Turn off aggregate port discovery and discover aggregate ports as Interfaces as for Cisco devices

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance
• VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

This article explains how to turn off aggregate port discovery in Smarts for Cisco Devices, where aggregate ports were discovered as Interfaces.

Environment

Smarts 10.1.x / 2.x 

TCSA 2.x

Resolution

• The following is a portion of code from the DISCOVERY_GENERIC.import file found in the <IPBASEDIR>/smarts/conf/discovery directory of a Smarts IP  installation.
• The text in bold (which is not a part of the code) you'll see the associated asl files used to process each of the drivers:

GA_CompoundDriver::EtherChannel-Cisco-Driver {
    drivers = {
        {"EtherChannel-LAG-dot3ad-Driver", 10},  <<<<<<<<<ic-lag-dot3ad.asl
        {"EtherChannel-Cisco-LAG-PAGP-Driver", 20},  <<<<<ic-lag-cisco-pagp.asl
        {"EtherChannel-PerformanceInst-Driver", 30}  <<<<<<ic-etherChannel-perfInst.asl
    }
    waitForCompletion = TRUE
}

• In the above example, the EtherChannel-Cisco-Driver is being called to see if there are any Link Aggregation configured on the networkAdapters, and will create them in the topology.
• To workaround this issue that is, to not create AggregatePorts and instead create Interfaces and display layering information obtained from the ifStack table), do the following:

1. Disable the LACP/PAGP probing from Smarts by altering the code in the DISCOVERY_GENERIC.import file by using  by executing the following command out of the <IPBASEDIR>/smarts/bin directory:

sm_edit ../conf/discovery/DISCOVERY_GENERIC.import

2. Find the following code:

GA_Selector::Null-Generic-Selector {
 selector = ".1.3.6.1.4.1.3375.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.22610.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.89.1.1.62.*"
         Driver = GA_NullDriver::Null-Generic-Driver

3. Change the above code to the following:

GA_Selector::Null-Generic-Selector {
selector = ".1.3.6.1.4.1.3375.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.22610.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.89.1.1.62.*|<insert system object ID here>"
         Driver = GA_NullDriver::Null-Generic-Driver

Note: Replace the above <insert system object ID here> placeholder with the system object ID for the device that you want the discovery of networkAdapters to be discovered as an Interface, rather than an aggregatePort.

Example 
Device SystemObjID= .1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.509

GA_Selector::Null-Generic-Selector {
selector = ".1.3.6.1.4.1.3375.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.22610.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.89.1.1.62.*|.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.509"
         Driver = GA_NullDriver::Null-Generic-Driver

4. Save and close the DISCOVERY_GENERIC.import file.
5. Restart the domain.
6. Delete and rediscover the device.

Confirm workaround results:

• To confirm that the workaround was successful, view previously discovered devices (which are the same SystemObjID added to the DISCOVERY_GENERIC.import in above workaround).
• The applicable networkAdapters which were determined to be a part of LACP/PAGP should no longer be discovered as aggregatePorts, but should now be discovered as Interface objects and will be instrumented for fault monitoring by automatically after discovery.

Additional Information

LACP = Link Aggregation Control Protocol
PAGP = Port Aggregation Protocol