Improving Nework Discovery for BIG-IP

[#1]

Hi,

I am new to Infoblox, not mentioning I am not programming guru :-(. I am looking for generic info if something that I need can be at all imlemeted using WAPI or other means.

Network Discovery is doing quite nice job retrieving info about BIG-IP (F5) config. One thing missing is retrieving Virtual Server names.

When browsind Device data for BIG-IP (Interfaces) ale Virtual Servers (VS) are there but withut maping IP to VS name on BIG-IP.

Is ther any way to improve device discovery so it will include info about VS name in the Inerface section?

Piotr

[#2]

Hi Piotr,

I am assuming we are talking about NetMRI.

Device support can be enhanced through Device Support Bundles (DSB) and the Infoblox Engineering group maintains a queue of new devices that are being added for support along with enhancements for existing supported devices.

I would suggest reaching out to your account team to check if there are any existing enhancements planned around this and if not, they can submit a request for you. You can also create your own DSB but I would suggest checking to see if this is something that can be done for you first.

I hope that helps!

[#3]

Hi,

Thanks for reply. No, it's not about NetMRI, I am looking for a way to improve data collected by Network Insight (or Discovery). There is plenty of data collected but some quite usefull not. Assuming that both SNMP and CLI is used for that all data can be retrieved form F5 BIG-IP device, problem is how to do that and if that is possible.

Another option is to have some kind of script that can auto populate Extenssible Attribute.

Piotr

[#4]

Hello Piotr,

The name field in the network Insight/Discovery can’t be updated or written from the WAPI calls according to the WAPI Documentation.

However, as you have suggested you can create an extensible attribute that will take the name of the populated field or if it is unknown then populate it yourself.

In case you are wondering how to create a WAPI call to populate the extensible attribute:

 1. Create an Extensible attribute from the grid UI under Administration à Extensible Attributes or use the curl command:

curl -k1 -u UserNameassword -X POST https://1.1.1.1/wapi/v2.7/extensibleattributedef -d name=ExtraName -d type=STRING

 2. Get the device _ref you want to populate with the following curl command:

curl -k1 -u UserNameassword -X GET https://1.1.1.1/wapi/v2.7/discovery:device

 3. Then add the name of the device you want to the device:

curl -k1 -u UserNameassword -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT \

https://1.1.1.1/wapi/v2.7/discovery:device/LimZk5ZpY2UkNDU4560MTc1NT45dm5ODyMzY:unknown/default -d \

'{"extattrs":{

    " ExtraName":{

        "value":"VS name"

        }

    }

}'

You can check to see the names of the discovered devices with a curl call like:

curl -k1 -u UserNameassword https://1.1.1.1/wapi/v2.6.1/discovery:device?_return_fields=name

Hope this helps you!

Kevin Zettel

[#5]

sorry the is a ":" and a "P" didn't know that would happen!

[#6]

Hi,

No problem with :-) and thanks for reply. I have to dig in, still newbie to Infoblox, really appreciate your ppst.

Well, I will try to expalin a bit more in depth what is my goal - and if it is at all possible.

To be 100% clear - I am talking about Network Insight (Discovery) not about NetworkMRI.

Current scenario:

1. Both SNMP and CLI credentials configured for BIG-IP device
2. Device recognized, data collected
3. Interfaces, Networks, IP Addresses, Assets and Components tabs populated with collected data

Here is part I am looking for solution.

Plenty of data is collected but some quite important is missing.

On BIG-IP devices there are few general categories of IP addresses:

1. MGMT IP
2. Self IP - can be treated as interface assigned IP (but it is rather assigned to VLAN which is in turn assigned to Interface)
3. Floating Self IP (something like VIP in VRRP)
4. Virtual Server IP (something like VIP in VRRP)

All above are collected in exactly same way - which is not so helpfull. Assuming that for BIG-IP all the data can be retrieved either using SNMP, SSH (via tmsh commands) or REST API (iControl) I am pretty sure retrieving data is not an issue here - but unfortunately mystery for me how to put all the pieces together.

Of course goal is to avoid any manula data entry as well as synchronize retrieving extra data with Network Insight periodical scans.

So when next scan is triggered, along with default data collected (I assume what is collected and how it's parsed is defined in Device Support objects?) kind of script, API call or SNMP get is performed automatically.

Whatever is used it is populating defined EAs

As an result collected data is enriched with info that is quite vital for being able to better undersand what's going on with the network (as related to BIG-IP device).

Piotr