Smarts MPLS: Information is not imported following synchronization with Smarts AM domain

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:




Smarts MPLS information is not imported following synchronization with Smarts AM domain
After Smarts APM discovery, new interfaces and IP addresses appear in the repository as expected and the Smarts MPLS topology sync starts, but the Smarts MPLS manager only synchs and post-processes its topology and does not perform device discovery

After Smarts MPLS topology sync starts, there is no VRF nor any other new MPLS instances being created until MPLS "Discover All" is manually invoked

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - SMARTS

Cause

Smarts MPLS is working as designed. In the hookscript (dxa-am.conf, dxa-am-lite.conf and so on), there are the following lines:

probe   MPLS
conditionalprobe MPLS getSystem DiscoveredLastAt DiscoveredLastAt

probe keyword allows post-processing scripts to be invoked within from DXA whenever a new instance was created.

The conditionalprobe keyword is similar to probe, as it behaves the same when an instance is created. Additionally, for existing instances, the conditionalprobe keyword compares the value of the specified attribute in the remote to local server. If the value was changed, the probe will take place even this is not a new instance. A method that is specified in the same section is used to find the relevant objects (such as system) that are related to the remote to local instance, whose values to be compared.

Resolution

To change this behavior, uncomment the  "DiscoveredLastAt" section in APM to trigger the probe in MPLS. This will cause the MPLS information to be imported following the next synchronization.