Note: Ensure that you have sufficient knowledge of the environment that you are about to discover before you configure these settings, as any assumptions or guesses can result in extended discovery processing times or failed discovery operations.

• Specify the seed router. A seed router, as the name implies, is the starting point of the network discovery itself. The seed router is the first router point of contact for the discovery operation. The number of hops determines the number of subnet hops that the discovery takes from the seed router. Therefore, the seed router and hop count establish the discovery starting point and overall range of the entire operation. The discovery uses the routing and other table information of the seed router in order to guide the rest of the discovery process, bounded by the hop count in order to set the ultimate distance from the seed router. The greater the hop count, the wider the span, which means that the entire process takes longer due to the increase in the total range of devices that must be discovered.
  
  
• Define the scope of the discovery action with a range. The second method explicitly defines the start and end IP addresses in order to establish a defined range. You set the start and end points, and the process runs through the specified range. Again, the greater the overall range, the longer the discovery process. For large networks, we suggest that you either break up your main action into smaller chunks via the specification of IP ranges, or via the use of the Exclude option. The Exclude option can also help to reduce the size and scope of the discovery operation itself but requires additional information about the address of the network, as established by your IT department.
  
  

Note: Ensure that you have sufficient knowledge of the SNMP settings that are used within your network. You must know the types of SNMP that the equipment supports, and you must have the associated Read community strings. The discovery process uses SNMP in order to collect device-level information. With SNMPv3, you might need to define the authentication and encryption details, along with the security phrase if implemented by your IT department.

Note: You must have the appropriate Telnet and SSH username and password that are defined for the environment, as the discovery process makes CLI calls and collects CLI information from all of the devices.

Note: You are not required to enable the Download Cisco configuration files or Retrieve IP phones configuration option for a standard Cisco discovery upload and analysis operation. If you choose to enable these options, then every network device configuration file is downloaded to the local machine that runs the discovery operation. You can use this action in order to collect the configuration files for backup purposes, but it results in a longer discovery process.

Note: The options on this tab are specific to Netformx, so adjustments only affect the Netformx reporting characteristics. The settings have no impact on discovery uploads to Cisco.

Tip: If you want to optimize and reduce the total discovery time for your Cisco-only upload actions, do not enable the Discover physical links, Discover VLANs, or Discover advanced port level settings option. Also avoid the use of the Resolve names and Use WMI Discovery options.

Note: The options on this tab are specific to Netformx, and they provide more granular control over the way that Netformx processes the data for its own reports after the conclusion of a successful discovery operation. The settings here have no impact on discovery uploads to Cisco.

Note: The Netformx Discovery Settings window prompts you with a final review of the options that you just configured.

Tip: Click Log near the right side of the upper ribbon in order to monitor the discovery process.

Note: The options in the Request Details section (A) allow you to specify the information that you want to transfer to Cisco. The options in the Customer Details section (B) allow you to associate the discovery action to Cisco. If desired, you can leave the Upload IP Addresses option unchecked, as shown in the previous image.

Note: By default, the Primary CCOID (first line) comes directly from the CCO ID that was entered into the Options section of your Netformx application; however, you can manually add your additional CCO ID information.

Note: The upload times depend on the size of the discovery results file, the user connectivity to the Internet, the processing capacity, and the amount of traffic that currently flows into the Cisco data center.

Note: All of the devices that were discovered and uploaded through this tool are placed into this inventory during future uploads.