Deployment and Imaging Group

Many modern network devices come with an internal web server to allow for direct management without the need to physically access the device. Vendors such as Cisco, HP, and LexMark all use a common address for this web server in the format of HTTP://<IP Address>.

Through the use of the Network Discovery, Agentless Inventory, and Custom Right-Click Actions - it is possible to provide easy access to these web points from directly within the Symantec Management Platform (SMP).

In order to do this, there are a number of steps that must be done.

Network Discovery

In order to manage a device, we need to know the device exists to begin with. The SMP provides the ability to discover devices on the network via ad-hoc or scheduled discovery policies. To enable this:

1. From the SMP console, select Actions - Discover - Network Devices
2. Select whether the discovery will use a Ping or ARP based discovery method. (See Methods for Discovering Network Devices for more information).
3. Select the Subnet, Range, Address, or HostName to be discovered by clicking on 'Include'
4. Select the 'Device Communcation Profile' to be used. Ensure that the correct credentials have been entered and protocols enabled by clicking on the 'pencil' edit button.
5. Give the Discovery Task a name
6. Set the task to run on either a single ad-hoc basis or a routine schedule.

Once the Network Discovery has completed, you may have a number of new devices added to the database. These can be checked on the console by going to Manage - All Resources and then subsequently drilling down to the 'Assets' folder.

You will notice that many of the Asset\Network Resource\Infrastructure or Network Printer devices have very little information available. This is because there has been no Inventory run on them. The details present only represent the details immediately available from the Network Discovery.

Agentless Inventory

In order to gather additional details from our network devices, we need to run an Agentless Inventory against them.

1. From the SMP console, select Actions - Inventory - Agentless Inventory
2. Choose the network resource types to be inventoried OR choose a particular device from the 'Select Individual Device' drop down
3. Give the task a name
4. Set the task to run on either a single ad-hoc basis or a routine schedule.

Once both the Network Discovery and the Agentless Inventory are completed, you will notice an increase in the information available on these network resources.

To make management of these resources a little easier, we can create a Right-Click option that will only show on Network Resources, that will take the IP Address details gathered by Inventory and open a new browser window to the internal web server (if activated) of the device.

Create Right Click - Network Device Web Access

1. From the SMP console, select Settings - Console - Right Click Actions
2. Right click on the 'User Defined' folder and select New - Right Click Action
3. Rename the top area to 'Device WebAdmin'
4. In the 'Resource Type' drop down, select 'Network Resource' (you can contsrain the option further if you were to select 'Network Printer' or 'Infrastructure Device')
5. Leave the 'Action Type' set to URL
6. In the 'Base URL' window enter - http://%Device TCPIP.IP Address%
7. Leave the 'Open In' set to 'New Window'
8. In the 'Substitution Parameters', click 'Add'
9. In the 'Group' drop down, select Resource Attributes - Network Device Data - Device TCPIP
10. Select 'IP Address' and add it to the 'Selected Items' box, hit Ok
11. Click 'Save Changes'

If you were to now go to Manage - All Resources - Assets and right click on a Network Printer or Infrastructure Device  that you have IP Address information via Inventory - you will see 'User Defined - Device WebAdmin' as an option. To clean this up a little bit.

1. Go to Settings - All Settings
2. Navigate down to Notification Server - Right Click Menu
3. Right click on 'Right Click Menu', select New - Folder
4. Name the folder 'Network Device'
5. Navigate further down to User Defined - Device WebAdmin
6. Right click on Device WebAdmin' and select 'Move', Move it to Settings - Notification Server - Right Click Menu - Network Device
7. Click Ok

You will now not only be discovering network devices in your environment, but also gathering inventory information into the CMDB, and have an easy means to access the internal web server of the device where enabled.