How do I discover devices?

Purpose

To discover devices, create a unified 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.

The association of a classic discovery rule provides information for discovery of classic devices. The discovery protocols and policies parameters in the discovery rule provide information for discovery and management of MDM devices. When associating a classic discovery rule from NFM-P to a unified discovery rule, verify that the list of IP addresses in the unified discovery rule matches the list of IP addresses from the NFM-P classic discovery rule.

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 512 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, Unified Discovery Rules.

The system displays the list of configured discovery rules.

Click UNIFIED DISCOVERY RULE.

In the form that opens, configure the required parameters.

Parameter	Description
General
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.
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. The protocol to be used to discover the NE should be the first protocol selected; see the artifact guide for the NE family for the recommended order. Enter all the protocols that will be used for communication, regardless of whether they will be used for discovery. After at least one protocol is selected, the Select Mediation Policies panel displays, with fields for the selected protocols. If device adaptor artifacts are installed in the NSP, a file transfer field also appears. Required policies are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Mediation Policies	Select a policy for each discovery protocol you selected, and, if needed, for file transfer: Click on the 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 for MDM?.
Reachability Policies	The Select Reachability Policies panel displays fields for the selected discovery protocols and for Ping. If a discovery protocol has been selected, at least one reachability policy must be selected. The policy can be specific to the discovery protocol, or a Ping policy. Click on a policy 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 for MDM ?.
Associate Classic Discovery Rule	Click in the Classic Discovery Rule field. In the form that opens, select a discovery rule and click SELECT. To create a classic discovery rule, click NEW; see How do I create a classic discovery rule?.
Network Security
Anti-theft Policy	Click on the policy field. In the form that opens, select a policy and click SELECT. To create an anti-theft policy, click NEW; see “How do I create an anti-theft policy?” in the NSP Security Hardening Guide.
Discovery IP Ranges
Included IP Addresses	Click ADD to specify an IP address and mask bits to search. Repeat to add additional ranges. Verify that the included IP address ranges include all the MDM and classic devices you need to discover.
Excluded IP Addresses	Click ADD to specify an IP address and mask bits to exclude from discovery. Repeat to add additional ranges. If any IP addresses in the included ranges are unreachable, add the unreachable IP addresses to the Excluded IP Addresses list. Searching many unreachable IP addresses may cause discovery to time out.

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

To run a discovery rule click on your 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 Errors to see details about any errors that occurred the most recent time the discovery rule was run.

End of steps