Network map path(s) not showing for some port group(s) in VCF Operations for Networks

Products

• VCF Operations for Networks

Issue/Introduction

• Network map path(s) not showing for some port group(s) in VCF Operations for Networks
  
  
• You expect to see lines drawn in the map between port group(s) in ESXi host(s) up to physical switches in your network map.  
  
  
• Some lines are drawn as expected, but others are not.  

 

NOTE:  VCF Operations for Networks was formerly named Aria Operations for Networks (AON), and prior to that was named vRealize Network Insight (vRNI).

 

Environment

VCF Operations for Networks

Cause

The data which informs VCF Operations for Networks to draw those lines to physical switches in the map, is meant to come from the physical switches via Netflow or SFlow.

In the case where the data is not supplied by the switches, the lines cannot be drawn.  

Example line from the collector logs is as follows:

####-##-##T##:##:##.386Z INFO vds.tasks.VdsFlowCollectionTask FLOWPHYSICAL_########-####-####-####-#############_Config_OpMgr-0 getFlows:450 loaded file /var/flows/vds/protos/##########/0_0_nfcapd.############.protos, 4T records 0, time_taken 1 ms

 

Resolution

The network team that manages the switches that are expected to share the data should review the document Configure a NetFlow Collector in a Physical Device. 

When the data begins to flow, it should be evident by a packet capture done at the VnicTx,VNicRx capture points for the Collector node using commands described in Packet capture on ESXi using the pktcap-uw tool.  

The data is normally sent to UDP port 2055.