Configuring position of nodes in Network Views after rediscovery

You can configure how newly discovered and existing nodes are positioned in the network views after a rediscovery of the network.

About this task

By default, the TopoViz client changes the layout of a network view map as newly discovered nodes are added to the map. The position of existing nodes is not guaranteed when the map layout is updated because the layout is governed by factors such as connectivity information obtained during the discovery.

This behavior works best with the Symmetric Layout. Other layout options take other factors into account which can affect the position of existing nodes. For example, the Circular Layout places greater emphasis on presenting nodes in a circular layout than maintaining node positions, while the Hierarchical and Orthogonal layouts place greater emphasis on routing the connections between nodes using orthogonal lines than maintaining exact node positions.

To change the default behavior and configure Network Manager to maintain the position of existing nodes and visually separate new nodes from nodes already present in the network views, edit the following parameters.

Procedure

  1. Go to $NMGUI_HOME/profile/etc/tnm/ and open the topoviz.properties file.
  2. Locate the topoviz.node.freezeold parameter and change the value to true (the default value is false).

    The true setting maintains the position of existing nodes, while new nodes are placed in a row at the top of the map, clearly separating the new nodes from nodes not added during the last rediscovery. The new nodes are placed in one or more rows at the top of the map with a horizontal and vertical spacing of 20 pixels by default.

    V4.2 FixPack 14: Note: The default behavior defined in this step can be overridden for individual views by changing the Keep old nodes in place after discovery setting in the Edit View dialog for that view. True maintains the position of nodes, False does not, and Inherit from parent view uses the default from the parent view. If no view higher in the view hierarchy has a default set, then the Inherit from parent view setting uses the default in the topoviz.properties file.
  3. Optional: If the topoviz.node.freezeold is set to true, or the Keep old nodes in place after discovery setting is enabled for a particular view, you can further adjust the positioning of new nodes by using the following parameters in the topoviz.properties:
    • You can set whether the new nodes are placed at the top or bottom of the map using the topoviz.node.new.placement parameter. The default setting is top, change it to bottom to have the new nodes placed at the bottom of the network view map.
    • You can set the horizontal spacing between new nodes in pixels using the topoviz.node.new.spacing.horizontal parameter. The default setting is 20 pixels, change it to a different pixel count to position each new node closer to each other or further apart horizontally.
    • You can set the vertical spacing between new nodes in pixels using the topoviz.node.new.spacing.vertical parameter. The default setting is 20 pixels, change it to a different pixel count to position each new node closer to each other or further apart vertically.