Netreo Overview (Add-on)

Description

Netreo Overview is an add-on feature for Netreo (on-premise deployments only) that allows any number of separately deployed instances of Netreo to report all of their monitoring data to a single Netreo instance; allowing all Netreo instances and their managed devices to be monitored from a single location.

You may choose any one of your deployed Netreo instances to act as the Overview. You may then connect all of your other instances to that Overview as clients. The clients will then report all of their status and incident data to the Overview. Clicking on a client Netreo instance in the Overview also allows you direct pass-through access to that client's user interface, so that you may view and administrate the client instance directly.

The Netreo instance selected as the Overview may continue to act as a normal Netreo instance, monitoring its own set of managed devices and services. The performance impact on the Overview instance is minimal, since the actual work of collecting and processing monitoring data for the client instances is still done by each of those respective instances. The clients simply report their data to the Overview for display.

Likewise, the Netreo instances acting as client to an Overview still maintain complete functionality and accessibility as free-standing instances; and may be accessed, used and administrated as normal (with one exception, the cloud libraries, explained below).

Overview Setup

The Netreo instance you wish to use as the Overview should already be fully deployed and functional. (See Deploy a Netreo Virtual Appliance for more information on deploying Netreo instances.)

To activate Netreo Overview functionality: You must contact Netreo customer support to have the Overview functionality added to your Netreo instance (no restart of the virtual machine is required). In order for customer support to activate Overview for your chosen Netreo instance you must either activate Netreo's built-in VPN support tunnel or participate in a screen-sharing video call.

Once the Overview functionality has been successfully activated on your Netreo instance, you will see the following changes in the Overview user interface:

• An "@Overview" indicator appears next to the user menu in the top right of the user interface
• Removed main menu item: Administration >> Overview >> Link to Netreo Overview
• New main menu item: Administration >> Overview >> Edit/Add Linked Netreo
• New main menu item: Administration >> Overview >> Confederated Push

After your Overview is set up, you may deploy and connect additional Netreo instances as clients at any time using the steps below.

Adding a client to Overview

Follow the steps below for each Netreo client instance that you wish to monitor with Overview.

(For communication to work between the Overview and its clients, port UDP/161 is required to be open from the Overview to the client, and port TCP/443 is required to be open bi-directionally on both the Overview and the client.)

1. Log in to your Netreo Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
2. From the main menu select Administration >> Overview >> Edit/Add Linked Netreo to open the Overview Client Configuration page.
   1. Click the Create Client button.
   2. In the NETREO NAME field, enter the FQDN of the client Netreo instance.
      • Note: Make sure that any Netreo clients that you wish to add to Overview have had appropriate entries created for them in your DNS server.
   3. In the PIN field, enter the PIN number for the license of the Netreo client you wish to connect to Overview.
      • Your PIN number may be found on the Netreo License Information page of the client you wish to connect (Administration >> System >> License from the main menu). You must be logged-in to the client as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
   4. In the LICENSE DOMAIN field, enter the customer name for the license of the Netreo client you wish to connect to Overview.
      • Your customer name may be found on the Netreo License Information page of the client you wish to connect (Administration >> System >> License from the main menu). You must be logged-in to the client as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
   5. In the NETREO DESCRIPTION field, enter a name to identify the client Netreo in the Overview dashboards.
   6. Leave the PROTOCOL/PORT field set to None.
   7. In the OVERVIEW PUBLIC IP field, enter the IP address of the Netreo Overview instance.
   8. In the REMOTE NETREO CLIENT IP field, enter the IP address of the Netreo client instance you wish to connect to Overview.
   9. In the REMOTE NETREO CLIENT TYPE field, select:
      • Stand-Alone for a Netreo client instance configured as the primary instance for a standard deployment.
      • Cluster for a Netreo client instance acting as the primary instance in a high availability (HA) deployment.
      • Replica for a Netreo client instance acting as the replica instance in a high availability (HA) deployment.
      • Arbitrator for a Netreo client instance acting as the arbitrator instance in a high availability (HA) deployment.
   10. Click the Create button.
       • A message appears at the top of the page indicating that a client Netreo managed device has been created in Overview.
   11. Click the back arrow button at the top of the page to return to the Overview Client Configuration page.
       • The newly added Netreo managed device should now appear in the table of client devices. However, your actual Netreo client instance is not yet connected to Overview at this point.
   12. In the table of client devices, locate your newly added Netreo client and click its magnifying glass icon in the ACTIONS column.
   13. From the page that appears, select and copy the entire text blob from the field labeled Configuration.
3. Now, log in to the Netreo client instance that you wish to connect to Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
4. From the main menu of the client, select Administration >> Templates to open the Device Templates Administrationpage.
   1. Click the Add New Template button.
   2. In the TEMPLATE NAME field, name the template as desired. (We recommend something like "Overview SNMP Credentials".)
   3. In the SNMP READ ONLY field, enter "SNMP4netreo" (without quotes).
   4. From the SNMP VERSION pull-down menu, select v2c.
   5. Click the Save button to save the template.
      1. This credentials template will ensure that the client can communicate with Overview.
5. From the main menu of the client, select Administration >> Overview >> Link to Netreo Overview to open the Overview Administration page.
   1. Click the Link to Overview button.
   2. On the page that appears, paste the text blob you copied earlier into the field labeled OVERVIEW CONFIGURATION.
   3. Click the Create button.
   4. The page will refresh and a message will appear near the top of the page indicating that the Overview data has been accepted by the client successfully.
   5. The page now displays the information extracted from the pasted text blob in a human readable format.
      • If anything is incorrect, you may create a new text blob using the steps above, copy/paste the new blob over the existing text blob on this page, and click the Update button to replace the data.
   6. The client now communicates with the Overview and establishes the connection.
   7. You are finished and may navigate away from this page or log out.

It will likely take at least five minutes before the client or any client data is displayed in any Overview dashboards.

Add Overview widgets to a dashboard in Overview

Once your Overview is set up and its clients are connected, you will need to add the following widgets to a dashboard in Overview to provide dashboard monitoring of its clients and their incidents.

• Linked Netreo Overview - provides Tactical Overview-style monitoring of connected Netreo client instances.
• Linked Netreo Incidents - provides status and direct click-though access to incidents on client Netreo instances.

Here, we will add the widgets to the Consolidated dashboard, since that is the default homepage of every Netreo instance. However, you may add these widgets to any custom dashboard that suits your organization's needs.

1. Log in to your Netreo Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
2. From the main menu, select Administration >> Users >> Custom Dashboards to open the Customize Dashboards page.
3. In the Generic Dashboards table, locate the Consolidated dashboard and click its build button in the ACTIONS column.
4. On the edit page for that dashboard:
   1. From the AVAILABLE WIDGETS panel on the left, drag both the Linked Netreo Overview and Linked Netreo Incidents widgets over to the ADD WIDGETS panel on the right. (Position them in any desired location within the order.)
   2. At the top right of the page, click the Save button to make the widget options accessible.
   3. Now locate the Linked Netreo Incidents widget in the panel and click its configuration button to open the widget configuration options pop-up.
      1. Using the pull-down menu in the CURRENT_STATE field, select the desired incident state to display in the widget. The options are:
         • Active incidents - displays incidents in all states but closed.
         • Open incidents only - displays only incidents in the open state.
      2. Click the Save widget options button.
   4. At the top right of the page, click the Save button again to save all widgets and options.
5. You are finished and may navigate away from this page.

Client status issues and their associated incidents are now visually displayed on the dashboard.

Overview Cloud Library

When a Netreo instance becomes an Overview, it creates its own cloud library (similar to the Netreo cloud library), which is stored locally in the Overview. When a Netreo client instance is connected to an Overview, the Overview cloud library replaces the Netreo cloud library for that client instance. That is, when the client instance attempts to access the Netreo cloud library, it instead accesses the Overview cloud library of the Overview to which it is connected. This allows the administrator of the Overview to control which library modules will be available to any connected client instances.

Another feature of the Overview cloud library, called "confederated push," allow the Overview administrator to select library modules from the Overview cloud library, and push them to the local library of the clients. This allows the Overview administrator to ensure that specific modules are available on the client instances.

The Overview itself is still able to connect normally to the Netreo cloud libraries. This allows an Overview administrator to download modules from the Netreo cloud library and then control the distribution of those modules to the Overview's clients.

Client Netreo instances may also upload modules from their local libraries to the Overview library for redistribution to other clients, similar to uploading modules to the Netreo cloud library. However, unlike the Netreo cloud library, the approval process for modules uploaded to an Overview cloud library is completely under the control of the Overview administrator.

Configure Overview confederated push

You may select individual client instances to which the confederated push function applies. Allowing an administrator to push library modules only to those clients.

1. Log in to your Netreo Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
2. From the main menu, select Administration >> Overview >> Confederated Administration to open the Netreo Confederated Administration page.
3. In the table of Netreo client instances, for each client, select the confederated push status by setting the switch in the STATUS column to the desired position.
   1. OFF (default) - this client will not receive the selected library module when a confederated push is performed.
   2. ON - this client will receive the selected library module when a confederated push is performed.
4. Click the Save button to save your settings.

When a confederated push is performed for any Overview cloud library module, only those clients set to ON will receive the module.

Adding modules to the Overview cloud library

Before they may be accessed by clients (or pushed to them), modules must first be added to the Overview cloud library from its local library.

1. Log in to your Netreo Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
2. Access the Overview local library of the desired module type.
   • Action Groups - Administration >> Alerts >> Actions.
   • Alert Notification Templates - Administration >> Alerts >> Alert Formatting.
   • Device Templates - Administration >> Templates.
   • Device Types - Administration >> Change Devices >> Edit Device Types/Subtypes.
   • Device Subtypes - Administration >> Change Devices >> Edit Device Types/Subtypes then click the View Subtypes button.
   • Incident Management Rules - Administration >> Alerts >> Incident Management.
   • Service Checks - Administration >> Change Devices >> Manage Service Checks.
   • Web User Profiles - Administration >> Users >> Edit/Add Web Users.
3. Locate the desired module within its library and click its install icon in the ACTIONS column.
4. In the confirmation dialog that appears, click Ok.
5. The module is installed into the Overview cloud library.

Once a module is added to the Overview cloud library, it must be approved before it will become available to clients. This can be done by editing the module in the Overview cloud library and clicking the Approve button. Once a module is approved, it may be accessed by clients for download (or pushed to them by the Overview).

Push cloud library modules to an Overview client

Each client that you wish to push modules to must have confederated push turned on for it in Overview. See "Configure Overview confederated push" above.

1. Log in to your Netreo Overview as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.
2. Access the Overview cloud library of the desired module type. (The cloud library for each module type is usually accessed from the local library for that type.)
   • Action Groups - Administration >> Alerts >> Actions then click the Actions Cloud Library button.
   • Alert Notification Templates - Administration >> Alerts >> Alert Formatting then click the Alert Templates Cloud Library button.
   • Device Templates - Administration >> Templates then click the Device Templates Cloud Library button.
   • Device Types - Administration >> Change Devices >> Edit Device Types/Subtypes then click the Device Types Cloud Library button.
   • Device Subtypes - Administration >> Change Devices >> Edit Device Types/Subtypes then click the View Subtypes button, then click the Device Subtypes Cloud Library button.
   • Incident Management Rules - Administration >> Alerts >> Incident Management then click the Incident Criteria Cloud Library button.
   • Service Checks - Administration >> Change Devices >> Manage Service Checks then click the Service Checks Cloud Library button.
   • Web User Profiles - Administration >> Users >> Edit/Add Web Users then click the Web Users Cloud Library button.
3. Locate the desired module within its library and click its export icon in the ACTIONS column.
4. The module is pushed to the local library of every client that has confederated push turned on for it, and is immediately available for use on that instance.