2.2 Devices, Configurations and Backups


Next, we describe the interfaces for configuring the devices. Fig. 2.2.1 shows the Devices Tab, the primary tab for handling and viewing the devices. If you double-click on one or more rows, then the status pane below will show the Device Properties (Sec. 3.4.4) and the backup history.


 Figure 2.2.1: Device View.

blob1476394082911.png


Backup Status Icons - The status icons change upon the device backup or when a compliance error is signaled. It is highlighted in pink in the figure.


Device View - All devices in the inventory are listed here. As stated above, you can check the configurations stored/backed up in the server by double- clicking on each device. It is highlighted in green.


Intuitively, each element in the Device View corresponds to one network device such as a CISCO switch or router. The amount of information in the table varies among the device vendor. For example, netLD does not show the serial number for Apresia devices.

Within Device View, you can click on the device to select it. Just as in the common file manager software, you can select multiple devices by pressing Shift key or Control key to select multiple devices. When you press Shift, the range of rows between your sections are highlighted. When you use the Control key, the clicked row is added into the selection. This is useful when you apply a single operation on many devices, and most table-like views in netLD provide the same feature.


If you have completed the tutorial and successfully run the backup, the Backup Status should contain some blob1476394128447.png icons . There are several other icons and their details described in section (Sec. 3.4).


blob1476394141330.png Successful backup

blob1476394151455.png Credential error

blob1476394160156.png Backup Failure



Devices can be added, modified, deleted, backed-up, tagged and searched for. Each feature can be accessed from the following menu. The details are described in Sec. 3.3.


Adding the devices Inventory → Add.

Editing the properties of the selected devices Device → Edit device properties. 

You can manually modify the IP address, hostname and the device type and vendors.

         Delete the selected devices Inventory → Manage → Delete device.

         Back up Device → Backup.


Search the inventory for devices Via the Search bar. It provides a useful incremental-search interface.


Manipulate Tags on the selected devices Device → Associate/Dissociate tags, Inventory → Manage → Device Tags. The Tag information can be used during the search.



2.2.1 Adapters


An ‘Adapter’ means the model and the OS of a device. netLD has a module for each adapter type and uses it to manipulate the device which belongs to that adapter. For example, many Cisco IOS based devices (like CISCO2500) have a Cisco IOS adapter. Generally speaking, the devices of the same adapter can be manipulated in the same command sequence.


netLD has several adapters and we are developing even more adapters for a more broad range of support. The complete adapter list can be found in Sec. 7.7