Network Visualization - Layer 2

This section describes extended support for Layer 2 devices in NP-View. This support was added in 6.0.1

Layer 2 visibility

This feature adds baseline support for Layer 2 visibility.

Supported devices:

• Cisco IOS
• Cisco ASA

In addition to the layer 3 information inferred from ARP and Route tables, NP-View imports MAC and Interface tables to begin to support layer 2 interfaces. This data is automatically collected by the supported device connectors. Route and Interface data is loaded with the configuration file, while the ARP and MAC data can be added independently to views as auxiliary data.

If loading data manually, load only one configuration file at a time and include all auxiliary data on the same import for proper file association.

Layer 2 Capabilities:

• Control the map from Topology Settings to display or hide Layer 2 Nodes / Links.
• Control the map to expand or collapse Layer 2 Networks and attached hosts.
• Search function to locate, highlight, and open the info panel of a Layer 2 node.
• View VLAN information on the node info panel.
• View Layer 2 / VLAN data in the interface table.

Layer 2 connections are represented by a blue dotted line to a gateway.

To see the Layer 2 details, enable the 'Show Layer 2 Connections' from the topology settings.

Once enabled, Layer 2 networks will be displayed as teal clouds. Hosts / endpoints will be displayed as classic hosts.

Endpoints defined from Layer 2 communications will display the MAC Address where Layer 3 hosts will display a hostname or IP address. Only Layer 2 endpoints

with and IP address will be considered verified.

Clicking on the endpoint will display the info panel with the addition of the new VLAN section.

Note that Layer 2 topologies can get very complex very quickly.

Limitations:

• Duplicate L2 and L3 networks and endpoint may occur if there is no data tying them together.
• Layer 2 from Layer 3 can add a lot of data to the topology making navigation and topology save slower than usual.
• Path analysis does not apply to Layer 2.

Layer 2 connections manually-populated, user-generated files

There are cases where not all devices have a configuration file. This is common in Layer 2 switches. This feature adds baseline support for Layer 2 visibility using manually generated files.

Adding a Layer 2 Switch

The text file can be used to create a Layer 2 switch in NP-View.  This switch can be used in conjunction with the common data model file outlined below to add layer 2 devices and connected nodes to the topology.

Following is an example of the data that can be in the file. The text file should be a properly formatted YAML ending with .YAML or .YML or it won’t be classified correctly and the import will fail. Note that each manually created switch will use a device license.

The imported device will be interpreted as a layer 2 switch by the system. Be sure to not use special characters within the device name or the interface names. Stick with alphanumeric characters, underscores can be used as shown below.

# This first line must be present, and the identifier must be np_custom_device 
file_identifier: np_custom_device 
# The name of the device, will be represented as such in the app 
device_name: custom_l2_switch 
# Vendor string, merely a description of the device 
vendor: netgear 
# A list of interfaces on the device, you need at least one interface 
interfaces: 
  - name: eth0 
    mac_addr: 0000:1b2b:fefe 
    ip: 192.168.1.100 
    netmask: 255.255.255.0 
  - name: eth1 
    mac_addr: 0101:acdc:80ba 
    ip: 192.168.2.100 
    netmask: 255.255.255.0 

When the above .YAML file is loaded into NP-View, the following device will displayed in NP-View.

With the following interfaces:

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Adding Layer 2 Connectivity

To add layer 2 connections to any device, a Excel file, referred to as the Common Data Model or CDM can be created to add endpoints and connections to NP-View.

The format for the CDM is as follows:

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Coming Soon

Limitations:

• If the user makes input errors, the system will display what they typed.
• Users need to verify that the topology represents the data as they expect it. There is no way for NP-View to know the data is incorrect.
• This function allocated licenses to Layer 2 devices, if the user mistypes the device name licenses will still be used.
• Duplicate L2 and L3 networks and endpoint may occur if there is no data tying them together.
• No rules, objects or paths will exist for L2 switches.