Containment data
Containment data defines logical and physical containment within your network. A containment model is generated at the end of the discovery process when the network topology is created. This model reflects the real-world topology of the network that is being modelled, in a physical, logical or business-oriented sense.
Overview of containment
Containment is a key principle of the network model. Containers are objects that can "hold" both elements and other containers. Elements and containers can represent logical or physical entities. You can put any object within a container and even mix different objects within the same container.
An example of physical containment is a chassis containing network interface cards; the network interface cards can themselves contain individual ports. An example of logical containment is a set of ports or interfaces being contained by a particular VLAN. Network Manager also uses VLAN objects to model containment. VLAN objects are created by the stitchers. They contain all the interfaces that exist on each VLAN.
Use of the containment model
- The physical containment model enables you to perform device management down to the port level.
- The logical containment model shows how objects are contained within logical containers that do not necessarily exist in the physical sense. One example is a VLAN container, which is a logical grouping of devices, cards, and ports that are not necessarily physically connected together or in the same location. The default logical containment model is based on VLAN containment.