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Viewing Device Configuration Details

Contents

Overview

After adding the device and providing the credentials, the details about the device can be obtained from the inventory tab in the GUI. This section explains how to view various details about the device and viewing the device configuration.

Viewing Devices

The devices added to DeviceExpert can be viewed from the "Inventory >> All Devices"

Viewing Device Details

Pre-requisite

To view device details/configuration, you should have supplied device credentials properly

Device Details

The Device Details are presented in three sections:

 

Viewing Basic Device Properties

Hardware Properties

Upon giving credentials and taking backup of device configuration, hardware properties of the device such as chassis details, model number could be fetched and displayed on the device details page.

 

To view the hardware properties,

 

 

Note: Every time device configuration backup is done, the hardware properties are also fetched and updated. At any point of time, you wish to fetch harware properties, simply execute device backup.

 

Viewing Device Configuration

One of the important functions of DeviceExpert is retrieving the configurations from devices and storing them with proper versions in the database. At any point of time, you can view the current version or any of the previous versions of the configurations. This can be done from the 'Device Details' page.

 

Before proceeding further, it is pertinent to look at the definitions of the following terms:

 

  • Current Configuration: this reflects the currently available configuration in the device

    • Current Startup Configuration: this reflects the currently available startup configuration in the device - this is, the configuration that will be loaded when the device starts up

    • Current Running Configuration: this reflects the currently available running configuration in the device

  • Startup History: History of changes that were done over the Startup Configuration. This is presented in terms of change versions in hierarchical order

  • Running History: History of changes that were done over the Running Configuration. This is presented in terms of change versions in hierarchical order

  • Baseline Configuration: The Baseline configuration refers to a trusted working configuration. You can keep any version of device configuration as the Baseline Configuration. When you want to revert to a safe configuration version or while doing disaster recovery, Baseline configuration would come in handy

  • Labelled Configuration: For any version of configuration, you can associate a label - that is, a unique tag. As configuration versions keep on changing, you will have difficulty in remembering the version number of a particular good configuration. To avoid that, you can associate the version with a label for easy identification

  • Draft Configuration: As the name indicates, this is a new configuration created by you. For creating a draft configuration, you can take up any version of device configuration - startup or running - and save it as a draft as it is or after carrying out some changes. You can also create a new draft altogether

 

Viewing Current Version (Running & Startup)

Viewing Baseline Version (Running & Startup)

Viewing History of Running/Startup Configuration

The history of changes that were done over the Running/Startup Configuration are listed with version numbers representing the change. In addition, other details such as who effected the changes at what time and also the reason for the change are also listed.

 

To view the running configuration history,

 

 

Managing Configurations

Editing Configuration Files

You can choose any version in the startup/running history and edit them as draft.

 

To edit configuration files,

 

Creating New Drafts

Instead of editing the startup/running configuration, you can create fresh draft configuration to upload only a few commands - say for updating SNMP community.

 

To create a draft,

 

 

 

Important Note: When you upload a new draft to the running configuration of a device, the difference is merged with the previous version. On the other hand, when it is done on the startup configuration, only the draft contents are uploaded - that means, the previous version will be replaced by the draft contents. So, exercise care while uploading draft to the startup configuration.

 

Comparing Configuration Versions

One of the powerful features of DeviceExpert is its capability to provide side-by-side difference between any two configuration versions. You can compare two configuration versions of the same device or of different devices.

 

To compare configurations,

 

Performing Various Actions on Devices/Configurations

From the "Inventory" >> "Device Details" page, you can perform various actions on the device such as enabling real-time configuration change detection, executing various 'show' commands on the device, edit device properties, edit credentials and launching telnet connection with the device.

Executing 'show' commands

You can execute 'show' commands such as 'Show Version', 'Show Interfaces', "Show Tech Support", "Show Access Lists", "Show Logging", "Show IP Traffic" and "Show Buffers" on specific devices from the inventory tab. DeviceExpert executes the command and displays the result.

 

To execute 'show' commands,

 

    1. Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device on which the show command is to be executed

    2. Go to "Actions" and click the link "Show Commands" in the drop-down. The various commands that are applicable for the selected device, are displayed. Click the desired command. The result of the command is displayed in a new window

 

Note: If you want to execute show commands on multiple devices at one go, make use of the script execution in configuration templates.

 

Enabling Real-time Change Detection

Refer to the section Real-time change detection

 

Establishing Telnet Connection

You can launch telnet connection with the device from the Device Details page. Once you provide the credentials needed, you would be able to have a telnet console and work with it.

 

To launch telnet connection,

 

 

Remote Host:  The host to which the session is to be established

Remote Port: The default is set for telnet(23)

Login Name: One of the user name/login name present in the remote host

Password: Password for the user

Login Prompt: This is the prompt that the device issues for getting the user name

Password Prompt: This is the prompt that is issued by the device for getting the password

Command Prompt: This is the prompt displayed by the device for each command

 

Switch Port Mapper

DeviceExpert provides the 'Switch Port Mapper' tool that helps network administrators identify the list of devices connected to each port of the managed switch. This eliminates the need for manually tracing the network cables.

 

The tool discovers the devices plugged into each port of a specified switch. It helps in gaining visibility into the IP, MAC, VLAN, status and availability of ports. Total number of ports, total number of available ports, total number of transient ports are all provided. Since this is a real-time discovery, the administrators can also view the operational status and speed of each port.

 

You can execute the tool to view the mapping at any point of time. You may also create a scheduled task to execute the tool at regular intervals.

 

Prerequisite:

 

To execute switch port mapper, you should have entered SNMP credentials through SNMP profiles. If you have not created any SNMP profile, create one before proceeding further. Refer to this section for more details.

 

To execute 'Switch Port Mapper',

 

    1. Go to "Inventory" and click "Actions" button present at the RHS of the table against the hostname of the particular device for which you wish to find 'switch port' mapping

    2. Click the link "Switch Port Mapper" in the drop-down
    3. In the UI that opens up, the mapping details are displayed. If you want to run it afresh, click "Scan Switch Port" again

 

Note: Switch port mapping is applicable only for the SNMP-enabled devices. If you want to change the SNMP community, you can do that from the above UI that displays the mapping.

 

Creating scheduled task for periodic execution

 

Refer to the scheduled tasks section.

 

Generating switch port mapping reports

 

Switch Port Mapping scan results could be generated in the form of a report. From the switch port results page, click the link "Generate Report". The report could be generated as PDF too.

 

 

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