Discover multiple network devices (SNMP) - BlueCat Integrity - 26.1.0

Address Manager Administration Guide
ft:locale
en-US
Product name
BlueCat Integrity
Version
26.1.0
Use the following procedure to create an SNMP discovery policy:
Note: If the same discovery policy applies to multiple discovery tasks, you can create the policy once, and reuse it.
  1. Select the Policies tab.
  2. Select New Policy > SNMP.
  3. In the Create SNMP discovery policy window that appears, set the following parameters under General settings:
    Note: Parameters marked with an asterisk (*) in the UI are mandatory.
    • Name—enter a unique name for the policy. This name is used only for identification within Network Discovery and in discovery tasks.
    • Seed devices—enter the IP address of the first device (starting point) that Network Discovery must use to collect network data, then select the add (+) icon. You can repeat this process to add additional IP addresses. Discovery starts from these IP addresses.
      Tip: Choose at least one device per major subnet.
  4. Under SNMP settings, set the following parameters:
    • Enable SNMPv1, Enable SNMPv2c, and Enable SNMPv3—select one or more checkboxes to specify the SNMP versions enabled on the device. Once you select the SNMP versions, you must select one or more SNMP credentials for the selected versions from the field that appears. When running a discovery task, Network Discovery will iterate through each set of credentials configured in the discovery policy until it can find the one that works for each device.
      Note: You must select at least one SNMP version.
    • Select from saved SNMP credentials—from the drop-down list, select SNMP credentials (previously created in the Credentials page) matching the SNMP version you selected. Then select the add (+) icon. You can repeat this process to add additional credentials.
      Note: You must select at least one SNMP credential matching the SNMP version you selected.
    • Include subnets—enter the IP address of the subnet to be included in the network boundary for discovery, then select the add (+) icon. For example: 192.0.2.0/24.

      You can repeat this process to add additional subnets.

    • Exclude subnets—enter the IP address of the subnet to be excluded from discovery, then select the add (+) icon. You can repeat this process to add additional subnets.
    • Enable ping—this checkbox is enabled by default. When ping is enabled, the probe performs reachability checks on devices during discovery.
    • Hops—select one of the following options to define how many network hops the probe is allowed to traverse from each seed device during SNMP discovery:
      • None—to allow the probe to collect data only from the seed device without expanding discovery to neighboring devices.
      • Unlimited—to allow the probe to collect data from all reachable devices, continuing recursively through the network. This is the default option.
      • Customized—to allow the probe to collect data from a limited number of devices. The number is based on the hop limit you specify in the input field that appears when you select this option.
      Tip: Discovery is more controlled when the maximum number of network hops allowed is lower.
  5. Under Advanced settings, set the following parameters:
    • Enable DNS lookup—this checkbox is selected by default. When DNS lookup is enabled, the probe performs reverse DNS resolution of the discovered IP addresses to obtain their domain names.
    • DNS servers—enter the IP address of the DNS server the probe must use when performing DNS lookups during discovery, then select the add (+)icon. You can repeat this process to add additional IP addresses.
    • Additional settings—optionally, you can add the following additional settings that are not directly supported by Network Discovery & Visibility.
      Attention: There's no validation (no error checking and data checking) supported for these settings. It is essential that you enter data with the correct syntax. If you set incorrect or unsupported parameters or values, Network Discovery & Visibility ignores the invalid entries.
      Parameter Default Value Description
      IPDSNMPTimeout 500 Specify the number of milliseconds (ms) the discovery probe must wait for a response from a device after sending an SNMP request. If no response is received within this time, the request is aborted or retried (if retry is configured).
      IPDSNMPRetries 2 Specify the number of times the discovery probe must poll a device when it does not receive a response.
      IPDExpandUsingConnectivity TRUE
      • When set to TRUE (default), discovery expands by using individual addresses found in various protocol tables in network devices. If the maximum number of hops (that is, the Hops parameter under SNMP settings) is 0, the probe collects data only from the seed device without expanding discovery to neighboring devices (equivalent to selecting the None option for the number of hops).
      • When set to FALSE, connectivity information is not used for discovery.
      IPDExpandUsingSubnets TRUE
      • When set to TRUE (default), discovery expands to the subnets derived from IP addresses found in the router IP address tables.
      • When set to FALSE, discovery is limited to the seed device and known IP addresses and does not expand to additional subnets derived from routing table data.
      IPDExpandToV6Addresses FALSE
      • When set to FALSE (default), discovery is limited to IPv4 addresses only.
      • When set to TRUE, discovery includes IPv6 addresses.
      IPDExpandToARPAddresses TRUE
      • When set to TRUE (default), the router's ARP table is used to discover additional devices on the network.
      • When set to FALSE, discovery ignores ARP entries.
      IPDUseISISToExpand TRUE
      • When set to TRUE (default), a reachable IS-IS Address table is used to expand discovery.
      • When set to FALSE, IS-IS information is not used for discovery.
      IPDRoutingTableDelay 0 Specify a delay in milliseconds (ms) between requests or updates to ensure that the router is not overwhelmed when downloading or processing large routing tables. A delay will increase the discovery time.

      Setting this value to 0 (default) indicates that there is no intentional delay between requests or updates.

      IPDMinExpandMask 255.255.0.0 Discovery will not expand to any subnets with a mask of the specified size and masks lesser than the specified size. This parameter helps avoid discovering subnets with incorrect masks or masks representing class A or class B networks, whose discovery is time consuming and not useful.
      IPDFQDNEnable FALSE
      • When set to FALSE (default), hostnames (FQDNs) listed in the host files will not be resolved into IP addresses via DNS lookups and only discovered IP addresses will be used.
      • When set to TRUE, hostnames listed in the host files will be resolved into their corresponding IP addresses.
      IPDSNMPDelay 0 Specify the maximum number of SNMP requests (in milliseconds) to be placed on the network per second. Setting the value to 0 indicates that no SNMP delay is configured.
      IPDPingTimeout 500 Specify the number of milliseconds (ms) the discovery probe must wait for a response from a device after sending a ping request.
      IPDPingRetries 2 Specify the number of times the discovery probe must ping a device when it does not receive a response.
      IPDDiscoveryTimeout 0 Specify a timeout value (in minutes) for discovery. Setting this value to 0 indicates that discovery never times out.
      IPDDNSThreshold 1000 Specify the number of milliseconds (ms) the discovery probe must wait for a response from the DNS server when resolving hostnames to IP addresses. If the DNS server does not respond within this specified threshold time, Network Discovery skips that lookup.

      After N consecutive DNS lookups (where N is the value of IPDDNSThresholdViolations) take longer than the threshold set here, DNS lookups will be disabled permanently.

      A threshold of 0 means that DNS lookups will always be performed, if enabled.
      IPDDNSThresholdViolations 3 Specify the number of times the threshold can be violated consecutively, after which DNS lookups will be disabled permanently.

      For example, if the threshold is 1000 milliseconds and this counter is set to 3, three consecutive DNS lookups must take longer than 1 second in order for the DNS lookups to be disabled.
      IPDDNSLookupAll FALSE
      • When set to FALSE (default), DNS lookup is attempted only on the discovery IP addresses.
      • When set to TRUE, all IP addresses in the node will be looked up until the one that successfully resolves to a DNS name is found. This is useful in cases where devices or routers have multiple IP addresses, and the discovery IP addresses may not have a DNS name associated.
      Note: Loopback address (127.0.0.1) is ignored during DNS lookups.
      IPDDNSLookupSysName FALSE
      • When set to FALSE (default), device system names (sysName) are not resolved.
      • When set to TRUE, device system names are looked up first. If an address is returned, then the address and sysName are reported in the DNS attributes with an unknown domain., and no further lookups will be performed. This is useful in cases where routers have multiple IP addresses associated.
      IPDExistingNetworks Not applicable Specify a comma-separated list of known IPv6 addresses in CIDR notation if you want IPv6 networks and their hosts to be included in the discovery output.

      For example: FD00:0096:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/64,FC00:0163:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/64

      This is useful because SNMP devices do not expose subnet mask information for IPv6 interfaces (unlike IPv4); therefore, the system cannot automatically determine the IPv6 network to which an address belongs.

      If specified, the system will create a network block for each entry and populate it with any discovered IPv6 addresses (either from the device's neighbor table or from its own interface addresses within that network).

      If not specified, IPv6 networks and their hosts will not appear in the discovery output for SNMP devices.
  6. Select Create to create the discovery policy and return to the Policies table, which will now display the policy you created.