Field certification is useful when a new device uses the same discovery drivers and instrumentation as an existing VMware-certified device. For example, when the new device, say a Cisco 2503, is a variant of an VMware-certified device, say Cisco 2502.

You accomplish a field certification by fully or partially reusing the discovery driver parameters and instrumentation parameters for an existing VMware-tested certification. Typically, you use a trial-and-error approach to find the most suitable combination of driver and instrumentation parameters for the device that you want to certify.

Except for very simple devices, you should consult with VMware Customer Support when creating device entries in the oid2type_Field.conf file.

“Adding device entries to oid2type_Field.conf” section in Chapter 3, Discovery, in the IP Manager User Guide, provides information on how to add device entries to the oid2type_Field.conf file.