Seeding discovery

To seed the discovery, provide the starting points from which to look for devices.

1. Click the Discovery icon and select Network Discovery Configuration.
2. From the Domain list, select the required domain.
3. Click Seed.
4. Optional: To switch off the Ping finder, File finder, or Database finder, clear the Use Ping Finder in Discovery, Use File Finder in Discovery, or Use Database Finder in Discovery check boxes.
5. Add, delete, or edit a ping seed.
   1. To delete an existing ping seed, select the Select check box next to the required row and click Delete .
   2. To add a new ping seed, click New .
   3. To edit an existing ping seed, click the required entry in the list.
   4. If you add or edit a ping seed, the Ping Seed Properties page is displayed. Complete the fields as follows and click OK.

      Seed by:

      Select one of the following options:

      IP

      Type an IP address.

      Subnet

      Specify a subnet and type the number of netmask bits. The Netmask field is automatically updated.

      Restriction: Network Manager does not support the IPv4–mapped IPv6 format and expects all IPv6 addresses to be in standard colon-separated IPv6 format. For example, Network Manager does not support an IPv4–mapped IPv6 address such as ::ffff:192.0.2.128. Instead enter this address as ::ffff:c000:280 (standard colon-separated IPv6 format).

      Timeout

      Specify the time in milliseconds to wait for a reply from a pinged address before timing out.

      Retries

      Specify the number of times a device is to be repinged.

6. Add, delete, or edit a file seed.
   1. To delete an existing file seed, select the Select check box next to the required row and click Delete .
   2. To add a new file seed to the File finder, click New .
   3. To edit an existing file seed, click the required entry in the list.
   4. If you add or edit a file seed, the File Seed Properties page is displayed. Complete the fields as follows and click OK.

      Filename

      Specify the path to the file on the host workstation that contains the seed data.

      Delimiter

      Specify the column delimiter. Use a regular expression if required. For example, if the Name and IP columns are separated by one or more tabs, then insert [ tab_space ]+, where tab_space is an actual tab character. To produce this tab character, create a tab in a text editor, copy the tab and paste it into the field.

      IP Column

      Type the column number of the column that contains the IP addresses of the seed devices.

      Name Column

      Type the column number of the column that contains the device names of the seed devices.

7. Add, delete, or edit a database seed. A database seed is a saved query to a particular database that contains device details.
   1. If you want the Database finder to use a custom database, add or edit the database by clicking the New Database button. You only need to add a database once and then it appears in the Database ID dropdown list in the Database Seed Properties window.
      Note: You can add only one custom database.

      Complete the fields in the Configure Database Access for Database Finder window as follows:

      Database ID

      The string ID of the database that contains the device details. For example, TDW.

      Database Server

      Select the database type. Only supported database types are listed.

      Database Name

      The name of the database.

      Database Host

      The name of the host of the database. For example: 10.10.10.10, or myserver.com.

      Database Port

      The database port number. For example, 1521.

      Username

      The username to use to connect to the database.

      Password

      The password to use to connect to the database.

      Database Schema Name

      The schema for the database. For example, TDWSCHEMA.

      If you add a custom database here, it is automatically added to the DBLogins.cfg file.
   2. To delete an existing database seed, select the Select check box next to the required row and click Delete .
   3. To add a new database seed to the Database finder, click New .
      You can define multiple seeds, which use different default databases or a custom database.
   4. To edit an existing database seed, click the appropriate Seed Name in the list.
   5. If you add or edit a database seed, the Database Seed Properties page is displayed. Complete the fields as follows and click OK.

      Seed Name

      Enter a unique name for this database seed. The seed name is represented by the column m_DBEntryName in the dbEntryFinder.dbQueries database table.

      Database ID

      Select the identifier of the database from the dropdown list. For example, NCIM.

      Database Select Query

      Enter the query to run against the database to retrieve a list of devices to act as discovery seeds. This field is equivalent to the m_Query column of the dbEntryFinder.dbQueries database table. Optionally, you can specify parameters as question marks here and provide them in the Database Query Parameters field.

      Example: select fields with no query parameters

      SELECT Name, IPAddress, CUSTOMER, CITY, LOCATION FROM ncim.dbfinder where name = 'Hercules' and ipAddress = '10.10.10.10'

      Example: select fields with query parameters

      Database Select Query:

      SELECT Name, IPAddress, CUSTOMER, CITY, LOCATION FROM ncim.dbfinder where name = ? and ipAddress = ?

      Database Query Parameters:

      Hercules,10.10.10.10

      Example: select all with query parameters

      Database Select Query:

      SELECT * FROM ncim.dbfinder where name = ? and ipAddress = ?

      Database Query Parameters:

      Hercules,10.10.10.10

      Database Field for IP Address

      Enter the name of the column in your chosen database that corresponds to m_UniqueAddress in the finders.returns database table.

      Note: The Database Field for IP Address, Database Field for Device Name, Database Custom Field, Database Custom Fields fields define how to map the fields returned from the query into fields in the finders.returns database table. These mappings are held in the m_Mapping column of the dbEntryFinder.dbQueries database table.

      Database Field for Device Name

      Optional. Enter the name of the column in your chosen database that corresponds to n_Name in the finders.returns database table.

      Database Custom Field

      Enter an optional mapping parameter that defines how to map the fields returned from the query into fields in the finders.returns database table. Click Add Cutom Field to add the field to the list displayed in Database Custom Fields. You can edit the list of parameters in the Database Custom Fields field if necessary.

      The fields that you enter are converted to a database query. For example, if you enter IPADDRESS in the Database Field for IP Address field, NAME in the Database Field for Device Name field, and CITY and PIN as custom fields, the GUI creates the following database query internally:

      [{ ToFinder='m_UniqueAddress', FromDb="eval(text,'&IPADDRESS')" },
      { ToFinder='m_Name', FromDb="eval(text,'&NAME')" },
      { ToFinder='m_CustomTags->m_CITY', FromDb="eval(text,'&CITY')" },
      { ToFinder='m_CustomTags->m_PIN', FromDb="eval(text,'&PIN')" }]

   6. Restart Network Manager so that the changes to discovery take effect.
8. Click Save .