Configure schedule settings

Spiral Discovery's Schedule Settings determine how often NNMi requests data and updates information about the devices in your network domain. NNMi requests the following information:

• Information about the nodes, addresses, and interfaces you configure for discovery.
• Information about Level 2 connectivity between interfaces and VLANs in your network.
• Information about Level 3 connectivity between addresses in your network.

Make sure the interval value you choose provides plenty of time so Spiral Discovery cycles do not overlap. The larger your network environment, the longer the time required to complete a Spiral Discovery cycle. These Schedule Settings might help NNMi administrators meet service-level agreement (SLA) commitments.

Adjust the rediscovery interval

When configuring Spiral Discovery, you determine how often network traffic is generated to gather and verify information about your network management domain. This time interval controls how frequently information is gathered about nodes, interfaces, IP addresses, subnets, VLANs, and connections in the network.

To adjust the rediscovery cycle interval:

1. Navigate to the Discovery Configuration form.

   1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the  Configuration workspace.
   2. Expand Discovery.
   3. Select Discovery Configuration.
2. Locate the Schedule Settings tab.

3. In the Rediscovery Interval attribute, set the time interval that Spiral Discovery waits between information gathering cycles.

   The default is 24 hours between cycles. The minimum is 1 hour.

   Make sure the interval value provides plenty of time so Spiral Discovery cycles do not overlap. The larger your network environment, the longer the time required to complete a Spiral Discovery cycle.

   During rediscovery, NNMi checks each Node for membership in Node Groups. If the Node belongs to a Node Group that is associated with a Custom Poller Policy, NNMi might issue additional requests for information.

4. Click  Save and Close. Spiral Discovery implements your changes during the next regularly scheduled discovery interval. To apply the changes immediately, use Actions > Polling > Configuration Poll.

   You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

5. Optional. To establish the beginning of the interval, schedule a task to run the nnmnoderediscover.ovpl -all command line tool. Consider choosing a quiet time on your network so traffic generated by NNMi does not disturb regular business.

   The Spiral Discovery cycle start time might change slightly depending on circumstances within your network environment. Use the Nodes (All Attributes) view and sort on the Last Completed column (last Discovery cycle) to check recent times.

Adjust the node group rediscovery interval

When configuring Spiral Discovery, you determine how often network traffic is generated to gather and verify information about your network management domain. This time interval controls how frequently information is gathered about the nodes, interfaces, IP addresses, subnets, VLANs, and connections in the network for the specified Node Group.

There are two benefits to using a Node Group Rediscovery Interval:

• You have many choices about the criteria for defining your Node Group.

• Your Node Group Rediscovery Interval enables a subset of devices to be rediscovered at a different rate than the default Rediscovery Interval. For example, this feature could be useful to configure NNMi to do the following:

  • Help NNMi administrators meet service-level agreement (SLA) commitments.
  • More frequently rediscover device configuration changes for frequently changing devices or your most important devices.
  • Less frequently rediscover unimportant devices in your network domain to minimize network traffic.

To adjust the Node Group rediscovery cycle interval:

1. Navigate to the Discovery Configuration form.

   1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the  Configuration workspace.
   2. Expand Discovery.
   3. Select Discovery Configuration.
2. Locate the Schedule Settings tab.
3. In the Node Group attribute, specify the name of the Node Group for which you want to configure the Node Group Rediscovery Interval.

4. In the Node Group Rediscovery Interval attribute, set the time interval that Spiral Discovery waits between information gathering cycles.

   The default is 24 hours between cycles. The minimum is 1 hour.

   Make sure the interval value provides plenty of time so Spiral Discovery cycles do not overlap. The larger your network environment, the longer the time required to complete a Spiral Discovery cycle.

   Specify the Node Group Rediscovery Interval. If a Node is reconfigured so that one or more attribute values no longer match the specified Node Group's configuration criteria, the next time the Node is discovered, it is removed from the Node Group. NNMi then determines when to rediscover the Node using the Rediscovery Interval setting.

   For example, if a Node Group is created using sysName as an Additional Filter, and the System Name value is changed for a Node, that Node will no longer belong to the Node Group. After the Node is removed from the specified Node Group, NNMi uses the Rediscovery Interval setting instead of the Node Group Rediscovery Interval setting to determine when to update discovery information for the Node.

   During rediscovery, NNMi checks each Node for membership in Node Groups. If the Node belongs to a Node Group that is associated with a Custom Poller Policy, NNMi might issue additional requests for information.

5. Click  Save and Close. Spiral Discovery implements your changes during the next regularly scheduled discovery interval. To apply the changes immediately, use Actions > Polling > Configuration Poll.

You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

6. Optional. To establish the beginning of the interval, schedule a task to run the nnmnoderediscover.ovpl -all command line tool. Consider choosing a quiet time on your network so traffic generated by NNMi does not disturb regular business.

   The Spiral Discovery cycle start time might change slightly depending on circumstances within your network environment. Use the Nodes (All Attributes) view and sort on the Last Completed column (last Discovery cycle) to check recent times.

Configure whether to delete unresponsive nodes

When configuring Spiral Discovery, you determine whether and how quickly NNMi deletes nodes that are unresponsive.

NNMi does not delete any unresponsive object during the first 24 hours after NNMi is restarted. The 24 hour additional wait time ensures that NNMi has an opportunity to poll each Node.

NNMi automatically deletes an unresponsive node using the following criteria:

• The node does not respond to SNMP requests for the specified number of days.
• All of the node's IP Addresses do not respond to ICMP for the specified number of days.

When Delete Unresponsive Nodes is enabled, NNMi does not delete virtual machine nodes under any of the following circumstances:

• The VM does not support an SNMP agent
• The VM does not have any IP addresses because VMware Tools not installed
• The IP address fault monitoring for the VM is not configured

One of the following Conclusions must be associated with the Node:

• NodeUnmanageable
• NonSNMPNodeUnmanageable
• NodeDown
• NodeOrConnectionDown

To configure NNMi to automatically delete unresponsive objects:

1. Navigate to the Discovery Configuration form.

   1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the  Configuration workspace.
   2. Expand Discovery.
   3. Select Discovery Configuration.
2. Navigate to the Schedule Settings tab.

3. In the Period (in Days) to Delete Unresponsive Nodes attribute, set the number of days that a Node must be unresponsive before NNMi deletes the node and all nodes in its shadow from the NNMi database (as well as each Node's history and related objects).

   0 (zero, the default value) = Do not delete from the NNMi database.

   Any number provided represents the number of days that the object must remain unresponsive.

4. Click  Save and Close. Spiral Discovery implements your changes during the next regularly scheduled discovery interval. To apply the changes immediately, use Actions > Polling > Configuration Poll.

You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

Configure whether to delete Layer 2 connections

When configuring Spiral Discovery, you determine whether and how frequently NNMi deletes connections that are down.

NNMi deletes connections once per day (1 a.m. by default).

NNMi automatically deletes any Layer 2 Connections that are Down using the following criteria:

• The ConnectionDown Conclusion must be associated with the connection for the specified number of days.

• When interfaces are participating in Link Aggregation or Split Link Aggregation protocols, NNMi automatically deletes Aggregation Member Layer 2 Connections that have the ConnectionDown Conclusion for the specified number of days.

  During the next Rediscovery cycle, NNMi deletes any Aggregator Layer 2 Connections without any Aggregation Member Layer 2 Connections.

• When the Layer 2 Connection object's Topology Source value is one of the following, NNMi never automatically deletes the connection:

  ROUTES - Indicates that an unnumbered Interface is involved in this connection. The NNMi administrator has enabled the Unnumbered Interface Connectivity feature. For more information: See Also

  SUBNETCONNECTION (no space between words) - Subnet Connection Rule. NNMi applied a special configurable rule for subnets (only those IPv4 subnets with a prefix length between 28 and 31) to detect this connection. NNMi gathers information from Layer 3 of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) networking model to detect this connection. Layer 3 is the Network layer that provides switching, routing, and logical paths (virtual circuits) for transmitting data between nodes. The NNMi administrator configures the Subnet Connection Rules, see "Help for Administrators" for more information. On the NNMi map, the following icon is in the middle of the SUBNETCONNECTION line:
  (in prior NNMi releases, the icon)

  USER - This connection was configured by your NNMi administrator (using the Connection Editor). See "Help for Administrators" for more information.

To configure NNMi to automatically delete down Layer 2 Connections:

1. Navigate to the Discovery Configuration form.

   1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the  Configuration workspace.
   2. Expand Discovery.
   3. Select Discovery Configuration.
2. Navigate to the Schedule Settings tab.

3. In the Period (in Days) to Delete Connections that are Down attribute, set the number of days that a Connection must be down before NNMi deletes the connection.

   0 (the default value) = Do not delete from the NNMi database.

   Any number provided represents the number of days that the object must remain unresponsive.

4. Click  Save and Close. Spiral Discovery implements your changes during the next regularly scheduled discovery interval. To apply the changes immediately, use Actions > Polling > Configuration Poll.

   You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.