Synchronizing with the MPLS Topology Server

The MPLS component servers of MPLS Manager may be started in any order, meaning that the MPLS Monitoring Server and the MPLS Analysis Server may be started before or after the MPLS Topology Server performs its initial discovery.

Whenever the MPLS Monitoring Server and the MPLS Analysis Server are started, the MPLS Manager autoconfiguration program, described in the VMware Smart Assurance MPLS Manager Configuration Guide, automatically adds the MPLS Topology Server as a topology source to the MPLS monitoring and analysis servers, and creates an InChargeDomain object (INCHARGE-MPLS-TOPOLOGY, for example) in their repositories.

After the MPLS Topology Server is added as a topology source, the MPLS Monitoring Server and the MPLS Analysis Server each start a synchronization program that probes the MPLS Topology Server repository for network, MPLS, VPN, and BGP topology. The synchronization program probes for topology information immediately after the MPLS Topology Server is added as a topology source, and then every time thereafter whenever:

• The MPLS Topology Server completes a discovery cycle.

• The connection to the MPLS Topology Server is lost and then reestablished.

  If the MPLS Topology Server is not running when the MPLS Monitoring Server/ MPLS Analysis Server starts up, the synchronization program periodically attempts to probe for the topology. When the MPLS Topology Server becomes available, the probing succeeds.

  During the probing of topology, the MPLS monitoring and analysis servers also learn the names of their proxy (status) sources. The MPLS Monitoring Server learns the names of the IP Availability Managers that are added as topology sources to the MPLS Topology Server, and the MPLS Analysis Server learns the name of the MPLS Monitoring Server.

  When MPLS-BGP cross-domain correlation is enabled, the MPLS Monitoring Server also learns the name of its Network Protocol Manager for BGP proxy source from the MPLS Topology Server.