Creating CLI device-access groups

Because IP Availability Manager is a component of many VMware Smart Assurance deployments, IP Availability Manager has been selected as the central repository for specifying and storing device-access credentials, such as the login credentials that are required by the MPLS Topology Server to perform CLI discovery or to execute LSP ping requests.

When the MPLS Topology Server adds IP Availability Manager as a source, as explained in the VMware Smart Assurance MPLS Manager Discovery Guide Supplement, the MPLS Topology Server imports the device-access credentials from IP Availability Manager and makes the credentials available to the CLI discovery driver and the LSP ping driver.

You use the Polling and Thresholds Console to specify sets of device-access credentials in the form of CLI device-access groups. Each CLI device-access group contains:

• An access-protocol method: Telnet, SSH1, or SSH2; Telnet, by default.

• A set of device-access credentials: a username, a user password, and a privileged-mode enable password.

• A set of member devices for which the access method and device-access credentials apply.