Automatic interface discovery

The SNMP Import Task is able to discover the network interfaces associated to each Host and prepare them to be monitored by WOCU-Monitoring. Furthermore, it is possible to refine this task by filtering by the type of interface discovered, through the definition of regular expressions that will allow to add the discovered interfaces that comply with this expression and exclude those that do not.

A case study for the configuration of automatic interface discovery in WOCU-Monitoring is described below:

1. Access the Configuration tool.

From the Basic WOCU configuration tool of a specific realm, you can configure automatic import tasks from different sources (snmp, cmdb, csv, nagios…).

Note

Remember this module will only be visible and accessible from standard Realms, i.e. it will be hidden for Realms based on Hosts Groups and Multirealm.

2. Create a new SNMP_Import task.

WOCU-Monitoring allows the user to create, configure and launch new tasks for the import of complete networks. To do this, click on the Add Task button located at the top right of the list.

This time we will create an import task: SNMP_Import task. Each of the different fields to be filled in for the task configuration are detailed below:

Important

For a detailed description of each configuration parameter, see the following link: SNMP_Import task.

Realm Name:

Non-editable field. Indicates the name of the Realm that is the subject of the import task.

Task Type:

Selector of the type of task to be generated. Select the SNMP_Import option in the drop-down menu as shown in the following screenshot. The choice you make will condition the rest of the fields.

Name:

Collects the name chosen by the user to identify the newly created task.

Enabled:

Checking this box enables and activates this new import task for its next execution. By default this option is enabled.

Interval:

By means of this drop-down it is possible to choose how often the Asset import of this new task will be executed. The possible options available are:

• Task executed daily (Every 1 days).

• Task executed every second (Every 1 second).

Instructions (grey background box):

This box provides instructions on the format CIDR used to enter the network(s), network(s), IP address(es), on which WOCU-Monitoring will perform the scan.

Networks list:

In this field the user shall enter the network, networks, IP address(es) where WOCU-Monitoring will perform the scan to import Assets.

Network addresses must be given in the format CIDR.

In summary:

• To add multiple networks, the networks must be entered separated by commas. Continuing with the example: 192.168.0.0/16, 192.168.11.0/24.

• It is also possible to enter one or more unique IP addresses, separated by commas. Example: 192.168.3.11, 192.168.3.14.

Use case

For this case the network range will be defined as 172.16.100.1/24.

SNMP Community

In this field you have to add the SNMP Community, which is a text string that is used as a password to access the Found Hosts and get the information to be imported into WOCU-Monitoring.

Use case

For this case the community will be added: public.

Scan active and pending assets

This option allows you to select whether the discovery via SNMP will also be applied to the assets already inventoried in WOCU-Monitoring and contained in its databases (either in Monitored Assets or in Pending Assets). By applying this option it is possible to enrich the information (in this case the network interfaces to be monitored and other attributes) that WOCU-Monitoring already has about the hosts.

Use case

For this case, this option shall be activated in order to keep the information of Hosts and Services already imported up to date.

Scan Timeout

This field sets the time in seconds that WOCU-Monitoring will stop SNMP interrogation of a Host if no response is found.

Use case

For this case, 2 seconds shall be defined.

Discover geographic coordinates

This option enables the discovery of the geographical coordinates of the Host, in order to represent the Host on your geomaps. Note that enabling this option will significantly increase the discovery time and also requires WOCU-Monitoring to have internet access in order to perform this task. For these reasons, the option is disabled by default.

Option Interfaces by name (Store _IFACES_BYNAME macro)

This option shall store the interfaces of discovered Hosts with the interface name set by the user on the Host itself and not with the Interface Index.

Poller tag

In distributed environments there are machines (Pollers) that take care of discovery tasks and execution of checks for the evaluation of operational states, applied on a set of receiving Hosts. By defining a tag in this field, it is configured which Poller will be responsible for the newly imported Hosts, i.e. it will be in charge of sending checks and discoveries to each Host in question.

A Host to monitor with a poller_tag defined, will only use the Pollers tagged with the same tag, and never other Pollers with a different tag or none at all. In conclusion, it is necessary that both parties (Host-Poller) share the same tag.

Note

The label construction will be carried out from the internal configuration of the machine/Poller itself.

Excluded networks list

In this field, enter the network(s), network(s), IP address(es), that you want to exclude from SNMP scanning.

Filter interfaces regexp

Field for filtering by type of discovered interface. To do this, a regular expression (regexp) shall be added, and the discovered interfaces that match and comply with this expression shall be added.

Important

• Such expressions shall be case insensitive to facilitate filtering.

• The fields to check against are the interface description (ifDescr) and the alias (ifAlias).

• The regular expression must be valid, otherwise the form itself will do the corresponding validation.

• A simple string or complex regular expressions can be used (see the python documentation for reference).

• This field is optional, i.e. it is possible to apply a regular expression, multiple or none at all. In this case, WOCU-Monitoring will return all active network interfaces detected on the set of defined Hosts.

• For filtering to be successful, it is necessary that the equipment administrator has set an appropriate description or alias for each interface).

Use case

For this case, the regular expression Giga|Fast will be defined. So only those interfaces containing the terms Giga or Fast in their alias or description will be returned.

Filter interfaces status

Field for filtering discovered interfaces according to their operational and management status.

Network interfaces can achieve the following management states:

1. Up: ready to transmit packets.

2. Down: no operational.

3. Testing: In test mode, packets cannot be transmitted.

And in the following operating statements, in addition to the management statements above:

1. Unknown: the status cannot be determined for some unknown reason.

2. Dormant: the interface is waiting for external actions.

3. Not Present: some component is not present, typically because of a hardware problem.

4. Lower Layer Down: not operational due to the state of another interface on which it depends.

Important

When applying the filter, the operation status takes precedence over the administration status as it is a more specific status.

Overwrite simple macros:

This option allows you to enable or disable the updating of the simple macros of the Assets. By default this option is enabled.

Overwrite complex macros:

This option allows you to enable or disable the updating of the complex macros of the Assets. By default this option is disabled.

Register as active

Enabling this option, the assets discovered via SNMP, will be imported directly to the list of Active Assets, i.e., the registration in Pending Assets will be omitted and they will go directly to monitoring.

Once you have entered the data in the corresponding fields, click on the blue “Add Tasks” button to save the new Task in the list.

Note

By placing the cursor on the information button (ℹ️), a new window will appear with help information on the different fields of the form. This action does not make any changes to the configuration.

Once the configuration is established, click on the blue button Add Tasks to make the new task effective. Immediately this new task will be available in the list with the rest of the created tasks.

3. Launching and executing the task.

Then, once the new task created in the global list has been located, it must be launched by means of the Run action (▶️).

Important

Remember that the frequency of automatic task execution is defined in the Interval field.

4. Host Management from Pending Assets to Active Assets

Once the task is completed, the discovered Hosts will first be provisionally listed in the Pending Assets list, being from that moment onwards integrated in the WOCU-Monitoring DB, but not yet monitored.

The imported Host or network of Hosts must then be sent to the Monitored Assets list to be included in the monitoring plant.

To do this, the following steps must be taken:

• Select the Host(s) to import from the list.

• Select the destination for sending Hosts: by checking the Monitorize option, the selected Hosts will be migrated to the list of Monitored Assets, and will be monitored by WOCU-Monitoring.

• Confirm the migration using the Apply option.

  

4. Make changes effective: WOCU-Check.

After the import task is finished, the changes will be consolidated through the execution of the Apply changes: WOCU Check action.

A dialogue box will immediately appear informing the user of the new asset configuration to be applied or of the abnormal operation in the system.

To make the changes, press the blue Restart WOCU button.

5. Automatic assignment of packs.

After the restart of WOCU-Monitoring, the new Hosts in Monitored Assets will start to be subject to the monitoring tasks of the tool.

In order to load Network Hosts as automatically and completely as possible, during the import, WOCU-Monitoring assigns the corresponding packs to each discovered Host, based on the obtained properties, such as operating system and open ports.

Note

Although these settings are automatically assigned, the user can make adjustments and other custom settings.

From the global panel where all the assets that WOCU-Monitoring is already monitoring are listed, we can observe the assigned packs by means of the labels shown in the Uses column, which correspond to monitoring packs.

For example, in the previous image you can see how the Wocu-ci Host has the packs assigned to it:

• tcp-generic: generic pack that monitors the open ports of each machine.

• linux-SNMP: this pack makes it possible to obtain values such as network connections, CPU consumption, RAM memory, etc., of a given Linux machine, via SNMP protocol.

• networkhost-traffic: pack to check the traffic carried by a group of interfaces of the same host.

Use the Packs action in the Hosts list and access the set of packs applied and custom configured for each of them.

6. Automatic interface discovery

We can access the pack’s own configuration, by means of the Apply changes: WOCU Check action present in the global list of packs.

Recall that in the configuration of the launched SNMP import task, it was filtered to discover only interfaces that match and comply with the defined regular expression: Giga|Fast. Therefore, only those interfaces containing Giga or Fast in their alias or description have been discovered by WOCU-Monitoring.

Continuing with the previous example, in the Complex macros section of the networkhost-traffic pack, the values returned are the configuration of the only interface that complies with the filtering rule, since the alias Intel_Corporation_82540EM_Gigabit_Ethernet_Controller, contains the term Giga.

Note

WOCU-Monitoring streamlines and optimises the management and processing of large-scale infrastructures by assigning packs and discovering interfaces automatically and without operator intervention.

However, by means of the Discover functionality of the _IFACEs macro, the system shall rediscover all Host interfaces without any restriction, and independently of those discovered during the asset import.

As can be seen in the following image, the system will return as a result a list with the discovered interfaces, both those previously detected during the import (identified in yellow), and those recently detected after the Discover action (identified in green).

Each of the interfaces has the following options for management:

✔:️ to add the interface to the pack configuration.

✖️: to remove the interface from the pack configuration.

To save these new or updated configuration variables, click on the Apply configuration button. Then, to consolidate these changes in the Import tool, it is necessary to execute the action of Apply changes: WOCU Check.