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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.
The devices added to DeviceExpert can be viewed from the "Inventory >> All Devices"
To view device details/configuration, you should have supplied device credentials properly
The Device Details are presented in three sections:
Basic device properties (hostname, IP, device status, operation status etc.,)
Hardware properties (device type, make, model, chassis details etc.,)
Configuration Details (current configuration, history of changes in configuration etc.,)
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose properties are to be viewed
In the GUI that opens up, the device properties are displayed on the LHS
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose hardware properties are to be viewed
In the GUI that opens up, click the tab "Hardware Properties" the device properties are displayed on the LHS
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. |
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:
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "Baseline Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required
In the GUI that opens up, the current configuration is shown. The drop-down against the field "Configuration Version" provides the list of all configuration versions. Select the required version. It will be shown in the GUI.
You can choose any version in the startup/running history and edit them as draft.
To edit configuration files,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be edited
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required to edited
In the GUI that opens up, the current configuration is shown. The drop-down against the field "Configuration Version" provides the list of all configuration versions. Select the required version. It will be shown in the GUI.
Click "Edit as Draft" available in the drop-down under "Actions". You may now edit the content. Click "Save". You may upload it to the device immediately (as startup/running configuration) by clicking the link "Upload" in "Actions"
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be edited
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "New Draft" against the field "Drafts for this device"
In the text editor that opens up, you can create the draft with the required commands and "Save". You may upload it to the device immediately by clicking the link "Upload" in "Actions". You may upload it to the device immediately (as startup/running configuration) by clicking the link "Upload" in "Actions"
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. |
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be compared
In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed on the RHS
Click the link "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required
In the GUI that opens up, the current configuration is shown. The drop-down against the field "Configuration Version" provides the list of all configuration versions. Select the required version, which is to be compared with another version.
Go to "Show Difference" button and select an option from the drop-down (Diff with Previous, Diff with Baseline, Diff with Startup/Running, Diff with Any)
Option to Exclude Specific Lines/Text
While generating configuration difference
between anytwo versions, there might be requirements to exclude certain
specific lines or text. For example, lines containing Cryptochecksum information,
speed token, NTP clock-period should be ignored while taking the difference.
While DeviceExpert itself takes care of excluding information like the
ones above, users can specify exclude criteria based on specific needs.
Once the criteria is specified, DeviceExpert will exclude the lines matching
the specified criteria for all devices belonging to the device template
for which the exclude criteria is created.
You may make use of Regular Expressions while specifying the Exclude Criteria.
For instance, if you wish to exclude the lines containing the text "logging"
followed by an IP address, you may specify the criteria as logging.*
To specify the exclusion criteria,
Go to Admin >> Tools >> Add Exclude Criteria
In the UI that opens up, click "Add Criteria"
Select the required device in the drop-down and click "Save"
Once you do this, the specified criteria will be enforced for the selected devices and the lines matching the criteria will be ignored while taking configuration difference.
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.
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device on which the show command is to be executed
Note: If you want to execute show commands on multiple devices at one go, make use of the script execution in configuration templates. |
Refer to the section Real-time change detection
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,
Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device for which you wish to open a telnet session
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 |
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',
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
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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