Managing Inventory

Introduction

The resource inventory stores information about the elements installed in the network. The resource inventory provides a REST API to maintain the resource inventory records. In addition, the resource inventory contributes views to the RBMS UI. The resource inventory UI only uses the REST API to maintain the resource inventory records. Typcially three consumers of the resource REST API exists as illustrated below:

Resource Inventory Overview

  1. RBFS uses the resource inventory API to register itself in RBMS. RBFS reports the running services, physical interfaces, discovered neighbors, logical interfaces, hardware module information, information about the installed software image and the current configuration, including configuration changes, to RBMS.

  2. The RBMS UI uses the resource inventory API to enable an operator to view and manage resource inventory records.

  3. The OSS IT, or any other customer IT system can use the REST API to manage resource inventory records. It is also feasible to subscribe for events to get notified when a resource inventory record changes.

Data model

The resource inventory data is also the basis for the network management applications provided by RBMS. The data model is generalized allowing you to define additional roles to store custom elements, for example,to simplify automation of network management operations by storing the required data in the same database.

The main entities of the resource inventory and their relationships are shown below:

Resource Inventory Entities

Element, element role and platform

The element forms the cornerstone of the resource inventory. Every element has a certain role, like a spine or a leaf switch of a fabric for example. The element role describes the function of an element in the network.

The resource inventory stores the following information per element:

  • General settings including the element role, element name, an optional element alias, the operational and administrative state, the serial number, the hardware platform, an optional asset ID and management interfaces like SSH or REST API access.

  • List of physical interfaces and their operational state

  • List of logical interfaces and their operational state

  • Information about the installed software image

  • Installed services including their current state

  • Element hardware modules

  • Element configurations including a configuration history

  • Environments containing custom data used to generate the element configuration.

The platform provides information about the hardware platform vendor, model and chipset. This information is needed to discover the software images that can be installed on this element.

The element has one of the following administrative states:

Administrative State Description

NEW

A new element that has not yet been installed or enabled in the network.

ACTIVE

An element that has been installed in the network and is supposed to be up and running.

RETIRED

An element that is about to being removed from the network.

The following operational states exist:

Operational State Description

DOWN

The element is down.

UP

The element is up.

DETACHED

RBMS did not receive heartbeats from the element and declares it as detached from RBMS.

MAINTENANCE

The element is currently in maintenance.

Image

The image provides information about the images being eligible for deployment. RBMS supports prupose-build image that can be installed on certain element roles and platforms only. RBMS includes a image lifecycle management with the following states:

State Description

NEW

A new image that is not yet eligible for deployment.

CANDIDATE

A candidate image to become the next release. The image is eligible for deployment but not installed by default.

RELEASE

The image that get installed by default.

SUPERSEDED

A former release image that has been replaced by another release image.

REVOKED

An image that has been revoked and must not be installed any more. A revoked image retains in the intenvory for the sake of documentation.

Element Group

Each element belongs to an element group. Elements of the same element group form a logical unit inside the network. For example, a pod of an access network is modelled as element group.

Facility and racks

The facility describes a network facility including it’s physical location. Moreover the racks installed at a facility can be specified. This also includes the locations of elements in a rack.

Managing Pods

Filtering Pod list by Pod name

To filter Pod list by Pod name

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The Pods page appears by default.

  2. In the Filter text box, specify the filter criteria and then click Filter. The Pods that match the filter criteria appear.

inventory pods filter

Creating Pods

To create a Pod

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appears by default.

  2. In the Pods page, click the Add pod.

inventory pods add

  1. In the Pod Name field, specify the name of the Pod.

  2. In the Description field, specify a brief description for the Pod.

  3. In the Tags field (optional), specify the tags that can be used to categorise the Pod.

  4. Click Add Pod.

Modifying Pod settings

To modify the Pod settings

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear by default.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to modify. The Pod Settings page appears.

inventory pods modify

  1. Make the necessary updates and click Save settings.

Removing Pods

To remove a Pod

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to remove. The Pod Settings page appears.

inventory pods remove

Viewing Pod location

To view the facility where a Pod is installed

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod whose facility you want to view.

  3. Click Pod location in the left navigation pane. The Pod Facility page appears.

inventory pod facility

Describing Pod racks

To describe the Pod racks

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to modify. The Pod Settings page appears.

  3. Specify the description for Pod rack.

inventory pods rack description

Adding element to Pod

To add element to Pod

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to modify. The Pod Settings page appears.

  3. Click Elements from the left navigation pane. The Elements page appears.

  4. Click Add element.

inventory pods element add

Listing elements of a Pod

To view the list of element in Pod

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to modify. The Pod Settings page appears.

  3. Click Elements from the left navigation pane. The Elements page appears and the list of elements in the selected Pod appear.

inventory pods elements view

To view the link state graph of Pod

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to view. The Pod Settings page appears.

  3. Click Link State Graph in the left navigation pane. The Link State Graph page appears.

inventory pods link state graph

  1. On the Link State Graph page, select a network element to display link information.

  2. Click Details to view the detailed information of network elements.

inventory pods link state graph details

Viewing Pod Topology

The topology view provides the following functionalities:

  • Visualizes the Pod link-state graph

  • Visualizes connected Pods

  • Provides quick access to most relevant information

    • Alerts

    • Events

    • Established links

To view the Pod topology

  1. Click the Inventory tab. The list of Pods appear.

  2. In the Pods group box, click the Pod that you want to view. The Pod Settings page appears.

  3. Click Link State Graph in the left navigation pane. The Link State Graph page appears.

  4. Click the view all pods link that is displayed along the bottom of the page. The Topology page appears.

inventory pods link state graph details

The Topology page displays the overview of the Pod topology in a graphical interface along with a table that shows the list of Pods deployed in the network.

Managing Elements

To view the list of all registered elements

  1. Click the Inventory tab, and then click Elements in the left navigation pane. The list of registered elements appear.

inventory elements

Assigning roles to elements

  1. Click the Inventory tab, and then click Elements in the left navigation pane. The list of registered elements appear.

  2. Click the name of the element that you want view.

  3. In the Element Role box, select the role you want to use. The following roles are available:

    • Access Leaf- Access leaf fabric switch

    • Border Leaf - Border leaf fabric switch

    • Spine - Spine fabric switch

Viewing Physical Interfaces

The physical interface summary shows the information of a physical interface and its logical interfaces. The view might be augmented with telemetry data (for example, current interface utilization, log messages).

To view the list of physical interfaces

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Interfaces. The Physical Interfaces page appears.

inventory pod interfaces

Managing Facilities

Viewing list of facilities

To view the list of facilities

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Facilities. The list of available facilities appear.

inventory pod facility view

Creating a Facility

To create a facility

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Facilities. The list of available facilities appear.

  3. Click Add facility.

  4. Specify the facility settings such as facility name, type, and description.

  5. Click Add facility.

inventory pod facility add

Managing Racks

To view the list of racks

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Racks. The list of available racks appear.

inventory racks

Creating a Rack

To create a rack

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click Racks. The list of available racks appear.

  3. Click Add rack.

inventory racks add

  1. Specify the rack settings such as rack name, administration state, description, rack dimensions, and other additional information.

  2. Click Add rack.

Managing DNS Zones

To view the list of DNS zones

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click DNS Zones. The list of available DNS Zones appear.

Creating a DNS Zone

To create a DNS zone

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. In the left navigation pane, click DNS Zones. The list of available DNS zones appear.

  3. Click Add DNZ Zone.

  4. Specify the rack settings such as canonical DNS zone name and description.

  5. Click Add zone.

Inventory Administration

To configure the inventory administration settings in the Inventory page, click the plus sign (+) next to Administration.

Managing element platforms

To list down the known hardware platforms

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration.

  3. Click Platforms. The list of hardware platforms appear.

Creating element platforms

To create a hardware platform

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration.

  3. Click Platforms. The list of hardware platforms appear.

  4. Click Add platform.

  5. Specify the settings and dimensions of the hardware platform.

  6. Click Save platform.

Removing element platforms

To remove an element platform

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. Click the plus sign (+) next to Administration, and then click Platforms. The list of hardware platforms appear.

  3. Click the name of the element platform that you want delete. The Platform Settings page displays the settings of the element platform.

  4. Click Remove.

Managing Element Roles

To list down the existing element roles

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration.

  3. Click Roles. The list of existing element roles appear.

Creating Element Roles

To create an element role

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration. The list of existing element roles appear.

  3. Click Roles. The list of existing element roles appear.

  4. Click Add role

  5. Specify the role settings.

  6. Click Save role.

Removing Element Roles

To remove an element role

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration. The list of existing element roles appear.

  3. Click Roles. The list of existing element roles appear.

  4. Click the name of the element role that you want delete. The next page displays the settings of the element role.

  5. Click Remove role.

Managing Templates

To list down the existing templates

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration.

  3. Click Templates. The list of existing element templates appear.

Creating Templates

To create a template

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration. The list of existing element templates appear.

  3. Click Add templates

  4. Specify the template settings such as template name and description.

  5. Click Save template.

Removing Templates

To remove a template

  1. Click the Inventory tab.

  2. click the plus sign (+) next to Administration. The list of existing element templates appear.

  3. Click Templates. The list of existing element templates appear.

  4. Click the name of the template that you want delete. The next page displays the settings of the template.

  5. Click Remove template.