You can bulk add network devices as data sources to vRealize Network Insight Cloud 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 Cloud collector 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 manually create the CSV file, 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 Cloud Collector 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/swagger_client-py2.7.egg. 
    export PYTHONPATH=/home/ubuntu/network-insight-sdk-python/swagger_client-py2.7.egg
  7. Navigate to the examples directory within the SDK. This folder contains the datasource_addition.py script which performs the bulk addition operation. 
    cd /home/ubuntu/network-insight-sdk-python/examples
  8. Run the datasource_addition.py script. The supported options are:
    Option Description
    --deployment_type The type of deployment (on-premises or Cloud) on which you are performing this operation.
    --api_token The API token to authenticate your vRealize Network Insight Cloud Cloud credentials.
    --cloud_location The location of the data center.
    --data_sources_csv The location of the CSV file which contains the details of the devices.

    For example:

    python datasource_addition.py --deployment_type vrnic --api_token YourCSPAPIToken --cloud_location UK --data_sources_csv /home/ubuntu/discovered_devices.csv

    You can track the result of the operation on the CLI. If the bulk addition process 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 Cloud by navigating to the Settings > Accounts and Data Sources page.