You can bulk add network devices as data sources to vRealize Network Insight by using the network-insight-sdk-python SDK.

You can add the following data sources only:

  • Cisco switches
  • Arista switches
  • Juniper switches
  • Dell switches
  • F5
  • Brocade switches
  • Palo Alto Networks
  • Check Point Firewall
  • Cisco ASA

Prerequisites

  • You must have access to the vRealize Network Insight platform CLI.

  • You must have the CSV file containing the list of network devices in the following format:

    "DataSourceType","IP","fqdn","Username","Password","CSPRefreshToken","NickName",
"CentralCliEnabled","IPFixEnabled","SwitchType","ParentvCenter","IsVMC",
"snmp_version","snmp_community_string","snmp_username","snmp_password",
"snmp_auth_type","snmp_privacy_type","ProxyIP"
"DataSource1","","Domain_name","username","<pwd>","",
"nick_name_discovered_devices_1","","","","","","","","","","","","10.xx.xxx.xx"
"DataSource2","10.1xx.xx.1x","","username","pwd","",
" nick_name_discovered_devices_2","","","","","","","","","","","","10.xx.xx.xxx"

    You can create the file manually, or discover the devices in your network by performing network discovery. See Discover Network Devices by Running CLI Commands for more information.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the vRealize Network Insight platform CLI as a support user.
  2. Switch to a Ubuntu user. Run the following command: 
    ub
  3. Navigate to the /home/ubuntu directory. 
    cd /home/ubuntu
  4. Download the network-insight-sdk-python SDK from GitHub. 
    wget https://github.com/vmware/network-insight-sdk-python/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
  5. Unzip the contents of the SDK and delete the ZIP file. 
    unzip master.zip && rm master.zip
  6. Export the Python path to /home/ubuntu/network-insight-sdk-python-master/swagger_client-py2.7.egg. 
    export PYTHONPATH=/home/ubuntu/network-insight-sdk-python-master/swagger_client-py2.7.egg
  7. Navigate to the examples directory within the SDK. This folder contains the datasource_addition.py script. 
    cd /home/ubuntu/network-insight-sdk-python-master/examples
  8. Run the datasource_addition.py script to bulk add network devices to vRealize Network Insight. The supported options are:
    Option Required Description
    --deployment_type Required The type of deployment on which you are performing the bulk addition operation. Accepted values are onprem and saas.

    The default value is onprem.
    --platform_ip Required The IP address of the vRealize Network Insight platform node1 where you want to add the devices.
    --username Required The user name of the platform user.
    Note: You must always enclose the username in single quotes.
    --password Required The password of the platform user.
    Note: You must always enclose the password in single quotes.
    --data_sources_csv Required The location of the CSV file which contains the details of the devices.
    --domain_type Optional The domain type to authenticate user credentials. Accepted values are LOCAL and LDAP.
    --domain_value Optional If the domain type is LDAP, provide your LDAP domain name.

    Here are a few examples. 

    python datasource_addition.py --deployment_type onprem --platform_ip vrni.example.com --username 'user@vmware' --password 'mypassword' --data_sources_csv /home/ubuntu/discovered_devices.csv
    python datasource_addition.py --deployment_type onprem --platform_ip vrni.example.com --username '[email protected]' --password 'mypassword' --domain_type LDAP --domain_value vmware.com --data_sources_csv /home/ubuntu/discovered_devices.csv

    You can track the result of the network discovery operation on the CLI. If the bulk addition operation fails for one or more devices, you can rectify the errors and reattempt the operation. See Common Data Source Errors for more information.

What to do next

View the data sources added to vRealize Network Insight by navigating to the Settings > Accounts and Data Sources page.