What is flexible discovery?

NE compatibility and flexible discovery

Some discovery adaptors allow for NE custom compatibility. With NE compatibility, you can discover and manage an NE without needing the adaptor for the NE version. A default compatibility rule is defined in the discovery adaptor. You can configure custom compatibility rules to override the default as needed.

The following example uses the fictitious NE 9999 ABC, release 12.x:

Discovered NE version	Adaptors and compatibility rules in place	Expected result
12.1 R1	No 12.x adaptors installed	NE is not certified and cannot be discovered or managed.
12.1 R1	12.1 adaptors installed with explicit support for 12.1.R1 defined in the metadata	NE is certified, that is, it can be discovered and managed without use of a compatibility rule.
12.1.R2	12.1 adaptors installed but 12.1.R2 is not defined explicitly in the metadata	If the adaptors have a default compatibility rule defined, NE is compatible and can be discovered or managed at the level of 12.1.R1. If the adaptors do not have a default compatibility rule defined, NE is not compatible and cannot be managed.
12.2.R1	12.1 adaptors installed No adaptors available for 12.2 Custom compatibility rule is in place listing 12.1.R1 as the compatible version for 12.2.R1	NE is compatible, that is, it is discovered and managed according to a compatibility rule. The NE will be managed at the 12.1.R1 level.

NE compatibility is managed using RESTCONF APIs. For information about managing compatibility; see the Device Administration and Mediation RESTCONF APIs documentation on the Network Developer Portal.

For more details about the applicability and/or any restrictions of the NE compatibility feature to specific devices, consult the NSP adaptor documentation for those devices.