Vanishing and Purging Devices

The Vanished Devices page displays a list of all component devices that have "vanished" from Skylar One.

If Skylar One cannot retrieve information about a component device for the amount of time specified in the Component Vanish Timeout field (on either the Global Threshold Settings page, the Device Thresholds page for the component device, or the Device Thresholds page for a device higher in the component tree), Skylar One sets the device to "vanished".

When a device is set to "vanished", Skylar One stops trying to collect data about the component device. The vanished device does not appear in reports or views. The vanished device appears only on the Vanished Devices page. When a device is set to "vanished", all children of that device are also set to "vanished".

A vanished device automatically returns to a monitored state when the root device reports the device in the latest inventory of the component device discovery application.

After a device stays vanished for the amount of time specified in the Component Purge Timeout field (on either the Global Threshold Settings page, the Device Thresholds page for the component device, or the Device Thresholds page for a device higher in the component tree), Skylar One purges the device. Purged devices are completely removed from Skylar One and all associated data is deleted. When a device is purged, all children of that device are also purged.

The vanishing and purging functions apply only to component devices and merged physical and component devices. Physical, IP-based devices and virtual devices that have not been merged with a component device are never vanished or purged.

Setting Vanish and Purge Thresholds

Two threshold settings control the vanishing and purging behavior for component devices:

Component Vanish Timeout. If Skylar One cannot retrieve information from a root device about a component device, this threshold specifies how many minutes to wait until putting the component device into "vanish" mode. When a device is set to "vanished", Skylar One stops trying to collect data from the component device. The vanished device does not appear in reports or views. The vanished device appears on the Vanished Device Manager page. If this threshold is set to zero for a component device, the component device is never set to "vanished".
Component Purge Timeout. This field specifies the number of hours a device can be set to "vanished" before Skylar One purges the component device. When a device is purged, Skylar One stops trying to collect data from the component device. The purged device does not appear in reports or views on any page in the user interface. When a device is purged, all of its configuration data and collected data is deleted from Skylar One. If this threshold is set to zero for a component device, the component device is never purged.

Skylar One uses the following logic to select the threshold value for a component device:

If the threshold has been configured on the Device Thresholds page for the component device, that threshold value is used.
If the threshold has not been configured on the Device Thresholds page for the component device, but the threshold has been configured on the Device Thresholds page for an ancestor of the component device (that is, a component device in the component tree between the root device and the component device), that threshold value is used. If multiple ancestors have the threshold configured on the Device Thresholds page, Skylar One uses the threshold value for the component device that is closest to the root device (furthest up the tree).
If the threshold has not been configured on the Device Thresholds page for the component device or an ancestor of the component device, the threshold value defined on the Global Threshold Settings page (System > Settings > Thresholds) is used.

Viewing the List of Vanished Devices

The Vanished Device Manager page (Devices > Vanished Devices) displays the following about each device:

You can sort the list by a column's values by clicking its column heading. You can also filter the items on the page by typing or selecting filter options in one or more of the filters found above the columns. For more information, see the topic on Filtering Inventory Pages.

Device Name. Name of the device. For devices running SNMP or with DNS entries, the named device is discovered automatically. For devices without SNMP or DNS entries, the device's IP address appears in this field.
IP Address. The IP address of the device.
Device Category. The ScienceLogic category assigned to the device. Categories include servers, routers, switches, firewalls, and printers, among others. The category is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the Device Class/Sub-Class.
Device Class/Sub-class. The manufacturer (device class) and type of device (sub-class). The Device Class/Sub-class is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the category.
DID. Device ID. This is a unique number automatically assigned to the device by Skylar One.
Organization. The organization to which the device is assigned.

Current State. Condition of the device, based on events generated by the device. Condition can be one of the following:

Critical. Device has a serious problem that requires immediate attention.

Major. Device has a problem that requires immediate attention.
Minor. Device has a less-serious problem.
Notice. Device has an informational event associated with it.
Healthy. Device is running with no problems.

Collection Group. Specifies the collector group to which the device belongs. Collector groups are defined on the Collector Group Management page (System > Settings > Collector Groups) and specify one or more ScienceLogic Data Collectors. A ScienceLogic Data Collector is the appliance that gathers data from the device. For All-In-One Appliances, this field displays only the built-in collector group (and any virtual collector groups).

Collection State. The current condition of data collection for the device. The device can have one or more of the following Collection States:

Active. Skylar One is collecting data from the device.
Unavailable. Skylar One cannot connect to the device and does not collect data from the device until the device becomes available. A physical device falls back to executing the availability ping every five minutes, unless you have critical ping enabled. Component devices get their availability calculated by the component discovery Dynamic Application of the parent device.
User-Disabled. Skylar One is not currently collecting data from the device because a user has disabled collection.
System-Disabled. Skylar One is not currently collecting data from the device because the system has disabled collection.
Scheduled Maintenance. Skylar One is not currently collecting data from the device because the device is currently in scheduled maintenance mode.
User-Initiated-Maintenance. Skylar One is not currently collecting data from the device because a user has put the device into maintenance mode.
Component Vanished. The component device has vanished. Its root device does not currently report the device. Skylar One cannot collect data from the device at this time.

Depending on the circumstances, more than one collection state might appear for a single device. For example, if a device is in a scheduled maintenance mode, the Collection State might be Unavailable / Scheduled Maintenance / System-Disabled.

Vanished Date. Date on which the device was set to "vanished". If Skylar One cannot retrieve information from a root device about a component device for the amount of time specified in the Component Vanish Timeout field (defined globally on the Global Threshold Settings page or for an individual device on the Device Thresholds page), Skylar One sets the device to "vanished". When a device is set to "vanished", Skylar One stops trying to collect data from the component device. The vanished device does not appear in reports or views. The vanished device appears only on the Vanished Device Manager page.
Hours Until Purge. This value is based on the Component Purge Timeout threshold. It specifies the number of hours until the vanished device is purged. When a device is purged, Skylar One stops trying to collect data from the component device. The purged device does not appear in reports or views on any page in the user interface. When a device is purged, all of its configuration data and collected data is deleted from the Database Server. You can define a global threshold for Component Purge Timeout in the Global Threshold Settings page. You can override the global threshold and define the Component Purge Timeout threshold for a single device on the Device Thresholds page.

For more information on preventing a purge, see the section on Setting One or More Devices to Never Purge.

To manually purge a device before the Hours to Purge time, you can manually purge selected devices.

When a device is set to "vanished", all children of that device are also set to "vanished". When a device is purged, all children of that device are also purged.

Using the Advanced Filters

On the Vanished Device Manager page, you can specify one or more parameters to filter the display of devices. Skylar One displays only devices that meet all the filter criteria.

With the Advanced Filter Tool, you can make selections instead of typing a string to filter on.

To select multiple entries in the Advanced Filter Tool, hold down the Ctrl key and click the entries.

To access the Advanced Filter Tool:

Go to the Vanished Device Manager page (Devices > Vanished Devices).
Click the funnel icon ().
The Advanced Filter Tool appears and displays advanced filters for each column on the page.

Unlike the "find while you type" feature, the Advanced Filter Tool is not applied to the list of devices until you select the Apply button.

In the Advanced Filter Tool, filter by one or more of the available parameters.
After selecting all filters, click the Apply button to apply the filters to the list of devices.
To reset each field and apply no filters, click the Reset button.

You can perform an advanced filter and then perform a second advanced filter on the results of the first advanced filter. You can continue to modify and apply an advanced filter multiple times.

Unmerging Vanished Devices

To unmerge a vanished device:

Go to the Vanished Device Manager page (Devices > Vanished Devices, or Registry > Devices > Vanished Device Manager in the classic user interface).
Click the Actions menu and then select Unmerge Devices.
The Device Bulk Unmerge Vanished page appears and displays a list of merged devices. Each numbered row indicates a pair of merged devices that can be unmerged. Select the checkbox for each pair of devices that you want to unmerge. Click the Unmerge button.
A confirmation dialog appears. Click the Unmerge button.
When the message "Device Bulk Unmerge complete" appears, click the Close/Esc button.
The physical device appears again on the Device Manager page (Devices > Classic Devices, or Registry > Devices > Device Manager in the classic user interface).

Manually Purging Selected Devices

You can manually purge one or more devices on the Vanished Device Manager page.

When a device is purged, Skylar One stops trying to collect data from the component device. The purged device does not appear in reports or views on any page in the user interface. When a device is purged, all of its configuration data and collected data is deleted from the Database Server.

When a device is purged, all children of that device are also purged.

To purge one or more vanished devices:

On the Vanished Device Manager page (Devices > Vanished Devices), select the checkbox for each device you want to purge. To select all checkboxes for all devices, select the checkbox at the top of the page.
In the Select Action drop-down list, select Purge Selected Devices.
Click the Go button.

Setting One or More Devices to Never Purge

You can specify that a vanished device should never be purged. When you define this setting for a device, the device is never purged, regardless of the global threshold for Component Purge Timeout in the Global Threshold Settings page or the Component Purge Timeout threshold set for the device on the Device Thresholds page.

To set one or more vanished devices to never be purged:

On the Vanished Device Manager page (Devices > Vanished Devices), select the checkbox for each device you want to prevent from being purged. To select all checkboxes for all devices, select the checkbox at the top of the page.
In the Select Action drop-down list, select Set Selected Devices to Never Purge.
Click the Go button.