Setting Up the Discovery Trigger with Flow Profile

A flow profile runs one or more configuration flow templates on new Skylight elements that have been installed on the network.

Setting up the Discovery Trigger is typically done by a network administrator and involves these tasks:

• Ensuring that prerequisites are met: Inventory-tracking elements are available and enabled. Device credentials (that allow Skylight orchestrator to log on to the new elements) are defined in Skylight orchestrator.
• Preparing one ME Reference file that lists the new elements to be configured. Typically, these are elements that will be installed and discovered by the Plug & Go mechanism.
• Preparing one flow token dataset file that lists of tokens use for the flow profile
• Preparing one flow profile to run on the new elements.
• Doing the final setup in the Discovery Trigger page (Commission ▶ Discovery Trigger).

Enabling Inventory Elements

To ensure that new elements can be automatically provisioned and discovered, at least one element on the network must be enabled for inventory-tracking and for inventory-polling.

The procedures in this section explain how to check or change the inventory-tracking and inventory-polling state of managed elements.

Normally, a network administrator only needs to do these procedures once, when Skylight orchestrator is installed. However, if you want to check for the availability of an inventory- tracking element, you can do so as explained in this section.

To check/change the inventory-tracking state of an element (from Skylight orchestrator)

For the Discovery Trigger, at least one element (managed by Skylight orchestrator) must be enabled for inventory-tracking. This can only be done on the element itself. However, you can log in on a managed element from Skylight orchestrator in order to check or change its inventory-tracking state remotely:

1. Access the list of managed elements by selecting Devices ▶ Managed Elements.

2. Locate the element that you want to access in the Managed Elements list and double- click its IP address (a link). After a brief delay, the login page for the element is displayed.

3. Log in to the element and determine whether the element is configured for inventory- tracking. For detailed information about how to enable a device for inventory-tracking, see the user guide for the model of the device.

To check/change the inventory-polling state of an element (in Skylight orchestrator)

All inventory-tracking elements must also be enabled for inventory-polling in Skylight orchestrator. This means Skylight orchestrator will poll the inventory elements periodically and add any new elements in their inventory to the Skylight orchestrator Managed list.

You can view the inventory-polling state for all managed elements as follows:

1. Access the list of managed elements by selecting Devices ▶ Managed Elements.

2. Display the Inventory Polling column in the Managed list as follows:

• Right-click anywhere in the headings at the top of the table. A context menu is displayed.
• Slide the cursor down the menu to Columns to view the full list of columns that can be displayed.
• Check Inventory polling. The Inventory polling column is added to the table.

3. To enable an element for inventory polling:

• Double-click the element that you want to enable. The Device Configuration dialog is displayed.
• Check the Enable Inventory polling? checkbox.
• Click the Save button. The Device Configuration dialog closes.
• Ensure that the Inventory polling column is checked for the element in the Managed list.
  

Ensuring Availability of Valid Device Credentials

Since the purpose of the Discovery Trigger is for Skylight orchestrator to run a flow profile automatically on new elements, Skylight orchestrator must be able to log in on the elements. This requires a Device credential (in Skylight orchestrator) that corresponds to a user account that exists on each of the new Skylight elements.

To ensure that Skylight orchestrator can log in on new elements during the discovery process, we recommend selecting the default Device credential (admin) for the Discovery Trigger, which make use of the following:

• Default user account on all Accedian Skylight elements: username: admin password: admin
• Matching default Device Credential (admin) on Skylight orchestrator with the same username and password.
• After the initial connection and configuration discovery, your organization may want to use a custom Device credential (rather than the admin Device credential) to allow Skylight orchestrator to connect to managed elements. Here is what would be involved in setting up a custom Device credential:
• Set up a custom Device Credential (or check if your organization has a custom Device credential). See "Setting Up Credentials for Devices"
• Include a step for setting up a user account on new Skylight elements as part of a flow profile in the Discovery Trigger. See " Making Selections in the Discovery Trigger Page".

Preparing ME Reference Datasets for the Discovery Trigger

When new elements are going to be installed on the network, a network administrator prepares one or more ME Reference dataset files that list the elements to be installed. They will also prepare one one flow profile to run on the new elements.

When the Discovery Trigger executes a flow profile, Skylight orchestrator scans the Unmanaged Elements list looking for elements that are also in the ME Reference for the job. The configuration job will run on each of the matching elements.

If the flow profile will be included in the Discovery Trigger, the same ME Reference file can be selected for a flow profile or different ME Reference files can be selected for different flow profiles. For example, you might want to define a different flow profile for different model elements. In this case, you could have separate ME Reference files for each model.

You can define the elements on which to run a discovery configuration job by including one or more of the following pieces of information in the ME Reference file:

• Sysname: Name of element
• Serial number: Serial number of the element
• Model: Element model
• Management IP address: Can be specified with a subnet. Using a subnet is one of the most convenient ways of specifying elements for the Discovery Trigger.
• Firmware: The active firmware of elements
• Parent IP address: The IP address of Skylight sensor: control, the element will be managed by this Skylight sensor: control and only for Discovery Trigger.

Examples

Here are some examples of ME Reference files that could be used for the Discovery Trigger:

Management IP address. You can specify particular IP addresses, if they are known.

NEID,SYSNAME,SERIAL,MODEL,MGMTIPADDRESS,FIRMWARE,PARENTIPADDRESS
1,,,192.168.106.176,,
2,,,192.168.106.120,,
3,,,192.168.106.162,,
4,,,192.168.106.183,,

Management IP address with subnet. Skylight orchestrator will scan Unmanaged Elements list for elements in the specified subnet.

The base IP address can only be in IPv4 format.

The subnet must be specified after the base IP address using CIDR notation: a forward slash followed by a value. For IPv4, the value can be from 0 to 32.

ipAddress/subnet

For example:

NEID,SYSNAME,SERIAL,MODEL,MGMTIPADDRESS,FIRMWARE,PARENTIPADDRESS
1,,,192.168.0.0/24,,

Serial number only. Skylight orchestrator will scan the Unmanaged Elements list for the elements with the serial numbers specified in the ME Reference.

NEID,SYSNAME,SERIAL,MODEL,MGMTIPADDRESS,FIRMWARE,PARENTIPADDRESS
1,,G141-0367,,,
1,,G141-0368,,,
1,,G141-0369,,,
1,,G141-0370,,,

Model only. Skylight orchestrator will scan the Unmanaged Elements list for all elements of the specified model.

NEID,SYSNAME,SERIAL,MODEL,MGMTIPADDRESS,FIRMWARE,PARENTIPADDRESS
1,,VEL-1G-FS,,,

Any combination of the above. Skylight orchestrator will scan the Unmanaged Elements list for elements matching all the specified parameters. For example, you might want to specify all elements of a particular model on a subnet.

NEID,SYSNAME,SERIAL,MODEL,MGMTIPADDRESS,FIRMWARE,PARENTIPADDRESS
1,,VEL-1G-FS,192.168.81.0.0/24,

For more general information about ME Reference datasets and how to prepare them, see "About ME Reference Datasets (Device Datasets)".

Preparing Flow Token Datasets for the Discovery Trigger

This dataset is to supply the data for the input parameters. Depending on the configuration job template parameters, this dataset is never going to be the same since the columns in the dataset are associated with the configuration job input. It also needs to specify the device token for the flow.

You can define the flow token dataset file which runs a discovery flow profile by including one or more of the following pieces of information in the Flow token dataset file:

• NEID
• DEVICETOKEN
• DATA

A format file of flow dataset will be:

NEID DEVICETOKEN DATA
[1],JOB1DEVICEID,param1=value1&param2=value2

Preparing a Configuration Flow Template for the Discovery Trigger

The Discovery Trigger includes one or more configuration flow templates that are set up in the standard way in the Job Configuration page (Commission ▶ Jobs). For an introduction to configuration flows, see "About Configuration Flows".

Here are some guidelines for preparing configuration flow templates for the Flow profile (included in the Discovery Trigger):

• A configuration flow template can include multiple configuration steps.
• A configuration flow template can be set up in GUI mode (set directly in the Job Configuration page). See "Creating a Configuration Flow Template".
• If your organization wants to use a custom Device credential (rather than the default admin Device credential) to log onto managed elements after the discovery job is executed, you could include the Device attributes configuration step in a configuration flow that will be executed by the Discovery Trigger.

Preparing a Configuration Flow Profile for the Discovery Trigger

The Discovery Trigger includes one configuration flow profile (can be included one or more configuration flows) that are set up in the standard way in the Flow Profiles page (Commission ▶ Flow Profiles). For an introduction to configuration flow profiles, see "Configuration Flow Profiles: Overview".

Here are some guidelines for preparing a configuration flow profile for the Discovery Trigger:

• A configuration flow profile can include multiple configuration flow templates.
• A configuration flow profile can be set up in GUI mode (set directly in the Flow Profiles page). See "Creating a Configuration Flow Profile".

Making Selections in the Discovery Trigger Page

The final task in setting up the Discovery Trigger is making a few selections in the Discovery Trigger page. You must enable the trigger, check the Device credential, and select one or more configuration jobs.

1. Access the Discovery Trigger page by selecting Commission ▶ Discovery Trigger.

2. Click the button (in the upper left corner of the page) [Configure discovery scheduler parameters]. The Discovery Trigger dialog is displayed.
   

3. Click the Flow profile tab.
   

4. Check Enable.

5. Select the Device Credential that you want to use. The default Device credential (admin) is recommended.

6. Select the Profile name.

7. Select the ME reference data set.

8. Select the Flow token data set.

9. When you have finished selecting configuration jobs, click Apply, then click Close. For descriptions of the settings in the Discovery Trigger dialog, see the following table.

Discovery Trigger Configuration (Commission ▶ Discovery Trigger ▶ Flow profile)