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How use Topology: Layer 2/3 Poller ?

Dear All,

After update OrionNPM to 10.2 version in "List Resources" for some devices I see "Topology: Layer 2" and/or Topology: Layer 3".

But for some devices I don't see that(for example, I don't see "Topology: Layer 2" for Catalyst 2960).

Also, in "Core network topology" and "NPM Network Topology" I see incorrect information.

May be I do something wrong.

Can I somewhere reading about how topology poller work and how use it?

In manual and in this forum I don't found it.

Thanks for your help.

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All comments

Nandish

This post which discusses about layer 2 topology.

Please do open a support ticket to resolve this issue.Would you also post back the ticket# along with solution.

Thank you.

DK_M

Dear Nandish,

I don't want open ticket before I investigate it, may be problem in my environmental.

Can you provide me more information about "topology poller"?

How it work and how it use? Does this poller have some requirements(may be I must apply specific configuration for my switches or enable network discovery in NPM)?

Thank in advance.

Nandish

You need have your devices discovered using network Sonar discovery to learn the topology:Layer2/Layer3.If you have discovered using Network Sonar discovery and still not expected data is found,then I would suggest to contact support for further analysis.

DK_M

"Network Sonar discovery" isn't good solution for my network. It means, I can't use topology poller. Right?

Thanks.

FormerMember

Hello Nandish-

Is it not possible to do a manual poll and update topology when a device has already been added and is collecting data? I don't want to lose any polling data for my devices that have been in Orion the longest.

Thanks,

Mike

zizi

Orion NPM 10.2 is no longer using discovery engine for collecting topology data, it uses new topology pollers instead. Topology pollers are assigned to all devices automatically during upgrade to 10.2 and are also visible in List Resources tree (device support needed). Orion now polls topology data during regular node rediscovery. You can use Web Node Management page, select nodes and hit Rediscover Now to force new poll. You can also use More Actions -> Update Topology to force topology calculator to re-compute topology for all nodes.

Orion is able to poll topology data from IP-MIB for Layer 3 and Bridge-MIB and Q-Bridge-MIB for Layer 2:

dot1dTpFdbTable = 1.3.6.1.2.1.17.4.3

dot1qTpFdbTable = 1.3.6.1.2.1.17.7.1.2.2

dot1dBasePort = 1.3.6.1.2.1.17.1.4.1.1

ipNetToMediaTable = 1.3.6.1.2.1.4.22

You may need to allow access to these MIBs in your device configuration, especially if you are using views to limit access just to specific subsets of OIDs.

Marek Zizlavsky

SolarWinds Developer

jron

Is it possible to determine the topology of ICMP only devices? I realize that Orion will not be able to poll the IP-MIB on ICMP devices but, is there another method of determining the topology given that the MAC address should be available? From reading other posts, it sounds like this might be something that NCM can accomplish. Any help would be appreciated.

jron

Just saw this today in the NPM 10.3 release notes

New Orion Core Fixes

Orion Core version 2012.1 includes the following fixes and updates:

A website error encountered when using a non-English browser locale with the Orion NCM integration has been corrected.
Orion NPM is now able to correctly establish encrypted SNMPv3 connections with polled devices.
Improvements to Orion topology data collection using LLDP and CDP enable the determination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 data for devices that do not expose topology data over SNMP.

I think that answers the question of whether it's possible or not to get the information without SNMP. The next question is, how? Do all of the related network devices need to be present as nodes in Orion for this to work? I've been trying to find some up to date documentation with regards to ConnectNow but haven't been very successful. Is the below statement still accurate in 10.3?

From the Network Atlas Admin Guide as well:

Because topological data about your network is only generated during Network Sonar Discovery, ConnectNow can only draw lines between discovered nodes. Nodes that are added manually, as in Web Node Management, cannot be connected using ConnectNow

zizi

Orion is not able to collect topology data for ICMP nodes, because ICMP protocol itself is unable to provide such information. It means that ICMP node itself is not able to provide any relevant topology information to the system. Orion is currently able to collect topology information for SNMP nodes only.

ICMP node does not have any monitored interfaces, which limits Orion's ability to build connections to ICMP node using other nodes topology data. Basically there are no connection points on ICMP node, which could be used for building connections.

Connect Now feature works for Orion nodes, which means it is able to build connections between monitored nodes only. The same applies to interfaces. If you want to see an interface to interface connection on the map, both nodes and both interfaces have to be monitored in Orion.

Presented statement from Admin Guide is no longer valid for Orion NPM 10.3. Connect now no longer requires a scheduled discovery profile for all nodes, which should provide topology information. Since NPM 10.2 discovery is no longer collecting such topology information. New set of L2 and L3 topology pollers was introduced and Orion now collects topology data during regular node rediscovery. You can use "Rediscover Now" button to force topology data poll for a node. Topology edge calculation is now performed in Orion Module Engine service. You can use Node Management -> More Actions -> Update Topology to force immediate topology edge re-calculation for all nodes.

jron

Thank you for the clarification Zizi. I'm curious about the line below:

Improvements to Orion topology data collection using LLDP and CDP enable the determination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 data for devices that do not expose topology data over SNMP.

Given your previous response, is it safe to say that NPM now uses or is able to use different SNMP data (NOT SNMP topology data) to determine Layer 2 / Layer 3 data? Again thanks for the detailed response.

Ralphr

Marek,

Can the new topology pollers automatically retrieve infromation about edge devices on VLANS ? I am running 10.3 and the only information I get returned is about devices on VLAN 1, which given that on most or our switches we don't use VLAN 1 isn't very helpful. If I edit the community string of one of these switches and append it with "@<VLAN#>" I will then start to get information regarding that particular VLAN, which shows that it works but is not practical in supporting switches with edge devices on multiple VLANS. Any advice would be appreciated.

zizi

Orion supports community string indexing, which is a technique used by Cisco for exposing bridge table information for multiple VLANs over SNMP. Orion has two variants of bridge table pollers, for example:

N.Topology_Layer2.SNMP.Dot1qTpFdb - variant which utilizes community string indexing and collects info for all VLANs
N.Topology_Layer2.SNMP.Dot1qTpFdbNoVLANs - variant which does not use it and collects info for default VLAN only

Orion automatically assigns poller, which is able to collect info for all VLANs, if that's supported by device. You can use SELECT * FROM Pollers WHERE PollerType LIKE 'N.Topology_%' AND NetObject LIKE 'N:123' SQL query to find out which pollers are currently assigned to your device.

You can also re-run List Resources for a node to update its poller assignments. Orion automatically assigns variant without the NoVLANs suffix, in case device supports it. If you have NoVLANs pollers assigned on a device, which supports community string indexing, please make sure you have also a N.Topology_Vlans.* poller assigned. If Orion was unable to get list of VLAN IDs from device, it won't be able to assign poller without NoVLANs suffix.

You may need to allows access to one of these OIDs, which Orion uses for collecting VLAN IDs:

vtpVlanTable = 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.46.1.3.1

vmMembershipSummaryTable = 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.68.1.2.1

dot1qVlanIndex = 1.3.6.1.2.1.17.7.1.4.2.1.2

I'm sorry for delayed answer, please keep me updated.

Ralphr

Can I use PollerChecker to manually assign topology pollers to devices ?