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Virtual Chassis Protocol	EquipmentMonitorVCStatsCollector and EquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment
   Virtual Chassis Statistics	EquipmentMonitorVCStatsCollector and EEquipmentMonitorDeviceStatusCollector	Equipment

2. Clear the check box to disable the collector or select to enable the collector.
3. Click Save and Close to save the configuration and to close the window.

Changing the Polling Interval

The frequency at which data is collected is determined by the polling interval. Table 2 shows the default polling intervals used by each data collector.

1. Select the polling interval for a data collector in the Monitor Settings table.
2. Type the new interval level in whole minutes. For example, do not specify 1.5 minutes. Recommended intervals are 5, 10, or 20 minutes.
3. Click OK and then Yes to verify the change to the configuration.

Enabling and Disabling Collection for Managed Devices

By default all the devices that are discovered and managed by Network Director are enabled for data collection. You can disable or re-enable data collectors across all categories for devices that are managed by Network Director from this tab.

1. Open the Device Settings sub-tab in the Monitor tab.

   All the devices that are managed by Network Director is displayed in the Device Settings section. The last column of the device table indicates the status of data collection as Enabled or Disabled.

2. Select the devices for which you want to enable or disable data collection and do one of the following:

   • Click Enable to enable data collection for the selected devices.

   • Click Disable to disable data collection for the selected devices.

Specifying Database History Retention

To keep the database manageable, the system periodically checks the age of the records and retires those that have past an expiration date. By default, Network Director ages database records off at 90 days and runs a database cleanup every 6 hours.

1. Select from the lists new values.

   • Age of history records (in days) from 1 to 365 days.

   • Cleanup job frequency (in hours) from 1 through 24 hours.

2. Click OK to save the changes.

Specifying the Data Learning Engine (DLE) Settings

The Data Learning Engine (DLE) is the component of Cloud Analytics Engine that enables Network Director to collect and analyze high-frequency statistics data from devices and to perform flow path analysis. For Network Director to use Cloud Analytics Engine, you must specify on what server or servers the Data Learning Engine (DLE) is running.

Each DLE supports up to a specific number of Compute Agents (CAs) running on network devices. If you have more CAs in a network than a single DLE can support, you might require multiple DLEs.

1. Log in to Network Director.
2. Select Preferences from the list next to the System button in the Network Director banner.

   The Preferences page is displayed.

3. Select the Monitoring tab and then select Data Learning Engine Settings.
4. In the DLE IP Address field, enter the IP address of the DLE server. Note

   Before you configure DLE in Network Director, make sure that there are no errors in the monitor.log file. The log file is stored in the /var/log/jboss/server/server1 directory.

5. If you want to change the ports used by the DLE, click View/Edit DLE Ports to edit the ports and then click OK.Note

   If you change the default DLE ports (8282, 8081, and 50006), you must ensure that the new ports are open between DLE and Junos Space Network Management Platform or Network Director.
   
   You can use the netstat -anp | grep port-number command to verify that the new ports are open (in listening mode) between DLE and Junos Space Network Management Platform or Network Director.

   Table 3 describes the default DLE ports.

   Table 3: Default DLE Port Descriptions

   Port	Description
   Flow Analysis API Port	Used by the flow path analysis feature and network traffic analysis feature to communicate with the DLE. Default value is 8282.
   HFS API Port	Used by the high-frequency statistics feature to communicate with the DLE. Default value is 8081.
   HFS Control Channel Port	Used by the high-frequency statistic feature for communication about threshold-related events with the DLE. Default value is 50006.

6. Click OK to save the DLE settings.

   The message Preferences saved successfully is displayed.

   Note

   After you configure the DLE settings, check whether the DLE connection state is UP in the DLE settings page.

7. Click Add Another to add a new DLE server.

Changing Alarm Settings

• Configuring Global Alarm Notifications

• Retaining Alarm History

• Specifying Event History

• Enabling Alarms

• Changing the Severity of Individual Alarms

• Configuring Threshold Alarms

• Configuring Individual Alarm Notifications

Configuring Global Alarm Notifications

You can configure global e-mail notifications to be sent when any alarm with notifications enabled is generated. To configure global e-mail notifications, enter the e-mail addresses to receive global alarm notifications in the Alarm Notifications Destinations field in the Global Settings section. Separate addresses with a comma (,). For information about enabling notification for an alarm, see Configuring Individual Alarm Notifications.

Retaining Alarm History

Use the No. of days to keep Alarm field in the Global Settings section to specify the number of days to keep alarm history. The default retention time is 120 days; but you can specify a period of 7 through 1000 days. Specifying a longer retention time consumes more database resources. To change the alarm retention duration, type a new value and click OK and Yes to confirm the change.

Specifying Event History

Use the Events/Alarm field in the Global Settings section to specify the number of event entries that are kept in the alarm history. The default setting for events is 20. To change the setting, type a new value and click OK and Yes to confirm the change.

Enabling Alarms

1. (Optional) Sort the alarms. By default, the list of alarms is sorted alphabetically within each category. You can also sort by description or alarm severity within a category by clicking a column heading.
2. Review the alarms and either select the check box in the heading to select all of the alarms or select the check box for the individual alarms you want to enable. For a full description of each of the alarms, see Table 4.
3. Click OK and Yes to confirm the alarm change.

Changing the Severity of Individual Alarms

You can change the severity of the alarms to match your corporate procedures and guidelines. For example, at your company a DoS attack might be considered a critical alarm, while Network Director has a default severity for DoS attacks as a major alarm. Alarms appear on both tabs in the Individual Alarms and Threshold Settings section: Alarm Settings and Threshold Settings.

1. Select the current severity in the Severity column. A list of the severity levels appear.
2. Select the new severity level for the alarm.
3. Click OK and Yes to confirm the change to the severity setting.

   To configure alarm notifications, see Configuring Individual Alarm Notifications.

Configuring Threshold Alarms

Threshold alarms are alarms that are generated when a monitored value crosses the configured threshold. They provide enhanced visibility into potential issues on the network. You configure and manage threshold alarms the same way as other alarms. You also have the option of setting the threshold level of individual threshold alarms.

1. Select the Threshold Settings tab in the Individual Alarms and Threshold settings section of the Fault tab.
2. Click Edit Settings in the Threshold Settings column of the alarm threshold you want to edit.
3. Set the threshold in the window that opens.
4. Click Save to save the new threshold.

   To configure alarm notifications, see Configuring Individual Alarm Notifications.

Configuring Individual Alarm Notifications

You can configure e-mail notifications to be sent when an individual alarm is generated. When you enable notification for an alarm, the notifications are sent to the e-mail addresses configured for the alarm and the addresses configured for global alarm notifications. Alarms appear on both tabs in the Individual Alarms and Threshold Settings section: Alarm Settings and Threshold Settings.

1. Select the check box in the alarm’s Notification column.

   If you later want to disable notification for the alarm, clear the check box.

2. Click Edit Notification in the Notification column. The Alarm Notification Details window opens.
3. Type one or more e-mail addresses in the Notification Email Addresses box. Separate addresses with a comma (,).

   You can later edit the addresses to send notifications to different addresses.

4. (Optional) Type a comment in the Comments box. This comment is included in the e-mail notification message.
5. Click Save.

Modifying Data Center Synchronization Interval Using the Virtualization Tab

You can configure and manage data centers by using the Data Center View in Network Director. Network Director synchronizes data from the cloud infrastructure that is part of your data center every 24 hours. However, depending on the size of your data center network, you can modify this interval from the Virtualization tab in the Preferences page. Modify the interval by changing the Periodic Cloud Infrastructure Synchronization Interval (hours) field.

For data centers that use OpenStack as the cloud infrastructure provider, Network Director displays the links between hypervisors and switches only in the Data Center View. If you want to view the link details using the View Virtual Network Connectivity task, then you must select the Synchronize links from Topology to Virtualization application for OpenStack check box.