Smarts: Criteria for managing and unmanaging Port and Interface objects; Null Interface previously set to Managed by user was set back to Unmanaged after a rediscovery

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:


What criteria does Smarts use when managing and unmanaging ports and interfaces?

Null Interface object previously set to Managed by user was set back to Unmanaged after a rediscovery

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - SMARTS

Cause

Note the following differences in the rules between Managing and Unmanaging Port and Interface objects:

• Ports: ASL calls to manage() and unmanage() on Port objects specify FALSE for the override parameter. This means that the managed state will not change upon rediscovery if the user has explicitly Managed or Unmanaged the Port.
   
• Interfaces: ASL calls to unmanage() on Null Interface objects specify TRUE for the override parameter. This means that if the user has explicitly Managed a Null interface, the interface will change back to Unmanaged when rediscovered.

This explains why a Null Interface object manually set to Managed by the user will be set back to Unmanaged by Smarts upon rediscovery.

Resolution

Smarts uses the following rules by default to determine whether a port or interface will be Managed or Unmanaged:

Ports
Smarts will scan all ports and check the number of objects in the ConnectedVia relationship set. If the number of objects is more than zero, then Smarts will manage the port. Otherwise, the port will be Unmanaged. Note that setting a Null Port object to be Managed will cause a Down notification for that Port to be generated. Therefore, Null Port objects should be left Unmanaged.

Interfaces
Smarts will scan all interfaces and check the value of Description. If the value is Null, then the interface will be Unmanaged.