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Import via Sonar Network Discovery

Hoping someone may have already come across this....

I've recently taken over a network and SolarWinds NMS with 500+ nodes. We are currently using NPMv10, NCM, NTA, and APM. All of the current nodes were entered manually as the network grew and they expect the company to double in size over the next 2 years. I would like to begin using Sonar Network Discovery to find new nodes as they enter the network and utilize some of it's features like ConnectItNow on the Network Atlas and scheduling discoveries, but I'm not sure what all will it effect. I can perform a discovery and import the nodes, but will it overwright the ones that are already in our database? If so, how will that effect alerts, history, etc.?

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Accepted answers

All comments

kweise

By default, a scheduled discovery shouldn't overwrite any of the nodes that already exist in the database. I haven't done much with Network Discovery yet but I do know when performing an import, the import process skips anything already in the database, as you can see in the results here:

Node xxxxxxxxxxxx skipped. Already exists in Orion DB.
  Interface mgmt0 of Node xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx skipped. Already exists in Orion DB.
  Interface Ethernet1/1 of Node xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx not processed.
  Interface Ethernet1/2 of Node xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx added to the Orion DB.

You can also configure nodes discovered during a scheduled discovery to be ignored on future discoveries by adding them to the ignore list.

The admin guide does a pretty good job of walking you through the discovery process. Here's a link to the Network Sonar Discovery section:

www.solarwinds.com/.../wwhelp.htm

Hope this helps.

russellkhale

When I do this, it still doesn't allow me to use the existing nodes with Connect It Now in Network Atlas. Do you know of a way to allow the current nodes to utilize the Connect It Now function in Network Atlas without deleted and rediscovering them?

jeffnorton

There is a big time DANGER using discovery. The discovery that Orion uses, captures the first IP address that responds via a poll query. It the address you originally discovered it by is down the next time discovery runs, Orion will add the device (with the same DNS name) via the new IP address, there by creating a duplicate entry. I've asked them why they don't have an option to match on DNS name but have not gotten any satisfactory response. In our network we set up a managment loopback address in every router. We poll by the loopback address which allows the device to respond via any path. I've even proposed the allow discovery by type of interface so that discovery could be aimed at only loopback type interfaces.

As to the network atlas connectit, it will only act upon the Sonar file, not on the actual in use database. So what you can do is make a discovery, apply connect against that discovery file, but not apply the discovery file to the actual database. This will allow it to draw all the connecting lines in the Atlas file but not screw up your manual database.

kmmorey

I am pretty new to Orion and all of the nodes on the instance I am working with were added manually, so I am having the same issue with using Network Discovery.

Would you be able to explain how to apply Connect Now against that discovery file without applying it to the actual database? I'm still finding my way around the software.