Table Of Contents

Service Inventory—Discovery

Overview of ISC Discovery

Technical Notes for ISC Discovery

General Notes

Using the Discovery Log Files

Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management

Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management

Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert

Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management

Summary of Tasks for Discovery (Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and L2VPN Management)

Summary of ISC Discovery Steps for MPLS Diagnostics Expert

Step 1: Perform Preliminary Steps

Review System Requirements

Install Licenses

Discovery in Large Networks

(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That a Unique TIBCO Port Is Defined

(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That CDP Is Running on Devices To Be Discovered

Code XML Files Required for Discovery

Sample XML Files

Coding the policy.xml File

Coding the device.xml File

Coding the topology.xml File

Step 2: Perform Device Discovery

Starting Device Discovery

Editing Device Configurations

Setting Password Attributes (Required Step)

Setting General Device Attributes

Setting Cisco CNS Attributes

Saving the Device Configuration

Step 3: Perform Discovery Data Collection

Step 4: Perform Role Assignment

Initiating Device Role Assignment

Changing the Device Assignment Display

Changing Device Assignments

Assigning Devices Individually or in Bulk

Determine Device Roles

Assigning the PE Role

Editing the PE Role

Assigning the CE Role

Editing the CE Role

Saving the Role Assignment Information

Step 5: Perform NPC Discovery

Preliminary Steps Before Completing NPC Discovery for Metro Ethernet Networks

Create Access Domains

Create Resource Pools

Edit Inter-N-PE Interfaces

Starting NPC Assignment

Adding a Device for an NPC

Adding a Ring

Inserting a Device

Inserting a Ring

Deleting a Device or a Ring

Saving the NPC Configuration

Step 6: Perform MPLS VPN Service Discovery (Optional)

Filtering the MPLS VPN View

Splitting a VPN

Creating a VPN

Viewing VPN Link Details

Saving the MPLS VPNs and Initiating MPLS VPN Service Creation

Step 7: Perform L2VPN (Metro Ethernet) Service Discovery (Optional)

Viewing Discovered Layer 2 Services Grouped by VPN

Editing Discovered Layer 2 Services Grouped by VPN

Deleting Discovered Layer 2 Services Grouped by VPN

Viewing Discovered Layer 2 End to End Wires

Editing the VPN Associated with an End to End Wire

Splitting Layer 2 Service End to End Wires

Joining Layer 2 Service End to End Wires

Deleting Layer 2 Service End to End Wires

Viewing Discovered Layer 2 VPLS Links

Editing Discovered Layer 2 VPLS Links

Deleting Discovered Layer 2 VPLS Links

Saving the L2VPN Metro Ethernet Policy and Initiating Service Creation

Step 8: Commit Discovered Devices and Services to ISC Repository

Step 9: Create and Run a Collect Config Task for the Discovered Devices

Step 10: View and Edit Services

Service Inventory—Discovery

---

This chapter describes how to use the Discovery feature to discover devices, connections, and services for the IP Solution Center (ISC) provisioning process. It contains the following sections:

•Overview of ISC Discovery

•Technical Notes for ISC Discovery

•Summary of Tasks for Discovery (Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and L2VPN Management)

•Summary of ISC Discovery Steps for MPLS Diagnostics Expert

•Step 1: Perform Preliminary Steps

•Step 2: Perform Device Discovery

•Step 3: Perform Discovery Data Collection

•Step 4: Perform Role Assignment

•Step 5: Perform NPC Discovery

•Step 6: Perform MPLS VPN Service Discovery (Optional)

•Step 7: Perform L2VPN (Metro Ethernet) Service Discovery (Optional)

•Step 8: Commit Discovered Devices and Services to ISC Repository

•Step 9: Create and Run a Collect Config Task for the Discovered Devices

•Step 10: View and Edit Services

Overview of ISC Discovery

ISC can expedite the process for building a network device inventory by discovering the devices, connections, and services that your MPLS VPN or L2VPN Metro Ethernet network comprises.

---

Note Service discovery is a complex operation that can be impacted by many variables within the network. The original network configuration must have been performed in accordance with the same rules that ISC follows when provisioning services. Otherwise, errors might occur during the discovery. As a result of the many possible configurations in a given network, it is strongly recommended that you contact your Cisco account team or Cisco advanced services to provide support, before committing to the service discovery process.

Users who run service discovery should have a thorough understanding of their overall network topology, should be familiar with network terminology, such as: PE, N-PE, U-PE, PE-AGG, and CE, and should understand the definition of NPC and Metro Ethernet/MPLS services in ISC.

---

ISC supports the discovery process for admin users only.

The ISC Discovery feature can be used to provision three of the applications in the Cisco ISC application suite:

•Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management

•Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management

•Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert

---

Note Service discovery does not support Secure Shell version 2 (SSHv2) as a terminal session protocol. MPLS and L2VPN service discovery do not support devices running IOS XR.

---

When a device in ISC only has a hostname, the ISC device has no IP management address or domain name configured. If in Discovery, a device with the same hostname is discovered with an IP management address or is created manually in the Device Editor, the device might fail to commit to the ISC repository. The failure occurs because a match is determined with the existing ISC device, because both devices do not have a configured domain name.

The workaround is to do either 1. or 2., as follows:

1. Edit the device that exists in ISC and add the management IP address before Discovery. Discovery then treats that device as a duplicate and marks it read-only in the Device Editor.

or

2. During Discovery, in the Device Editor, enter a domain name for the discovered device. Discovery then treats this as a new device.

The Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management has its own Discovery interface and process. This is documented in Chapter 2 of the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.0, "TE Network Discovery."

Multiple service discovery processes are supported and you can restart from any of the previous steps. Support for multiple discovery processes allows you to do incremental discovery of the network. The ability to restart from previous steps helps you roll back the discovery process to a selected previous step. You can then resume discovery from that step instead of needing to restart the entire discovery process from the beginning. Restarting from discovery data collection prompts the user to select devices for which data needs to be collected.

Incremental discovery occurs for existing VPN links. The existing VPNs are not editable in the discovery GUI and the existing VPN links are by-passed during commit.

There is no synchronization in MPLS and L2VPN service discovery. Any modification must be done manually through the ISC user interface. Only new VPNs are discovered. Also, services on existing modified NPCs and conflicting NPCs are not discovered.

The commit to ISC happens only at the end of the discovery phase, not after each step. The Discovery process does not change the state of ISC during discovery workflow. It is only at the end of the workflow that a user can commit the discovered devices and services to ISC.

The Discovery process provides you with several choices on how to discover your network topology.

3. If you are running Discovery to provision Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management or Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management, you can choose between three Discovery methods:

a. CDP Discovery

You can use the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to discover devices connected to an initial device that has an IP address you provide in a policy.xml file.

b. Device/Topology Based Discovery

You can use a Device/Topology-based method. This method uses XML files that specify device and NPC topology information.

c. Import Configuration File Based

You can use an Import Configuration Files-based method. This method uses a directory on the server that contains configuration files for the devices to be discovered and an XML file that contains device connectivity information that is used to automatically create NPCs.

4. You can choose the network topology to discover an MPLS VPN topology, an L2VPN (Metro Ethernet) topology, or both.

If you choose L2VPN (Metro Ethernet) Discovery, you can discover either a Metro Ethernet with an MPLS core, a Metro Ethernet with an Ethernet core, or a combination of the two, a mixed core. In a mixed core, the L2VPN services can span across the MPLS core or they can be confined to a local Ethernet domain alone (local switched services). Local switched services that do not traverse N-PE devices across an ethernet domain can also be discovered. Figure 4-1, "Mixed Core," shows a mixed core.

Figure 4-1 Mixed Core

Figure 4-2 illustrates the phases in the Discovery process.

Figure 4-2 ISC Discovery Steps

Table 4-1 describes the phases in the Discovery process.

Table 4-1 Steps in the Discovery Process 

Step	Description
Device Discovery	Discovers devices in the MPLS VPN and/or Metro Ethernet topology.
Discovery Data Collection	Collects the IOS configuration for the devices discovered.
Role Assignment	Does the role assignment for the discovered devices based on rules.xml, and prompts you to edit the device roles as N-PE, U-PE, or CE. Note A sample is found at: $ISC_HOME/resources/discovery/data/ rules.xml, where the rules.xml file must be kept.
NPC Discovery	Displays discovered NPCs and allows addition or removal of NPCs.
MPLS VPN Discovery	Discovers the topology for your MPLS VPN network and allows you to change it as required. Note The MPLS VPN Discovery step is not required if you are using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert.
(L2VPN) Metro Ethernet Discovery	Discovers the topology for your Metro Ethernet network and allows you to change it as required. Note The (L2VPN) Metro Ethernet Discovery step is not required if you are using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert.

Technical Notes for ISC Discovery

This section presents technical tips and general information about the ISC Discovery process.

The ISC Discovery feature can be used to provision three of the applications in the Cisco ISC application suite:

•Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management

•Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management

•Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert

Although the general steps are similar, there are some differences in the workflow for the various types of Discovery. These are described in the section covering each ISC application:

•Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management

•Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management

•Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert

•Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management

---

Note Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management has its own Discovery interface and process.

This is documented in Chapter 2 of the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.0, "TE Network Discovery."

---

For technical notes on using ISC Discovery in installations that include both Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management and Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management, see Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management.

General Notes

Note the following points before running ISC Discovery:

•You can use the ISC GUI to create providers, customers, and resource pools before doing Discovery.

•Only one user can control the Discovery workflow interface at a given time.

•The procedures in the chapter show a "generic" procedure. If you do not have licenses for a particular application, you will not see the selections for that application on the start screen for ISC Discovery.

•Perform "manual" device collection after discovery is over.

•After you have started the Discovery process, a Restart button appears on the Discovery Workflow window. You can click the Restart button, a drop-down list of completed steps pops up and you can select a step and restart from that step.

•Restarting from initialization aborts the current discovery process.

•Discovery using Role Based Access Control (RBAC) is not supported.

Using the Discovery Log Files

A log file is written for each phase of the Discovery process. You can view a log file by clicking the View selection in the Log column next to each discovery phase summary on the Discovery Workflow window.

The log file provides useful information in the event a discovery step fails.

Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management

If you are running the Discovery process to discover an MPLS VPN network for use with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management, note the following points:

•You must perform all of the main steps in the Discovery process.

•You can use either CDP Discovery, Device/Topology, or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery. The recommendation is to use either Device/Topology or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery.

•ISC does not support partial mesh VPN topologies. If the Discovery process discovers a Partial Mesh VPN, you must split the partial mesh VPN into smaller units (usually a combination of full mesh VPNs and Hub and Spoke VPNs).

•After completion of the automated Discovery process, you must schedule and run a Task Manager > Collect Config task for all discovered devices.

---

Note There is no synchronization in MPLS service discovery. Any modification must be done manually through the ISC user interface. Only new VPNs are discovered. Also, services on existing modified NPCs and conflicting NPCs are not discovered.

---

Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management

If you are running the Discovery process to discover an L2VPN network that will be provisioned and managed using Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management, note the following points:

•You must perform all of the main steps in the Discovery process.

•You can use either CDP Discovery, Device/Topology, or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery. The recommendation is to use either Device/Topology or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery.

•A new L2VPN service is discovered when any of the following are found compared to the services existing in ISC:

–A new Virtual LAN Identifier (VLAN ID) in an Ethernet core (Ethernet access domain)

–A new Virtual Circuit Identifier (VC ID) for virtual private wire service (VPWS) services on an MPLS core.

–A new VPLS Forwarding Instance Identifier (VFI ID) for virtual private LAN service (VPLS) services on an MPLS core.

•The Discovery process for Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management can discover Metro Ethernets with an MPLS core, an Ethernet core, or both.

•Prior to performing the NPC Discovery step for Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management, you must specify the Access Domain for N-PE devices.

•Any new links that are configured on NPCs marked as Existing Modified or Conflicting are not discovered.

•After completion of the automated Discovery process, you must schedule and run a Task Manager > Collect Config task for all discovered devices.

---

Note There is no synchronization in L2VPN service discovery. Any modification must be done manually through the ISC user interface. Only new VPNs are discovered. Also, services on existing modified NPCs and conflicting NPCs are not discovered.

---

Using ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert

If you are running the Discovery process to discover an MPLS VPN network for use with Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert, note the following points.

•You can use either CDP Discovery, Device/Topology, or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery. The recommendation is to use either Device/Topology or Import Configuration Files-based Discovery.

•For Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert, you only need to perform the Device Discovery, Discovery Data Collection, and Role Assignment Steps. You do not need to perform the NPC Discovery step or the Service Discovery step. However, you can let the NPC Discovery process run.

See Figure 4-5 for a flowchart of the required steps for ISC Discovery with Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert.

•If you are using Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert, then you normally only need to discover P and PE devices. Therefore, when you perform the Role Assignment step for discovered devices, you only need to assign roles to the P and PE devices.

---

Note If you do discover any CE devices, you must assign them CE roles.

---

•After completion of the automated Discovery process, you must schedule and run a Task Manager > Collect Config task for all discovered devices.

Using ISC Discovery With Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management

Normally you do not have to run the ISC Discovery process if you are using Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management. Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management has its own discovery process,. This process is documented in Chapter 2 of the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.0, "TE Network Discovery."

However, if you are running both Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management (TEM) and Cisco IP solution Center MPLS VPN Management, you must run the Discovery process for Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management.

Note the following points:

•One region (default region) is used for TEM.

•If you are also running ISC Discovery for MPLS VPN Management, make sure you run the Discovery workflow described in this chapter first, and then run the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management process later.

Summary of Tasks for Discovery (Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and L2VPN Management)

Figure 4-3 provides a general workflow diagram for the Discovery process used with the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management or Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management application.

---

Note Figure 4-5 provides a general workflow diagram for the Discovery process as used with the MPLS Diagnostics Expert application.

---

Figure 4-3 Basic Workflow for Discovery with Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management or Cisco ISC L2VPN Management

Table 4-2 describes each task in the Discovery workflow for Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and Cisco ISC L2VPN Management.

Table 4-2 Description of Discovery Steps for MPLS VPN and L2VPN Management 

Step	Description
Step 1 : Perform Preliminary Steps	Perform preliminary steps that are required for ISC Discovery. See Step 1: Perform Preliminary Steps. •Review System Requirements See Review System Requirements. •Install Licenses See Install Licenses. •(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That a Unique TIBCO Port Is Defined See (CDP Discovery Only) Verify That a Unique TIBCO Port Is Defined •(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That CDP Is Running on Devices To Be Discovered See (CDP Discovery Only) Verify That CDP Is Running on Devices To Be Discovered. •Code XML Files Required for Discovery See Code XML Files Required for Discovery.
Step 2 : Perform Device Discovery	•Start Device Discovery See Starting Device Discovery. •After Device Discovery is complete, enter device passwords For information on entering device passwords, see Setting Password Attributes (Required Step). •Enter additional device information as required See Setting General Device Attributes and Setting Cisco CNS Attributes.
Step 3 : Perform Discovery Data Collection	Start configuration collection. No input is required for this step. See Step 3: Perform Discovery Data Collection.
Step 4 : Perform Role Assignment	Assign device roles to each device. See Step 4: Perform Role Assignment.
Step 5 : Perform NPC Discovery	If you are discovering a Metro Ethernet Network with an Ethernet Core, perform the required preliminary steps. See Preliminary Steps Before Completing NPC Discovery for Metro Ethernet Networks •Start NPC Discovery See Step 5: Perform NPC Discovery. •Modify and/or add NPCs as required. See Adding a Device for an NPC, Adding a Ring, Inserting a Device, Inserting a Ring, or Deleting a Device or a Ring.
Step 6 : Perform MPLS VPN Service Discovery (optional)	Start MPLS VPN Service Discovery. See Step 6: Perform MPLS VPN Service Discovery (Optional). This step is required for the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management application, Note This step is not required for the Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management application or the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert application.
Step 7 : Perform L2VPN Service Discovery (optional)	Start L2VPN Service Discovery. See Step 7: Perform L2VPN (Metro Ethernet) Service Discovery (Optional). This step is required for the Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management application. Note This step is not required for the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management application or the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert application.
Step 8 : Commit Discovered Devices and Services to ISC Repository	Commit the discovered devices and services to the ISC repository. Prior to this step, discovery workflow stores the discovered devices and services in a temporary repository, which gets committed to ISC only at the last step of discovery workflow.
Step 9 : Create and Run a Collect Config Task for Discovered Devices	From the ISC Start Page, choose Monitoring > Task Manager. Select the Collect Config task and select all of the devices discovered in the Device Discovery step; then submit the task. See Step 9: Create and Run a Collect Config Task for the Discovered Devices.
Step 10 : View and Edit Services	The discovered services will be in Pending state and you need to do a config audit to move them to Deployed state. See Step 10: View and Edit Services.

Within each step, additional tasks must be performed and choices must be made. Figure 4-4 shows a detailed flowchart that illustrates all of the steps in the Discovery workflow.

Figure 4-4 Detailed Diagram of Discovery Steps (Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and Cisco ISC L2VPN Management)

Summary of ISC Discovery Steps for MPLS Diagnostics Expert

Figure 4-5 shows the basic Discovery steps for Cisco ISC with the MPLS Diagnostics Expert (MDE) application. For MDE, several of the steps required for Cisco ISC MPLS VPN Management and Cisco ISC L2VPN Management are not required.

Figure 4-5 Discovery Workflow for the MPLS Diagnostics Expert Application

Table 4-3 Description of Discovery Steps for MPLS Diagnostics Expert 

Step	Description
Step 1 : Perform Preliminary Steps	Perform preliminary steps that are required for ISC Discovery. •Review System Requirements See Review System Requirements. •Install Licenses See Install Licenses •Code XML Files Required for Discovery For specific instructions, see the following section: –Code XML Files Required for Discovery.
Step 2 : Perform Device Discovery	•Start Device Discovery See Starting Device Discovery. •After Device Discovery is complete, enter device passwords For information on entering device passwords, see Setting Password Attributes (Required Step). •Enter additional device information as required See Setting General Device Attributes and Setting Cisco CNS Attributes.
Step 3 : Perform Discovery Data Collection	Start configuration collection. No input is required for this step. See Step 3: Perform Discovery Data Collection.
Step 4 : Perform Role Assignment	Assign device roles to each device. See Step 4: Perform Role Assignment. For MDE, you normally discover only P and PEs and assign P and PE roles to them However, if you discover CEs, assign CE roles to the CE devices. Note Although you do not have to edit NPCs for MPLS Diagnostics Expert, after you perform role assignment this step should complete.
Step 5 : Create and Run a Collect Config Task for Discovered Devices	From the ISC Start Page, choose Monitoring > Task Manager. Select the Collect Config task and select all of the devices discovered in the Device Discovery step; then submit the task. See Step 8: Commit Discovered Devices and Services to ISC Repository.

Step 1: Perform Preliminary Steps

Before you initiate the ISC Discovery process, complete the following preliminary steps:

•Review System Requirements

•Install Licenses

•Discovery in Large Networks

•(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That a Unique TIBCO Port Is Defined

•(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That CDP is Running on Devices To Be Discovered

•Code XML Files Required for Discovery

Figure 4-6 summarizes the preliminary steps for ISC Discovery.

Figure 4-6 Summary of Preliminary Steps for Discovery

Review System Requirements

Cisco recommends that you thoroughly review the system requirements for ISC before planning your installation, to be sure that you have all the hardware and software that you must successfully install.

The system recommendations and requirements for ISC are listed in Chapter 1, "System Recommendations" of the Cisco IP Solution Center Installation Guide, 5.0 and in the Release Notes for Cisco IP Solution Center, 5.0.1.

Install Licenses

Before starting Discovery, the appropriate licenses (both Activation and VPN licenses) must be installed. Also, each license must be large enough to handle all possible discovered objects. For information on installing licenses, see the "Installing License Keys" section of Chapter 2 of the Cisco IP Solution Center Installation Guide, 5.0, "Installing and Logging In to ISC."

Discovery in Large Networks

To discover large networks with a complex topology, we recommend you reset two DCPL properties, as follows:

---

Step 1 See Appendix C, "Property Settings" for an explanation of how to navigate to the Dynamic Component Properties Library (DCPL) properties.

Step 2 Navigate to the property watchdog\server\discovery\heartbeat\timeout and set this property to 180000 milliseconds (3 minutes).

Step 3 Navigate to the property watchdog\server\discovery\java\flags and set this property to -Xmx3072m -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m

Step 4 Restart the ISC server.

---

Heap is a block of memory segment for the L2VPN and Metro Ethernet, Layer 3 MPLS VPN, and TEM components. It is allocated for use by the Java virtual machine (JVM) process during runtime. It might need to be increased for large deployments. If the httpd process restarts, increase the heap size, as follows:

---

Step 1 cd $ISC_HOME/bin

Step 2 vi tomcat.sh

Step 3 Search for a line with -Xmx512m

Step 4 Set the heap size to 1GB or 2GB by replacing -Xmx512m with -Xmx1024m or -Xmx2048m, respectively.

Step 5 Save the tomcat.sh file.

Step 6 Enter stopall to stop the ISC server.

Step 7 Enter startwd to start the ISC server.

---

(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That a Unique TIBCO Port Is Defined

If you are using CDP Discovery to discover the network topology, make sure the TIBCO Port is unique. Otherwise, CDP discovery will fail.

During installation, the TIBCO port can be specified if the "custom" Installation Type is selected at the start of the installation process. Otherwise, the default port installed is 7530. You specify the TIBCO port on the Choose TIBCO Port dialog.

The port number that is specified must be unique throughout the network, and no other ISC installations are allowed with the same port.

Figure 4-7 shows the Choose TIBCO Port dialog.

Figure 4-7 Choose TIBCO Port

The Tibco port can be changed after installation by modifying vpnsc.properties.

(CDP Discovery Only) Verify That CDP Is Running on Devices To Be Discovered

If CDP Discovery is going to be used, use the show cdp command to ensure that CDP is running on all of the devices intended to be discovered.

For each device, enter the show cdp command, as shown in Example 4-1.

Example 4-1 The show cdp Command:

Router# show cdp

Global CDP information:

        Sending CDP packets every 120 seconds

        Sending a holdtime value of 180 seconds

        Sending CDPv2 advertisements is enabled

Router# 

---

Note When performing CDP Discovery for devices with more than one IP address configured, it is possible that CDP discovery will find an IP address other than the management IP address. If the IP address found is not accessible from the ISC server, then it will not be possible to discover that device using CDP discovery.

---

Code XML Files Required for Discovery

Before you can run ISC Discovery, you must code XML files that are required for the Discovery process. A different set of files is required, depending on whether you use CDP Discovery or Device/Topology-based Discovery.

Table 4-4 describes the XML files and indicates which files are required for each type of discovery method.

Table 4-4 XML Files Used with ISC Discovery

XML File	Description	Required for CDP Discovery	Required for Device/Topology Based Discovery
policy.xml	Specifies one or more seed IP addresses that can be reached from the specified seed device and a maximum hop count for the device discovery process.	Yes	No
device.xml	Specifies information used to locate devices, such as device IP addresses and Object IDs (OIDs).	No	Yes
topology.xml	Specifies information used to build NPCs used by MPLS VPN and/or Metro Ethernet topology.	No	Yes

---

Note Make sure that the coding in your XML files is accurate. If there are errors in the files, you might need to re-run the Discovery process.

---

Sample XML Files

The initial installation of ISC provides sample XML files that you can use as a starting point in coding your own XML files. The sample XML files are located in the following directory:

<install_directory>/resources/discovery/sample

where install_directory is the installation directory that you specified when prompted by the ISC installation program.

Coding the policy.xml File

The policy.xml file:

•Is required for CDP Discovery.

•Is required for Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management, Cisco IP Solution Center Metro Ethernet and L2VPN Management, and Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert.

•Is not required for Device/Topology-based Discovery.

•Is not required for Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management.

•Provides a seed IP address that the CDP protocol uses to discover devices near the seed device.

Example 4-2 shows the sample policy.xml file that is provided with the ISC installation.

Example 4-2 Sample policy.xml File

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<DISCOVERY_POLICY overwrite_existing_policy="true">

  <DISCOVERY_METHOD>

    <CDP ipaddress="209.168.133.232" hop="1"/>

  </DISCOVERY_METHOD>

  <SNMP_COMMUNITY>

    <RO_COMMUNITY>

      <COMMUNITY community="public"/>

    </RO_COMMUNITY>

    <RW_COMMUNITY>

      <COMMUNITY community="private"/>

    </RW_COMMUNITY>

  </SNMP_COMMUNITY>

</DISCOVERY_POLICY>

If there are additional routers that are on the other side of PE routers on the edge of the core segment of the network, you can specify more than one seed IP address in order to discover these devices.

Example 4-3 shows a policy.xml file that contains two seed IP addresses.

Example 4-3 Policy.xml File with Two IP Addresses

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<DISCOVERY_POLICY overwrite_existing_policy="true">

  <DISCOVERY_METHOD>

    <CDP ipaddress="209.168.133.241" hop="8"/>

  </DISCOVERY_METHOD>

  <DISCOVERY_METHOD>

    <CDP ipaddress="209.168.133.244" hop="8"/>

  </DISCOVERY_METHOD>

  <SNMP_COMMUNITY>

    <RO_COMMUNITY>

      <COMMUNITY community="public"/>

    </RO_COMMUNITY>

    <RW_COMMUNITY>

      <COMMUNITY community="private"/>

    </RW_COMMUNITY>

  </SNMP_COMMUNITY>

</DISCOVERY_POLICY>

Table 4-5 describes the XML tags used in the policy.xml file.

Table 4-5 XML Tags and Attributes Used in the policy.xml File 

Tag	Description
<DISCOVERY_METHOD>	Starts a <DISCOVERY_METHOD> tag. The <DISCOVERY_METHOD> tag must contain a <CDP> tag.
<CDP>	Starts a <CDP> tag. The <CDP> tag specifies a seed IP address and a hop count. The <CDP> tag must contain the following attributes: •ipaddress •hop
ipaddress	Specifies the IP address of a seed device. Required attribute for the <CDP> tag.
hop	Specifies the number of hops from the device identified by the ipaddress attribute to go in discovering devices. Required attribute for the <CDP> tag.

Follow these steps to edit the sample policy.xml file:

---

Step 1 Edit the sample file and replace the IP address specified with the ipaddress XML attribute with an appropriate IP address from your network.

This IP address is a device that can be reached from the ISC host. For each seed device, an accessible interface on the starting point is configured, because the management interface must be provided. The management interface is the address on the device that the ISC host uses to reach the device.

---

Note You can provide more than one IP address. This is useful in situations where one network domain is on the other side of a PE router on the edge of the core segment of the network.

---

Step 2 Edit the hop count specified with the hop attribute and specify a hop count that will be used when the Discovery process is initialized.

When you choose the seed devices and hop count, pick a seed device that can reach a large section of the network. Pick one or more of them until you think these devices will enable you to reach your entire managed network.

Point-of-presence (POP) routers are usually good choices. If you choose all the POPs in your network as the collection of seed devices and put in the appropriate number of hubs, you discover the entire managed network.

To pick the hop count number, go to the CE that is the furthest from its associated POP, and count the number of devices between them. If this number is N, the hub number is N+1, assuming you are picking the POP as the seed.

Step 3 If you need to add additional IP addresses for seed devices, code additional <DISCOVERY_METHOD> tags.

Within the additional <DISCOVERY_METHOD> tags, include <CDP> tags.

For each <CDP> tag, specify an IP address with the ipaddress attribute and a hop count with the hops attributes.

Step 4 Save the policy.xml file to an appropriate directory on the ISC host.

---

When you run the Discovery process, the process queries the starting point device for its CDP table. From this table, all of those devices are queried for their CDP information. This process continues until the maximum hop count from the starting point is reached. When you use the CDP-based method, note that only devices running CDP are discovered.

Coding the device.xml File

The device.xml file:

•Is required for Device/Topology-based Discovery.

•Is not required for CDP-based Discovery.

•Is required for Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management, Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management, and ISC MPLS Diagnostics Expert.

•Is not required for Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management.

•Specifies information used to locate devices, such as device IP addresses and Object IDs (OIDs).

Example 4-4 shows a sample device.xml file. Use the sample file as an example and save your edited file in an appropriate directory.

Example 4-4 Sample device.xml file

<network>

<device>

<device-name>mlpe8</device-name>

<ip-address>209.168.133.244</ip-address>

<system-object-id>.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.509</system-object-id>

<snmp-info>

<ro-community>public</ro-community>

</snmp-info>

</device>

<device>

<device-name>mlsw11</device-name>

<ip-address>209.168.133.170</ip-address>

<system-object-id>.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.574</system-object-id>

<snmp-info>

<ro-community>public</ro-community>

</snmp-info>

</device>

<device>

<device-name>mlsw16</device-name>

<ip-address>209.168.133.175</ip-address>

<system-object-id>.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.574</system-object-id>

<snmp-info>

<ro-community>public</ro-community>

</snmp-info>

</device>

<device>

<device-name>mlsw17</device-name>

<ip-address>209.168.133.176</ip-address>

<system-object-id>.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.574</system-object-id>

<snmp-info>

<ro-community>public</ro-community>

</snmp-info>

</device>

</network>

Table 4-6 describes the XML tags used in the device.xml file.

Table 4-6 XML Tags Used in the device.xml File 

Tag	Description
<device>	Starts a <device> tag. The <device> tag must contain the following tags: •<device-name> •<ip-address> The following tags are optional within the <device> tag: •<system-object-id> •<snmp-info>
<device-name>	Specifies the name of the device. Required within the <device> tag.
<ip-address>	Specifies the IP address of the device. Required within the <device> tag.
<system-object-id>	(optional) Can be included to specify the SNMP Object ID (OID) for the device. If this is provided, it is specified within the <device> tag.
<snmp-info>	Specifies SNMP information for the device. The <snmp-info> tag must contain a <ro-community> tag. Optional within the <device> tag.
<ro-community>	Specifies the level of SNMP access for the device. Normally, this should be "public." Required within the <snmp-info> tag.

Follow these steps to code the device.xml file:

---

Step 1 Edit the sample device.xml file provided with the installation.

Step 2 For each device that is to be discovered by ISC, code a <device> entry. Each <device> entry should contain the following tags:

•A <device-name> tag specifying the device name.

•An <ip-address> tag specifying the IP address for the device.

•A <system-object-id> tag specifying the OID for the device (optional).

•An <snmp-info> tag specifying <ro-community> information

Step 3 Save the device.xml file to an appropriate directory on the ISC host.

---

Coding the topology.xml File

The topology.xml file:

•Is required for Device/Topology-based Discovery.

•Is not required for CDP-based Discovery.

•Is required to perform ISC Discovery for Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management, Cisco IP Solution Center L2VPN Management, and Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS Diagnostics Expert.

•Is not required for Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management.

•Specifies information used to locate devices, such as device IP addresses and Object IDs (OIDs).

The topology.xml file specifies the discovery protocol that is used in the discovery process, and, for each connection, specifies the starting IP address, the starting interface, the end device, and the end interface

Example 4-5 shows a sample topology.xml file. Use the sample file as an example and save your edited file in an appropriate directory.

Example 4-5 Sample topology.xml File

<topology>

<connection discovery-protocol="CDP" fromDevice="mlsw19"  fromIP="209.168.133.178"   
fromInterface="GigabitEthernet1/1/2"   toDevice="mlsw21"  toIP="209.168.133.220"  
toIF="GigabitEthernet1/1/1" >

</connection>

<connection discovery-protocol="CDP" fromDevice="mlsw19"  fromIP="209.168.133.178"   
fromInterface="FastEthernet1/0/23"   toDevice="mlsw21"  toIP="209.168.133.220"  
toIF="FastEthernet1/0/24" >

</connection>

<connection discovery-protocol="CDP" fromDevice="mlsw19"  fromIP="209.168.133.178"   
fromInterface="FastEthernet

1/0/24"   toDevice="mlsw18"  toIP="209.168.133.177"  toIF="FastEthernet1/0/23" >  
</connection>

<connection discovery-protocol="CDP" fromDevice="mlsw19"  fromIP="209.168.133.178"   
fromInterface="FastEthernet1/0/22"   toDevice="mlsw22"  toIP="209.168.133.221"  
toIF="FastEthernet1/0/24" >

</connection>

</topology>

Table 4-7 describes the XML tags used in the topology.xml file.

Table 4-7 XML tags and Attributes Used in the topology.xml File 

Tag	Description
<connection>	Starts a <connection> tag. The <connection> tag must specify the following attributes: •discovery-protocol •fromDevice •FromIP •FromInterface •toDevice •toIP •toIF
discovery-protocol	Specifies the Discovery protocol used to discover the network topology. Normally, this is "CDP."
fromDevice	Specifies the name of the device from which the Named Physical Circuit starts. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.
FromIP	Specifies the management IP address of the device from which the Named Physical Circuit starts. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.
FromInterface	Specifies the name of the device interface from which the Named Physical Circuit starts. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.
toDevice	Specifies the name of the device to which the Named Physical Circuit connects. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.
toIP	Specifies the management IP address of the device from which the Named Physical Circuit connects. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.
toIF	Specifies the device interface on the device to which the Named Physical Circuit connects. Required attribute for the <connection> tag.

Follow these steps to code the topology.xml file:

---

Step 1 Edit the sample topology.xml file provided with the installation.

Step 2 For each NPC connection that is to be discovered by ISC, code a <connection > entry. Each <connection> entry must contain the following tags:

•A discovery-protocol attribute specifying the CDP protocol.

•A fromDevice attribute specifying the device from which the NPC starts.

•A FromIP attribute specifying the management IP address from which the NPC starts.

•A FromInterface attribute specifying the device interface from which the NPC starts.

•A toDevice attribute specifying the name of the device to which the NPC connects.

•A toIP attribute specifying the management IP address of the device to which the NPC connects

•A toIF attribute specifying the name of the interface on the device to which the NPC connects

Step 3 Save the topology.xml file to an appropriate directory on the ISC host.

---

Step 2: Perform Device Discovery

This section describes how to start the device discovery process and edit device configuration.

Starting Device Discovery

To start discovery, follow these steps:

---

Step 1 Log in to ISC.

Step 2 Click the Service Inventory tab.

Step 3 The Service Inventory window appears, as shown in Figure 4-8.

Figure 4-8 Service Inventory Window

Step 4 Click Discovery.

The Discovery window appears, as shown in Figure 4-9.

Initially, the CDP Discovery method is selected and the window displays the required input for this method.

Figure 4-9 Device Discovery—CDP Fields

The editable Output Device File field is optional and defaults to an XML file of the discovered devices. This file can then be an input Devices File for rerunning discovery using the Device/Topology option, by choosing that radio button.

The editable Output Connection File is optional and defaults to an XML file that contains device connectivity information that is written during CDP Device Discovery. This file can then be an input NPC Topology File for rerunning discovery using the Device/Topology option, by choosing that radio button.

Step 5 Choose a Discovery method:

•To use the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) method, click the CDP radio button, with the resulting window as shown in Figure 4-9, "Device Discovery—CDP Fields."

•To use the Device/Topology method, click the Device/Topology button, with the resulting widow as shown in Figure 4-10, "Device Discovery—Device/Topology Fields."

•To use the Import Configuration Files method, click the Import Configuration Files button, with the resulting window as shown in Figure 4-11, "Device Discovery—Import Configuration File Fields."

Figure 4-10 Device Discovery—Device/Topology Fields

Figure 4-11 Device Discovery—Import Configuration File Fields

The required Directory field is the directory on the server that contains configuration files for the devices to be discovered. The format of these files must be <filename>.cfg.

The NPC Topology File field contains an XML file that contains device connectivity information that is used to automatically create NPCs.

---

Note During service discovery, Providers, Regions, Customers, and Sites are not automatically created, and therefore you must manually create them before running service discovery. If Resource Pools are used for provisioning in ISC, Access Domains and Resource Pools must be manually created before running service discovery.

---

Step 6 In the Discovery window, specify the settings indicated in Table 4-8.

Table 4-8 Discovery Settings 

Setting	Description
Name	In this field, enter a unique name of your choice for the Workflow name. If you do not enter a name in this field, the system automatically generates a unique name for you.
CDP	Click this radio button to select Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) as the Discovery method.
Policy File	If you click the CDP button, specify the path to your policy.xml file here. This file is an XML file that indicates the IP address of one or more devices used as a starting point for the discovery process. For more information on the policy.xml file, see Coding the policy.xml File.
Output Device File	This editable optional field defaults to an XML file of the discovered devices. This file can then be an input Devices File for rerunning discovery using the Device/Topology option.
Output Connection File	This editable optional field defaults to an XML file that contains device connectivity information that is written during CDP device discovery. This file can then be an input NPC Topology File for rerunning discovery using the Device/Topology option.
Device/Topology	Click this radio button to select Device/Topology as the Discovery method.