Basic Management of Network Devices
This section describes the network device addition, IP topology management, VLAN management, MIB management, and AR management features, including the definition, benefits, functions, principles, and key indicators of each feature.
Definition
- Adding network devices
Add devices to eSight.
- IP topology management
- eSight provides the IP topology management function. By dividing subnets by device network segment, eSight can monitor IP addresses of network devices.
- Data in the eSight IP topology is synchronized from the devices. You cannot add or delete elements in the topology view.
- VLAN management
eSight allows users to view and manage VLANs, including network-wide VLAN management, device VLAN management, and VLAN topology management.
- MIB management
Management Information Base (MIB) management is a tool for managing MIBs. It displays MIB nodes in a tree structure, which facilitates the browsing of MIB nodes. In addition, it supports common operations on device MIBs, including the Get, GetNext, Walk, TableView, and Stop operations and operations for compiling and loading MIB files.
- AR management
Through eSight AR wireless interface management, you can manage the wireless interfaces of AR devices in a unified manner. For example, you can synchronize the AR wireless interface information to eSight and export the AR wireless interface information.
Benefits
- Adding network devices
The resource is a general term for all managed objects of eSight. Before eSight manages a network, you must connect resources to eSight and establish network connections between eSight and managed objects. After that, eSight can communicate with managed objects to manage the network.
- IP topology management
The IP topology provides intuitive and real-time device IP address monitoring. IP address changes are monitored to effectively support quick fault locating and fault demarcation.
- VLAN management
Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) are created on a physical LAN to separate the LAN into multiple broadcast domains. The hosts in a VLAN can directly communicate with each other, whereas the hosts in different VLANs cannot. This efficiently suppresses broadcasting packets within a VLAN.
- MIB management
eSight provides the MIB tool that can read and compile .mib files. eSight places the generated target files into a directory, from which the MIB tool obtains the files. The SNMP protocol of the V1, V2c, and V3 versions support the query operation to effectively and securely read and monitor MIB data, implementing effective network management.
- AR management
To ensure information consistency between eSight and AR routers, you can synchronize cellular interface information about AR routers to eSight in manual or periodic synchronization mode.
Functions
- Adding network devices
Three methods are available for adding devices to eSight.
Single addition
One device is added at a time. This method applies when you want to add one or a few devices to eSight during normal network running.
Automatic discovery
Devices in one or more network segments are added at a time. This method applies when devices are distributed in one or multiple network segments and devices in the same network segment have the same SNMP parameter settings.
Batch import
Multiple devices with different IP addresses are added at a time through an Excel file. This method applies in new site deployment scenarios where devices are dispersed in multiple network segments.
- IP topology management
You can use the IP topology to monitor IP addresses of network devices added to eSight in real time.
- VLAN management
After completing network planning based on the site requirements, you can create subnets or groups on eSight and add network devices to the subnets or groups through SNMP, facilitating unified device management and maintenance.
Step
Operation
Description
1
Set protocol parameters on the device: SNMP
SNMP parameters are used to add devices to eSight.
2
Add devices to eSight.
Select a proper device addition mode based on the site requirements.
3
Create a VLAN.
Create a VLAN and apply it to multiple devices.
4
Create VLANs in batches.
Create VLANs in batches and apply them to multiple devices.
5
Configure port VLANs in batches.
Modify the VLAN type and VLAN attributes of ports for one or multiple devices in batches.
6
Create device VLANs.
Create VLANs for a single device and view all VLANs of the device as well as the list of ports on which the VLANs are configured.
7
Configure port VLANs.
Modify the VLAN type and VLAN attributes of one or multiple ports in batches for a single device.
8
Create VLANIF interfaces.
Create VLANIF interfaces for a single device.
9
Configure the voice VLAN.
Configure the voice VLAN for a single device.
10
Manage VLANs in the topology.
VLANs on the entire network and involved devices and links are uniformly displayed in a topology view. You can view and modify network-wide VLANs in the topology view.
- MIB management
- MIB compilation
You can select a MIB file to compile. After the compilation is complete, you can select a directory for saving the result file. The compilation result of the MIB file is displayed on the compilation result page.
- MIB loading
MIB node management allows users to upload, compile, load, uninstall, and delete MIB nodes and create file directories.
- MIB operation
After entering a device IP address in the device IP address box, you can use the SNMP device. After the device is connected, you can use tools to perform the operations such as Get, GetNext, Walk, and TableView on the device. To abort the operation, you can click Stop to stop obtaining data.
- MIB compilation
- AR management
To ensure information consistency between eSight and AR routers, you can synchronize cellular interface information about AR routers to eSight in manual or periodic synchronization mode.
- Manual synchronization: If interface information about AR routers changes, you can manually synchronize the information to eSight immediately.
- Periodic synchronization: You can configure polling parameters for cellular interfaces of AR routers, so that eSight periodically queries and obtains changed interface information from the AR routers.
Principle
- Adding network devices
The principle for adding devices to eSight through SNMP is shown in Figure 1 Principle for adding devices to eSight.
eSight delivers commands containing SNMP parameters to devices. If the devices detect that the received SNMP parameters are the same as those on them, the devices are successfully added to eSight.
- IP topology management
- The IP topology data comes from network device resources. When the device interface has an IP address, the device is automatically added to the IP topology for monitoring.
- The IP topology supports the following object types: device, subnet, and link (IP link). The subnet is divided based on the device IP address and subnet mask.
- VLAN management
Ethernet uses shared communication media to transmit data based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)/Collision Detection (CD). Numerous hosts may cause serious conflicts, excessive broadcast packets, and poor performance, and even network unavailability. Using switches to connect LANs reduces conflicts but cannot separate broadcast packets. VLAN technology divides a physical LAN into multiple VLANs to isolate broadcast domains. Hosts within a VLAN can only directly communicate with hosts in the same VLAN. They must use a router to communicate with hosts in other VLANs.
- MIB management
A MIB is a database that specifies variables (information that can be queried and set by an agent) maintained by a managed device. It defines a series of attributes for a managed device, including the object name, object status, object access rights, and object data type. eSight communicates with the agent of a managed device through SNMP, instructing the agent to perform MIB operations. In this way, eSight is able to monitor and manage the device.
- AR management
The wireless interfaces of AR routers are synchronized to eSight through SNMP.
