Network Device OS discovery

DipakkumarP
Giga Contributor

3 weeks ago

Hi Folks,

 

Facing one of the issues related to EOL and EOS issue for Network devices, as we know that the OOB discovery for network devices don't fetch the Operating system for the network devices it is fetched from the sysdescriptio oid and put into description field. How the OS of Network device can be discovered and put into software installation. I want the Network OS details to be fetched and should be put in to software Installation.

 

 

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ayushraj7012933
Giga Guru

3 weeks ago

hi @DipakkumarP 

Based on my understanding, this is expected Out-of-the-Box behavior. For most network devices, Discovery retrieves the operating system details from the SNMP sysDescr OID and stores the information in the Description field of the CI. Unlike Windows or Linux servers, Discovery does not create Software Installation records for network operating systems out of the box.

If your objective is to use the network OS for EOL/EOS lifecycle management, you'll need to implement a customization. A common approach is to extend the Discovery Pattern or add a post-discovery process that parses the OS name and version from the sysDescr value (or from vendor-specific SNMP OIDs if available), and then creates or updates the corresponding Software Installation record linked to the network CI. Once the Software Model and Product Model are mapped correctly, the lifecycle data can be leveraged for EOL/EOS reporting.

As far as I'm aware, there isn't an OOB feature that automatically converts network OS information into Software Installation records, so a custom implementation is the recommended approach.

ayushraj7012933
Giga Guru

3 weeks ago

If you want to achieve this, a custom approach would be required since it is not available Out of the Box.

A high-level approach would be:

  1. Let Discovery collect the network device information through SNMP as usual.
  2. Retrieve the operating system details from the sysDescr value (or use a vendor-specific SNMP OID if it provides a cleaner OS version).
  3. Extend the Discovery Pattern or use a post-discovery script to parse the OS name and version from the collected data.
  4. Check whether the corresponding Software Model already exists. If not, create it.
  5. Create or update a Software Installation record (cmdb_sam_sw_install) and associate it with the discovered network CI.
  6. Map the Software Model to the appropriate Product Model so that EOL/EOS lifecycle information can be applied.
  7. During subsequent discoveries, update the existing Software Installation record if the OS version changes instead of creating duplicate records.

This approach keeps the network OS information synchronized with the CMDB and enables lifecycle management features such as EOL/EOS reporting for network devices.