What are discovery protocols and policies?

Protocols and policies

A discovery rule defines up to four protocols to use to discover the device. NSP scans the specified IP address ranges using each protocol in the order defined in the discovery rule. For example, you can use the same discovery rule to discover devices using both SNMP and CLI by selecting SNMP as the first discovery protocol and CLI as the second.

A discovery rule must include at least one reachability policy, and at least one mediation policy for each network communication protocol that is used to manage the NE. Policies can be created as part of creation of the discovery rule or separately.

You must create mediation policies for all required protocols before discovery, regardless of which protocols are used to discover the NE.

See the adaptor documentation for information about the protocols required to manage the NE type.

Mediation policies

To discover and manage devices in your network, you must create one or more mediation policies to setup the security and communication infrastructure between the NSP and each device within the specified discovery rule IP range.

A mediation policy defines how the NSP uses a communication type to interact with an NE. The policy specifies the SNMP, CLI, or file transfer settings, and the credentials for security functions.

The protocols required to manage an NE are listed in the adaptor documentation. If a protocol is identified in the adaptor documentation as relevant for discovery, the protocol must be the first one selected in the discovery rule, and the Use for Discovery parameter must be set to true.

If a protocol should be used only for NE management and never for discovery, you can set the Use for Discovery parameter to false.

Reachability policies

A reachability policy defines a way for the NSP to perform a reachability check. The policy specifies the communication type to be used to reach the NE, for example SNMP, how often to attempt to reach the NE, and how long to wait for a response.

A reachability check is a scheduled check that the NSP initiates via the configured protocol (SNMP or Ping ICMP echo request).  If the NE responds, it is reachable from the NSP system. If the device becomes unreachable, an alarm is raised.