View and Manage Devices

This section contains the following topics:

Manage your Onboarded Devices

The Network Devices window gives you a consolidated list of all your devices that you have onboarded, and their status. To view the Network Devices window, select Device Management > Network Devices from the main menu.
Figure 1. Network Devices

Within the Network Devices window, you can perform the following tasks:

If you click on the IP address link of a device, you can see the following information about each device on the pop-up window.

  • A Details tab with device specifications, connectivity details, routing information and detailed inventory collection.

  • An Alarms tab displaying information such as severity, source, category, and condition of the alarms. The columns can be customized based on your preferences.

  • An Inventory tab displaying the product name, product ID, admin status, operational status, and serial number. The columns can be customized based on your preferences.

  • A History tab with detailed information about device performance, including various performance metrics.

To control or restrict device access for users, refer to the section Manage Device Access Groups in the Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.0 Administration Guide.

Monitor Device States

Cisco Crosswork Network Controller computes the reachability state of the devices it manages, as well as the operational and NSO states of reachable managed devices. It indicates these states using the icons in the following table. By monitoring the reachability and operational states of devices, you can get real-time information about their connectivity status, enabling you to quickly identify and resolve any connectivity issues.

At the top of the Network Devices window, you can view a summary of the reachability status of your devices. Additionally, the list of devices displays the reachability state, admin state, and operational state for each device.

Table 1. Device Status Icons
This Icon... Indicates...

Reachability State icons indicate if a device is reachable. This state is computed when the device is configured as UP. It is not computed if the device is DOWN or UNMANAGED.

  • REACHABLE: At least one route and the device is discoverable.

  • UNREACHABLE: No routes or the device does not respond.

  • UNKNOWN: The device is UNMANAGED.

Reachable icon

Reachable: The device can be reached by all configured protocols.

Degraded icon

Reachability Degraded: The device can be reached by at least one protocol, but is not reachable by one or more of the other protocols configured for it.

Unreachable icon

Unreachable: The device cannot be reached by any protocol configured for it.

Reachability Unknown icon

Reachability Unknown: Crosswork Network Controller cannot determine if the device is reachable.

Operational State icons show if a device is operational.

  • Computed only if the device is UP, not if DOWN or UNMANAGED.

  • It can be either OK or ERROR.

  • Operational=OK if the device is REACHABLE and discoverable; otherwise, it is ERROR.

Up icon

The device is operational and under management, and all individual protocols are "OK" ( also known as "up").

Down icon

The device is not operational ("down"). The same icon is used when the device has been set "administratively down" by an operator.

Reachability Unknown icon

The device's operational state is unknown.

Degraded icon

The device's operational state is degraded.

Error icon

The device's operational state is in an error condition. It is either not up, or unreachable, or both, due to errors encountered while attempting to reach it and compute its operational state. The number in the circle shown next to the icon indicates the number of recent errors. Click on the number to see a list of these errors. (Note that the icon badging for errors is not available in the topology map.)

Checking icon

The device's operational state is currently being checked.

Deleting icon

The device is being deleted.

Unmanaged icon

The device is unmanaged.

NSO State icons show whether a device is synced with Cisco NSO.

Note

 

In the initial sync between Crosswork Network Controller and NSO after onboarding a device, the NSO state column in the device remains blank. This occurs because Crosswork has not determined if the device needs to sync with NSO based on the policy, and cannot select the default state in the initial sync.

Synced

The device is in sync with Cisco NSO.
Out of Sync

The device is out of sync with Cisco NSO.

Note

  • For XR or XE devices only, Operational=OK also requires that clock drift difference between the Crosswork Network Controller host and the device clocks is less than or equal to the default drift value of 2 minutes.

  • Some timezone settings are known to result in clock drift errors when no clock drift actually exists. To work around this issue set your devices to use UTC time.

Filter Network Devices by Tags

By creating a tag and assigning it to a particular device, you can easily provide additional information that might be of interest to other users, such as the device’s physical location and its administrator’s email ID. You can also use tags to find and group devices with the same or similar tags in any window that lists devices.

To filter devices by tags:

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Network Devices.

Step 2

In the Type to filter by tags bar at the top of the user interface, type all or part of the name of a tag.

The Type to filter by Tags bar has a type-ahead feature: As you start typing, the field shows a drop-down list of tags that match all the characters you have typed so far. To force the drop-down list to display all available tags, type *.

Step 3

Choose the name of the tag you want to add to the filter. The filter appears in the Type to filter by tags filter bar. The table or map shows only the devices with that tag.

Step 4

If you want to filter on more than one tag:

  1. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each additional tag you want to set as part of the filter.

  2. When you have selected all the tags you want, click Apply Filters. The table or map shows only the devices with tags that match all the tags in your filter.

Step 5

To clear all tag filters, click the Clear Filters link. To remove a tag from a filter containing multiple tags, click the X icon next to that tag's name in the filter.

To see how tags can be managed for assignment to the devices in your network, refer to the section Manage Tags in the Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.0 Administration Guide.

Edit Devices

Editing a device allows you to modify various device settings for onboarded devices. Ensure that you have administrative access and consider any network impact when you make changes. For a list of the fields you can edit, see the "Add New Device" field table in Add Devices Through the User Interface.

These are the steps of updating a device's information.

Before you begin

Before editing any device, it is always good practice to export a CSV backup of the devices you want to change.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Network Devices.

Step 2

(Optional) Filter the list of devices by filtering specific columns.

Step 3

Select the check box of the device you want to change, then click Edit icon.

Step 4

Edit the values configured for the device, as needed.

Note

 

  • User-configured parameters like ISIS System ID and OSPF Router ID are not autodiscovered by Crosswork Network Controller for onboarded devices. These fields may appear blank when you edit the device, however, the topology page for the same device displays the parameters.

  • In addition to the existing fields, you can also view the Data Gateway configured for the selected device. This field is read-only.

  • The TE Router ID should not be changed after importing or onboarding a device. If it is necessary to change the TE Router ID, follow these steps:

    1. Remove the device from Crosswork.

    2. Remove all SR-PCE Providers.

    3. Onboard the device again with the new TE Router ID.

    4. Add the SR-PCE providers again.

    5. Update the TE Router ID under the Routing info segment.

Step 5

Click Save. The Save button remains dimmed until all required fields are completed.

Step 6

Resolve any errors and confirm device reachability.

Delete Devices

When you delete a device from Crosswork Network Controller, it is removed from Crosswork's monitoring and management framework. You might delete a device if it is being withdrawn, reassigned, replaced, or if it was added by mistake.

Complete the following procedure to delete the devices.

Before you begin

  • Export a backup CSV file containing the devices that you plan to delete.

  • If you set the auto-onboard property as managed or unmanaged for an SR-PCE provider, set auto-onboard as off for one or more SR-PCEs.

  • Confirm that the device is disconnected and powered off before deleting the device.

  • If devices are mapped to Cisco NSO with MDT capability, and a telemetry configuration is pushed, then those configurations will be removed from the device.

  • If auto-onboard is not off and it is still functional and connected to the network, the device will be rediscovered as unmanaged when it is deleted.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Network Devices.

Step 2

(Optional) In the Devices window, filter the list of devices by entering text in the Search field or filtering specific columns.

Step 3

Check the check box for the devices that you want to delete.

Step 4

Click the Delete icon.

Step 5

In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

View Detailed Inventory Collection Status

Cisco Crosswork Network Controller computes the detailed inventory collection status of the devices it manages. At the top of the Network Devices window, you can view a summary of the detailed inventory collection status for your devices. Additionally, when you click on a device's link, you can view the detailed inventory collection information under the Details tab.

It indicates the status of a device using the icons in the following table.

Table 2. Inventory Collection Status

This Icon

Indicates

Completed: The device inventory collection process has finished.

Failed: The device inventory collection process has encountered an error and did not complete.

In Progress: The device inventory collection is in progress and the system is currently in the process of collecting and updating inventory data for network elements.

Maintenance: Operation for detailed inventory collection is suspended. It may not be possible to initiate new inventory collection processes, or the data displayed might not reflect the most recent state of the network elements.

Warning: The inventory collection process has encountered some issues that may not have completely prevented the process from completing but could still affect the accuracy or completeness of the data collected. After addressing the causes of the warnings, the inventory collection process may need to be rerun to confirm that all issues have been resolved and that the collected data is both accurate and complete.

Enable or Disable Granular Inventory

Granular inventory in Cisco Crosswork Network Controller provides detailed device data for enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting. While enabling it offers deeper insights and supports proactive maintenance, it can also consume significant system resources and storage. Disabling it can improve performance, especially in large networks.

The inventory sync process includes several automated steps. A nightly sync updates the inventory system, while any failed features for devices prompt a sync attempt every 30 minutes. Newly added devices in the UP state and existing devices transitioning from DOWN to UP state also trigger inventory syncs. The automatic synchronization occurs when there are configuration or state changes on a device. The device notifies these changes through traps or syslogs.

You can enable the granular inventory at the device level by selecting the required device in the Network Devices page, and then choosing Actions > Enable Granular Inventory.

To disable granular inventory, choose Actions > Disable Granular Inventory. This will disable the granular inventory for the selected device only, and will not impact the granular inventory processing of any other devices in the system.

You can apply these actions to multiple devices simultaneously, but all selected devices must be in the same state (either all enabled or all disabled) for these options to be available.

Perform Detailed Inventory Sync

You can perform a detailed inventory sync to maintain an up-to-date view of the network devices. If there are changes in the network, such as new devices being added, existing devices being removed, or configurations being updated,an on-demand inventory sync captures these changes and updates the system accordingly.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Network Devices.

Step 2

Select one more devices for which you want to perform the detailed inventory synchronization.

Step 3

Click Actions > Detailed inventory sync to sync and reflect the current state of the network devices.

Use Device Groups to Filter your Topology Map

Device groups let you organize and manage your devices according to your needs. You can use device groups to filter and display data from specific devices on your dashboard. Device groups also allow you to visualize and zoom in on data specific to a particular group of devices. It reduces the clutter on your screen and allows you to focus on data that is most important to you.

Create Device Groups

You can create device groups and add devices to the groups either manually (as described in this section) or automatically, as described in Create Rules for Dynamic Device Grouping. A device can belong to only one device group.

Figure 2. Device Groups

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Device Groups. We see that a device group has been selected. Also note that only the devices belonging to that device group are listed in the devices table in the right pane.

Step 2

To add a new sub-group, click the three dots next to any group and then click Add a Sub-group.

Step 3

Fill in the details and click Create.

A new sub-group is added under the selected parent group.

Create Rules for Dynamic Device Grouping

You can create a rule to dynamically create device groups and automatically add unassigned devices to these groups using a Regular Expression (regex) on the device host name or IP address. Any newly added or discovered devices that match the rule will be placed in the appropriate group.

Dynamic rules do not apply to devices that already belong to groups. You must move them to Unassigned Devices if you want them to be considered by the rule.

Before you begin

While you can follow examples given in the Dynamic Groups dialog, it is helpful to be familiar with Regular Expressions.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

Click next to All Locations > Manage Location Dynamic Groups.

Step 3

Click Show more details and examples to help you fill out the required host name or IP address.

Step 4

If there are any existing devices in the Unassigned Devices group, click Test Rule to view a sampling of what type of group names will be created.

Step 5

Turn the Enable Rule toggle ON to enable the rule. After the rule is enabled, the system checks for unassigned devices every minute and will assign them to the appropriate group based on the rule.

Step 6

Click Save.

Step 7

Groups that are created this way initially appear under Unassigned Groups (created when a rule is enabled for the first time). Move newly created groups to the desired group hierarchy.

Modify Device Groups

You can modify device groups to add or edit the device group details. You can change the group name, or assign a different parent group.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

To edit the group details, click the three dots next to the group name and then click Edit Group Properties. You can update the parent group, group name and the description.

Step 3

Click Save.

Delete Device Groups

You can delete a device groups from the system. This will unassign all the devices that belong to that group and make them available for other groups.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

To delete the device group, click the three dots next to the group name and then click Delete Group.

Step 3

On the Delete Group pop-up, click Delete to confirm your deletion.

Move Devices from One Group to Another

If you need to reorganize your devices, you can move them from one group to another.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

Select the group from which you wish to move the devices.

Step 3

Select the devices from the right pane.

Step 4

From the Move drop-down, select the appropriate group and click Move. You can also create a new group to which you can move your selected devices. For more information refer to Create Device Groups

Import Multiple Device Groups

When you import device groups from a CSV file, the import process creates new device groups that does not exist in the database, and updates the existing device groups that have the same data as the imported ones. This means that you might lose some of your original data if you import device groups without backing them up first. Therefore, we recommend that you export a copy of all your current device groups before you perform an import.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

Click to open the Import Groups dialog box.

Step 3

If you have not already created a device groups CSV file to import:

  1. Click the Download device groups (*.csv)' template link and save the CSV file template to a local storage resource.

  2. Open the template using your preferred tool. Begin adding rows to the file, one row for each device group.

    Use a semicolon to separate multiple entries in the same field. Use two semicolons with no space between them to indicate that you are leaving the field blank.

    Be sure to delete the sample data rows before saving the file, or they will be imported along with the data you want. The column header row can stay, as it is ignored during import.

  3. When you are finished, save the new CSV file.

Step 4

Click Browse to navigate to the CSV file you just created and then click Open to select it.

Step 5

With the CSV file selected, click Import.

Note

 

  • While importing device groups using a CSV file, you should wait for the operation to complete. Clicking the Import button while the operation is in progress will lead to duplicate entries.

Export Multiple Device Groups

You can export the device groups details to a CSV file. This is useful for creating a record of all the device groups in the system at a given time. You can also modify the CSV file as you wish, and import it back to update the existing data.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Device Groups.

Step 2

Click to export the device groups in CSV format. The CSV file is then downloaded in your systems download folder.

View Device Details from the Topology Map

The topology map lets you view the information of any device in your network. You can see various details, such as device specifications, routing configurations, and device links. The topology map enables you to monitor and manage your network devices with ease and efficiency.


Note

View Basic Device Details

You can view the basic device details and its connections in a graphical way. The map also allows you to adjust the view of the device by zooming in and out, panning, and rotating.


Note

If you are viewing the HTML version of this guide, click on the images to view them in full-size.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

Hover the mouse over the device icon, to quickly view the host name, reachability state, IP address and type of device.

Figure 3. Basic Device Details

View All Device Details

The device icon on your topology map lets you view more details about your device, such as where it is located, what kind of device it is, when it was last updated and more.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

To view device details, click on the device icon. The following details are displayed.

  • Alarm information under Summary in the Details tab.

  • An Interfaces tab with name, and operational and admin status for each associated interface.

  • A Links tab with the details of the links on the selected device.

  • An Alarms tab displaying information such as severity, source, category, and condition of the alarms. The columns can be customized based on your preferences.

  • An Inventory tab displaying the product name, product ID, admin status, operational status, and serial number. The columns can be customized based on your preferences.

  • A History tab with detailed information about device performance, including various performance metrics for CPU utilization, device memory utilization, device availability and environmental temperature. For each trend, you can choose the required time frame and dates using the Zoom and Date options on the graph. You also have the option to download the details in a PNG or CSV file.

Figure 4. Device Details

Identify Device Routing Details

Device routing determines how data packets are transmitted from one device to another in the network and ensures that data packets reach their intended destination, avoiding congestion or loops in the network.

Note

If you are viewing the HTML version of this guide, click on the images to view them in full-size.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

To view the device routing details, on the topology map, click the device icon. You can view the routing details in the right pane.

Figure 5. Device Routing Details

Identify the Links on a Device

You can see which links are connected to the device in the Links tab in the Device Details pane.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

To view links on the device, click on the device icon.

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Links tab and expand the right panel to view all the link details.

Figure 6. Links on a Device

View Detailed Device Inventory

You can get a simplified, consolidated view of detailed inventory data for the devices in your network. This includes details of modules, chassis, cards and interfaces.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Topology.

Step 2

Click the device icon to view the Device details pane for the device.

Step 3

Click the Detailed inventory button on the Device details pane to open the detailed inventory window for the chosen device. You can see the Topology tree view on the left.

Figure 7. Topology Tree View

Step 4

Zoom in to view the different modules and click one for which you need detailed information.

Figure 8. Zoomed modules on the Topology Map

You can view detailed information on the Details, Interface, Alarms, Inventory and History tabs for the chosen module.

Get Details About Topology Links

You can view detailed information about any link on the topology map, such as the link name, source and destination devices, link status, bandwidth, latency, and link details. You can also view link utilization to see how much bandwidth the link is using, as well as packet drops and traffic volume.

View Link Details

You can view the link details such as name, state, type, and endpoint interface information for each link. For more information on the link state, refer to Link States and Discovery Methods

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

Select a link to view details in any of the following ways:

  • By clicking a link on the topology map

  • By clicking a link from the Links tab in the topology map

  • By clicking a link from the Links tab in the Device Details page.

Figure 9. Link Details

The History tab provides useful insights into the performance and trends of the network. You can select the time interval to analyze the data.

Note

 

Delay and jitter metrics are available only when Segment Routing Performance Monitoring (SR-PM) is enabled. This requires installing Service Health, which comes with the Crosswork Network Controller Advantage package. For details on enabling SR-PM for links, refer to the Enable SR-PM Monitoring for Links and TE Policies section in the Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.0 Service Health Monitoring guide.

Step 3

View aggregate link details.

Click on a dashed line in the topology map. A dashed line indicates an aggregated link that represents more than one link.

Step 4

View IPv4 unnumbered interface information (if available).

IPv4 unnumbered interfaces information is displayed as a combination of the TE Router ID and the index.

View Link Interface Metrics

Link interface metrics are a set of indicators that measure the performance and quality of the communication between two or more network devices. They include parameters such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, packet loss.

Note

Delay and jitter metrics are available only when Segment Routing Performance Monitoring (SR-PM) is enabled. This requires installing Service Health, which comes with the Crosswork Network Controller Advantage package. For details on enabling SR-PM for links, refer to the Enable SR-PM Monitoring for Links and TE Policies section in the Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 7.0 Service Health Monitoring guide.

Link interface metrics can help network administrators to monitor and troubleshoot network issues, optimize network resources, and plan for future network expansion or upgrade.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Topology.

Step 2

Click a link on the topology map.

Step 3

To view interface metrics, expand A side or Z side.

The utilization shown on IPv4 and IPv6 links represents the aggregate traffic and packet drops on the interface, not specific to each address family. Sub-interfaces will not show a utilization since they do not have a bandwidth like a physical interface. Traffic measurements will still be collected and displayed.

Figure 10. Link Interface Metrics

Protocols Used for Topology Services

The following table lists the protocols and methods used for obtaining the topology information.

Protocol/Method Provides Use Cases

IGP/ BGP-LS (via SR-PCE)

Real time topology (nodes, links, link metrics, and so on.)

L3 topology visualization

PCEP (via SR-PCE)

Real time LSP status and CRUD of SR-PCE initiated LSPs

  • SR/SRv6, RSVP-TE LSP visualization

  • SR-PCE initiated LSP create/update/delete

SNMP (SNMPv2-MIB, IP-MIB, IF-MIB, LLDP-MIB, (CISCO CDP-MIB) (via CDG)

System info, interface table (interface and SR-TE/RSVP-TE traffic Utilization) IP address table, L2 adjacency information

Device management and details and Crosswork Optimization Engine model building:

  • L2/L3 topology

  • Interface name, admin/oper status

  • Interface and SR policy and RSVP-TE tunnel utilization

CLI (via CDG) - show mpls

TE router ID and so on.

To match the DLM node with the same TE router ID that is learned from the SR-PCE

Enable or Disable Topology Link Discovery

To control the visibility of L2 topology links on the maps, you can change the system settings for the discovery of LLDP, CDP and LAG protocols. These protocols are used to identify the neighboring devices and their connections. The discovery option is disabled by default, which means the links of these protocols, including the ones that were already discovered, will not show up on the maps. You can enable the discovery option to see the links of the selected protocols on the maps.

To enable topology discovery:

Before you begin

  • Make sure all pods are healthy before changing the settings.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Administration > Settings > System Settings.

Step 2

Under Topology, click the Discovery option.

Step 3

Select the checkbox of the protocols for which you want to enable discovery.

Step 4

Click Save to save your changes.

When you enable discovery, the collection jobs will be created. The table below lists the collections jobs created for each protocol setting along with the sensor paths.

Table 4. Collection Jobs for each setting

L2 Configuration Setting

Helios collection Jobs ID

Context ID

MIBs collected

Sensor paths

None (default)

cw.topo_svc

cw.toposvc.snmp

cw. toposvc.snmptraps

IF-MIB, IP-MIB, LAG-MIB

IF-MIB:notification

Note

 

IF-MIB is required, but it is collected in the ICON jobs. 

IP - MIB : IP-MIB / ipAddressTable / ipAddressEntry

IF-MIB:notifications

CDP

cw.topo_svc

cw.toposvc.cdp

IF-MIB, CDP-MIB, LAG-MIB

CISCO - CDP - MIB : CISCO - CDP - MIB

/ cdpCacheTable / cdpCacheEntry

CISCO - CDP - MIB : CISCO - CDP - MIB / cdpInterfaceTable / cdpInterfaceEntry

LLDP

cw.topo_svc

cw.toposvc.lldp

IF-MIB, LLDP-MIB, LAG-MIB

LLDP - MIB : LLDP - MIB / lldpLocPortTable / lldpLocPortEntry

LLDP - MIB : LLDP - MIB / lldpRemTable / lldpRemEntry

LAG

cw.topo_svc

cw.toposvc.lag

IF-MIB, LAG-MIB

 
IEEE8023 - LAG - MIB : IEEE8023 - LAG - MIB / dot3adAggTable / dot3adAggEntry
IEEE8023 - LAG - MIB : IEEE8023 - LAG - MIB / dot3adAggPortTable / dot3adAggPortEntry

The table below lists the common errors when enabling or disabling topology discovery:

Table 5. Common error scenarios:

Possible Error Scenario

Cause

Cause Recommended Action

After disabling, some of the disabled links are displayed in the maps.

A protocol that is disabled soon after being enabled may cause a problem. The system may stop the collection job for the previous enabled job before it finishes processing the SNMP data. This may lead to a mismatch between the actual and the displayed status of the links. The links that are disabled may still appear as enabled.

Enable and disable the protocol again with sufficient wait time in between, or restart robot-topo-svc.

When you try to enable discovery, the helios job fails and settings are disabled from further editing.

A possible cause of the collection job being stuck in an unsuccessful state is that the helios pod is unhealthy. Crosswork prevents users from modifying the L2 discovery settings while the collection job is in progress. This means that the collection job cannot be canceled or restarted until the helios pod is healthy again.

Ensure that the pods are healthy, and then enable and disable the protocol with sufficient wait time in between,or restart robot-topo-svc.

When you change the discovery settings, the topology UI or topology service crashes resulting in an unpredictable status.

The mechanism to disable users from further editing while the collection job is being created or deleted, relies on pods communicating via Postgres flag. If any pod crashes during this time, the Postgres flag key is not set correctly.

View the Network Inventory

The Network Inventory window provides a comprehensive list of the network elements and devices that are part of your managed network. This list includes device names and types, in-depth hardware details such as serial numbers and manufacture dates, along with the current operational state of each device. You can also see a high-level overview of the alarm status across your network inventory to monitor network health.

Procedure

Step 1

To view device-level information:

  1. From the main menu, go to Device Management > Network Inventory. The Network Inventory page is displayed. You can see a list of the different Product Types like chassis, chassis extender, compute blade, fan, memory module, pluggable transceiver and power supply.

  2. Use the quick filter to locate specific devices. For example, to list the information for all ASR devices, enter *ASR* in the Product ID field.

    You can also click the alarm icons at the top of the page to filter the inventory.

Figure 11. Network Inventory

For each product, you can view the product name, device name, type and version, vendor name, the operational state of the device, its serial and part number, manufacturing date, and CLEI code. You can filter the displayed information using the settings icon by selecting the inventory information that you want to display.

Step 2

To view element-level information, click the link on the product ID of the device. You can see the pop window with the following tabs. Filter the displayed information under each tab using the settings icon by selecting the information that you want to view.

  1. Details:This tab includes network inventory information for each device. It displays the product name to identify the specific model while the product ID provides a unique identifier. The operational state indicates whether the device is currently active or experiencing issues. The serial number is the unique code assigned to each device for inventory. The type and version indicate the device functionality and its specific release. The CLEI (Common Language Equipment Identifier) code is the standardized identification of the equipment. The part number helps in identifying specific components or assemblies of the device and the physical path details the exact location of the device within the network.

    Figure 12. Network Inventory Details

  2. Interfaces: This tab displays information about the network interfaces of the device. It includes the name of each interface, the administrative status, indicating whether the interface is up or down and the operational status, which reflects the current working condition of the interface, such as whether it is up and running or experiencing issues.

    Figure 13. Network Inventory Interface Details

  3. Alarms: This tab provides information about the alarms that have been raised on a device, a card, or a port. It includes the event type, severity, source and description of the alarm, the date the alarm was created and last updated, the category of the device and the managed object that is monitored.

    Figure 14. Network Inventory Alarms

  4. History:This tab provides graphs reflecting various aspects of the network performance. You can view the changes that have occurred since the device was discovered or first deployed.

    Select the interface from the dropdown option to choose the interface type. Depending on the monitoring policy that you have chosen, you can view the tabular representation of interface details. For example, if you have activated the Interface Health policy, you can view details like in-traffic rate, out-traffic rate, in-utilization, out-utilization, in-errors, out-errors, in-discards, out-discards, in-packets rate, out-packets rate and CRC errors percentage. If you have activated an optical policy, you can view details like optical Rx power, optical Tx power, voltage, temperature and current.

    You can select the time ranging from one month to one hour. In the figure below, you can see a snippet of the average outbound traffic rate for a Gigabit Ethernet interface over a period of one day. You can scroll the pop up window to view other detailed graphs.

    Figure 15. Network Inventory History Details

    Click the download icon to download the data as a pdf file or a csv file.

    Note

     

    To see the relevant data displayed in the graphs, activate the necessary monitoring policy for the relevant devices. For steps to create monitoring policies, refer to the section Create Monitoring Policies.

Export Inventory Results

You can export the inventory search results to a CSV file. This is useful to maintain a record of all your inventory in the system at a given time.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Network Inventory.

Step 2

Select the device for which you want to export the inventory information.

Step 3

Click to export the inventory details in CSV format. The CSV file is then downloaded in your system's download folder.

View Device Job History

Crosswork Network Controller collects and stores information about device-related jobs. Follow the steps below to track all create, update and delete activities.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Inventory Jobs. The Inventory Jobs window opens displaying a log of all device-related jobs, like the one shown below.

Figure 16. Inventory Jobs window
Inventory Jobs window

The jobs display in descending order of creation time. The most recent job is shown first. To sort the data in the table, click a column heading. Click the column heading again to toggle between ascending and descending sort order.

Step 2

The Status column shows the types of states: completed, failed, running, partial, and warning. For any failed or partial job, click Details icon shown next to the error for more information.

Note

 
The status may be displayed as Completed even when the device is not reachable. You can verify that the status of the jobs that is displayed is correct by also looking into the status of the device (Device Management > Network Devices).

Manage Port Groups

Cisco Crosswork Network Controller allows you to manage multiple port groups for applying configurations and monitoring policies to sets of ports on devices. You can implement policies like Quality of Service (QoS), security settings, and traffic management rules across multiple ports simultaneously, and set up monitoring and performance tracking for these groups to oversee network health and identify issues.

Ports on new devices are automatically assigned to the appropriate port group. You can see these ports listed under Port Type as a read-only list. This list categorizes ports according to their types, such as Ethernet, Fiber Channel, or other interface types, without the need for you to enter them manually. You cannot create Port Type groups directly but you can use device criteria to create a user-defined group, and create subgroups under the user-defined group. If the group is dynamic and a port matches the criteria, it is added to the group. A port can belong to one or more port groups.

Figure 17. Port Groups

Add Ports Manually to a Group

You can add ports manually to an existing group. To add a port:

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

To add a port manually, click the three dots next to any group and then click Add ports manually.

Step 3

Click the Add ports button. You can see the ports contained in the selected port groups.

Step 4

Select the ports you want to add and click Save. The ports that you select will be added to the parent port group.

Add Ports Dynamically to a Group

You can automate the inclusion of ports in port groups by adding ports dynamically based on predefined rules, reducing the need for manual intervention. You can define specific rules to automatically add ports to these groups. Note that you can create a maximum number of 10 rules.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

To add a port automatically, click the three dots next to any group and then click Add ports dynamically.

Step 3

Click Add new rule and enter the conditions that you want for the rule based on name, admin status, speed, port type or operational status.

For a detailed list of ifType values and their descriptions to identify interface types and type identifiers, refer to the IANAifType-MIB document available at IANA Interface Types.

Step 4

Click Save. The port group rule is updated and the rule becomes available within 10 minutes.

Step 5

Click Test rule to view a sample of the expected result for the rule you create.

Edit Port Group Properties

You can edit the properties for the port groups you have created. To edit the properties:

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

Locate and select the port group you wish to edit from the list of existing port groups. Click the three dots next to the group and then click Edit group properties.

Step 3

Fill in the details under the Group details tab and click Save.

Create User-defined Port Group

You can create custom groups of ports, known as user-defined port groups. These groups allow you to organize ports according to your needs. The port groups listed under Port Type are automatically generated by Crosswork based on ports discovered from your onboarded devices and are read-only. In contrast, you can create your own port groups under the User-Defined section.

To create a user-defined port group:

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

To add a new port group, click the three dots next to a user-defined group and then click Add a Sub-Group.

Step 3

Add a name and description for the new port and click Create.

A new user-defined port group will appear under the selected category.

Delete a Port Group

You can delete a port group from the system. This will unassign all the ports that belong to that group.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

To delete the port group, click the three dots next to the group name and then click Delete Group.

Step 3

On the Delete Group pop-up, click Delete to confirm your deletion.

Import Port Groups

By importing predefined port groups, you can quickly apply configurations and policies to sets of ports without manually defining each group. When you import port groups from a CSV file, the process creates new port groups that do not exist in the database and updates existing port groups with matching data. This could result in the loss of original data if you import port groups without backing them up first. Therefore, we recommend exporting a copy of all your current port groups before proceeding with the import.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

Click to open the Import Groups dialog box.

Step 3

If you have not created a CSV file for imported port groups:

  1. Click the Download port groups (*.csv)' template link and save the CSV file template to a local storage resource.

  2. Open the template using your preferred tool. Begin adding rows to the file, one row for each port group.

    Use a semicolon to separate multiple entries in the same field. Use two semicolons with no space between them to indicate that you are leaving the field blank.

    Make sure to delete the sample data rows before saving the file, or they will be imported along with your intended data. The column header row can remain, as it is ignored during import.

  3. When you are finished, save the new CSV file.

Step 4

Click Browse to navigate to the CSV file you just created and then click Open to select it.

Step 5

With the CSV file selected, click Import.

Note

 

While importing port groups using a CSV file, you should wait for the operation to complete. Clicking the Import button while the operation is in progress will lead to duplicate entries.

Export Port Groups

You can export the port groups detail to a CSV file. This is useful for creating a record of all the port groups in the system at a given time. You can also modify the CSV file as you wish, and import it back to update the existing data.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose Device Management > Port Groups.

Step 2

Click to export the port groups in CSV format. The CSV file is then downloaded in your systems download folder.