Setting Up and Managing the Topology View

Viewing the Network Topology

Topology View enables you to view all the discovered devices in your network, overlaid on a map. You can create sites, buildings, floors, outdoor areas, closets, and racks by using the Location wizard in the topology view. You can use the topology view to zoom in or zoom out of a site or a building. You can also see the connectivity between a device and its immediate neighbors, alarms details, port details, and so on. An example of how the topology map looks like after you have added the location details is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Main Topology Window

The topology display is created by layering the device images on top of the imported floor plan images.

After you access the topology view from View pane, you can select your location on the map by using one of the following methods:

• Optical Zoom: You can zoom in or zoom out to get a detailed or high-level view.
• Pan: Network Director enables you to pan the topology and allows you to move the devices to different parts on the topology by holding the mouse button down and dragging to a specific part of the map.

  Network Director displays the sites, buildings, and geographical coordinates on the topology map based on the address specified while setting up the locations. However, you can move the devices around to another location by selecting, dragging, and dropping the device to the correct location. For example, you can move a site from a US site to a Bangalore site on the topology using the pan feature. This helps to determine the correct location of a site because while setting up the location details, it is not mandatory to provide the address information.

• Search and Locate: You can search for all nodes such as sites, building, floors, specific devices, all devices in a floor, and so on by entering a search keyword or the complete name of the device in the Search field. On entering the search criteria, you might see the list of nodes or just one node based on the search criteria. When you select the node, Network Director locates the node and the topology view is panned to ensure the selected node is centered on the page. In cases where a device is at the edge of the map the corner is aligned accordingly to bring device in view.
• Mouse Hover on a Device: If you mouse over a device, the device gets highlighted and Network Director displays the IP address and the fault alarm details.
• Highlight and select Show Device Connectivity: Select a device and click Show Device Connectivity to highlight the device’s connectivity with other devices. The device images are displayed along with details such as name, IP address, and the connectivity link between the devices.
• Use the navigation breadcrumbs at the top of the page to navigate through sites, buildings, floors, closets, or aisles.

Refreshing the Device Discovery

You can refresh the devices discovered and managed by Network Director from the Tasks pane in the Topology View. You can add the Refresh Discovery task to the Key tasks in the topology view if you would use this task frequently.

1. Click Refresh Discovery from Key Tasks or Topology task.

   The Refresh Discovery pop-up window is displayed along with the SNMP details specified that you specified while specifying the discovery options in the Device Discovery task page.

   If you have not specified the SNMP details while discovering the devices, proceed to Step 3.

2. Select the SNMP version from the SNMP version table and click Discover. The Refresh Topology window is displayed along with the details.
3. If SNMP version details are not displayed in the SNMP version table, click Add on the Refresh Discovery pop-up window.

   The Add SNMP Settings dialog box is displayed.

   Select either SNMP V1/V2C or SNMP V3. Based on the selection, you need to enter the details as follows:

   • If you selected SNMP V1/V2C, specify a community string, which can be public, private, or a predefined string.

     Click Add in the Add SNMP Settings dialog box or click Add More to add more strings to the community. If you click Add More, when you are done adding all the strings, click Add to save the SNMP settings for V1/V2C.

   • If you selected SNMP V3, specify the following:
     • Enter a username
     • Select the privacy type (AES 128, DES, or None).
     • Enter the privacy password (if AES 128 or DES). If you specify none for the privacy type, the privacy function is disabled.
     • Select the authentication type (MD5, SHA, or none).
     • Enter the authentication password (if MD5 or SHA). If you specify none for the authentication type, the authentication function is disabled.
     • Click Add to save the SNMP settings and close the dialog box, or click Add More to add additional configurations. If you clicked Add More, click Add to save the settings and close the dialog box.

     The specified details are displayed in the SNMP version table.

4. Click Discover. The Refresh Topology window is displayed along with the details.

Viewing Topology

The Refresh Topology pop-up window displays the refresh device discovery job details as described in the Table 1.

Use the right and left arrows to navigate through the discovered pages. You can specify the details to be displayed in a page by selecting the show items list box and specifying the number of items to be displayed in one page.

Click Close to close the Refresh Topology page and return to the main Topology page.

Viewing Topology Discovery Job

To view the discovery jobs in the topology view, click View Topology Discovery Job. The Topology Discovery Jobs window opens displaying details of the topology related jobs as described in Table 2. To view any hidden column, keep the mouse on the column heading, select the down arrow, and then click Columns. Select the check box to display the hidden columns.

To view the details of a topology discovery job, select a row and click Show Details. To cancel a scheduled job, select a job that is scheduled for a later time or a job that is in progress and click Cancel.

Setting Up the Location View

To set up the location view, see Setting Up the Location View.

Viewing the Alarm Details

You can view the alarm details at site, building, floor, closet, aisle and rack levels. Based on the location node, the alarms are aggregated and displayed. That is, all the alarms for a particular building is aggregated and displayed at the building level. The alarms are indicated by red, orange, yellow, and blue balls indicating critical, major, minor, and info alarms. To view the Alarm details for a device, navigate down to the device level, select a device, and click one of the following options from Alarm in the Tasks pane:

• Show Alarms By Severity, see Alarms by Severity Monitor
• Show Alarms By Category, see Alarms by Category Monitor
• Show Alarms By State, see Alarms by State Monitor
• Show Current Active Alarms, see Current Active Alarms Monitor

Displaying Device Connectivity

At the device level, you can view the connectivity details of a device and the details of all the devices that are connected to the specified device by using the Topology View in Network Director. It also displays the connection details of assigned and unassigned devices located in different floors and buildings that are connected to the specified device.

1. In the Topology View, navigate to a device in a building, floor, outdoor area, closet or rack and select the device for which you want to view the connectivity details.

   The Show Device Connectivity task is displayed in Topology in the Tasks pane.

   Note: The Show Device Connectivity task is available only after you select a device.

2. Click the device. The selected device is highlighted by a green colored rectangle.
3. Click Show Device Connectivity from Topology under the Tasks pane. You can view the device connectivity details either in a graphical view or in a grid view. The default view is in graphical form.

   The device is displayed at the center of the page and its network connectivity to all the connected devices are displayed as in Figure 2 in the graphical view. Mouse over on a device to view the port details of the highlighted device. Figure 3 represents the network connectivity in grid view.

   Figure 2: Displaying the Connection Details for an EX4200 Switch in Graphical View

   

   Figure 3: Displaying the Connection Details for an EX4200 Switch in Grid View

   

   If the selected device is connected to more than sixty devices, then all the connected devices are highlighted in a circular form or a grid form. If the selected device is connected to less than 60 devices, then the links between the interconnected devices are displayed.

   The device images are displayed along with details such as name, IP address, and alarm state information in colored labels that provide health and reachability information.

   The following details are displayed for each device, if the details are configured on the device:

   • Name: The name of the device provided while configuring the device. The device name is displayed as a label.
   • IP: The IP address of the device.
   • Family: The family or platform to which the device belongs to. It can be an EX Series switch, QFX Series Switch, Wireless LAN Controller, and access point.
   • Serial Number: Physical address or MAC address of the device for switches and controllers.
   • Alarms: The alarm details displaying the number of critical, major, minor alarms, or info for the device.
4. Click Show Grid View to view the device connectivity details in a tabular format as displayed in Figure 3.

   The following details are displayed in the table:

   • Source Node Name: Name of the device specified at the time of configuring the device.
   • Source Port: source port of the device.
   • Destination Node Name: Name of the device or devices the device is connected to.
   • Destination port: The port number on the destination device to which the source device is connected to.

   You can sort the details in the table in the ascending order or descending order for each column. You can also use filters to display only the desired device connectivity details.

Displaying QFabric Connectivity

You can view the QFabric devices available in your network by navigating to the rack, closet, or floors from the Topology View. Alternatively, you can search for the QFabric devices by entering a search criteria in the Search field. You can also assign the QFabric devices to a rack, closet, or floor from the topology view.

You can view the connection details of the QFabric Interconnects with the nodes by using the Topology View.

1. In the Topology View, navigate to the floor, rack, or closet level from Site and Building.
2. Click the device for which you want to view the connectivity details. The selected device is highlighted by a green colored rectangle.

   The Show QFabric Connectivity task is displayed under Topology menu in Tasks pane.

   Note: The Show QFabric Connectivity task is available only after you select a device.

3. Click Show QFabric Connectivity from Topology under the Tasks pane. You can view the QFabric connectivity details either in a graphical view.

   The QFabric Interconnect is displayed at the center of the page and its network connectivity to all the connected nodes are displayed as in Figure 4. Hover the mouse on a device to view the port details of the highlighted device.

   Figure 4: Displaying the Connection Details for a QFabric Switch in Graphical View

   

   In the Figure 4, the connection details are represented by green, yellow, and red lines.

   • The green line indicates that the node is connected to all the Interconnects properly and all functions are normal.
   • The yellow line indicates that the node is only partially connected to the Interconnect. That is, the node may be connected to one Interconnect, but not all the Interconnects.
   • The red line indicates that the node is not connected to any of the interconnects.

   The following details are displayed for each device, if the details are configured on the device:

   • Name of the device provided while configuring the device. The device name is displayed as a label.
   • Platform of the device. It can be QFX3500 or QFX3600 switches.
   • Node group name. The name of the node group to which this device belongs to.
   • Node group type. The server name of the node group to which this device belongs to.
   • Source Port: source port of the device.
   • Destination port: The port number on the destination device to which the source device is connected to.

Uploading Floor Plans

You can upload the floor plan from the Topology View if you already have a floor plan for a specified building in a site.

1. Select a Site > Building > Floor. Alternatively, create a site, building, and floor. Click the Upload Floor Plan task from the Location task in the Tasks pane.

   The Upload Floor Plan dialog box is displayed.

2. Click Browse next to Image File to choose a floor plan file.
3. Navigate to the folder where you have saved the floor plan on your system and click Open.
4. Click Upload to upload the floor plan image.
5. Click Cancel if you do not want to upload the floor plan and quit the Upload Floor Plan dialog box.

Uploading Topology Map

You can upload a topology map for an outdoor area from the Topology View.

1. Select a Site > Outdoor area. Alternatively, create an outdoor area within a site. Click the Upload map task from the Location task in the Tasks pane.

   The Upload Map dialog box is displayed.

2. Click Browse next to Image File to choose a map file.
3. Navigate to the folder where you have saved the topology map for an outdoor area on your system and click Open.
4. Click Upload to upload the topology map image.
5. Click Cancel if you do not want to upload the map and quit the Upload Map dialog box.