About the Node Tab

Tasks You Can Perform

You can perform the following tasks on the Node tab:

• Add a Node. See Add a Node.

• Edit Node Properties. See Edit Node Parameters.

• Delete a Node. See Delete a Node.

• From the View list, you can view:

  • Config—View the configuration of the selected device in the network.

  • Node Traffic—View a graphical representation of node traffic (in bps) based on the selected time range (for previous 3 hours, 1 day, 1 week, or Custom time range). A Node Traffic pop-up appears which you can pin anywhere on the screen.

  • Device Detail—Displays device details (overview, alarms, and alerts), inventory details (chassis, interfaces, licenses, and software), and the configuration template. For more information, see View Device Statistics and Inventory information.

  • Device Health—Displays the device health information in a table and tile view on the Network Health page. For more information, see About the Network Health Page.

• From the Diagnostics list, you can run CLI commands on the routers in the network without manually logging into the routers. You can select the routers, select the commands, specify various command parameters, execute the commands, and view/save the results. This is a unified way to manage ping and traceroute results, and is a useful tool for troubleshooting. Juniper, Cisco, Alcatel, and Huawei command sets are provided by default, and you can add other vendor command sets as needed.

  • Ping/Traceroute—On the Ping or Traceroute window, Default and Custom tabs are displayed.

    On the Default Tab:

    • Click the From list and select one or more nodes from which ping or traceroute must be initiated.

    • Click the To list and select the one or more nodes as destination.

    • (Optional) You can click the Use Management IP Address check box. If you don’t opt to use the management IP address, the loopback address is used.

    • (Optional) You can use the Advanced Options to customize the ping or traceroute command. See Table 1.

      Note:

      We recommend that you do not use the Advanced Options if you are running ping or traceroute for a large number of devices as these actions would be significantly slower.

      Table 1: Advanced Options for Ping and Traceroute

      Ping
      Pattern	Enter the fill pattern (type of bits contained in the packet). You can set the bits to all ones, all zeros, a random mixture of ones and zeros, or a specific hexadecimal data pattern that can range from 0x0 – 0xFFFFFFFF. The default data pattern is all zeros.
      Count	Enter the number of ping requests to be sent.
      Size	Enter the size of the ping request packets. Range: 0 through 65468 bytes.
      TOS	Enter the IP type-of-service value. Range: 0 through 256.
      Traceroute
      Wait	Enter the maximum wait time (in seconds) after sending the final packet.
      TTL	Enter the IP maximum time-to-live value.

    On the Custom tab:

    • From the list at the top, you can select one of the following command categories for both Ping and Traceroute:

      • MPLS/TE Commands

      • TE/TP Commands

      • P2MP Commands

      • NIL FEC Commands

      • SR Commands

      Ping offers an additional General Commands category.

    • On the List of Commands window, select the Select all check box to select all the commands in the category. Otherwise, select the check boxes beside the individual commands of your choice.

    • Once you select a command that requires a value for variable parameters, a field for each parameter is displayed under the Selected Commands section at the bottom of the page. Enter the appropriate values.

    • Click Submit to execute the command(s).

      The Diagnostics window displays the new commands along with status and results. When a traceroute command is successfully completed, the path is highlighted in the topology map.

  • Run CLI—On the Run CLI window, select a command category from the list and enter the appropriate parameter values. Click Submit to execute the command.

    Note:

    Make all your command selections first, and then enter the parameter values because the Selected Commands section of the page refreshes when you add commands and clears any parameter information already entered.

    The Diagnostics window displays the new commands along with status and results. If you selected multiple nodes, each command you specified is run on each node and all the results displayed as the Results on the Diagnostics window.

    Note:

    The selected nodes must be of the same vendor because only one CLI command set is used. If you want to run CLI on nodes of different vendors, run them separately.

• Download node information—Click Download to download detailed information about all the existing nodes in the topology in CSV format.

• From More List, you can:

  • View details about the node by clicking the Details icon when you hover over the node name or click More > Show Detail. A moveable pop-up with traffic (for previous 3 hours, 1 day, 1 week, or Custom time range) and node details is displayed which you can pin anywhere on the screen.

  • Filter the selected node on the Topology Map. Only the selected node is displayed.

  • Zoom in to the selected node on the Topology Map.

  • Request NETCONF reconnect—If the NETCONF status of the node is Down, you can request for a reconnect. A confirmation message appears stating that the NETCONF reconnect request is submitted successfully. If the reconnect is successful, the status is changed to Up.

  • Run Device collection for the selected node. The device collection task is added to the Task Scheduler where you can view the summary, status, and history of tasks. For more information, see Add a Device Collection Task.

  • Force Delete—Delete one or more nodes from the topology. Force delete is used to delete nodes that are not completely withdrawn. When the TopoServer has not received the complete node withdrawal message from the network for the node, the node withdrawal is considered incomplete. This can cause the network model (maintained by TopoServer) to be out-of-sync. You can fix this sync issue by force deleting the node and then syncing the network model again.

    CAUTION:

    Force delete a node only in extraordinary circumstances, such as troubleshooting, because force deleting a node that's working normally might cause Paragon Automation to be out-of-sync with the live network.

    To force delete a node:

    1. Select one or more nodes from the Node tab of the network information table and click More > Force Delete. Alternatively, right-click on the selected nodes and select Force Delete.

       A confirmation message appears.

    2. Click Yes.

       The node is deleted from the table and the topology map. After the node is deleted, synchronize the network model. For more information, see Modify Pathfinder Settings From the GUI.