White Papers - Node Classification - Classifying Nodes Automatically -
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Classifying Nodes Automatically

In addition to manually adding and classifying nodes, NerveCenter can automatically detect agents on network devices it monitors and add the corresponding node objects for these automatically detected agents. Moreover, NerveCenter can be configured to recognize agents residing on network devices from other network management platforms like OpenView, another NerveCenter, and so on. In such circumstances, if the version information is not available about these automatically detected agents, NerveCenter assigns the version information to corresponding node objects as `unknown'. Since NerveCenter does not poll nodes having `unknown' version, its default behavior is to automatically classify these automatically detected agents.

When NerveCenter Attempts to Autoclassify Nodes

When NerveCenter's autoclassification feature is enabled, NerveCenter attempts to autoclassify a node in the following situations:

• When nodes are imported via a node file (using ImportUtil or NerveCenter Client), and a node has no SNMP version information or the SNMP version is `unknown'. (Such a scenario might occur if you were importing nodes from a previous version of NerveCenter.)
• When nodes are imported from another NerveCenter Server, and a node has no SNMP version or the SNMP version of the node is `unknown'.
• When a new node is added to the NerveCenter database because a trap was received from a corresponding agent/source previously unknown to NerveCenter.
• When NerveCenter is co-resident with OpenView Network Node Manager and OpenView sends nodes to NerveCenter. In this case, NerveCenter does not know the SNMP version of the newly added node from OpenView.

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  Note    When NerveCenter receives SNMP v3 traps from unknown agents with an AuthNoPriv or an AuthPriv security level, then NerveCenter processes these traps on behalf of the poll user and in the poll context configured in NerveCenter. (See NerveCenter online help for more information.) When autoclassification is enabled, NerveCenter attempts to classify these unknown nodes up to the `maximum classification version' specified by the user.

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Enabling and Disabling Auto-classification

Follow the steps below to enable/disable the node auto-classification feature in the NerveCenter Administrator.

 
  To enable or disable node auto-classification:

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Note    When auto-classification is disabled, then NerveCenter sets the nodes discovered by OpenView as SNMP v1.

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1. In the NerveCenter Administrator, select the Classify tab.
2. To enable auto-classification, check the Auto Classify checkbox.

   NerveCenter auto-classification is enabled for whichever version you select, but NerveCenter will never attempt to auto-classify a node for any version above your selection. For example, if you select v2, NerveCenter can send classification requests only for v1 and v2.

3. To disable auto-classification, uncheck the Auto Classify checkbox.

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   Note    If you disable auto-classification, bear in mind that NerveCenter does not poll nodes whose SNMP version is unknown.

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4. Select the Save button.