Managing a Single Device with the Device Administration Panel

This section describes how to use the Device Administration Panel in SL1.

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 of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

What is the Device Administration Panel?

The Device Administration panel allows you to define how SL1 will interact with a device. This includes defining the data that will be retrieved, the frequency with which SL1 will poll the device, and policies and thresholds that will generate events for the device.

To access the Device Administration panel for a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Find the device for which you want to access the Device Administration panel and select its wrench icon (). The Device Properties page is displayed. From this page, you can access all the pages in the Device Administration panel.
'The Device Administration tools include the following tabs and pages:

Tab	Description
Properties	In the Device Properties page, you can edit parameters that affect how SL1 "sees" and monitors the device.
Thresholds	The Device Thresholds page allows you to define usage and performance thresholds and data retention thresholds for a device. When these thresholds are exceeded, SL1 will generate an event for the device.
Collections	The Dynamic Application Collections page displays all the Dynamic Applications associated with the device. For Dynamic Applications of type "performance," the page displays report policies for each Dynamic Application. For Dynamic Applications of type "configuration," the page displays objects monitored by each Dynamic Application. You can specify a credential for use with the Dynamic Application for the selected device only. You can enable or disable one or more report policies for the selected device only. You can enable or disable monitoring of one or more objects for the selected device only.
Monitors	The Monitoring Policies page allows you to define monitoring policies for a device. The Monitoring Policies page allows you to define policies that monitor: system processes, domain-name availability and lookup speed, email round-trip speed, SOAP and XML transaction speeds, TCP/IP port availability, web-content availability, and Windows services. NOTE: All these monitoring policies can generate events. SL1 uses the data collected by these policies to create performance reports and graphs. Additionally, the Monitoring Policies page allows you to create, edit, and delete webhook receivers. For more information, see Managing Webhook Receivers.
Schedule	In the Maintenance Schedule page you can view, edit, and schedule downtime for the device.
Logs	The Device Logs & Messages page displays all the messages SL1 has collected from the device and from SL1 about the device.
Toolbox	The Device Toolbox page provides access to common network tools. The list of tools available depends upon the type of device and the configuration of the device. This page allows you to access and run diagnostics on a device without leaving the Compute Nodes.
Interfaces	The Device Interfaces page displays detailed information about each network interface on the device. From this page, you can view details about each individual interface and define bandwidth monitoring for the interface.
Relationships	The Device Relationships page displays information about parent-child relationships between devices. From this page, you can view details on the relationships between layer-2 and layer-3 devices, hypervisors and their virtual machines, and other relationships.
Tickets	The Ticket History page displays all tickets associated with the device. This page displays critical information about each ticket. If you require more detail, you can access theTicket Editor from this page.
Redirects	This page allows you to redirect log entries from one IP-based device to another IP-based device, or from an IP-based device to a virtual device.
Notes	The Notes & Attachments page displays a list of all comments and attachments associated with the device properties. When you select the Notepad Editor option in the Device Properties page, the notes appear in this page.
Attributes	The Attributes page displays a list of custom attributes that are already aligned with the device. Additionally, the Attributes page enables you to assign a value to those custom attributes, create and align a new extended custom attribute with the device, or delete a custom attribute from a device.

Actions Menu

The pages in the Device Administration panel each include the Actions menu. The Actions menu allows you to perform many device-related tasks without requiring you to leave the current page. The Actions menu looks like a button and is located in the upper right of the page.

The following entries in the Actions menu appear only in the Device Properties page:

Add IP Address. Leads to the Add IP Address modal, where you can define an additional IP address for the device. SL1 will continue to use the primary IP Address for communication with the device. For details, see the section on Adding an IP Address to a Device.
Select Primary IP Addresses. Leads to the Select Primary IP Addresses modal, where you can define primary IP addresses and secondary IP addresses for the device. A primary IP address allows SL1 to align traps and syslog messages with the device. In the case of duplicate primary IP addresses, you can promote a secondary IP address to a primary IP address and demote the duplicated primary IP address.
Clear Device Cache. Selecting this option clears data about this device from the cache. For details, see the section on Clearing the Device Cache.
Device Class. Leads to the Device Class modal, where you can select a device class to associate with the device. For details, see the section on Device Classes and Device Categories.
Secondary Credentials. Leads to the Secondary Credentials modal, where you can associate additional credentials with the device. SL1 will then use the primary credential and the additional credentials during discovery for the device. For details, see the section on Aligning a Secondary Credential.

Merge Device. Allows you to merge the data from a component device and a non-root physical device into a single record. 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 instead 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.

For physical devices, this option leads to the Merge Devices modal, where you can view a list of component devices and select a component device to merge with the current physical device.

For component devices, this option leads to the Merge Devices modal, where you can view a list of physical devices and select a physical device to merge with the current component device.

For details, see the section on Merging Devices.

Unmerge Device. Appears only in the Device Properties page for physical devices. Prompts you to unmerge the component device that has been previously merged with the physical device. For details, see the section on Merging Devices.

NOTE: You can merge only one component device with a physical device. You cannot merge a component device with a physical device that acts as the root device for a dynamic component map (DCM) tree.

NOTE: When you merge two devices, the historical device logs for those devices will be merged and are not unmerged when the Unmerge Device option is used.

NOTE: In Dashboard widgets, merged devices can be searched for and filtered by the device class or device category of the physical device or the device class or device category of the component device. If both device classes or device categories are selected, a merged device will appear twice in a single widget.

When you merge two devices, active events associated with the component device will be set to "cleared". The cleared events will not be associated with the physical device. If the devices are unmerged, the cleared events cannot be moved back to the component device.

The following entry in the Actions menu appears only in the Device Logs & Messages page:

Export Logs. Allows you to export the log entries to a file on your local computer. You can save the exported file or save and view the exported file.

The following entries in the Actions menu appear on each page in the Device Administration panel:

My Bookmarks. Displays the Administer Bookmarks modal, where you can access pre-defined bookmarks or save a new bookmark. For details, For details, see Customizing User Experience.

Create a Ticket. Leads to the Ticket Editor page, where you can define a new ticket about the device. For details, see the section on Creating a Ticket About the Device.
Custom Navigation. Leads to the Custom Navigation modal, where you can define a custom tab for the device administration panel for the current device. The custom tab will contain a link to an outside URL. For details, see the section on Customizing the Interface for a Device.
Device Children. Leads to the Device Children modal, where you can add child devices to the current device. The current device will be the parent device. For details, see the section on Defining Device Relationships.
Device Groups. Leads to the Device Groups modal, where you can assign the device to a device group or remove a device from a device group. For details, see the section on Adding a Device to a Device Group.
Notepad Editor. Leads to the Notepad Editor modal, where you can enter a note to include with the device. The note will appear in the Notes & Attachments page for the device. For details, see the section on Adding a Note to a Device.
Product Catalog. Leads to the Product Catalog modal, where you can associate a product SKU with the device or disassociate the device from a product SKU. For details, see the section on Associating a Product SKU with a Device.
Report Creator. Leads to the Report Creator modal, where you can define a device report, including the information to include in the report and the format in which to generate the report. For details, see the section on Generating a Report for a Single Device.
Resource Usage. Leads to the Resource Usage modal, where you can view the list of device logs and device statistics gathered by SL1 and also view where the data is stored and how many bytes of data are being stored.

Device Properties

The Device Properties page allows you to view basic, read-only information about a device and also to view and edit the device's parameters for discovery (collection).

The settings defined for the device in the Device Properties page override any system-wide settings.

From the Device Properties page, you can:

View Information about the Device. This is described in the section on Read-Only Information about the Device.
Edit the Discovery Parameters for the Device. This is described in the section on Editing Device Settings.
Edit the Device Class for the Device. This is described in the section on Device Classes.
Associate an Additional IP Address with the Device. This is described in the section on Adding an IP Address to a Device.
Remove an IP Address from the Device. This is described in the section on Removing an IP Address from a Device.
Manage Primary and Secondary IP Addresses for the Device. This is described in the section on Managing Device IPs.
Clear the Device Cache. This is described in the section on Clearing the Device Cache.
Define Child Devices. This is described in the section on Defining Device Relationships.
Associate a Secondary Credential with the Device. This is described in the section on Aligning a Secondary Credential.
Add the Device to a Device Group. This is described in the section Adding the Device to a Device Group.
Create a Ticket About the Device. This is described in the section Creating a Ticket About the Device.
Define Custom Navigation for the Device. This is described in the section Customizing the User Interface for a Device.
Add a Note to the Device. This is described in the section Adding a Note to a Device.
Associate a Product SKU with the Device. This is described in the section Associating a Product SKU with the Device.
Create or Edit an Asset Record for the Device. This is described in the Asset Management section.
View Resource Usage for the Device. This is described in the section on Viewing Performance Data.
Create a Report About the Device. This is described in the section on Viewing Performance Data.

Viewing Read-Only Information About the Device

Each page in the Device Administration panel and the Device Reports panel displays the following read-only information about the device:

Device Name. Name of the device. Clicking on this field displays the Device Properties page for the device.
IP Address /ID. IP address of the device and the device ID of the device. The device ID is a unique numeric identifier, automatically assigned to the device by SL1. Clicking on this field displays the Device Properties page for the device.
Class. Device class for the device. A device class usually describes the manufacturer of the device.
Organization. Organization associated with the device. Clicking on this field leads to the Organizational Summary page for the device's organization.
Collection Mode. Collection mode. Choices are "active", meaning SL1 is periodically collecting data from the device, or "inactive", meaning the SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device. Clicking on this field executes the Remote Port Scanner and displays the Remote Port Scanner modal page.
Description. For SNMP devices, the SysDescr value as reported by the SNMP agent on the device. If a device does not support SNMP, this field appears blank.
Root Device. For component devices, displays the device name or IP address of the physical device where the system that manages the device resides. Clicking on this value displays the Device Properties page for the root device.
Parent Device. For component devices, displays the device name or IP address of the parent device. The parent device can be either another component device or a physical device. A parent device is the device between the current component device and the next layer in the component-device hierarchy. Clicking on this value displays the Device Properties page for the parent device.
Device Hostname. For devices that are discovered and managed by hostname (instead of IP address), this field displays the fully qualified hostname for the device.
Managed Type. Specifies the protocol used to discover the device and whether or not the device is a physical device or a virtual device. Clicking on this field executes an SNMP walk of the device's SNMP file and displays the SNMP Walker modal page.
Category. The device category associated with the device. The device category usually describes the function of the hardware.
Sub-Class. The device sub-class associated with the device. The sub-class usually described the model of a device.
Uptime. The number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that the device has been continuously up and communicating with SL1. Clicking on this field displays the System Vitals Summary report.
Collection Time. The date and time that SL1 last collected data from the device.
Group/Collector. The Collector Group and specific collector used to last collect data from the device. For All-In-One Appliances, this field will contain the name of the default, built-in Collector Group.

Editing Device Settings

The fields in the Device Properties page affect how SL1 will discover and collect information about the device. Initially, SL1 uses system defaults, system-wide settings, and data retrieved during initial discovery of the device to populate these fields.

You can edit one or more of these fields for the device. The settings defined for the device in the Device Properties page override any system-wide settings (defined in the pages under System > Settings).

Identification

Device Name. The name of the device. If possible, SL1 retrieves the device name from the device. If the device is running SNMP or has a DNS entry, the name will be retrieved directly from the device. You can set the precedence for which of these names are used (SNMP system name or DNS entry) in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior). You can edit this name in the Device Properties page; however, the Device Name will not be changed on the actual device.
IP Address. The IP address that SL1 uses to communicate with the device. You can add additional IP addresses for the device. To change the IP address SL1 uses to communicate with the device (called the admin primary address), select a different IP address in this field.
Organization. Organization to which this device has been assigned. To assign this device to a different Organization, select an Organization from the drop-down list. To view details about the assigned organization, select the people icon () to the right of this field.

Monitoring & Management

Device Class. Displays the Device Class. To assign a different device class to the device, select the toolbox icon () to the right of this field. To edit the device's Device Class, select the pencil icon () to the right of this field.

If you incorrectly change a device's Device Class, SL1's nightly update will override the new Device Class and assign the device to the correct Device Class.

SNMP Read /Write. The first drop-down lets you select an SNMP Read credential for read access to SNMP information on the device. The second drop-down let you select a n SNMP Write credential for read-and-write access to SNMP information on the device.

Devices that do not support SNMP ("pingable" devices) display the value None in both the SNMP Read field and the SNMP Write field.

Your organization membership(s) might affect the list of credentials you can see in the SNMP Read field and the SNMP Write field. For details, see the Discovery and Credentials section.

Availability Port. Specifies the protocol (first drop-down menu) and specific port (second drop-down menu) that SL1 should monitor to determine if the device is available. The list of ports will contain all the ports discovered by SL1. The data collected from this port will be used in device availability reports. Protocol options include:

TCP. Availability is based on whether the SL1 can connect to the device using the specified TCP port.
ICMP. Availability is based on whether the device responds to an ICMP ping request from SL1. If you select ICMP as the protocol, you can use the ICMP Availability Thresholds fields in the Device Thresholds page to further define how SL1 will test the device's availability.
SNMP. Availability is based on whether the device responds to an SNMP get request from SL1.
ScienceLogic Agent. Availability is based on whether the SL1 agent is reporting data to SL1. The agent must be installed on the device to use this option.

Component devices use a Dynamic Application collection object to measure availability. For details, see the description of the Component Identifier field in the Collection Objects page. For more information, see the section Monitoring Device Availability and Device Latency.

Run Availability Policy (). When you select this icon, SL1 immediately checks the availability of the device, using the port and protocol specified in the Availability Port fields. SL1 displays a Session Logs modal page that displays a detailed description of each step of the availability policy. This information is helpful when troubleshooting availability problems with a device.

Latency Port. Specifies the protocol and specific port SL1 should monitor to determine latency for the device. The list of ports will contain all the ports discovered by SL1 and the option ICMP, for which SL1 performs a ping request. The data collected from this port or ping request will be used in device latency reports.

If you select ICMP as the protocol, you can use the ICMP Availability Thresholds in the Device Thresholds page to further define how SL1 will test the device's latency.

Avail + Latency Alert. Specifies how SL1 should respond when the device fails an availability check, when the device fails a latency check, and when the device fails both. These options allow you to create separate events when SNMP fails on a device and when a device is not up and running. Choices are:

Enabled. SL1 will create the following events:

If the device fails the availability check, generates the event "Device Failed Availability Check: UDP - SNMP".

If the device fails the latency check, generates the event "Network Latency Exceeded Threshold: No Response".
If the device fails both the availability check and the latency check, generates the event "Device Failed Availability and Latency checks".

Disabled. SL1 will create the following events:

If the device fails the availability check, generates the event "Device Failed Availability Check: UDP - SNMP".

If the device fails the latency check, generates the event "Network Latency Exceeded Threshold: No Response".
If the device fails both the availability check and the latency check, generates the event "Device Failed Availability Check: UDP - SNMP". The event "Network Latency Exceeded Threshold: No Response" is suppressed under the availability event.

User Maintenance. Specifies whether the device will be put into "user maintenance" mode. By default, when a device is in "user maintenance", SL1 will not generate events about the device.

You can choose to enable or disable polling during "user maintenance" mode. If polling is enabled during "user maintenance", SL1 will collect information from the device but will generate only events of severity less than the severity specified in the system-wide Maintenance Minimum Severity setting. For more information about the Maintenance Minimum Severity setting, see the Device Maintenance section.

"User maintenance mode" is not scheduled. That is, a user must manually enable "user maintenance" to put a device into this mode and a user must manually disable "user maintenance" to turn off this mode for a device. "User maintenance mode" overrides scheduled maintenance for a device. Choices are:

Enabled. Device will be set to "user maintenance" mode.
Disabled. Device will not be set to "user maintenance" mode.

User Maintenance Collection. Specifies whether SL1 should poll the device during the "user maintenance". During normal operation, SL1 polls each device as specified by each device's policies and aligned Dynamic Applications. Choices are:

Enabled. During "user maintenance" mode, SL1 will continue to poll the device.
Disabled. During "user maintenance" mode, SL1 will not poll the device.

Collection . Specifies if device will be monitored by SL1. To edit this field, select one of the following from the drop-down list:

Enabled. Device will be monitored by SL1.
Disabled. Device will not be monitored by SL1.

Collection Poller. Specifies which Collector Group will perform discovery and gather data from the device. The drop-down list contains a list of available collector groups. For All-In-One Appliances, this field displays only the built-in Collector Group (and any virtual Collector Groups). For details on Collector Groups, see the System Administration section.

Coll. Type. Specifies how SL1 should perform collection. The choices are:

Standard. SL1 will perform discovery of each device based on the device's IP address. This method is appropriate for devices using standard DNS.
DHCP. SL1 will perform a DNS lookup for the device each time SL1 retrieves information from the device. This allows SL1 to get the latest IP address for the device.

Critical Ping. Frequency with which SL1 should ping the device in addition to the five minute availability poll. If the device does not respond, SL1 creates an event. The choices are:

Disabled. SL1 will not ping the device in addition to the five minute availability poll.
Intervals from every 120 seconds - every 5 seconds.

SL1 does not use this ping data to create device-availability reports. SL1 will continue to collect device availability data only every five minutes, as specified in the process "Data Collection:Availability" (in the Process Manager page). For more details on critical ping, see the section Monitoring Device Availability and Device Latency.

Because high-frequency data pull occurs every 15 seconds, you might experience up to 15 seconds of latency between an unavailable alert and that alert appearing in the Database Server if you set Critical Ping to 5 seconds.

You might experience some performance issues if you have a large number of devices using critical ping on a short polling interval. If you have a large number of devices and are experiencing a delay in events being generated for a critical ping outage, try increasing the interval time.

Dashboard. Select a device dashboard from a list of all device dashboards in SL1. The selected device dashboard will appear by default in the Device Summary page for this device. This field is optional.

Event Mask. Events that occur on a single device within the selected time-interval are grouped together. This allows related events that occur in quick succession on a single device to be rolled-up and posted together, under one event description. Select a time-span from the drop-down list:

Disabled. SL1 will not group events.
Group in blocks at intervals from every 30 seconds - every 1 month

By default, when events are masked, the Events page displays all events that occur on the device within the specified time-span under a single event, the one with the highest severity. The magnifying-glass icon () appears to the left of the event. When you click on the magnifying-glass icon, the Suppression Group modal page is displayed. This page displays details about all events that are masked under the displayed event.

NOTE: If an event has Occurrence Count and Occurrence Time set in its Event Policy Editor page, SL1 will use the very first logged occurrence of the event to calculate the Event Mask, even if that first occurrence did not appear in the Events page(due to the Occurrence Count and Occurrence Time fields).

For example, suppose an event, event_x, has an Occurrence Count of "3" and an Occurrence Time of "10 minutes". This means that the event must occur on the same device at least three times within 10 minutes before the event appears in theEvents page. Suppose the event, event_X, occurs on device_A at 15:51, 15:52, and 15:53. The event will appear in the Events page with a timestamp of "15:53", an age of "2 minutes" and a count of "3".

Suppose device_A includes an Event Mask of "Group in blocks every 5 minutes". To calculate how to group event_x, the Event Mask will use the timestamp of the first occurrence, 15:51, even though the event did not appear in the Events page at that time. The Event Mask will also use the time of the first occurrence, 15:51, to calculate the "Age/Elapsed" value for the event in the Suppression Group modal page.

Preferences

Auto-Clear Events. Auto Clear automatically removes an event from the Event Monitor if a specified succeeding event occurs. For example, suppose the event "Device not responding to ping" occurs. If the next polling session produces the event "Device now responding normally to ping", the Auto Clear feature could clear the event. If you do not want events to be cleared automatically, uncheck this field. For this specific device, this field overrides the global auto-clear settings in theEvent Policy Editor page (Events > Event Manager > create or edit).
Accept All Logs. This checkbox specifies whether or not you want to keep and save all logs for this device. If you want to retain only logs associated with events, uncheck this field.
Daily Port Scans. This checkbox specifies whether or not you want SL1 to perform a daily scan of the device for open ports. Select this field to enable daily port scans.
Auto-Update. This checkbox specifies whether or not you want SL1 to perform a nightly discovery of the device and update records with changes to the device. Check this box to enable nightly updates. If this field is unchecked, SL1 will not perform nightly discovery. Changes to the device, including newly opened ports, will not be recorded by SL1.
Scan All IPs. If the device uses multiple IP Addresses, SL1 can scan for open ports on all IPs during nightly discovery. Check this box to enable scanning of all IP Addresses for open ports every night.
Dynamic Discovery. If selected, SL1 will automatically assign the appropriate Dynamic Applications to the device during nightly discovery.
Preserve Hostname. If selected, the name of the device in SL1 will remain the same, even if the name of the actual device is changed. If unselected, the name for the device will be updated if the name of the actual device is changed.
Disable Asset Update. If selected, SL1 will not automatically update the asset record associated with the device. For a single device, this checkbox overrides any settings defined in the Asset Automation page (System > Settings > Assets).

Adding an IP Address to a Device

If a device has multiple IP addresses, you can add those IP addresses in SL1. SL1 will continue to use the primary IP address for communication with the device. However, after you add an additional IP address to a device, you can change the primary IP address to the new IP address by selecting it in the IP Address field.

To define additional IP addresses for a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device for which you want to define additional IP address. Select the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, find the IP Address field.
To the right of the IP Address field, click on the plus-sign icon ().

Alternately, you can also select the Actions menu and choose Add IP Address.
The Add IP Address modal page appears. The Add IP Address modal page allows you to define an additional IP address for the device.
The Add IP Address modal allows you to define an additional IP address for the device. SL1 will continue to use the Admin Primary IP address for communication with the device. However, SL1 will also collect data about the additional IP address(es). To associate an additional IP address with the device, supply values in the following fields:

IP Address. Supply the IP address. This can either be a numeric IPv4 address that uses dots or an alphanumeric IPv6 address that colons.
Subnet Mask. Supply the subnet mask associated with the IP address. This field is optional.

Select the [Add] button.
In the Device Properties page, you will now see the additional IP address in the IP Address field. During auto-discovery, SL1 will verify that this IP address exists on the device and will append the label "verified" to the value in the IP Address field.

After you manually rediscover the device or after SL1 runs nightly auto-discovery (whichever occurs first), the new IP address will appear in the Network Browser page.

Removing an IP Address from a Device

If you have added an IP address to a device using the steps in the section on Associating an Additional IP Address with the Device, you can also delete that IP address.

There are two exceptions to this ability:

You cannot delete an IP address that is currently the Admin Primary IP address for the device.
You cannot delete an IP address that is associated with a network interface.

To delete an IP address:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device from which you want to delete an IP address. Select the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, find the IP Address field.
To the right of the IP Address field, select the bomb icon (). The Remove IP Address modal page displays:
Select the checkbox for the IP address you want to delete.
Select the Remove button. The IP address is deleted.

The Remove IP Address modal page will display checkboxes only for IP addresses that you can delete. If an IP address appears in the Remove IP Address modal page without a checkbox, you cannot delete that IP address.

If an IP address that you want to delete appears in the Remove IP Address modal page as Selected, it is currently the Admin Primary IP address and you must select a new Admin Primary IP before you can delete the IP address. To select a new Admin Primary IP address:

In the IP address drop-down list in the Device Properties page, select a new Admin Primary IP address.
Select the Save button.
You can now delete the previous Admin Primary IP address.

Managing Device IPs

There are three types of IP addresses that can be associated with a device:

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. You can change the Admin Primary address by changing the value in the IP Address field in the Device Properties page.
Primary. One or more IP addresses that SL1 uses to match incoming log messages (traps and syslog messages) with a device. When you select an IP address in the Select Primary IP Addresses modal page, that IP address becomes a primary. You can also unselect an IP address in theSelect Primary IP Addresses modal page. When you unselect an IP address, that IP address becomes a secondary.
Secondary. SL1 gathers information about this IP address and uses the IP address to match incoming log messages (traps and syslog messages) with a device if it cannot match them first to a primary IP address.

A Message Collection Server accepts inbound, asynchronous messages from monitored devices and applications in your network. For example, Message Collectors accept all SNMP traps, SNMP informants, and syslog messages. A SL1 system can include one or more Message Collectors.

A single Message Collector can be aligned with multiple Collector Groups.

If you are using a combination Data Collector and Message Collector, this combination appliance should be assigned only to its own dedicated Collector Group and that Collector Group should not include other Data Collectors or Message Collectors.

Although SL1 will not allow duplicate IP addresses within a single Collector Group, SL1 does allow duplicate IP addresses if each device is aligned with a different Collector Group.
If a single Message Collector is aligned with multiple Collector Groups, the single Message Collector might be aligned with two or more devices (each in a separate Collector Group) that use the same primary IP address or the same secondary IP address. If this happens, SL1 will generate an event. To fix this situation, you can go to the Select Primary IP Addresses modal page for one of the devices and change the primary IP address in question. You can demote the primary and promote a secondary IP address for the device. This will fix the problem with duplicate IPs and allow the Message Collector to align messages with the device.

For All-In-One Appliances, the function provided by a Message Collector is built in to the All-In-One Appliance. All-In-One systems contain only one built-in Collector Group.

The Select Primary IP Addresses modal page allows you to view a list of IP addresses for the device and define one or more of those IP addresses as "primary" or "secondary". To change an IP address to Primary or Secondary, perform the following:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Find the device for which you want to manage the IP addresses. Select its wrench icon ().
In the Device Properties page for the device, select the Actions menu. Choose Select Primary IP Address.

The Select Primary IP Addresses modal page appears. There are three types of IP addresses that can be associated with a device:

Admin Primary. This is the IP address that SL1 uses to communicate with a device. This IP address is always the admin primary address and cannot be demoted to a secondary address.
Primary. One or more IP addresses that SL1 uses to match incoming messages (traps and syslog messages) with a device. When you select an IP address in the Select Primary IP Addresses modal page, that IP address becomes a primary. You can also unselect an IP address in the Select Primary IP Addresses modal. When you unselect an IP address, that IP address becomes a secondary.
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.

Within a Collector Group, multiple devices cannot use the same primary IP address. In some circumstances, an IP address appears in the Select Primary IP Addresses modal page for the current device but does not have a corresponding checkbox. This means that the IP address is currently used as a primary IP on another device in the same Collector Group. SL1 will not allow you to promote this IP address to a primary IP address on the current device.

Select the Save button to save the changes to the device.

Clearing the Device Cache

Between HTTP requests, SL1 caches data in memory. For diagnostic purposes, you might want to clear the cached data about a specific device. To do this:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device whose data you want to clear from the cache. Select its wrench icon ().

In the Device Properties page for the device, select the Actions menu and select Clear Device Cache. Data about the device will be cleared from the cache.

Aligning a Secondary Credential

During initial discovery of a device, SL1 uses a specified SNMP credential. If you specified that SL1 should discover non-SNMP devices, SL1 will use ICMP and nmap to gather information about a device. After SL1 finds devices, discovery can use a second list of specified credentials to access database data, SOAP data, XML data or data that is monitored with a Snippet Dynamic Application.

After initial discovery, you can add additional credentials to a device. For example, if more than one SNMP agent is running on the device, each agent can now be associated with its own credential. If SL1 will be monitoring multiple applications on the device, each application can now be associated with its own credential. During the next discovery session, SL1 will use the appropriate credential for each agent or application on the device.

When performing a nightly discovery on a device or when performing a manual discovery on a device, SL1 uses the credentials in this order: 1) Each credential manually aligned with each Dynamic Application in the Dynamic Application Collections page, in the Device Administration panel; 2) Secondary credentials defined in the Device Properties page, in the Device Administration panel; 3) The SNMP Read/Write string defined in the Device Properties page, in the Device Administration panel; 4) The credential used in the initial discovery session for the device.

To associate one or more additional credentials with a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device for which you want to define additional credentials. Select the wrench icon () for the device.

In the Device Properties page, select the Actions menu and choose Secondary Credentials. The Secondary Credentials modal page appears.
The Secondary Credentials modal page displays a list of all credentials defined in SL1:

When defining primary and secondary credentials for a device, you will see only the credentials aligned to organizations you are a member of. If a primary or secondary credential has already been defined on the device, and is aligned to an organization you are not a member of, the credential will be restricted. To learn more about credentials and organizations, see the Discovery and Credentials section.

To add a credential, highlight an entry in the list of credentials.
To select multiple credentials, hold down the <CTRL> key and select the entries by left-clicking.
To remove all secondary credentials from a device, select the Remove All/None option.

Select the Save button.

Adding the Device to a Device Group

A device group is a group of multiple devices. Device groups allow you to configure and edit multiple devices simultaneously. You can view a list of existing device groups, edit a device group, or define a new device group in the Device Group Editor page (Devices > Device Groups).

Device configuration templates allow you to save a device configuration and apply it to one or more devices, and re-use the same configuration over and over again. A device template contains pre-defined settings for all the fields in the Device Properties page (except device name and device IP) and all the fields in the Device Thresholds page. Device templates can also apply policies for interface monitoring, port monitoring, web-content monitoring, service monitoring, and process monitoring and align devices with Dynamic Applications. You can view and define device templates in the Configuration Templates (Devices > Templates) page.

You can apply device configuration templates to a device group and automate the initial configuration of multiple devices. You can also use device groups and device configuration templates to modify the configuration of multiple devices.

For details on device groups and device templates, see the Device Groups and Device Templates section.

To add a device to an existing device group:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device that you want to add to a device group. Select the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, select the Actions menu and choose Device Groups. The Device Groups modal page appears.
The Device Groups modal page allows you to assign a device to a device group or remove a device from a device group.

To add the device to a device group, in the Available Device Groups pane, select one or more device groups. After selecting the Save button, the device group will appear in the Member Device Groups pane.
To remove the device from a device group, in the Member Device Groups pane, select one or more device groups. After selecting the Save button, the device group will appear in the Available Device Groups pane.

Select the Save button.
To remove the device from a device group, in the Member Device Groups pane, select one or more device groups.
Select the Save button.

Creating a Ticket About the Device

A ticket is a request for work. Tickets allow you to monitor work tasks associated with your network. You can create a ticket about a device. The ticket can describe a problem with the device or a maintenance task for the device.

For details on tickets and ticketing, see the Ticketing section.

To create a ticket for a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device about which you want to create a ticket. Click the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, click the Actions menu and select Create a Ticket. The Ticket Editor page appears.
In this page, you can define the basic parameters for a ticket. Notice that the Description field and Element field are automatically populated with the device name.

Click the Save button to save the ticket.

Adding a Note to a Device

You can add notes about a device to the device administration panel. The note will appear in the Notes & Attachments page (the Notes tab in the Device Administration panel). Each note you add to the device can include formatted text, links, images, videos, and attachments.

To add a note to a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device that you want to add a note to. Click the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, click the Actions menu and select Notepad Editor.
The Notepad Editor modal page appears. In this page, you can enter and format text, include images and links in the message, and include an attachment. Click the Save button to save the note.

The Notepad Editor modal page allows you to enter notes or comments about the device.

You can format the text and include links, images, and videos in the note.
You can also include a document template (System > Customize > Document Templates) in the field.

The note will appear in the Notes tab, in the Notes & Attachments page.

The Notes & Attachments page displays all the notes about the device that were created with the Notepad Editor modal page. In the Notes & Attachments page, each entry includes the username, date and time, and text of the comment. You can perform the following on each note entry:

To view a note's attachment, click the paperclip icon ().
To edit the content of a note, click the wrench icon (). The Notepad Editor modal page appears. You can update the note; format the text; insert content from a saved template; and add an attachment, image, or video to the note. Click the Save button to save your changes.
To delete a note, click its bomb icon ().

For information about adding a note to a device on the Notes tab of the Device Investigator, see the section on The Notes Tab.

Aligning Custom Attributes with a Device

You can align custom attributes with a device, assign values to those custom attributes (for the selected device only), and create new extended custom attributes for a device on the Attributes page (the Attributes tab in the Device Administration panel).

For more information on custom attributes, see the section on Custom Attributes.

To align custom attributes with a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Find the device that you want to align with a custom attribute. Click its wrench icon ().
Click the Attributes tab.
In the Attributes page, go to the Please Select field in the bottom-most row.

Select the custom attribute that you want to align with the device.
Supply a value in the Value field.

To align an extended custom attribute with a device, you must supply a value. You cannot align an extended custom attribute to a device and leave the value as "null."

Base custom attributes for devices are automatically aligned with each device in your SL1 System. If the base custom attribute does not include a value for this device, the Value column will display "--" (dash dash). To assign a value to an "empty" base custom attribute: Find the base custom attribute that you want to edit, select its wrench icon (), and supply a value in the Value field.

Click the Save button.

Creating a New Extended Custom Attribute

You can create a new extended custom attribute from the Attributes page. The custom attribute is then aligned with the current device and available to be used by any device in your SL1 System. To create a new extended custom attribute:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Find the device for which you want to create a new custom attribute. Click its wrench icon ().
Click the Attributes tab.
In the Attributes page, click the plus icon () in the bottom-most row, then supply a value in the following fields:

Label. User-defined name for the custom attribute. This value appears in the user interface. If the value in this field does not comply with XML rules for names, SL1 will convert the value to a name that complies with XML rules and store the converted value as the Internal Field Name for the custom attribute.

Names for custom attributes must conform to XML naming standards. The attribute name can contain any combination of alphanumeric characters, a period, a dash, a combining character or an extending character. If a value in the Internal Field Name column does not conform to XML standards, SL1 will replace non-valid characters with an underscore plus the hexadecimal value of the illegal character plus an underscore. So "serial number" would be replaced with "serial_X20_number".

Value Type. Specifies the type of value that will be saved in the custom attribute. Choices are:

String. Non-numeric value
Integer. Numeric value

Value. Value that will be assigned to the custom attribute for this device.

Click the Save button.

Deleting an Extended Custom Attribute from a Device

You can delete an extended custom attribute from a device. When you delete the custom attribute, you remove the value from the custom attribute and unalign the custom attribute with the device.

You cannot delete a base custom attribute from the Attributes page. To delete a base custom attribute, you must go to the Custom Attribute Manager page (System > Manage > Custom Attributes).

To delete an extended custom attribute from a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Find the device for which you want to delete a custom attribute. Click its wrench icon ().
Click the Attributes tab.
In the Attributes page, find the extended custom attribute you want to delete. Click its bomb icon ().

A message appears asking you to confirm that you want to delete the value and unalign the custom attribute from the device.
Click the OK button.

Associating a Product SKU with the Device

A product SKU describes a billable product or service and can be used later to create a billing policy. For details on creating and editing product SKUs, see the Product Catalog page (Registry > Business Services > Product Catalog). For information on billing policies, see the Bandwidth Billing Policies page (Registry > Business Services > Bandwidth Billing).

You can associate a product SKU with a device and then use a bandwidth billing policy to generate a bill that includes the device.

For details on product SKUs and bandwidth billing policies, see the Business Services section.

To associate a product SKU with a device:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
In the Device Manager page, find the device that you want to add a note to. Select the wrench icon () for the device.
In the Device Properties page, select the Actions menu and choose Product Catalog.
The Product Catalog modal page appears. In this page, you can associate one or more product SKUs with the device:

To associate a product SKU with the device, in the Available Products pane, select one or more product SKUs.
To disassociate a product SKU with a device, in the Active Product Subscriptions pane, select one or more product SKUs.

Select the Save button.

Merging Devices

If your SL1 system includes a physical device and a component device that both represent the same device, you can merge those device records into a single record for easier monitoring. Merging does not remove, replace, or add any data; merging simply groups data together.

There are several benefits to merging physical and component devices:

Merging consolidates the devices and their data—device fields, values, graphs, behaviors, and other user interface elements—providing you with a single set of data for the device.
Merging reduces the number of duplicated events and administrative tasks.
Merged devices consume only a single device license.

For example, you might discover a virtual machine device component representing a server, and then later discover an IP-based device from the same server. To prevent duplicate events from occurring for the same server, minimize administrative tasks, and prevent a negative impact on your licensing by inflating the number of devices being monitored by SL1, you could merge the virtual machine component and the corresponding IP-based device into a single device record.

You cannot merge a component device with a physical device that acts as the root device for a dynamic component map (DCM) tree.

When you merge a physical device and a component device, the device record for the component device no longer displays in the user interface, while the device record for the physical device displays in user interface pages that previously displayed the component device. For example, the physical device is displayed instead 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 record for the physical device.

Merged devices can be unmerged back into individual device records, if needed.

You can merge only two individual devices together into a single merged device. To do so, you must have user permissions that allow merging and unmerging on both devices. For more information about user access permissions, see the section on Assigning Access Hooks.

When you merge devices, active events associated with the component device will be set to "cleared." The cleared events will not be associated with the physical device. If the devices are unmerged, the cleared events cannot be moved back to the component device.

Merging devices also merges the log data from each device. The log data cannot be unmerged later.

Use consistent device hostnames to make device merging easier.

SL1 enables you to either merge one pair of devices at a time, as described in the Merging Individual Devices section, or multiple pairs of devices at one time, as described in the Performing a Bulk Device Merge section. For information about unmerging devices, see the Unmerging Individual Devices section or the Performing a Bulk Device Unmerge section.

Merging Individual Devices

If you have a small number of physical and component devices that you want to merge, you can merge each device pair individually.

If you have a large number of devices you want to merge, it might be more efficient to use the Bulk Merge feature, which is described in the Performing a Bulk Device Merge section.

For clarity, the following instructions describe how to merge a physical device from the Device Manager page with a selected component device, but the process is the same when merging a component device from the Device Manager page with a selected physical device.

To merge individual devices:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Click the wrench icon () for the physical device that you want to merge with a component device.
On the Device Properties page, click the Actions menu and then select Merge Device.

A list of component devices that are available for merging with the physical device displays. Click the merge icon () for the component device you want to merge with the physical device. Information for the component device then displays in the Selected Device panel.

Click the Merge button. A pop-up message appears that asks you to confirm the merge.
Click the OK button.

To view an updated list of devices that includes your merged devices, click the Reset button on the Device Manager page.

Unmerging Individual Devices

You can unmerge any pair of physical device and component device that are currently merged. When you unmerge devices, SL1 does not delete any devices or device data; the devices are simply separated into two separate device records.

If you have a large number of devices you want to unmerge, it might be more efficient to use the Bulk Unmerge feature, which is described in the Performing a Bulk Device Unmerge section.

The log data associated with the devices cannot be unmerged. After the devices are unmerged, all log data that was generated before the devices were unmerged is associated with the physical device record.

For details on unmerging a vanished device, see the section on unmerging vanished devices.

To unmerge individual devices:

Go to the Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager).
Select the wrench icon () for the device that you want to unmerge.
On the Device Properties page, select the Actions menu and then choose Unmerge Device.

A modal window displays that asks you to confirm the unmerging. Select the Unmerge button.

To view an updated list of devices that includes your unmerged devices, select the Reset button on the Device Manager page.

Performing Administrative Tasks for One or More Devices

The Device Manager page (Devices > Device Manager) contains a drop-down field in the lower right called Select Action. This field allows you to apply an action to multiple devices at once.

To apply an action to multiple devices:

In the Device Manager page, select the checkbox for each device you want to apply the action to. To select all checkboxes for all devices, select the red checkbox () at the top of the page.

In the Select Action drop-down list, select one of the following actions:

Delete Devices. Deletes all selected devices from SL1. Tickets associated with the device are unlinked from the device, but are not deleted.
Modify by Template. Displays the Applying Template to Device page, where you can apply the settings in a device templates to all selected devices. You can also make one-time changes to the template, that will be applied only to the selected devices.
Clear Device Logs. Deletes data from the device's log files.
Create Asset Record. Automatically creates an asset record for the device. SL1 automatically populates as many fields as possible, using retrieved data.
Schedule Maintenance. Leads to the Maintenance Schedule page. In this page, you can specify a date and time to put each selected device into "maintenance mode". During maintenance mode, SL1 will not generate events about the selected devices. You can choose to enable or enable polling during maintenance mode. Even if polling is enabled, SL1 will collect information from the selected devices but will not generate events for the devices.
Find Collection Label Duplicates. Leads to the Duplicates page. In this page, you can view a list of devices where the Collection Labels have more than possible presentation object aligned. From this page, you can manually align a single presentation object with a Collection Label for a device.
Change Collection State. Changes the status of the device in SL1. The choices are:

Active. SL1 polls the device on a regular basis and updates the data displayed in SL1.
Disabled. SL1 does not poll the device. Data displayed in SL1 is not updated.

Change Maintenance Mode. These options allow you to enable User-Initiated-Maintenance and disable both User-Initiated-Maintenance and scheduled Maintenance.

When a device is in User-Initiated-Maintenance, by default SL1 will not generate events about the device. If you want to allow events during User-Initiated-Maintenance, you can specify which events to allow in the Behavior Settings (System > Settings > Behavior) page. You can choose to enable or disable polling. If polling is enabled during User-Initiated-Maintenance, SL1 will collect information from the device but will generate only the events you specified in the Behavior Settings page. By default, SL1 will not generate any events. User-Initiated-Maintenance mode is not scheduled. That is, a user must manually enable User-Initiated-Maintenance to turn off this mode for a device. User-Initiated-Maintenance Mode overrides scheduled maintenance for a device. Choices are:

Enabled with Collection. One or more devices are set to User-Initiated-Maintenance mode. During User-Initiated-Maintenance mode, SL1 will continue to poll the device.

Enabled without Collection. One or more devices are set to User-Initiated-Maintenance mode. During User-Initiated-Maintenance mode, SL1 will not poll the device.
Disabled. User-Initiated-Maintenance mode is disabled for each selected device.

Change Collector Group. Changes the collector group used to collect data from the device. Choose from the list of all collector groups in SL1. When you select one of the collector groups, each selected device will be polled by the collectors in the collector group. For All-In-One Appliances, you can select only the built-in Collector Group and any virtual Collector Groups.
Move To Organization. Associates a device with an organization. The list of choices will include all organizations in SL1.
Align SNMP Read Credential. This option applies the selected credential to all selected devices. The selected devices will use the selected credential as their primary credential. Secondary credentials will remain unchanged. Choose from a list of SNMP Read credentials (defined in System > Manage > Credentials). The list will include only credentials that you are allowed to use.
Add to Device Group. This option aligns the selected devices with the selected device group. The selected devices will then appear in Device Group Views and will inherit the properties of the device group, including scheduling, access, and visibility.
Align to Device Dashboard. This option aligns the selected devices with the selected device dashboard. The selected device dashboard will appear as the default view in the Device Summary page.

Select the Go button.
The selected action is applied to each selected device.

Shortcut Keys for the Device Administration Panel

When you edit a device (select its wrench icon (), you enter the Device Administration panel.

When you enter the Device Administration panel, you can use the following shortcut keys to navigate the tabbed pages and the entries in the Actions menu.

Page or Tab	Shortcut Keys
Administer Bookmarks page	Ctrl + Alt + B
Dynamic Application Collectionspage	Ctrl + Alt +C
Device Groups page	Ctrl + Alt + D
Guides page	Ctrl + Alt + G
Device Thresholds page	Ctrl + Alt + H
Device Interfaces page	Ctrl + Alt + I ("eye")
Device Logs & Messages page	Ctrl + Alt + L
Monitoring Policies page	Ctrl + Alt + M
Notes & Attachments page	Ctrl + Alt + N
Device Toolbox page	Ctrl + Alt + O ("oh")
Device Properties page	Ctrl + Alt + P
Maintenance Schedule page	Ctrl + Alt + S
Ticket History page	Ctrl + Alt + T
Resource Usage page	Ctrl + Alt + U
Exit Device Administration panel	Ctrl + Alt + X
Device Properties page	Ctrl + Alt + . ("period")
Ticket Editor page	Ctrl + Alt + <Enter>