VoyenceControl: Cisco IOS Switch devices continually schedule pulls due to syslog messages caused by those pulls, resulting in a repeating process

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:




Cisco IOS Switch devices in VoyenceControl continually schedule pulls due to syslog messages caused by those pulls, resulting in a repeating process
VoyenceControl jobs fail to pull VLAN Text config unit

System Properties pull returns UNKNOWN for Model and OS in VoyenceControl

System Properties pull in VoyenceControl returns blank for Serial Number

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - NCM

Cause

The Cisco IOS Switch device driver uses the 'vlan database' command to get into vlan mode on the device. Newer Cisco IOS versions report a warning to notify the user that this functionality is being deprecated, and the warning is caught as an error (see Note statement). Because of this error, VoyenceControl terminates the session while the device is in vlan mode. This in turn causes a SYS-5-CONFIG syslog message to be sent, resulting in a pull against the device, so that the process repeats itself.

Resolution

To workaround this issue requires a change to the CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml file under the custompackage directory.  The following changes must be made on the device server(s): 

1. If it does not already exist, create the following directory structure under the custompackage directory as follows:
   
   $VOYENCE_HOME/custompackage/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch
    
2. If the CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml file does not already exist in the the custompackage/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch directory, copy the CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml file from the package/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch directory to this directory as follows:
   
   cp $VOYENCE_HOME/package/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch/CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml $VOYENCE_HOME/custompackage/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch/CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml
    
3. Open the custompackage/pkgxml/CiscoIOSSwitch/CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml file for editing.
    
4. Locate the ciscoInvalidInputState section:
   
       <ciscoInvalidInputState>
         <ID>10003</ID>
         <Expr><![CDATA[Invalid input|^%(?!(Serial| Cannot enable both sham-link state-change interface traps| New sham link interface trap not enabled| Cannot enable CDP on this interface| Applying VLAN changes may take few minutes| Password expiration warning))|[Dd]uplicate (IP )?address"Bad mask"Unable to read configuration.\s+Try again later]]></Expr>
       </ciscoInvalidInputState>
    
5. Modify the expression to include the beginning of the warning response to the 'vlan database' command:
   
       <ciscoInvalidInputState>
         <ID>10003</ID>
         <Expr><![CDATA[Invalid input|^%(?!(.* It is recommended to configure VLAN from config mode|Serial| Cannot enable both sham-link state-change interface traps| New sham link interface trap not enabled| Cannot enable CDP on this interface| Applying VLAN changes may take few minutes| Password expiration warning))|[Dd]uplicate (IP )?address| Bad mask| Unable to read configuration.\s+Try again later]]></Expr>
       </ciscoInvalidInputState>
    
6. Save and close the CiscoIOSSwitchPrompts.xml file.
    
7. If on Linux and Solaris, restart the Voyence service as follows:
   
   /etc/init.d/voyence restart
    
8. On Windows, restart the NCM_AutoDisc and NCM_CommMgr services from the Service Manager.

Additional Information

The variable $VOYENCE_HOME is a reference to the install directory of VoyenceControl.   On Linux and Solaris, the default is /opt/voyence.  On Windows, the default is C:\Program Files\VoyenceControl.
The warning message on the device upon issuing 'vlan database' appears as follows:

% Warning: It is recommended to configure VLAN from config mode,
as VLAN database mode is being deprecated. Please consult user
documentation for configuring VTP/VLAN in config mode.