topology-management.rst

Inventory

The Inventory section allows you to add/edit/delete network switches and SoftGates (VPC gateways). Initial setup of a Netris managed network is a three step process:

1. Create Inventory Profiles.
2. Adding Switches.
3. Adding Softgates.

Inventory Profiles

Inventory profiles allow security hardening of inventory devices. By default all traffic flow destined to switch/SoftGate is allowed. As soon as the inventory profile is attached to a device it denies all traffic destined to the device except Netris-defined and user-defined custom flows. Automatically allowed flows include:

• SSH from user defined subnets
• NTP from user defined ntp services
• DNS from user defined DNS servers
• Custom user defined rules

Example: This example Inventory profile is used to provide NTP and DNS services to the switches (common setup). A custom rule is created to allow UDP connections to the port 161.

Adding Switches

Every switch needs to be added to the Netris Controller inventory. You can add new devices with the following process:

1. Navigate to Network → Inventory
2. Click the Add button
3. Fill in the fields as described below
4. Click the Add button

Example: Add a new Switch.

Note

Repeat this process to define all your switches.

Adding SoftGates

Every SoftGate node needs to be added to the Netris Controller inventory. To add a SoftGate node:

1. Navigate to Network → Topology
2. Click Add
3. Fill in the fields as described below
4. Click the Add button

Example: Adding a SoftGate Node to Topology.

Viewing Inventory

Inventory Listing provides information about network nodes known to Netris.

Heartbeat - Indicates whether the node can communicate with Netris Controller. Health - Indicates the health status of the node.

Note

You can also add new devices in the Topology view.

Topology Manager

The topology manager is for describing and monitoring the desired network topology. Netris Switch Agents software will automatically configure the underlying network devices according to this topology and will watch against potential failures.

Adding Links

To define the links in the network:

1. Right-click on the spine switch
2. Click Create Link
3. Select the From Port and the To Port

See the example below:

Once the links have been defined, the network is automatically configured as long as physical connectivity is in place and Netris Agents can communicate with Netris Controller.

Tip

You can drag/move the units to your desired positions and click “Save positions”.