During the postprocessing phase of discovery, the information that is collected from the various probes is consolidated to create additional logical objects in the repository. The information is also used to create connected relationships between the objects.

The postprocessing basic functions include:

  • Creating routing session, neighbor relationship, or adjacency connection objects between routing-protocol neighboring endpoints.

  • Creating routing-protocol network objects in accordance to the IPNetwork objects that are imported from IP Availability Manager.

  • Creating redundancy group objects.

    BGP peering protocol redundancy groups, if any, are created automatically. Other types of redundancy groups, such as device (system) redundancy groups, are created through the use of user-modifiable discovery hook scripts, as explained in Chapter 3, “Using Discovery Hook Scripts.”

  • Creating LayeredOver and other relationships between the routing topology objects and the network objects that are imported from IP Availability Manager.

  • Removing (pruning) stale objects and relationships from the repository.

  • Setting the management state for the discovered objects.

  • Setting the DisplayNames for the discovered objects.

  • Printing a discovery report to Network Protocol Manager’s log file.

    Additional topology added to the Network Protocol Manager repository identifies the additional routing topology objects that are created by Network Protocol Manager during the postprocessing phase of discovery.

Table 1. Additional topology added to the Network Protocol Manager repository

Class name

Description

1  Session, adjacency, neighbor relationship, and link are equivalent terms.

2  A discovered BGP session is identified as primary or backup.

Network Protocol Manager for BGP (IPv4 and IPv6 discovery)

BGPSession 1, 2

A logical connection between two BGP protocol endpoints.

BGPSessionGroup

A group of BGP sessions between external BGP (eBGP) peers that have the same BGP peer group identifier. Also known as a BGP peering protocol redundancy group.

Network Protocol Manager for EIGRP (IPv4 discovery only)

EIGRPSession 1

A logical connection between two EIGRP protocol endpoints.

EIGRPNetwork

A collection of devices that are running EIGRP services on an IP network.

Network Protocol Manager for IS-IS (IPv4 and IPv6 discovery)

ISISAdjacency 1

A logical connection between two IS-IS neighbor endpoints.

ISISNetwork

A collection of devices that are running IS-IS services on an IP network.

Network Protocol Manager for OSPF (IPv4 and IPv6 discovery)

OSPFNeighborRelationship 1

A logical connection between two OSPF neighbor endpoints.

OSPFVirtualLink 1

A logical connection between two OSPF virtual neighbor endpoints.

OSPFNetwork

A collection of devices that are running OSPF services on an IP network.