Designing and Managing Behavior Models - Discovering and Defining Nodes -
Disconnecting from a Server      Discovering Nodes

Discovering and Defining Nodes

Before NerveCenter can manage a set of devices, a set of node definitions must reside in the NerveCenter database. There are two ways to enter these definitions into the NerveCenter database:

• By using a discovery mechanism. Both network management platforms and NerveCenter itself have the ability to explore a network and discover what devices are on the network. NerveCenter can use the information gleaned during this discovery process to create a set of node definitions.
• By defining the nodes manually using the NerveCenter GUI.

Generally, if you're managing a network of any size, you'll use a discovery mechanism to gather information about the devices on your networks. Defining nodes manually is appropriate only if you have a very small network or if you want to add to your database some nodes that were not found during the discovery process (perhaps because they were on a subnet that the discovery program did not explore).

For further information on these two methods of adding node definitions to the NerveCenter database, see the following sections:

Section	Description
Discovering Nodes	Explains how to add node definitions to the NerveCenter database using a discovery mechanism, such as that provided by HP OpenView Network Node Manager or by NerveCenter.
Defining Nodes Manually	Explains how to add node definitions to the NerveCenter database manually using the NerveCenter graphical user interface.