How do I discover devices?

Purpose

To discover devices, create an NE discovery rule. NSP performs scans of the network to look for devices matching specifications provided in active discovery rules. You can also launch a discovery manually.

REST and RESTCONF APIs are also available for device discovery and management; see the Device Administration and Mediation RESTCONF APIs documentation on the Network Developer Portal.

Note: To prevent performance issues with discovery:

A discovery rule must not contain more than 250 IP addresses.
The protocol to be used to discover the devices should be the first protocol choice in the discovery rule. For example, if the node is discoverable through NETCONF then NETCONF should be selected as first protocol choice in the discovery rule. See the artifact guide for the NE family for the recommended order.
Mediation polices which are not used for discovery should have the “Use For Discovery” flag set to false.
If subnets are used in the discovery rule, most of the IP addresses should be reachable. Any unreachable IP addresses should be added into the exclude list.

Having a lot of undiscoverable IP addresses in the discovery rule would lead to a timeout error.

Steps

Open Device Discovery, NE Discovery Rules.

The system displays the list of existing discovery rules.

Click DISCOVERY RULE.

In the form that opens, configure the required parameters. Click CONTINUE to proceed to the next set of parameters.

Parameter	Description
Settings
Rule name	The name of the discovery rule
Description	User-provided description of the discovery rule
Network Scan Interval (minutes)	Specifies the interval, in minutes, at which the network scan repeats
Admin State	Specifies the administrative state for the discovery rule Up means the policy is in effect.
Set Discovery IP Range
Included IP Addresses	Click ADD to specify an IP address and mask bits to search. Repeat to add additional ranges. Important! IP address ranges must not overlap, either within the same discovery rule or across two discovery rules. If overlapping ranges are present, displaying all discovered NEs for a discovery rule can cause NSP to become unusable.
Excluded IP Addresses	Click ADD to specify an IP address and mask bits to exclude from discovery. Repeat to add additional ranges.
Discovery Protocols and Policies
(First\|Second\|Third\|Fourth) discovery protocol	Specify the protocols to be used to communicate with the NE, in the order in which they should be used to attempt to reach the NE for discovery Enter all the protocols that will be used for communication, regardless of whether they will be used for discovery.
Mediation Policies	Protocols chosen for discovery are listed in the Discovery Protocols column. Select a protocol from one of the lists in the Discovery Protocols column. Configured mediation policies for the protocol are listed in the Mediation Policies column. Select a policy for each protocol Click on the SNMP: Associated Mediation Policy field. In the form that opens, select a policy and click SELECT. To create a mediation policy, click NEW; see How do I create a mediation policy?.
Reachability Policies	Available reachability types, that is, protocols that can be used to assess reachability, are listed in the Reachability Policies column. Click in a reachability type field. In the form that opens, select a policy and click SELECT. To create a reachability policy, click NEW; see How do I create a reachability policy?.

Click CREATE. The NE discovery rule is automatically assigned a rule ID and is added to the list.

To run a discovery rule click on your NE discovery rule in the list and click (Table row actions), Discover.

To view results of a discovery, select the discovery rule and click Summary to view the Summary panel. In the panel at the right of the screen, click Error to see details about any errors that occurred the most recent time the discovery rule was run.

End of steps