=head1 NAME

Netdisco 1.0 - README

=head1 AUTHOR

Netdisco is maintained by a team of Open Source developers headed by Eric
Miller, Bill Fenner, Oliver Gorwits, and Max Baker.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Netdisco is an Open Source web-based network management tool.

Designed for moderate to large networks, configuration information and
connection data for network devices are retrieved and set by SNMP.  With
Netdisco you can locate the switch port of an end-user system by IP or MAC
address.  Data is stored using a SQL database for scalability and speed.

Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), Foundry Discovery Protocol (FDP), Link Layer
Discovery Protocol (LLDP), and SynOptics Network Management Protocol (SONMP)
optionally provide automatic discovery of the network topology.  

The network is inventoried by both device model and operating system (like
IOS).  Netdisco uses router ARP tables and L2 switch MAC forwarding tables to
locate nodes on physical ports and track them by their IP addresses.

For each node, a time stamped history of the ports it has visited and the IP
addresses it has used is maintained.  Netdisco gets all its data, including 
topology information, with SNMP polls and DNS queries.  It does not use CLI
access and has no need for privilege passwords.  Security features include a
wire-side Wireless Access Point (AP) locator.  

Netdisco was created at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC),
Networking and Technology Services (NTS) department.   UCSC continues to
support the development of Netdisco by providing development servers and beer.
The Netdisco project is hosted by Source Forge.

See L<http://www.netdisco.org>

=head1 FEATURES

=head2 Switch Ports

From the web interface devices connected to switch and router ports are listed by 
MAC address.  A history of which switch ports a MAC address has been seen at is 
kept.  With a click the you can browse a network device connected to an uplink port.
With another click you can disable or enable the switch port, logging the reason, user and
date.

=over

=item * Central location to disable/enable switch ports.  

Network administrators can disable and enable ports without having to know enable or
privilege passwords.  Reasons for switching on/off ports are logged for end-of-the-year 
auditing and reporting.   Non-IOS savvy managers can control port access from a familiar
browser interface.  This feature was designed with a University Residential Networks (ResNet)
in mind.

Only users you specify in Netdisco will have access to switch off a port.  Netdisco
will also not allow people to switch off uplink ports by accident.

=item * Supports Cisco VLAN Community String indexing (C<public@101>)

=item * MAC Address to switch port resolution

=item * IP Address to switch port resolution

=item * Find Switch Ports with multiple nodes attached

=item * Find nodes using multiple IP addresses

=item * Find nodes by vendor (using MAC address OUI)

=back

=head2 Easy Administration

=over 

=item * Controllable through Web Interface or Command Line Interface (CLI)

=item * Database store for scalability and speed (Postgresql)

=item * Easily extendible to new network devices

=item * User system to restrict access and features 

=back

=head2 Network Administration and Security

=over

=item * Automatic inventory and search of network hardware

=item * Administratively enable/disable switch ports from web interface with logging

=item * Duplex Mismatch Finder

=item * Find Wireless Access Points (APs) from wired-side of network

=item * Layer Two Traceroute

=back

=head2 Reporting

=over

=item * Graphing of network topology.  Clickable image-map of devices.  Link speed shown

=item * Statistics for number of actual nodes connected to network

=back

=head2 Inventory of Network Devices

=over

=item * by Operating System (IOS,CatOS,HP...)

=item * by Model, Vendor, OSI Layer, DNS Name

=item * Find device ports that are blocking (via Spanning Tree Protocol)

=item * Find devices using IP's w/out DNS entries

=back 

=head2 SUPPORTED DEVICES

Netdisco supports any Network device that talks SNMP and has basic information
available through MIB-II (RFC 1213).   Additional vendor-specific information
is available for a number of devices, but especially for Cisco, Extreme,
Foundry, HP, and Nortel/Bay devices.  

Device support is handled through C<SNMP::Info> -- a Perl module that is
an integral part of Netdisco that handles device-specific code.  See the
C<Device Matrix> at L<http://snmp-info.sourceforge.net> for a list of 
devices that have been tested against Netdisco.  SNMP::Info can be extended
for new families of devices relatively easily with a little Perl knowledge.

=head1 SUPPORT

Please use the C<netdisco-users> mailing list for all problems and comments.

L<http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/netdisco-users>

In case of bugs, please use the Bug interface from SourceForge page at:

L<http://sourceforge.net/projects/netdisco>

=head1 GLOSSARY

=over 4

=item Device

Any device connected to the network that contributes to the physical topology.
Devices need to be accessible via SNMP.  A device usually has multiple interfaces
(ports) and can have multiple IP addresses.

=item Node

A node is anything connected to a device.   Nodes are uniquely identified by their
MAC addresses.  A node may or may not have IP addresses associated with it.

=item Macsuck

B<Technical Answer> : The process in Netdisco that goes out to all Layer-2 devices and 
gets the Forwarding Tables / CAM Tables.  Each row in the table maps a MAC
address to a switch port.   This process is what makes devices show up on
switch ports.

Netdisco will attempt to detect uplink ports in case you are missing topology data
during macsuck.  Check the logs of the macsuck / macwalk for notifications of
detected uplink ports, and add that data to your F<netdisco-topology.txt>.


B<Fun Answer> - From Douglas M. McKeown :

"This is where you go to a switch (Layer 2) and find all
the MAC (or Ethernet Hardware) addresses which this device is connected to.
So you plug your Dell into your HP Switch and that HP Switch is uplinked to
your Core switch (not using the word router here.  we're talking simple,
physical network connections, sort of like electrical wires.)  Well your
Dell has a MAC address of let's say "A"  and amazingly, your HP switch
has a MAC address of "B" and your Core switch has an address of "1".
Well if you Macsuck your Core switch, it doesn't have your Dell
connected to it, but it does have "B" which is another switch.  So you
Macsuck "B" and it has MAC addresses for 1, B and A!  You don't really
Macsuck an end device (your Dell).

So what do we know?

    - Core (1) knows about HP Switch "B".
    - HP Switch "B" knows about Core (1) and Dell "A".
    - Dell "A" knows about HP Switch "B".

Does "1" know about "A" ?  If it's a router it does.  Otherwise it asks
who has "A" and switch "B" says, I know!  So 1 goes to B which goes to
A.  

Got it?"

=item Arpnip

The process in Netdisco that goes out to every Layer-3 device and gets its ARP
cache.  Each entry in the ARP Cache maps a MAC address to an IP address.

This process is what lets Netdisco map an Ethernet address to an IP address.
Combined with the Macsuck process, Netdisco can ultimately resolve an IP address
to a switch port.

If you have a small network that only has layer-2 devices on it, and you
use a Linux or BSD box as your router, you will need to install net-snmp
on the machine, and then have netdisco discover that machine.  Otherwise
you will not be able to resolve a MAC address to an IP address.

=item CDP / FDP / LLDP / SONMP

Having topology information is crucial for Netdisco to function.  So.
if you network does not support one of the above Layer2 discover protocols,
you B<must> put the information in the F<netdisco-topology.txt> file. 

See L<Topology Information> in this file.

From Douglas McKeown :

"CDP is the B<Cisco Discovery Protocol>.  Sort of an add-on for when
switches talk to switches about who's connected to whom.  CDP quickly
tells other switches that it has switches connected.  Netdisco really
likes CDP a lot for mapping out the network and automatically
discovering the topology.   If your devices don't use CDP, then you need
to work with the F<netdisco-topology.txt> file to create a layout of your
network."

Note that LLDP (IEEE Standard), FDP (Foundry), and SONMP (Nortel/Bay) are
supported, and anywhere you see CDP you can assume we mean LLDP, FDP, and
SONMP too.

=over

=item Security Warning

B<WARNING>!  There is a potential community string exposure when Netdisco is auto-discovering
network equipment (C<netdisco> L<-r|/item__2dr__7c_7c__2d_2ddiscoverall_root_device>).  If a malicious host were to implement CDP and Netdisco were
to discover that host, Netdisco would send all read-only community strings to
that device in an attempt to add it to the topology.

There are two main ways to avoid this exposure:

=over

=item List addresses of valid devices

Use the L<discover_only> and/or L<discover_no> configuration keywords to
control what IP addresses netdisco will be permitted to visit.
C<discover_only> is inclusive, and C<discover_no> is exclusive;
it's recommended to use C<discover_only> if feasible.

When using this method, check the backend log for devices visible via
CDP but not via SNMP.  These may point out the need to expand the
range that is discoverable, or may be instances of this class of attack.

Additionaly C<discover_no_type> can be used to prevent netdisco
from visiting certain devices based on the device_type returned by CDP.

=item Disable CDP and other discovery protocols

This solution involves disabling CDP and other discovery protocols
from your user-connection ports, and leaving it on on inter-device
ports.  Unfortunately, in some configurations, user-connection
ports B<are> inter-device ports, e.g., especially when you want to
keep the ability to easily add a phone to a port that didn't have
one previously.

Sample C<IOS> Code for above:

 interface range fastethernet1/1-32
  no cdp enable

Make sure you don't disable CDP on any ports that are connected to
other pieces of infrastructure.
Also make sure you don't use the global command C<no cdp run>, since that will
disable CDP entirely.

=back

=back

=back

=head1 INSTALL

See the INSTALL document for instructions and requirements to install Netdisco.

=head1 USING NETDISCO

=head2 Components

Netdisco has three components :

=over 4

=item 1. Back-end 

The back-end talks to devices via SNMP.  Contained in the back-end is the logic to create the topology,
collect statistics and generate graphs.  

Most of the back-end is controlled by cron jobs.  

A background daemon is put resident to run maintenance tasks collected from the front-end. This 
keeps these sometimes memory intensive tasks and code out of the httpd processes. 

=item 2. Database

Netdisco uses PostgreSQL to store all its information.  Careful abstraction of the database calls
means that Netdisco can be ported to another SQL platform easily.  Hooks to use other databases are
present.

=item 3. Front-end

The front-end operates on stored data only.  This abstraction is both for speed and security.

Some front-end administration tasks are put in a queue in the database that a daemon running from
the back-end picks up and processes.

The number of people using Netdisco can scale with the web server capacity, and will create no extra load
on the devices. 

=back

=head2 Command-Line Options

=over

=item -b || --batchmode

Batch Mode.  Redirect output to log file.  Log file directory set in configuration file 
under L<datadir>.

=item -C || --configfile file

Set Config file. Default is netdisco.conf.

=item -D || --debug

DEBUG.  Sends copious information to STDOUT

=item -L || --nologging

No Log.  This will not add entries to the L<log|/"item_log"> table.

=item -n || --nodestoo

Delete Nodes.  Used with --expiredevice only.

=item -N || --newonly

New Only.  On a network discovery L<-r|/item__2dr__7c_7c__2d_2ddiscoverall_root_device>, only discover found devices that aren't in the database. 

=item -P || --port port

Port.  Specify Port for removal of nodes L<-e|/item__2de__7c_7c__2d_2dexpirenodes_device>.

=item -S || --dumpsql

Debug.  carp() SQL commands.  Sets $netdisco::SQLCARP to 1.

=item -V || --archive

archiVe nodes.  Used with L<-e|/item__2de__7c_7c__2d_2dexpirenodes_device> only.

=back

=head2 Command-Line Commands

=over

=item -a || --arpwalk

Arp Walk.  ArpNip each device that has Layer 3 capabilities.

=item -A || --arpnip device

ArpNip.  ArpNip's a single device.  See L<ArpNipper> in Design.

Devices listed in C<arpnip_no> in the config file are excluded.
If there is a C<arpnip_only> entry in the config file, devices
not listed are excluded.
See the entry below.

=item -B || --backup

Backup and Nightly Maintenance.

=over

=item Removes 

Devices and nodes that are old using the C<expire_*> config file directives (see below).

=item Creates

Archive data files for L<node|"item_node">,L<node_ip|"item_node_ip">,L<device|"item_device">, and L<device_ip|"item_device_ip"> tables.

=item Calls

Database cleanup routines (L<-K|/item__2dk__7c_7c__2d_2dcleannodes>) as well. 

=item Exports 

NMIS config file if L<nmis_dump> is set.

=back

This routine should be run nightly.

For a full backup run F<sql/pg --back> to backup the whole database.

=item -d || --discover device

Discover Device.   

IP addresses and subnets listed in C<discover_no> in the config file
are excluded.
If there is a C<discover_only> entry in the config file, IP addresses
and subnets not listed are excluded.
See the entry below.

=item -e || --expirenodes device

Expire Nodes for given device. Use L<-V|/item__2dv__7c_7c__2d_2darchive> to archiVe instead of delete.  Specify a 
port with L<-P|/item__2dp__7c_7c__2d_2dport_port> to delete or archive nodes on a per port basis.

=item --expire-nodes-subnet subnet

Finds all devices in given subnet and runs expire nodes on each.   Will 
display devices effected and then ask for confirmation.

Subnet is specified in CIDR format :

    192.168.0.0/24


=item -E || --expiredevice device

Delete a device. Use L<-n|/item__2dn__7c_7c__2d_2dnodestoo> to delete nodes as well.

=item -F || --discoverfile file

Discover Device from given File.   Used to restore backed up info from L<-B|/item__2db__7c_7c__2d_2dbackup>, and to 
discover devices that are not available through topology information.  Use L<-T|/item__2dt__7c_7c__2d_2dtopofile> to 
only import Topology Information.

=item -g || --graph

Graph.  Creates graph using GraphViz.  Can create image output (png,gif) or 
vector output (svg).

NOTE: You can safely ignore all warnings about C<size too small for label>.

Make sure you have a relatively new version of GraphViz.  You need a newer
version of GraphViz if you get an error similar to:

  Creating CMAP : /var/www/netdisco/html/netmap.map
    warning, language cmap not recognized, use one of: ps hpgl pcl mif...

=item -h || --help

Prints out command line usage.

=item -i || --changeip old_ip new_ip

Change IP address of device.  Creates new entry, removes old one and moves nodes
over to the new one. 

=item -I || --expireips

Expire IP Addresses from L<node_ip|"item_node_ip"> table.   This will delete entries from the node_ip table
that are not matching entries (MAC Addresses) found in the node or device_port tables.

=item -k || --cleanalias

alias klean-up.  DANGEROUS.  Deletes from the F<device> table any 
IP address that is found as an alias in the F<alias> table.

=item -K || --cleannodes

Database Node Klean-up. Permanently deletes nodes matching: 

=over 

=item 1. MAC Addresses that are Switch Port Addresses

=item 2. MAC Addresses that are listed on non-existent ports

=item 3. MAC Addresses that exist on ports with topology information (uplink ports)

=back

=item -m || --macwalk

Mac Suck each device in the database that has Layer 2 capabilities.

=item -M || --macsuck device

Mac Suck given device only.

Devices listed in C<macsuck_no> in the config file are excluded.
If there is a C<macsuck_only> entry in the config file, devices
not listed are excluded.
See the entry below.

=item -O || --oui

Import OUI information from oui.txt

=item -p || --daemon [start,stop,status,restart]

Control the Admin Daemon.  Takes arguments (start,stop,status,restart).

=item  -r || --discoverall root_device_list

Walk the network with the given (comma-seperated) root(s).
Use L<-N|/item__2dn__7c_7c__2d_2dnewonly> to discover new devices only.  Given root devices
will always be discovered.

=item -R || --refresh

Refresh devices.  Will run a discover (L<-d|/item__2dd__7c_7c__2d_2ddiscover_device>) for each device in the database.

=item -T || --topofile

Import Topology Data.  Will import manual topology data stored in file specified by 
configuration option L<topofile> . Use L<-F|/item__2df__7c_7c__2d_2ddiscoverfile_file> to specify a different file from the
command line. 

It is not necessary to do this after every change.  This is only a convenience switch.

=item -u || --user [user] [password] [port_control?] [admin?] ["full name"]

Add or Change a User.  Supply all four arguments (user pw port_control admin) for 
command-line control, or supply less for interactive prompts.

It's better to use interactive prompts so that the password doesn't get stored in your 
shell history file and exported to the process table.

=item -v || --version

=back

=head2 Features

=over

=item Admin Daemon

The admin daemon is a copy of C<netdisco> that runs in the background.  From the web C<Admin Panel>,
jobs are put in a queue in the database.  The daemon picks up these jobs and executes them from the 
back-end as user C<netdisco>.  The daemon is restarted daily in a cron job, or can be manually started
as root :

    su - netdisco -c "/var/www/netdisco -p restart"

=item Port Info / Jack Search

This feature integrates Netdisco with other databases that have port info.

Port Info was designed around data coming out of a Pinnacles database at UCSC, and might
prove to be site-specific.   However, see C<port_info.html> for a good example of how to access other
databases using the C<netdisco.pm> SQL routines. 

Enable this feature by setting C<port_info> to true in C<netdisco.conf>

=item Port Control

Port Control allows a user of Netdisco to administratively turn a port on or off.  

To do this the back-end requires a read-write community string for the device in question. 
The admin daemon must also be enabled.  Netdisco keeps a log for each port holding information 
about why a port was turned on or off.  

A reason for turning switch the port is chosen from a list to provide future audits of admin activity.  
The user and IP address of the request are stored.  To change the default reasons, modify the 
C<%PORT_CONTROL_REASONS> hash in C<netdisco.pm>

Optionally if the C<portctl_email> setting is set in C<netdisco.conf>, an e-mail is sent out with a 
notification of the switching.  Locally at UCSC that e-mail is sent to an administrative mailing list.

To turn this feature off uncheck the C<Port Control> checkbox from all users in the C<Admin Panel>.

By default Netdisco will be allowed to shut off 

    - Switch Ports
    - IP Phones
    - Router Ports that are NOT uplinks

By setting certain config file directives you can allow Netdisco to shutoff uplink ports and
VLAN interfaces.  But this is B<REALLY NOT RECOMMENDED>.  See below for the required
commands.

=item Web Console

The Web Console allows netdisco to front-end the web interface of a switch or router.  
Traffic can then be routed over https, through Netdisco's web server.  An additional security layer is added
by requiring the user to be logged into Netdisco. The normal security measures used by the 
device's web server are still active.

The Web console is a reverse proxy that runs on Apache.  You must enable it in C<netdisco_apache.conf> and 
C<netdisco_apache_dir.conf>.   The add devices and models to the configuration lines C<web_console_vendors> and
C<web_console_models> in C<netdisco.conf>.

=back

=head2 Netdisco Maintenance

=over

=item Refreshing a device

To refresh or discover a device and its ports, use the L<-d|/item__2dd__7c_7c__2d_2ddiscover_device> command:

    netdisco -d mydevice

=item Importing Topology Information

It is not necessary to import the topology information after changing F<netdisco-topology.txt>.  You should
however restart the admin daemon.  The topology text file is re-parsed each time you run netdisco.

As a convenience you can use the topology file to quickly seed Netdisco with devices. 
To import all the topology information at once make sure the topology filename is set in C<netdisco.conf>
and use the L<-T|/item__2dt__7c_7c__2d_2dtopofile> command:

    netdisco -T

=item Aborting a process of Netdisco

Hit Ctrl-C if you are running a netdisco process, or send the job the INT signal. 
The job can cleanup after itself, write out its stats and log entries. 

    kill -INT jobpid

There is currently no way to stop a job inside the Admin daemon.  Send the daemon an INT 
signal and it will terminate after its current job has completed.

=item Changing the IP Address of a Device

If a device is being replaced with a different device and a different IP, see L</Deleting a Device>
below.

    netdisco -i old-ip-address new-ip-address

Changing the IP address of a device will:

=over

=item 1. Discover the new device

=item 2. Remove Old Device Entry, port, and aliases

=item 3. Move the old nodes to the new device.

=back

=item Auto-Deleting Old Data From the Database

In order for Netdisco to be self-maintaining data has to be taken out of the 
database as well as put in.   The following config file directives are used to 
auto-prune stuff from the database :

=over

=item expire_devices 

=item expire_nodes

=item expire_nodes_archive

=back

See each item's entry in the L<Config File> Section below for more details. 

The expire data routines are called from the L<-B|/item__2db__7c_7c__2d_2dbackup>/Backup routine, which should
be running nightly via cron.

=item Deleting a Device

To delete a device use the L<-E|/item__2de__7c_7c__2d_2dexpiredevice_device> command followed by the device name or IP.  Set L<-n|/item__2dn__7c_7c__2d_2dnodestoo> to 
delete all the nodes seen on that device as well 

This is rather permanent.  Make sure you run L<-B|/item__2db__7c_7c__2d_2dbackup>ackup before you do this.

=item Deleting Nodes

Nodes consist of two components -- the switch port to MAC address mapping in the C<node> table, 
and the MAC address to IP mapping in the C<node_ip> table. 

To remove nodes from a switch, use the Admin Panel on the web side and choose either
C<Delete Nodes>  or C<Archive Nodes>.   Archiving nodes will set the archive bit so that the 
data will be available, but not always showing.   You can also delete nodes from the command 
line using the L<-e|/item__2de__7c_7c__2d_2dexpirenodes_device> command with or without the L<-V|/item__2dv__7c_7c__2d_2darchive> flag.

Database Cleanup L<-K|/item__2dk__7c_7c__2d_2dcleannodes> will delete nodes that seem to be extraneous.  See L<-K|/item__2dk__7c_7c__2d_2dcleannodes> for more details.

Once you have cleared out nodes from a switch, then run L<-I|/item__2di__7c_7c__2d_2dexpireips> to remove unused node to IP mappings.

This is rather permanent.  Make sure you run L<-B|/item__2db__7c_7c__2d_2dbackup>ackup before you do this.

=item Adding / Changing Users

The easiest way to add a user is to use the C<Add User> form in the Admin Panel.  After first installing
Netdisco you need to add an admin user by running L<-u|/item__2du__7c_7c__2d_2duser__5buser_5d__5bpassword_5d__>.  

=item Migrating the Users table to a new host

If you are moving your Netdisco install over to another machine and
you want to keep your users table, here is the process :

    source$ pg_dump -a -d -U netdisco -t users netdisco > user_dump.sql
    source$ scp user_dump.sql dest:

    dest$ cd /var/www/netdisco/sql
    dest$ ./pg /path/to/user_dump.sql

=item Localhost (127.0.0.1) is showing up on CDP Links

See "How the Switch Selects the IP Address To Include in Outbound CDP
Packets" in ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/59692375_e1.pdf

=item Device Model comes up as 'Products.'

The device is probably newer than your Cisco MIBs.  Redownload L<ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/v2/v2.tar.gz>
and install these newest mibs into F</usr/local/share/snmp/mibs>.

=item Things are getting Really slow

For some reason over here at UCSC, things get real slow in Postgres after a while.
Even though we are doing frequent VACUUM's on all the data, it seems to be dragging
down after a while.

This turns out to be an INDEX bloat problem on Postgres versions less than 7.4. 
Recently doing this on a Postgres 7.3 install changed the amount of space that
Netdisco's database was using from 16G to 400M !!!

In order to fix this we do a C<VACUUM FULL ANALYZE VERBOSE> and C<REINDEX> from C<pg>.
This command locks each table before it does the VACUUM, and therefore can be more thorough.
It's a good idea to take netdisco down temporarily while you do this.  I do this about
once a month, or when I notice it dragging down.  Use C<Netdisco Statistics> as a good metric
of things slowing down.  This may get fixed with changes in VACUUM in Postgres 7.4 and above.

Procedure for doing a vacuum full (as root):

=over

=item 1. Shutdown the admin daemon   

    /var/www/netdisco/bin/netdisco_daemon stop

=item 2. Clear the cron tab for user netdisco

    crontab -u netdisco -r

=item 3. Comment out the netdisco config file Includes in httpd.conf

=item 4. Restart Apache

    /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful

=item 5. Check to see if any netdisco jobs are running and wait for them or kill them

    ps
    killall netdisco

=item 6. Run REINDEX and  VACUUM FULL 

Before:

    df -h
    /var/www/netdisco/sql/pg
        # before comparison :
        select relname, relpages from pg_class order by relpages desc;

        REINDEX TABLE node;
        REINDEX TABLE node_ip;
        REINDEX TABLE device;
        REINDEX TABLE device_port;
        REINDEX TABLE device_port_log;
        VACUUM FULL ANALYZE VERBOSE;

        # after comparison :
        select relname, relpages from pg_class order by relpages desc;
        \q

After:

    df -h

=item 7. Restart Postgres (just for fun)

    /usr/local/etc/rc.d/010.pgsql restart 

OR

    /etc/rc.d/init.d/pgsql restart

OR

    /etc/rc.d/pgsql restart

=item 8. Uncomment lines in httpd.conf

=item 9. Restart Apache

    /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful

=item 10. Reload crontab for user netdisco

    crontab -u netdisco /var/www/netdisco/netdisco.crontab

=item 11. Restart Admin Daemon

    /var/www/netdisco/bin/netdisco_daemon start

=back

=item Clearing the Admin Queue

If your admin queue is just getting too long and you want to clear it
you can do it by just dropping the table and readding it. 

    cd sql
    ./pg admin.sql

=back

=head2 Topology Information

Topology information is crucial to Netdisco's performance.  It allows the
application to know which ports are uplink ports and which have connected
nodes.  Ports that are uplink ports that are not marked so in Netdisco will
appear to B<steal> MAC address entries from their rightful ports.  So it is
critical to use the topology file and CDP/FDP/SONMP to maintain a topology.

=head3 Autodetection of uplink ports 

During macsuck if Netdisco finds the MAC address of a known device or switch
port, then that port is marked as an uplink.  Nodes will not collect at these
switch ports, and a warning message will be printed.  Check the logs of 
your macsuck and macwalk jobs in order to find and correct autodetected 
uplink ports.  Add these ports to your netdisco-topology.txt file.

=head3 Manual Topology Information

Netdisco will auto-discover the layer-two topology of a network using CDP.
However, many networks have parts of the topology that are not covered by CDP.

Use the manual topology file C<netdisco-topology.txt> to supply the layout of
the network if your network has devices that don't talk CDP or misreport
information.

The manual topology file only requires one side of the data to be entered.
Both directions of a link will be forced to the given data if one side is
listed.

B<File Format>

The format of the manual topology consists of four types of lines:

=over

=item #comment

Comments are delimited with a C<#> They can happen on any line.  Escape as C<\#> if 
you need to use a literal pound sign.

=item routername

Any line that does not start with C<link:> or C<alias:> is assumed to be a the DNS name or 
IP address of a network device. 

=item link:

Lines that start with C<link:> connect two devices together.  The format is 

    link:outgoing port,destination device,Destination port

The outgoing port belongs to the device listed above the C<link:> line.

The Destination Device and Port tell Netdisco who is on the other end of this link.
The device can be a DNS name or an IP Address.

B<NOTE>: The port names must match exactly how Netdisco sees it.  Go to the 
device and check it out.  You might think of it as C<port 1> but Netdisco might
think of it as C<RMONPort26onunit1>.

=item alias:

Not implemented for output.  The backup file will have these lines just for informations'
sake.  Alias IPs on a device are found during discovery.

Many network devices like routers have multiple IP addresses assigned to them.  If the device
cannot or does not supply this information to Netdisco in a standard way, you can add IP
addresses used here.

=back

White space in the file (except for line breaks) is ignored.  Tabbing over before C<line:> lines
makes it easier to read, but is not required.

B<File Uses>

Some reasons the manual topology file is used:

=over

=item 1. Man in the Middle

Let's say you have two CDP speaking devices with a non-CDP speaking device in between them

    [Cisco] ---> [Bay] ---> [HP]

The Cisco and HP devices (CDP speakers) find each other and the Bay device never appears. 
You would then have to add these lines to the topology file:

    ciscoswitch.my.company
        link:EtherNet0/1,bayswitch.my.company,25
    bayswitch.my.company
        link:26,hpswitch.my.company,J3

This tells Netdisco that port C<Ethernet0/1> on C<ciscoswitch> is connected to Port C<25> on C<bayswitch>.
Then in turn Port 26 on C<bayswitch> is connected to port C<J3> on C<hpswitch>.

A note about devices that are I<CDP Aware> and that implement CDP:   

I<CDP Aware> devices are devices that probably do not speak CDP (probably for legal reasons) but 
that are smart enough not to forward CDP packets.  Cisco devices that have CDP disabled are usually
still I<CDP Aware> and will not forward the packets.   Man-in-the-middle situations occur when the device
both does not speak CDP and is not I<CDP Aware>.

=item 2. Isolated Network Segment

If you have a segment of your network that is not connected directly, or connected through a non physical
link like a VPN, then you might fudge an entry to connect that segment of the network with the main one.

=item 3. Attach a non-CDP speaking device

Anywhere a device that does not supply topology information is connected to the network, an entry
must be added in the manual topology file.

=back

=head2 Cron Jobs

Netdisco is controlled via cron jobs.  Jobs are run as user C<netdisco>.
Multiple jobs can be run at once. 

The default jobs are :

=over

=item * MacSuck - Every 2 hours MacSuck all the devices in the database.

=item * ArpNip  - Every 2 hours ArpNip  all the devices in the database. (Offset from Macsuck by 1 hours)

=item * Refresh Devices - Once a day refresh device information.

=item * Backup - Once a day backup information.

=item * Graph - Once a day re-create the graph.

=item * Walk Network - Once a week (Wed @ 14:00) try and discover new devices.

=item * Restart Admin Daemon - Once a day just for good measure.

=back

=head1 Config File

The settings in C<netdisco.conf> are used both in the back-end and the front-end.

When you make a change in the config file that is used in the web front end, 
you must reload apache.  The config information is shared between processes for speed
and memory performance.

    su - -c "/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl restart"

Multiple config files can be used in the back-end by calling Netdisco with the
C<-C> option:

    netdisco -C myotherfile.conf

=head2 General Items

=over

=item domain

STRING. Trimmed from all DNS names viewed.  Leave blank to show all domain names.  Add a dot 
in front of your value :

    .ucsc.edu

=item home

PATH.  Full path to where netdisco lives.  Is the root path for all other files and paths.

=item customer

STRING.  Name added to page titles and heading.

=item customericon

STRING.  URL,width,height - replaces discoball icon with custom logo.

=back

=head2 Database Maintenance

New in version 0.93 these directives are included to help make
Netdisco more self-maintaining.

B<Setting these will result in permanent data removal.>

=over 

=item expire_devices

DAYS. Devices that have not been refreshed in this number 
of days will be removed.   All nodes connected to this device will be removed 
as well.

=item expire_nodes

DAYS.  Nodes that have not been refreshed in this number of days will be removed from
the database.  Archived and non-archived nodes are removed.  This includes SwitchPort/MAC
and MAC/IP mappings.

=item expire_nodes_archive

DAYS.  Archived data for switch-port/MAC and MAC/IP mappings older than this number
of days will be removed. 

=back

=head2 Back-End Items

=over

=item arpnip_no

LIST:string.  Devices that won't be arpnipped.  See C<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.
If you have any layer-3 devices that have been discovered by netdisco
but are using proxy-ARP as a way to get to other devices, place them here.
Alternately, if you have many proxy-ARP clients but one (or a handful of)
central device with all of the proper ARP info, put that in C<arpnip_only>.

=item arpnip_only

LIST:string.  If present, only arpnip these devices.  See C<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item compress

EXECUTABLE. Full path and command line arguments to the compression program used in L<compresslogs>

=item compresslogs 

BOOLEAN. Compress log files?  See L<compress> entry above.

=item datadir

PATH. Full or relative path to the directory that backups and logs will be stored in

=item discover_no

LIST:string.  IP addresses in this list will not be visited during discovery.
See L<bulkwalk_no> for syntax, except that only hostnames, IP addresses
and subnets are valid.

=item discover_no_type

REGEX:string.  Place a pattern here to exclude the discovery of certain devices
based on the CDP device type information.  Good for excluding a whole device
class like lightweight access points or IP phones that have CDP but don't talk
SNMP.

=item discover_only

LIST:string.  If present, discovery will be limited to only IP addresses
in this list.  If you have a management VLAN, put that subnet here
to avoid discovering user devices.
See L<bulkwalk_no> for syntax, except that only hostnames, IP addresses
and subnets are valid.

=item ignore_interfaces

LIST:STRING  If present, device ports matching any of the items in this list
will be ignored by the discovery process. Note this may have side effects -
connected devices and nodes on those ports will in turn also not be
discovered.

Each item in the list is separated by a comma and may be a Perl regular
expression. A useful example for this option might be:

 EOBC,unrouted VLAN,StackPort,Control Plane Interface,SPAN (S|R)P Interface,StackSub

=item ignore_private_nets

Not fully implemented.

BOOLEAN. Set to true to ignore aliases that are part of private nets:

    10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/16 and 192.168.0.0/24  

=item logextension

STRING. The extension to add to log files.

=item macsuck_bleed

BOOLEAN. Set to true will let nodes accumulate on uplink ports without topology information.
This is a debug option to help you figure out your topology and generally should not be set. 

=item macsuck_no

LIST:string.  Don't macsuck these devices.  See C<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item macsuck_only

LIST:string.  If present, only macsuck these devices.  See C<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item macsuck_no_vlan

LIST:Strings.  Comma separated list of VLAN names not to visit when MACsucking.

This option was used to speed up MACsucking on certain Cisco Catalyst family devices
where you have to connect to each VLAN with SNMP to get the forwarding tables.   Certain
default VLANs will not answer to SNMP, and Netdisco has to wait for them to timeout. 

VLANs listed here are overrided regardless of L<macsuck_all_vlans> value.

=item macsuck_timeout

SECONDS. Timeout for devices when mac sucking.

=item macsuck_all_vlans

BOOLEAN.  Set to macsuck all VLANs, not just the ones that are being used on ports.

This is a debug option. Set this if you think that the option of not macsucking VLANs that
aren't in use on device ports is some how interfering.  

Setting this would revert macsuck to the same behavior as 0.93 and before.

Does not override L<macsuck_no_vlan>.

=item max_procs

INTEGER.  The number of simultaneous processes to use when collecting data
from devices.  Using several processes speeds up data collection, but uses
more database resources.  Be careful of using up all of your database
connection handles.  Typical values are 15-25.

Note that the load average will be quite high with this option, very
nearly the same as the value of max_procs.  However, that's because
each of these processes spends much of its time waiting for responses
from the device, so is ready to run.  The high load average doesn't
affect the usability of the system in the same way that a high load
average caused by cpu-bound jobs would.

=item nbt_days

DAYS.  The maximum age of a node for it to be checked for NetBIOS
information.  Default 7.

=item nmis_dump

FILENAME.  Set this option to have nightly() (-B) dump an NMIS L<http://www.sins.com.au/nmis> 
style Config file.  Warning, this file will contain SNMP Community strings. 

Optional Override options are :

=over 

=item nmis_group

STRING.  Group to use with nmis_dump.  Default C<Network>

=item nmis_role

STRING.  Role to use with nmis_dump.  Default C<core>

=item nmis_collect

STRING.  Collect option to use with nmis_dump.  Default C<true>

=item nmis_active 

STRING.  Active option for nmis_dump file. Default C<true>

=item nmis_net

STRING.  Net identifier to use.  Default C<lan>

=item nmis_port

INT. SNMP Port to list in nmis_dump file.  Default C<161>

=back

=item node_monitor_email

STRING.  If set, consult the node_monitor table for MAC addresses that are being
monitored after every macwalk.  If any of the monitored MAC addresses appear or
move, send an email to the node_monitor_email setting and any cc address listed
in the database.  Note that the node_monitor table must currently be maintained
via raw sql access, there is no admin page for it.

=item reverse_sysname

BOOLEAN.  Turn this on to have Netdisco do a reverse lookup of the sysName.0 field to use
as the management IP address for a device.  See bug 810939 and device_root() for more info.
Default C<false> 

=item store_modules

BOOLEAN.  Set to false to skip the module inventory on device discovery.
The module inventory can double the device discovery time so if you
aren't using the information you can skip it.

=item store_wireless_clients

BOOLEAN.  Set to false to skip the wireless client information
gathering.  This is captured at macsuck time, so if you aren't using
the information you can skip it.

=item topofile

FILE. Full path of the file that contains manual topology information.  Defaults to
F<netdisco-topology.txt>

=item timeout

SECONDS. Timeout for refreshing or discovering a device 

=back

=head3 Admin Panel

=over

=item daemon_bg

BOOLEAN.  Run daemon in the background?

=item daemon_pid

FILE.  Filename for the pid file used by admin daemon.  Must be writable by
daemon user.

=item daemon_poll

SECONDS. Time to wait to check for new items in the queue.

=back

=head3 Database Settings

The five database settings are C<db> , C<db_user>, C<db_pw>, C<db_opts>, and C<db_env>.

You can run multiple database types in Netdisco.  See C<port_info> for an instance of this. 

For each of the above settings, the database shortcut name (you choose) is inserted after C<db>. 

Postgres is the required first database, and uses the short name C<Pg>.

The following lines must be added :

=over

=item db_Pg

STRING. Database connect string to give to DBI.

Default : C<dbi:Pg:dbname=netdisco>

=item db_Pg_user

STRING. Database user

=item db_Pg_pw

STRING. Database Password

=item db_Pg_opts

HASH.   Options to add to the connect string.  

Default : C<PrintError =E<gt> 1, AutoCommit =E<gt> 1>

=item db_Pg_env

HASH.  Environment variables to be set before running database calls.
Separate multiple entries with commas.

Mainly used for Oracle.

Default : not set.

Example :

 db_Oracle_env  = ORACLE_HOME => /usr/local/oracle7, ORACLE_STUFF=>1

=back

=head3 SNMP Settings

=over

=item bulkwalk_off

BOOLEAN.  Set to true to use GETNEXT instead of BULKWALK for every device.  
This slows things down, but might be necessary for problem devices. 

Set to false to use BULKWALK even if netdisco thinks you have a buggy
version of Net-SNMP (e.g., because your installation is patched)

Other solutions include addding C< sub bulkwalk_off { 1; } > to the device
class that is misbehaving in SNMP::Info.  This will turn off bulkwalk for a
class of devices, not all.

Also see L<bulkwalk_no> to turn BULKWALK off on a per-device or device class level.

Default is on.  SNMP::Info 1.0 or higher required.

=item bulkwalk_no

LIST:STRING.   A comma separated list of devices to not bulkwalk

This list can take five different inputs:

=over

=item Hostname or IP

Simply put the device's name or IP address in the list.

    switch1, switch2, switch3

=item model:regex

Add an entire model type for excluding from bulkwalking.

This can be a simple string like C<6500> or it could be a regular expression like
C<(2512|65\d\d)>.  The regex must match the whole string (it's anchored).

=item vendor:regex

Add an entire vendor type for excluding form bulkwalking.

This can be a simple string like C<hp> or it could be a regular expression like
C<(cisco|hp)>. The regex must match the whole string (it's anchored).

=item Subnet

You can exclude a whole subnet of devices from bulkwalking.  Use CIDR notation.

 128.1.0.0/16

=item Blanket Wildcard

You can use a single asterix C<*> to specify that all devices not 
be bulkwalked.

=back

=item bulkwalk_repeaters

INT.  Sets MaxRepeaters on BULKWALK operations.  See C<perldoc SNMP> for more info.

Default is 20.  SNMP::Info 1.0 or higher required.

=item community

LIST:STRING. A comma separated list of community strings to try on each device.

=item community_rw

LIST:STRING.  OPTIONAL. A comma separated list of Read-Write community strings.  

This is only necessary if you turn on the C<port_control> command.

=item get_community

STRING.  An external program to run to get the community string for a given
device.  This is useful if, for example, you have you devices already configured
in another NMS and you want to use that information instead of configuring
C<community> and/or C<community_rw> in this file.

The strings %IP% and %HOST% are replaced by the IP address and the hostname
(or IP address if no hostname is known) of the system being contacted.

The command must return output in the following form:

    community=<list of readonly-communities>
    setCommunity=<list of write-communities>

If the community string is not known for the given system, the command
should return no output and the community strings configured in netdisco
will be used.

=item mibdirs

LIST:STRING.  A comma separated list of directories to search for MIB files.

=item nonincreasing

BOOLEAN.  Setting this to true will allow the bulkwalk of devices that have
tables with  non-increasing OIDs.  The default is to not allow this behavior to
prevent problem devices from looping indefinitely.   Requires Net-SNMP 5.3 or higher.

See patch # 1364650 in Net-SNMP or bug # 1176130.

=item snmpforce_v1

LIST:STRING.   A comma separated list of devices.  Forces matching
devices to use SNMPv1

See L<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item snmpforce_v2

LIST:STRING.   A comma separated list of devices.  Forces matching
devices to use SNMPv2c

See L<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item snmpforce_v3

LIST:STRING.   A comma separated list of devices.  Forces matching
devices to use SNMPv3.

See L<bulkwalk_no> for syntax.

=item snmpver

INT. Default version of SNMP protocol to connect with.

=item snmptimeout

INT. Settings for 'Timeout' field passed to SNMP::Session.  Micro-seconds before
retry, Default 1000000 micro-seconds = 1 second.

=item snmpretries

INT. Settings for 'Retries' field passed to SNMP::Session

=item v3_users

LIST.  The users to try for SNMPv3 (like L<community> for SNMPv1/SNMPv2)

=item v3_users_rw

LIST.  The users to try for SNMPv3 read-write access.

=item v3_user
STRING.  Colon seperated values: user:auth/enc[:authproto:authpass[:privproto:privpass]]

user is the SNMPv3 username, as listed in v3_users or v3_users_rw.

auth/enc specifies what levels of authorization/privacy you are configuring.
The possible values are:

=over

=item none

only use noAuthNoPriv, the user has no authorization or privacy configured.

=item auth

Use authNoPriv - authorization but no privacy.

=item enc

Use authPriv - authorization and privacy for all requests.

=item auth,enc

Use authNoPriv for read and authPriv for write.

=back

authproto is the authorization protocol, and can be any that the underlying
library supports, e.g., SHA or MD5.

authpass is the authorization pass phrase.

privproto is the privacy proto, e.g., DES or AES.

privpass is the privacy pass phrase.

No support is currently provided for providing hexadecimal keys directly.
Such support might use the prefix "0x" to identify a hex key, so be careful
how you choose your pass phrases.

=back

=head2 Port Control

=over

=item portctl_email

EMAIL.  Address that reports of use of C<Port Control> are sent to.

=item portctl_nophones

BOOLEAN.  Set to True to make sure an IP Phone port never can be turned off/on.  Default false.

=item portctl_timeout

SECONDS.  Amount of time to wait for a response from the admin daemon.

=item portctl_uplinks

BOOLEAN. Set to True to allow Netdisco to be able to disable Uplinks. (Router Interfaces too)

Default False.

B<EXTREMELY VERY DANGEROUS> - Turning off uplinks will take out chunks of your 
network.

=item portctl_vlans

BOOLEAN. Set to True to allow Netdisco to be able to disable VLAN interfaces.  

Default False.

B<EXTREMELY VERY DANGEROUS> - Turning off a VLAN could take out most of your 
network.

=item vlanctl

BOOLEAN. Set to True to allow Netdisco to be able to change the default VLAN on an interface.

=back

=head2 Web Settings

=over

=item port_info

BOOLEAN.  Turns on the C<Port Info> and C<Jack Search> features.

=item secure_server

BOOLEAN. If a secure server is present. 

Requires web login, password changing and all admin functions to be run in secure space.

=item traceroute

BOOLEAN.  If the traceroute button should be present in the top bar.  The
L2 Traceroute function has limits and may be slow on large networks, so the
link to it can be disabled.

=item web_console_models

LIST:STRING.  Comma separated list of models that want to use the Web Console

=item web_console_vendors

LIST:STRING.  Comma separated list of vendors that use the Web Console.

=item webpath

PATH. URL Path added to the beginning of links on the web front-end

=item websession

MINUTES.  Amount of time a session lasts before someone has to login again.

=item apache_auth

BOOLEAN. Whether to use Apache-based authentication.  If this is configured
both here and in netdisco_apache_dir.conf, then logins will trust the
REMOTE_USER set by Apache.  If the user is found in the user database,
then the appropriate privileges are applied; if the user is not found then
they have access but no port control or admin access.  There is another link
on the sidebar, "Netdisco Login" to log in using the netdisco user database.

=back

=head3 LDAP Settings

=over

=item ldap_server

LIST:STRING.  Comma separated list of LDAP servers.  If using Active Directory
these would be domain controllers.

=item ldap_user_string

STRING.  String to construct the user portion of the DN.  %USER% is a variable
which will be replaced at runtime with the logon name entered on the logon
page of the application.  Examples:  cn=%USER%, uid=%USER%.  Active
Directory users may use DOMAIN\%USER% and skip all other options except
ldap_server as this notation eliminates the need to construct the full
distinguished name.

=item ldap_base

STRING.  String which indicates where in the hierarchy to begin searches.
If a proxy user is not defined and anonymous binds are not enabled this
value will be appended to the ldap_user_string to construct the distinguished
name for authentication.

=item ldap_proxy_user

STRING.  User to bind with to perform searches.  If defined as anonymous, then
anonymous binds will be performed and ldap_proxy_pass will be ignored.  For
organizations with users in multiple OU's this option can be used to
search for the user and construct the DN based upon the result.

=item ldap_proxy_pass

STRING.  Proxy user password.  Ignored if proxy user defined as anonymous.

=item ldap_opts

HASH.   Options to add to the connect string.  Normally only needed if server
does not support LDAPv3.

=item ldap_tls_opts

HASH.   If defined, the connection will use Transport Layer Security (TLS)
which provides an encrypted connection. TLS is the preferred method of
encryption, ldaps (port 636) is not supported.  This is only possible if
using LDAPv3 and the server supports it.  These are the options for the
TLS connection.  See the Net::LDAP documentation under start_tls for options,
but the defaults should work in most cases.

=item Example configuration to use Microsoft Active Directory

 ldap_server          = AD-Domain-Controller1,AD-Domain-Controller2
 ldap_user_string     = DOMAIN\%USER%

Note:  Only one domain is currently supported in this configuration

=item Example configuration to use Novell E-Directory

 ldap_server          = LDAP-Server-1,LDAP-Server-2
 ldap_user_string     = cn=%USER%
 ldap_base            = o=MYORGANIZATION
 ldap_proxy_user      = anonymous

Note:  This configuration will support users split across multiple containers
as long as the containers exist below MYORGANIZATION

=back

=head3 Graph Settings

=over

=item edge_color

STRING. Default color for link between devices.

=item graph

FILE. Full path and name to the GIF graph of the network.  Path should be the same
as in the C<netmap.html> component.

=item graph_bg

STRING. Background color for the graph.

=item graph_color

STRING. Text color for the graph

=item graph_default

STRING. Default type of graph to view in NetMap (svg,gif,png).  Optional,
defaults to C<svg>.

=item graph_epsilon

INT. Sets the C<epsilon> attribute in C<GraphViz> used to control the graph solver.
Set to an integer value.  This will improve the mapping and visual quality of
them graph. Each integer step can mean an exponential time increase in the solving
of the graph.

=item graph_clusters

BOOLEAN.  Creates clusters of nodes based on their location field.
Best with L<graph_layout> C<fdp>.  Only use if all or most
devices in a given location have the same location string.

=item graph_layout

STRING.  Choose program to render graph with.  Valid options are C<neato>, C<twopi>, C<circo> and C<fdp>.

=item graph_fontpath

STRING.  Path for graphviz to find font files to be used for L<node_font>.  Defaults to L<home>.

=item graph_map

FILE. Set to Full path and name to the ISMAP data for the network.  Path should be the 
same as in the C<netmap.html> component.

=item graph_nodesep

FLOAT.  Node Separation (in inches) of nodes in graph. 

=item graph_overlap 

BOOLEAN. Parameter passed to C<GraphViz> for the C<overlap=""> feature.

=item graph_png

FILE. Full path and name to the PNG graph of the network.  Path should be the same
as in the C<netmap.html> component.  Use this if you prefer not to use GIF, or if
your graphviz binary doesn't support GIF, reporting an error similar to
C<Renderer type: "gif" not recognized. Use one of: [...png...]>.

=item graph_ranksep

FLOAT.  Rank Separation of elements in graph. 

=item graph_ratio

FLOAT or STRING. Graph's aspect ratio, may be a floating point number, or one of
the keywords fill, compress, or auto.

=item graph_raw

FILE.  Set to create the raw (.dot) graph file as well.

=item graph_splines

BOOLEAN.  Turn on GraphViz's spline engine? (Is very processor intensive).

=item graph_svg

FILE.  Set to create an SVG version of the graph.  Requires GraphViz 0.8 or greater.

=item graph_timeout

MINUTES. Time to allow C<neato> to try and solve the graph.  Default 60min.

=item graph_x, graph_y

FLOAT. The X and Y dimensions of the graph in inches.   To convert to pixels, times by 
100 (96 actually).  So the default values of 30x30 will give you a graph that is about 3000x3000 pixels wide.

=item node_fillcolor

STRING. Default background color for device

=item node_fixedsize

BOOLEAN. True keeps the box size small and fixed (for huge graphs); false allows the
box to be sized to fit the text inside.  Default TRUE.

=item node_font

FILE. Name of the True Type Font used for label of node.
Exclude .ttf in name.

=item node_fontcolor

STRING. Color of text

=item node_fontsize

FLOAT. Size of text in Pixels.  Note that for the graph_overlap=scale option, the font gets scaled down
and so an oversized font is used.

=item node_map

STRING. Colon separated list of values.  Multiple node_map entries can exist.
Entry is in format:

    Variable:Regular Expression:Attribute:Value:Key String:Key Title

Variables that you can use include : label,ip

Attributes can be any node attribute usable in GraphViz, such as fillcolor and color

Examples:

    label:cat(?!-g):fillcolor:blue:cat:Blue Box - Catalyst Switch

If the label (dns name) matches cat, but not cat-g, make it blue,
with an entry in the key like C<[cat]  Blue Box - Catalyst Switch>

    ip:^169\.233:color:yellow:node:Yellow Border - ResNet

If the IP address of the device starts with 169.233, then make the border around the 
device yellow, with an entry in the key like C<[node]  Yellow Border - ResNet>.

You may leave off Key String and Key Title to get no entry in the
key for this color combination.  This can be useful to get only one
key entry when using multiple node_map entries with the same
attribute/value.

=item node_problem

STRING. Color to use for devices that are not accessible

=item node_shape

STRING. Default shape for device, normally box.

=item node_style

STRING. Default style of device, normally filled.

=item root_device

STRING. IP address of a device to be used as the "center" of the graph.

=back

=head1 DESIGN

=head2 Design Goals

=over 4

=item * Use of SNMP Leaf Names only; No OIDs

=item * Easily extendible to new devices. No device-specific hacks in logic

=item * Modular back-end database front-end setup

=item * Security.  Front-end abstraction from device manipulation means 
sensitive network devices are not exposed to a web interface .

=item * Data Archiving.  Data structures and backup routines to provide
online and offline storage of network structure and usage.

=item * Highly Configurable.  Extract out all possible options to F<netdisco.conf>
and avoid site-specific code.

=item * Administration available on both command line and web interfaces.

=back

=head2 Back-End Components

=over 4

=item netdisco.pm

Perl Module that holds all the SQL interaction routines as well as some
helper routines.  Used by both the back-end and front-end. 

=item SNMP::Info

Perl Modules created for this project that are used to provide the interaction
between the device and Netdisco over SNMP.  All device-specific changes are 
done in these modules.

=item Network Walker

Using a device as a starting point (root), the walker then tries to visit every
device directly connected to the starting point.  Neighboring devices are found
with CDP.  


=item ArpNipper 

The ArpNipper is visits each discovered device with Layer 3 capabilities.
Each device's ARP Cache is read and the IP address to MAC address translation is stored
in the B<node_ip> table. 

The original ArpNipper was written by Jim Warner at UCSC.

=item MacSucker

The MacSucker visits each device with Layer 2 capabilities.
Each device's Forwarding Table is read.  MAC addresses that are on ports without
a physical mapping (virtual ports) are skipped.  MAC Addresses on ports with a
neighbor recorded are skipped (uplink ports).  MAC Addresses that are actually 
switch ports are skipped.  The remaining MAC addresses are recorded
as nodes in the B<nodes> table.  

If the device supports the v_name() call, and has VLANs, then the MacSucker tries to 
connect to each VLAN and macksuck() each VLAN.  This is required for some devices like
the Cisco Catalyst 5000, 3500, 1900, 6500 series.

A few speedups are implemented for the devices that require each VLAN to visited:

=over

=item L<macsuck_no_vlan>

This config file directive lists VLANs that exist in every device by default 
but do not ever have MAC addresses attached to them.

=item L<macsuck_no>

Use this config file directive to exclude problem devices.

=item Macsuck only happens on VLANS listed under ports

(New 0.94) Many VLANs may be on the device or in the vtpdomain, but only a few of them 
may be in use on device_ports.  Macsuck will not try to visit the VLANs that are
not in use on device ports.  See L<macsuck_all_vlans> to override this.

=back

The original MacSucker was written by Mark Boolootian at UCSC.

=item Helper Routines

The 40+ routines for creating backups, logging, etc.

Browse the source code or check out netdisco-api for more info.

=back

=head2 Database

Netdisco uses PostgreSQL as its database store.  Indexing is used heavily to speed up 
queries and facilitate large data sets.   See the C<sql/> directory and INSTALL
for more information.

=head3 SQL Tables 

=over

=item admin

Queue for admin control panel tasks to be sent back and forth from the front-end.

=item device

Holds device information.  Each device is identified by unique IP Address. 

=item device_ip

Holds alias IP Addresses for devices.  Each device can have multiple IP's stored 
in this table.  The master IP address is either taken from SNMP information or 
from the reverse DNS entry of the device name.  Also used to link a certain alias
to a port.

=item device_port

Holds the interface (port) information for each device.  One row for each interface
exists with information about the port status.

=item device_port_log

Contains log entries for port_control, tool used for administratively enabling and disabling 
ports.

=item device_port_ssid

Holds SSID information for wireless access points.

=item device_port_wireless

Holds channel and power information for wireless access points.

=item log

Holds log entries for human use.

=item node

Holds an entry for each MAC address connected to the network that isn't a device. Tells
on which switch port the node was seen, and when it was seen there.  Also holds the archived
data on node location.  Archived data has the column ''active'' set to false. Data comes from 
L<MacSucker>

=item node_ip

Maps a MAC Address to an IP address.  Has no notion of where this node was seen.   Keeps
time stamps of when this is from.  Data comes from L<ArpNipper>.  Archived data is similar
to the L<node> table, where ``active'' is set to false for archived data.

=item node_monitor

Lists MAC addresses that are to be monitored for presence on the network; if one
appears or moves at the end of a macwalk, send email to L<node_monitor_email>
and the CC field in the node_monitor_table, if set.

=item node_nbt

Maps a MAC address to an IP address and its NetBIOS information, including NBT name,
domain, and user.  Archived data is similar
to the L<node> table, where ``active'' is set to false for archived data.

=item node_wireless

Holds information about the a wireless station's radio -- maximum possible rate,
current transmit rate, signal strength and quality, and rx/tx packets and bytes.
This table has no archived data; it only contains the most recent sample for a
given MAC address.

=item process

This table is used to coordinate the work of multiple child processes when performing
parallel work.

=item sessions

Web sessions created by MasonX::Request::WithApacheSessions.  Stores information about
a current session in the global $m->session hash under mason.

=item oui

Populated with data from oui.txt  Oui.txt contains the Organizationally Unique Identifiers (OUI) that 
map a MAC address to a vendor.  The database is controlled by the IEEE.  See INSTALL for more
information.

=item users

User information for web front end.

=back

=head1 THANKS

I would like to thank the following people for their
contributions to Netdisco :  

Mark Boolootian and Jim Warner (Through who's ideas Netdisco was born and
shaped)  (UCSC) , Mike Hunter (UCB), Brian Wilson (NCSU), Bradley Baetz
(bbaetz), David Temkin (sig.com), Edson Manners (FSU), Dmitry Sergienko (Trifle
Co, .ua), Remo Rickli (PSI, Switzerland), Jean-Philippe Luiggi (sagem.com),
A.L.M Buxey (Loughborough University, UK), Kevin Cheek (UMICH), John Bigrow
(bnl.gov), George Pavel (llnl.gov), Charles Goldsmith (wokka.org), Douglas M.
McKeown (saintmarys.edu), Revital Shvarzman (York U, Ontario), Walter Gould
(Auburn U), Lindsay Druet and Colin Palmer (U of Waikato, Hamilton NZ), Dusty
Hall (Auburn U), Jon Monroe (center pointe), Eric Miller (jeneric), Bill
Fenner, Oliver Gorwits (Oxford U), Alexander Barthel
(http://archiv.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/2005/0045/), Bill Anderson, Carlos Vicente (U
Oregon),  Alexander Hartmaier (t-systems.at), Justin Hunter (Arizona State U),
Jethro Binks (U of Strathclyde, Glasgow), Jordi Guijarro (UAB.es), Sam
Stickland (spacething.org),  Stefan Radman (CTBTO.org), Clint Wise, Max
Kosmach, Bernhard Augenstein.

And probably lots of other people I forgot to put in here.   Not to mention the 
authors and communities of all the other software that Netdisco is built upon.

=cut