Physical device recipe

The following example of an IBM Tivoli Network Manager environment accessed through IBM Concert Operate provides insights into any environment that uses physical network devices.

Network physical devices

The following figure depicts two physical devices, 172.20.1.104 and 172.20.1.1, which are connected to each other.

Server 172.20.1.1 has 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports on the same card, one of which has a subinterface with an ifName of 'ge-1/1/3.0'. That subinterface shares the MAC address as its physical parent and has two IPv6 addresses and one IPv4 address associated with it.

Figure that shows devices

Outline pattern

The topology service has an edge type of partOf, which is a member of the composition edge label family. For more information, see Edge labels.

The following image illustrates how this relationship is used to tie the card, interfaces, and network addresses to the hosting device.

Relationships to hosting device

The partOf relationship is not shown as an explicit edge in the topology UI. However, it is used to determine which resources should be hidden in the host-to-host view, which in the context of this scenario would show just the hosts 172.20.1.104 and 172.20.1.1. It would also show the connectedTo edge between them, as depicted in the following part of the image.

Figure that shows partOf relationship

Host example JSON

The following JSON extract is an example of the properties that you might choose to include when creating a host vertex. The properties that start with an underscore character are aliases for some of the read-only generic properties. They also include a few read/write generic properties, such as name and uniqueId. However, most of the properties in this example are free from 'User' properties.

{
  "uniqueId": "NCOMS:172.20.1.1",
  "name": "172.20.1.1",
  "entityTypes": [
    "host"
  ],
  "_createdAt": "2017-03-03T16:02:40.845Z",
  "_observedAt": "2017-03-03T16:04:18.636Z",
  "_id": "y7EXOKrHud21CWySCyMsBg",
  "_href": "/1.0/topology/resources/y7EXOKrHud21CWySCyMsBg",
  "_nodeType": "resource",
  "_executionTime": 4,
  "_modifiedAt": "2017-03-03T16:02:40.845Z",
  "matchTokens": [
    "sbk-pe1-jrmx80.southbank.eu.test.lab"
  ],
  "sysObjectId": "1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.1.1.1.2.90",
  "entityChangeTime": "2017-03-03T14:13:17.000Z",
  "className": "JuniperMSeries",
  "services": "datalink(2) network(3)",
  "_startedAt": "2017-03-03T16:02:40.845Z",
  "manual": 0,
  "cdmAdminState": 0,
  "cdmType": 2,
  "sysDescription": "Juniper Networks, Inc. mx5-t internet router, kernel JUNOS 15.1F4.15, Build date: 2015-12-23 20:50:37 UTC Copyright (c) 1996-2015 Juniper Networks, Inc.",
  "sysName": "sbk-pe1-jrmx80.southbank.eu.test.lab",
  "sysLocation": "The Mad Hatter Hotel 3-7 Stamford St London SE1 9NY UK,-0.10499474,51.50711477",
  "interfaceCount": 73,
  "entityCreateTime": "2017-03-03T14:13:17.000Z",
  "isIpForwarding": "forwarding",
  "accessIPAddress": "172.20.1.1",
  "entityDiscoveryTime": "2017-03-03T14:11:09.000Z",
  "sysContact": "williamking@uk.ibm.com",
  "_tenantIds": [
    "Moa1dcmKHfx3dlyJnGm6JQ"
  ],
  "accessProtocol": "IPv4"
}
Note: Some of the generic properties in this example are:
  • The uniqueId in this case is a string, which uniquely identifies this resource to IBM Tivoli Network Manager.
  • The name is the name of the host and will be used in the UI.
  • The entityType is set to 'host'.
  • The matchTokens contains the FQDN name of the host.

Network interface example JSON

{
  "uniqueId": "NCOMS:172.20.1.1[ ge-1/1/3.0 ]",
  "name": "[ ge-1/1/3.0 ]",
  "entityTypes": [
    "networkinterface"
  ],
  "_createdAt": "2017-03-03T16:03:03.889Z",
  "_observedAt": "2017-03-03T16:03:03.939Z",
  "_id": "v8aFVG6JoigYxTrlFSDkLw",
  "_href": "/1.0/topology/resources/v8aFVG6JoigYxTrlFSDkLw",
  "_nodeType": "resource",
  "_executionTime": 5,
  "operationalStatus": "started",
  "ifIndex": 537,
  "ifAdminStatus": "up",
  "_modifiedAt": "2017-03-03T16:03:03.940Z",
  "ifType": 53,
  "matchTokens": [
    "ge-1/1/3.0",
    "ifEntry.537"
  ],
  "ifName": "ge-1/1/3.0",
  "ifTypeString": "propVirtual",
  "connectorPresent": "false",
  "_startedAt": "2017-03-03T16:03:03.939Z",
  "speed": 1000000000,
  "mtu": 1500,
  "accessIpAddress": "172.20.2.46",
  "operationalDuplex": "FullDuplex",
  "promiscuous": false,
  "physicalAddress": "F8:C0:01:1D:B0:13",
  "ifDescription": "ge-1/1/3.0",
  "ifOperStatus": "up",
  "_tenantIds": [
    "Moa1dcmKHfx3dlyJnGm6JQ"
  ],
  "accessProtocol": "IPv4"
}
Note: Some of the generic properties in this example are the following:
  • The uniqueId in this case is a string, which uniquely identifies this resource to IBM Tivoli Network Manager.
  • The name is the name of the host and will be used in the UI.
  • The entityType is set to networkinterface.
  • The matchTokens contains both the ifName and a string denoting the ifIndex in the ifEntry table.