Why doesn't my RelationshipViewer topology look like I expect?

Products

• DX Unified Infrastructure Management (Nimsoft / UIM)

Issue/Introduction

Introduction:

This article will discuss the materials needed from the customer for support to be able to answer directed questions about RCA-Topology.  A summary of requirements is at the bottom of this discussion.  It is quite natural for customers to open a RCA-Topology case with questions and statements such as:
 

• Nodes are missing from my topology view.
• Why are there so many orphans in RelationshipViewer?
• Two machines are linked in our network, but not in my RelationshipView.
• Why are there duplicates in my topology?

 

Background:  

The topology_agent builds a topology_agent_support.zip file while conducting its work. Each topology_agent builds one and it records the underlying details about network objects found within its defined scope. This file is required to respond to any questions about the contents of the RelationshipViewer.  Relationship_services builds the master topology from the topology it collects from all of the deployed topology agents.  To enable diagnosing the complete results, the topology_agent_support.zip file should be uploaded for each deployed topology agent.  Alternatively, you may choose to only provide the topology_agent_support.zip file for the topology agent that covers the IP addresses in question.  To determine which topology agent covers the IP addresses in question, you can use Nimsoft Remote Administrator (aka the Auto Discovery portlet) to examine the network scopes assigned to the discovery agents.  By identifying the discovery agent, you’ll also identify the corresponding topology agent.
 
Also the IP’s of the specific network elements in question are required to respond to these questions. Get the customer questions specified according to these examples, written as improved versions of those comments above:

• I expect to see IP_A in my view, but it seems missing.
• IP_B and IP_C appear as unconnected nodes in the view. Why are they separate?
• IP_D and IP_E are connected in my network. Why is there no link shown in the viewer?
• IP_F appears twice in my view. Why?

Environment: 

 

UIM 8.x

 

Instructions:  

 

The following is the instruction set for responding to RelationshipViewer, Topology questions.
 

1. For relationship_services:
   1. Stop the relationship_services.
   2. In <setup> set the loglevel = 5
   3. Restart relationship_services.
   4. For each topology_agent being examined:
2. Stop the topology_agent(s).
   1. In <setup> set the loglevel = 5
   2. In <task-config> set discover-on-startup = true
   3. In <task-config> set snmp-walk-enable = true
   4. Restart each topology_agent.
3. Allow a full discovery cycle to complete. This can take some time, one to three hours is generally enough.  To verify that it has completed, look for the message “total discovery elapsed time” in the topology_agent.log file.

Gather these materials for review.

1. Gather the topology_agent_support.zip from all topology_agents and add them to the case.
2. Gather the following relationship_services files from the main hub. On Windows the base directory is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Nimsoft\probes\service\relationship_services
   1. database\topology\TopologyModel.xml
   2. relationship_services.log* files
   3. relationship_services.cfg
3. Form an itemized list of the IP’s in question plus a detailed description of how the RelationshipViewer differs from the customer expectation.

Additional Information:

 

Link for the Topology: https://docops.ca.com/ca-unified-infrastructure-management/8-31/en/using-ump/topology-and-root-cause-analysis 

 

Link for the relationship view portlet: https://docops.ca.com/ca-unified-infrastructure-management/8-31/en/using-ump/the-relationship-viewer-portlet

Environment

Release: CNMSPP99000-8.2-Unified Infrastructure Mgmt-Server Pack-- On Prem
Component: