Adding devices to the topology

You can manually add main node device entities to the discovered network topology. You might want to do this because there is no access to a specific network device, or because device support (discovery agents) is not available for certain device types.

1. Click the Incident icon and select Network Availability > Network Hop View.
2. Ensure that the topology map displayed contains at least one of the devices to which you want to add a connection.
3. In the Network Hop View, right-click a device or the background area of the topology map, and click Topology Management > Add Device.
   The Add Device Wizard Entity Details window opens.
4. Complete the Entity Details window as follows. The fields in this window populate the NCIM entityData table for the device that you are adding.

   domain

   The domain to which the device is being added. This value is retrieved from the domain of the Hop View from which the Add Device Wizard was launched.

   entityName

   IP address or DNS name for this device. For example, an IP address such as 172.20.1.7, or a DNS name, such as company-abc.net.

   Restriction: Device names can include square brackets [] in the device name, but not at the end of the device name.

   Restriction: This name must be unique for all entities within the current domain. If a device with the same entity name already exists in this domain then the wizard requires you to specify a different entity name. This applies whether the device is manually added or discovered. In this case, do one of the following:

   • Enter a different entity name.
   • Cancel the wizard, and select a different domain. Try to add the device to this new domain, by going back to step 2 of this procedure.

   entityType

   Type of entity. This value is set to chassis. This means that you can only add a chassis, or main node device.

   displayLabel

   Label to display for this device in a network view or network hop view.

   description

   Textual description of this device

   reason

   Reason for adding this device to the topology.

5. Click Next. Complete the Chassis Details window as follows. The fields in this window populate the NCIM chassis table for the device that you are adding.

   className

   The name of a class of devices. The master className field is in the entityClass table.

   If you specified className then this field lists the classes available in the NCIM database entityClass table. Select a class from this list to classify the device.

   sysObjectId

   The vendor's authoritative identification of the network management subsystem contained in the entity.

   If you specified sysObjectId then type a valid sysObjectId value for this device.

   sysName

   An administratively-assigned name for this managed node. By convention, this is the fully-qualified domain name of the node. If the name is unknown, the value is the zero-length string.

   sysDescr

   A textual description of the entity. This value must include the full name and version identification of the system hardware type, software operating-system, and networking software.

   sysLocation

   The physical location of this node, for example telephone closet, 3rd floor. If the location is unknown, the value is the zero-length string.

   sysContact

   The textual identification of the contact person for this managed node, and information on how to contact this person. If no contact information is known, the value is the zero-length string.

   ipForwarding

   Indication of whether this entity is acting as an IP gateway in respect to the forwarding of datagrams received by this entity but not addressed to this entity. IP gateways forward datagrams, whereas IP hosts do not, unless the source is routed through the host. Takes one of the following values:

   • forwarding
   • not-forwarding

   serialNumber

   The serial number of the entity.

   modelName

   The model name of the entity.

   accessIPAddress

   The IP address through which this entity was discovered and will be monitored.

   Note: For non-IP entities, such as layer 1 optical devices, this field is null.

   If you specify a value for accessIPAddress then you must also specify a value for accessProtocol. The value specified for accessIPAddress must be valid within the Internet protocol specified for accessProtocol. For example, if you set accessProtocol to IPv4, then you must specify an IPv4 address.

   accessProtocol

   The Internet protocol used by the chassis. If you specify a value for accessProtocol then you must also specify a value for accessIPAddress.

   DNSName

   DNS name for the IP address associated with this IP end point. The value specified in this field is used to populate the NCIM ipEndPoint table for the device that you are adding.

   Note: The DNSName field in the NCIM ipEndPoint table is only updated if you have specified a value for both the accessProtocol and accessIPAddress fields in this window.

6. Click Next.
   The Add Device Wizard checks the chassis details entered.

   • If no errors are returned, then the Confirm Details window opens.
   • If there are any errors, then you are prompted to correct them before proceeding.
7. In the Confirm Details window, review the information that you specified and click Finish.
   The Add Device Wizard checks the entity details entered.
   If the operation was successful then a window opens indicating that the device was successfully added to the domain. Click Add Like option to add more devices with identical data except for the entityName and displayName fields. The topology map in the Network Hop View is updated to display the newly added device.

   Note: If the Network Hop View is refreshed before a connection is added to the manually added device, then the manually added device will disappear from the network hop view as it has no connections.