This documentation supports the 20.02 (12.0) version of BMC Discovery.To view an earlier version of the product, select the version from the Product version menu.

Edge connectivity

Edge connectivity refers to how hosts are connected to edge switches.

How edge connectivity works

Edge connectivity discovery occurs when a discovery run takes place. When a switch is discovered, it is queried for port information. The SNMP request (getNetworkInterfaces) method gathers information about all ports found on the switch and a list of neighbor MAC addresses found for each port.

Edge connectivity relies on switches providing neighbor MAC information. Where certain classes of switch do not provide this information, for example, NexusOS devices, edge connectivity does not work.

Related topics

Discovery Configuration

Running-discovery

When a host is discovered, its MAC address or addresses are determined. Reasoning uses the MAC addresses to determine whether there is a connection between that host and any previously scanned switches and, if so, creates a new one. If a connection already exists, then it is confirmed. If no connection is found, any existing connection is deleted.

  • When a host is discovered, an old connection might be deleted, and a connection to a switch might be made or confirmed.
  • When a switch is discovered, an old connection might be deleted. No new connections are made.

Note

Connections are only made when a host is discovered and the switch it connects to has already been scanned. Both ends of the connection are required before the connection can be confirmed. Consequently, connection information might not be complete until two scans have taken place.

The provenance of a connection is the provenance of the host or the switch, whichever was discovered last.

From the April 2021 TKU, Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is used as an additional source of information for edge connectivity.

To enable or disable edge connectivity

Edge connectivity is enabled by default. If you do not intend to use the connection information obtained by edge connectivity, you can disable it on the Discovery Configuration page. Disabling edge connectivity avoids any additional load put onto switches in your infrastructure. To do this, an additional option, Discover neighbor information when scanning network devices, is provided in Discovery Configuration. This option controls whether the information on neighboring ports is obtained.

  • Select Yes to retrieve neighbor MAC addresses (enable edge connectivity).
  • Select No if you do not want to retrieve neighbor MAC addresses (disable edge connectivity).

If you disable edge connectivity, all existing connections are deleted at the next scan.


 

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