Crawlers collect and send data to the VMware Edge Network Intelligence backend for analysis and correlation. The crawlers collect data from local sources as described in this document and from SPAN or SD-WAN interfaces. Multi crawler deployments use a process to automatically assign the crawler to collect the data.
Crawlers collect data through SPAN/TAP, SD-WAN integration, and from other network devices using SNMP, Syslog, and API integration. When network devices are configured in VMware Edge Network Intelligence, the crawler will automatically begin to collect data from the device. The following table describes how the crawler communicates with the network devices. In multi-crawler or branch deployments, crawlers will automatically be assigned to collect data based on the assignment criteria described in the following table.
| Feed |
Data Flow |
Crawler assignment |
|---|---|---|
| WLAN controller SNMP Gets |
Polling is initiated from the crawler management interface or analytics interface (SD-WAN Edge) to the network device |
Based on the crawler SNMP Traps are sent to. If a crawler receives a trap from a WLAN controller it will initiate SNMP polling to that WLAN controller |
| SNMP Traps, Aruba AMON, Cisco Telemetry, RADIUS syslog |
From WLAN controller or device to crawler management interface or analytics interface (SD-WAN Edge) |
Requires configuration on the specified device to point the feed to the appropriate crawler |
| CLI |
From crawler management interface or analytics interface (SD-WAN Edge) to WLAN controller |
Based on the crawler SNMP Traps are sent to. If a crawler receives a trap from a WLAN controller it will initiate CLI data capture to that WLAN controller |
| UPS/SNMP Agent/Network Switch SNMP Gets |
From device to crawler management interface or analytics interface (SD-WAN Edge) | Crawlers will round robin until successful response is received. Optionally network switches can be manually assigned through the ENI configuration page |
| SPAN |
From SPAN/TAP to crawler SPAN/TAP interface |
N/A |
| SD-WAN traffic |
Automatic for all traffic to/from Global Segment |
N/A |
| MIST API, Zoom API, Client App |
Direct to Cloud or Private Cloud |
N/A |
