Device Parenting

The proper parenting of managed devices in Netreo is extremely important for getting an accurate display of your network topology, as well as for incident management. (Be aware that Netreo does not automatically or continuously scan for parenting changes.)

Only users with an access level of administrator or above may change parent/child relationships between managed devices in Netreo.

Administrators have two methods available for parenting devices in Netreo:

• Auto-parenting
• Manual parenting

Both methods may be used together to create the most accurate parent/child relationship map possible.

The Host tab of the Device Dashboard for any given managed device indicates which of the parent/child relationships for that device have been configured automatically and which have been congifured manually.

Auto-parenting

Layer 2/3 parent/child relationships for devices in your network may be automatically configured from the Regenerate Parenting page (Administration >> Parenting >> Reset).

The auto-parenting scan uses three methods to determine parent/child relationships for the managed devices on your network:

1. Traceroute
2. Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
3. Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)

First, traceroute is run to determine the layer 3 connections between devices.

Next, for Cisco devices, CDP is run to determine any layer 2 connections. If CDP does not find any connections for a Cisco device, LLDP is run to determine layer 2 connections.

Or, for non-Cisco devices, LLDP is run to determine layer 2 connections.

Netreo then uses the collected information to determine if any layer 2 connections should supersede any layer 3 connections. For example, assume the following connections are found:

• Device 1 -- Device 3 on layer 3
• Device 1 -- Device 2 on layer 2
• Device 2 -- Device 3 on layer 2

In this case, Netreo would remove the layer 3 Device 1 -- Device 3 connection, and keep only the layer 2 connections that illustrate the proper parent/child hierarchy for these devices. These parent/child relationships between devices may be viewed on the Topology tab of the Site Dashboard for the site that contains these devices, or on the Topology tab of the Device Dashboard for an individual managed device.

Manual Parenting

Parent/child relationships may be manually configured on the Parent Configuration page (Administration > Parenting > Change).

To manually configure parent/child relationships; select the desired parent device(s) in the Parent panel, select the desired child device(s) in the Child panel, choose the desired parenting mode, and select Save Change.

When manually setting parent/child relationships using this option, a flag is set in Netreo for each device involved indicating that they have been manually configured. This flag prevents the auto-parent scan from changing any parent/child relationships configured by a user.

If you wish to remove manually configured parent/child relationships for a device so that the auto-parent scan can configure those relationships; select the devices to remove manual configuration from in the Child panel, deselect any devices in the Parent panel, choose Delete all parents for these children and replace with selected as the parenting option and select Save Change. The manual parenting flag for each selected device is reset and auto-parenting may again be performed on them.

Best Practices

Parenting should always be configured from the perspective of where the Netreo server is located on the network.

Ensuring that all of your managed devices have parenting properly configured allows the network topology to be displayed visually on the network topology map, as well as on the Topology tab of the Device Dashboard for each device.