LMS 2.5.1 CM vs DCR vs RME Device counts

[dpanchal]

Folks,

I have LMS 2.5.1 integrated with ACS.

I discovered devices but the device counts from CM DCR and RME are all different.

For example in CM I have 388 devices discovered

but 283 devices which are devices collected. The delta of failed is only 60 devices (when I look at the report)not 388-283 = 105.

Also DCR has 306 devices.Even after I sync

RME reports 418 devices.

Can anyone help explain. The differences ?

Cheers

Dav

[Joe Clarke]

There are many reasons why the device count between applications may be different. First, Device Discovery will only send REACHABLE devices to DCR. Therefore, the discovery count may be greater than the DCR count.

The Campus Manager Data Collection count may differ from DCR if there are data collection filters in place such that only certain devices should be managed by Campus.

RME and DFM may differ from DCR if the auto-manage features have been disabled. Sometimes, RME may become out of sync with DCR. In such cases, going to RME > Devices > Device Management > RME Devices and adding all devices from DCR will correct that.

In all cases, DCR contains the master list of devices, and the CS@server group should be the authoritative list. If RME is showing more devices than CS, then something might be wrong in the RME database.

To troubleshoot device count problems, it is good to pick one device, and trace it through each application to figure out why it is not showing up in certain places. The fact that you are integrated with ACS adds an additional layer of complexity as all the devices managed by CiscoWorks must be clients of the ACS server.

Given the complexity of this, if you can resolve the discrepancies yourself, it would be wise to open a TAC Service Request so that additional logs can be collected, and remote access can be obtained.

[dpanchal]

Thanks for your info,

I'm actually in the process of seeing what is there and what is not.

One question I do have and I'm wondering if this a sign of corrupt or not.

Within RME - Devices->Device Mgmt ->Device Mgmt State Summary. I have 404 devices listed as normal. when I click on the 404 I get the ability to select CS, CM, DFM or RME. When I click RME it only gives 306 devices. I have access to everything within ACS. Anyway that I can find those 404 devices it mentions ?

Cheers

Dav

[Joe Clarke]

This is leftover from a bug in an earlier version of RME 4.0. What happens is old entries get left in the DM_Dev_State table in the RME database. The problem is mostly aesthetic. This is not corruption, merely stale database entries. A reinitialization is a bit extreme, but will resolve the problem. The alternative is to ignore the bogus number, and use the Device Selector number instead. The table can be cleared out manually, but it is not something we generally recommend.

[dpanchal]

Thanks for that info. It helps explain differences. I'm still struggling with CM. The devices in device list (383) and the data collection are different (283). All devices are in ACS.

Many of the devices in "device list" are reachable. (I beleive this means only SNMP is ok.) Does this mean CDP is ok as well ?

For some reason I cannot get CM to collect data on these.

Any thoughts ?

Cheers

Dav

[Joe Clarke]

Reachable only refers to SNMP read-only access. SNMP appearing to be correct, and actually being correct are two very different things. Pick a device that is not showing up in Data Collection, and first verify that it is not being listed by another IP address. If not, then start a sniffer trace filtering on all SNMP traffic to that device, and start a new Data Collection. That will show you for certain if SNMP access is available.

[dpanchal]

Well I finally found out that many of these devices are either our service providers or not in ACS.

IF they are not in ACS I'm assuming that there will be no data collected on them. Is that correct ?

Also 2 exceptions I have are around cat 6000 MSFC2's These are in ACS and no data is collected on them.

Any thoughts around the Cat6000-MSFC2s ?

Cheers

Dav

[Joe Clarke]

If they are not in ACS, they will not even by visible in application device selectors. They will, however, be visible in the Devices Not in ACS report under DCR reports.

There is no known problem that only affects MSFC2s and inventory collection. However, there is a bug in which DFM will add each interface of the MSFC to DCR, and all will be unreachable except for one. This may be what you are seeing, and will be fixed in LMS 2.6.

[dpanchal]

I believe I probably need to do a rediscover.

One thing I'm not finding clearly is the ability to give RME a list of credentials to always check against- SNMP, telnet, enable, etc..

e.g. Once a device is discovered and added to RME, RME will only check the SNMP read string and nothing else. I see a no value set in the credentials report. So it does not check anything else and I have to go into Device mgmt to enter these details and ask it to check it. Is there a way to tell RME to always check a set of credentials, rather like a template standard to follow ?

[Joe Clarke]

You can always have RME do a credentials verification by checking the option under Administration > Device Management > Device Management Settings.

Note: there is no such thing as default credentials in LMS currently. This is being planned for LMS 3.0. When that happens, devices that do not already have credentials such as SNMP RW, username, and password, can use the default credentials in applications like RME.