Adding Software Defined Network Devices for Monitoring
Overview
In order to start monitoring Software Defined Network devices, we need to first add the devices to Motdata AIOps in turn enable it to collect data from these devices for monitoring. This guide helps you with the process of adding SDN devices to Motadata AIOps so that you are able to start monitoring them.
At a high level, this process includes creating a credential profile and a discovery profile, assigning the credential profile to a discovery profile, and executing a successful discovery run.
This is followed by provisioning the discovered devices as monitors in the system. This will enable Motadata AIOps to continously monitor the resources and generate alerts and insights based on their performance metrics. You can also customize the monitoring settings for each monitor, such as polling interval, threshold values, and alert notifications.
SDN Solutions Supported
| Vendors |
|---|
| Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN |
| Cisco Meraki |
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
- Cisco Meraki
Adding a Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Device
Motadata AIOps supports discovery of Manager, Controller, Validator, and WAN-Edge. The discovery of Controller, Validator, and WAN-Edge devices will be performed through Manager which will also fetch the Tunnel information. Here, each Controller, Validator, Controller, and WAN-Edge device will be discovered as an individual monitor.
Prerequisites
1. Create a Credential Profile
We will start by creating a credential profile.
Navigation
Go to menu. Select Settings
. After that, go to Discovery Settings
and select Credential Profile. The credential profile screen is displayed. Select Create Credential Profile to create a new credential profile.
A pop-up for entering the credential profile details is displayed.
Credential Profile Parameters
Enter the required details in the pop-up as follows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Credential Profile Name | Provide a unique Credential Profile Name. This name is used to identify a credential profile. |
| Protocol | Select HTTP/HTTPS as Protocol from the drop-down. The option to provide the credential details is then displayed based on the protocol selected. |
| Username and Password | Enter these details for the virtual device you want to monitor. |
Select Reset to erase all the current field values entered in the pop-up, if required.
Select Add Credential Profile to create the credential profile in the system. The credential profile is now created.
You can view the newly created profile in the credential profile interface by using the Search option available above the list of profiles.
Now, let's move to the next step and create a discovery profile.
2. Create Discovery Profile
Let us create a discovery profile for the device we are trying to add. Discovery profile allows us to discover devices in an infrastructure using the device address and associated credential profile.
Go to Menu. Select Settings . After that, Go to Network Discovery and select Discovery Profile. The discovery profile screen is displayed. Select Create Discovery Profile to create a new discovery profile.
A new screen to create the discovery profile is now displayed. Select SDN from the menu as shown below:
Discovery Profile Parameters
Enter the required details in the screen as follows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Discovery Profile Name | Provide a unique Discovery Profile Name. This name is used to identify the discovery profile. |
| IP/Host | The IP address(IPv4 or IPv6) of the device to be discovered. |
| Collectors | Select one or more Collectors that should be used for collecting data from the devices discovered using this Discovery Profile. Select multiple Collectors for load balancing and failover mechanism. In case you don’t select a Collector, the AIOps shall automatically select a relevant collector to leverage the load balancing feature. |
Ensure that you select correct Collector(s), based on how you want to distribute the load across all Collectors
| Groups | Select one or more Groups that will be assigned to the monitors you provision using this discovery profile. |
| Credential Profile | Select an already created Credential Profile to assign it to the discovery profile. You can also create a new credential profile from this screen using the Create Credential Profile button. In this case, we will select the credential profile which we created in the 1st step while creating a credential profile. |
| Tags | Select one or more Tags that you wish to assign to the devices you want to discover and setup as a monitor |
| Port | The Port number field is already populated. |
| URL Type | Select on of the URL types. By default, HTTPS will be selected. |
| Ping Check | The Ping Check button is switched ON by default. This means that AIOps will only discover the device if the ping is available for that device. Toggle this button OFF if you want AIOps to discover the device without doing a ping check. |
| Notify via E-mail and Notify via SMS | The system allows notifying users about a discovery run through e-mail and SMS - Specify E-mail addresses (comma separated) in the Notify via E-mail field to trigger E-mail notifications. - Specify mobile numbers (comma separated) in the Notify via SMS to send SMS notifications. |
Select Reset to erase all the current field values, if required.
Select Save and Exit if you have created the discovery profile but do do want to execute a discovery run.
Select Save and Run if you want execute the discovery run immediately after creation.
3. Provision the Discovered Devices as Monitors
After initiating the discovery profile execution, AIOps starts the process to discover the devices.
Once the discovery execution is complete, the list of all the Controllers, Validators, Managers, and WAN-Edge devices discovered is displayed. Select the devices that you want to be listed as Monitors in the system.
Click on Add Selected Objects to add the selected devices as Monitors. These devices listed as Monitors will now be monitored further by AIOps.
Adding a Cisco Meraki Device
Motadata AIOps supports discovery of Meraki Security, Meraki Switch, Meraki Radios, Meraki Vision, and Meraki Cellular Gateway. The holistic view of all the device types will be facilitated through Meraki Controller. Here each device type will be discovered as an individual monitor.
Prerequisites
1. Create a Credential Profile
We will start by creating a credential profile.
Navigation
Go to menu. Select Settings. After that, go to Discovery Settings and select Credential Profile. The credential profile screen is displayed. Select Create Credential Profile to create a new credential profile.
A pop-up for entering the credential profile details is displayed.
Credential Profile Parameters
Enter the required details in the pop-up as follows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Credential Profile Name | Provide a unique Credential Profile Name. This name is used to identify a credential profile. |
| Protocol | Select HTTP/HTTPS as Protocol from the drop-down. The option to provide the credential details is then displayed based on the protocol selected. |
| Authentication Type | Select the API Key from the drop downn menu. |
| API Key | Paste your API key from Cisco Meraki here. |
Select Reset to erase all the current field values entered in the pop-up, if required.
Select Add Credential Profile to create the credential profile in the system. The credential profile is now created.
You can view the newly created profile in the credential profile interface by using the Search option available above the list of profiles.
Now, let's move to the next step and create a discovery profile.
2. Discovery Profile Parameters
Enter the required details in the screen as follows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Discovery Profile Name | Provide a unique Discovery Profile Name. This name is used to identify the discovery profile. |
| URI Endpoint | Enter the base URI provided by Cisco Meraki. |
| Collectors | Select one or more Collectors that should be used for collecting data from the devices discovered using this Discovery Profile. Select multiple Collectors for load balancing and failover mechanism. In case you don’t select a Collector, the AIOps shall automatically select a relevant collector to leverage the load balancing feature. |
Ensure that you select correct Collector(s), based on how you want to distribute the load across all Collectors
| Groups | Select one or more Groups that will be assigned to the monitors you provision using this discovery profile. |
| Credential Profile | Select an already created Credential Profile to assign it to the discovery profile. You can also create a new credential profile from this screen using the Create Credential Profile button. In this case, we will select the credential profile which we created in the 1st step while creating a credential profile. |
| Tags | Select one or more Tags that you wish to assign to the devices you want to discover and setup as a monitor. |
| Retry Count | Enter a numerical value for AIOps to try connecting to Cisco Meraki should the first attempt fails to connect. |
| Ping Check | The Ping Check button is switched ON by default. This means that AIOps will only discover the device if the ping is available for that device. Toggle this button OFF if you want AIOps to discover the device without doing a ping check. |
| Notify via E-mail and Notify via SMS | The system allows notifying users about a discovery run through e-mail and SMS - Specify E-mail addresses (comma separated) in the Notify via E-mail field to trigger E-mail notifications. - Specify mobile numbers (comma separated) in the Notify via SMS to send SMS notifications. |
Select Reset to erase all the current field values, if required.
Select Save and Exit if you have created the discovery profile but do do want to execute a discovery run.
Select Save and Run if you want execute the discovery run immediately after creation.
3. Provision the Discovered Devices as Monitors
After initiating the discovery profile execution, AIOps starts the process to discover the devices.
Once the discovery execution is complete, the list of all the Controllers, Validators, Managers, and WAN-Edge devices discovered is displayed. Select the devices that you want to be listed as Monitors in the system.
Click on Add Selected Objects to add the selected devices as Monitors. These devices listed as Monitors will now be monitored further by AIOps.
These devices can be viewed under the Monitor tab from the Main Menu. Select the Monitor tab from the main menu. After that, Select SDN to view all the monitors that are added to the system.
The SDN devices are now successfully added to AIOps.