Duplication Protection During Discovery

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This section describes the duplication protection features that SL1 employs during discovery.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

  • To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
  • To view a page containing all the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

This section includes the following topics:

Duplicate IP Addresses and Duplicate MAC Addresses During Discovery

NOTE: Component devices are discovered using Dynamic Applications instead of using a discovery session. The description in this section does not apply to component devices. For details on how SL1 handles duplicate MAC addresses for component devices, see the section Duplicate MAC Addresses for Component Devices.

During discovery, SL1 compares the IP addresses and MAC addresses of a newly discovered device with the IP addresses and MAC addresses of devices that have already been discovered to ensure that devices are not duplicated and IP conflicts do not occur. There are three possible outcomes of this comparison:

  • The newly discovered device is considered a duplicate of an existing device and the information collected during discovery is used to update that existing device record.
  • The newly discovered device is not a duplicate of an existing device and the information collected during discovery is used to create a new device record.
  • The newly discovered device could be considered a duplicate of an existing device. SL1 does not automatically use the information collected during discovery to either create or update a device record. The Discovery Session Logs page includes an option for a user to manually create a new device record using the information collected during discovery.

If SL1 discovers an existing MAC address that is not is part of a range of MAC addresses that are marked as "virtual", it will be considered a duplicate of an existing device, regardless of its collector group.

Each managed device in SL1 can have three types of IP addresses:

  • Admin Primary. This is the IP address that SL1 uses to communicate with a device. This IP address is always a primary address and cannot be demoted to a secondary address. Within a single Collector Group, devices cannot have duplicate Admin Primary IP addresses.
  • Primary. One or more IP addresses that SL1 uses to match incoming log messages (traps and syslog messages) with a device. You can define a primary IP address in the Device Properties page for a device.
  • Secondary. SL1 gathers information about this IP address, but does not use this IP address to match incoming messages (traps and syslog messages) with a device. You can define a secondary IP address in the Device Properties page for a device.

If any of the following conditions are true, the newly discovered device is considered a duplicate of an existing device and the information collected during discovery is used to update that existing device record:

  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique to the Collector Group that discovered the device.
  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique within the system and the primary IP address is in a public address space.
  • A secondary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique within the system and that secondary IP address is in a public address space.

If any of the following conditions are true, the newly discovered device could be considered a duplicate of an existing device. SL1 does not automatically use the information collected during discovery to either create or update a device record. The Discovery Session Logs page includes an option for a user to manually create a new device record using the information collected during discovery:

  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is unique within the system; the secondary IP addresses associated with the newly discovered device are either unique within the system or are in a private address space; and the MAC addresses associated with the device match the MAC addresses associated with an existing device.
  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique within the system; the primary IP address is in a private address space; the secondary IP addresses associated with the newly discovered device are either unique within the system or are in a private address space; and the MAC addresses associated with the device match the MAC addresses associated with an existing device.
  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique within the system; the primary IP address is in a private address space; and no secondary IP address information has been discovered for the device.
  • The primary IP address of the newly discovered device is not unique within the system; the primary IP address is in a private address space; the secondary IP addresses associated with the newly discovered device are either unique within the system or are in a private address space; and no MAC address information has been discovered for the device.

NOTE: For more information about configuring virtual MAC addresses, see the section Managing MAC Vendor Records.

Duplicate MAC Addresses for Component Devices

SL1 handles duplicate MACs for component devices differently than duplicate MACs for physical devices. When a component device is assigned a MAC address, SL1 does not enforce uniqueness and will allow a component device to be created with the same MAC address as existing physical devices and/or existing component devices.

Unlike how SL1 discovers physical devices, SL1 uses Dynamic Applications to retrieve data from a management device and "discover" each entity managed by that management device as a component device. SL1 then uses that retrieved data to create a device for each managed entity. In some cases, the managed entities are nested. In SL1, physical devices are identified by IP address and MAC address. In SL1, component devices are identified by a device name, a unique identifier, and a device class. A Dynamic Application that creates component devices can assign a MAC address to each component device, but is not required to.

  • In SL1, a managed entity is called a component device. A component device is an entity that runs under the control of a physical management device.

  • In SL1, the root device is the physical device that manages one or more component devices.
  • In SL1, a parent device is a device that has associated entities modeled as component devices. A parent device can be either a root device or another component device.

For example, in a Cisco UCS system, SL1 might discover a physical server that hosts the UCS manager. This physical server is the root device. SL1 might discover a chassis on the root device. The chassis is a component device. The chassis is a child device to the physical server. SL1 might also discover a blade as a component device that is part of the chassis. The blade is a child device to the chassis. The chassis is the parent device.

SL1 does not automatically combine new component devices with any existing device record using the MAC address of the new component device. A component device can be combined with an existing device record under the following conditions:

  • Dynamic Applications that create component devices can assign a globally unique identifier (GUID) to each component device. When SL1 performs collection for a Dynamic Application, and the Dynamic Application includes a collection object with a GUID component identifier, SL1 compares the collected values for that collection object with all GUID values for all component devices discovered in the system. If a newly collected value matches a GUID value for an existing component device, the device from which SL1 collected the new value will become the parent of the existing component device. The existing component device will no longer be associated with its previous parent device. No new component device will be created.

  • You can merge a physical device and a component device. You can do this in the Actions menu in the Device Properties page (Devices> Device Manager > wrench icon) for either the physical device or the component device. When you merge a physical device and a component device, the device record for the component device is no longer displayed in the user interface; the device record for the physical device is displayed in user interface pages that previously displayed the component device. For example, the physical device is displayed in lieu of the component device in the Device Components page and the Component Map page. All existing and future data for both devices will be associated with the physical device. You can unmerge a component device from a physical device in the Actions menu in the Device Properties page for the physical device (Devices> Device Manager > wrench icon).

Managing MAC Vendor Records

The MAC Vendor Records page (System > Customize > MAC Vendors) allows you to view and edit the list of MAC Vendor Records in SL1. MAC Vendor Records include vendor information about each MAC address prefix. A MAC address prefix is the first three groups of hexadecimal digits in a MAC address. The MAC Address prefix uniquely identifies the vendor of the network interface. Some vendors use multiple MAC Address prefixes, but each vendor's MAC Address prefixes are unique to that vendor and are not used by other vendors.

Viewing the List of MAC Vendor Records

The MAC Vendor Records page (System > Customize > MAC Vendors) displays information about each MAC Vendor Record in SL1. The MAC Vendor Records page displays the following for each MAC Vendor Record:

  • MAC Hex. The MAC address prefix for the vendor record.

  • Vendor. The name of the vendor of the network interfaces that use the MAC address prefix.
  • Vendor Notes. Additional information about the vendor.

  • Virtual. Indicates whether the vendor associated with this MAC address prefix allows the same MAC address to be re-used on multiple devices:
  • Yes. The vendor allows the same MAC address to be re-used on multiple devices. If a new interface is discovered during nightly discovery and that interface has a MAC address with this prefix that is already associated with an interface record in the system, SL1 will create a new interface record for the newly discovered interface.

  • No. The vendor does not allow the same MAC address to be re-used on multiple devices. If a new interface is discovered during nightly discovery and that interface has a MAC address with this prefix that is already associated with an interface record in the system, SL1 will NOT create a new interface record for the newly discovered interface.

Filtering the List of MAC Vendor Records

The MAC Vendor Records page includes four filters, in the top row in the list of MAC Vendor Records. You can specify one or more parameters to filter the display of MAC Vendor Records. Only MAC Vendor Records that meet all the filter criteria will be displayed in the MAC Vendor Records page.

You can filter by one or more of the following parameters. The list of MAC Vendor Records is dynamically updated as you select each filter.

  • For each filter, you must enter text to match against. SL1 will search for MAC Vendor Records that match the text, including partial matches. Text matches are not case sensitive. You can use the following special characters in each filter:
  • , (comma). Specifies an "or" operation. For example:

"dell, micro" would match all values that contain the string "dell" OR the string "micro".

  • ! (exclamation mark). Specifies a "not" operation. For example:

"!dell" would match all values that do not contain the string "dell".

  • MAC Hex. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the MAC Vendor Records page will display only MAC Vendor Records that have a matching prefix.
  • Vendor. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the MAC Vendor Records page will display only MAC Vendor Records that have a matching vendor name.
  • Vendor Notes. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the MAC Vendor Records page will display only MAC Vendor Records that have a matching vendor note.
  • Virtual. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the MAC Vendor Records page will display only MAC Vendor Records that have a matching virtual setting.

Editing the Virtual Setting for MAC Vendor Records

The MAC Vendor Records page contains a drop-down field in the lower right called Select Action. This field allows you to apply an action to multiple MAC Vendor Records simultaneously.

To apply an action to multiple MAC Vendor Records:

  1. Go to the MAC Vendor Records page (System > Customize > MAC Vendors).

  1. In the MAC Vendor Records page, select the checkbox for each MAC Vendor Record you want to apply the action to. To select all checkboxes for all MAC Vendor Records, select the red checkbox () at the top of the page.
  2. In the Select Action drop-down list, select one of the following actions:
  • Set Virtual Flag To: Yes. Sets the virtual setting for the Mac Vendor Record to "yes".
  • Set Virtual Flag To: No. Sets the virtual setting for the Mac Vendor Record to "no".

  1. Click the [Go] button to apply the selected action to the selected MAC Vendor Records.