Manage Zones
Overview
In NP-View there are three levels of segmentation that can be used to organize your assets. From the most general to most specific these are:
- Workspaces: Contain a group of devices
- Views: Segments the devices present in a workspace into multiple views
- Zones: Segments the devices present in a view into multiple visual zones
This article will focus on Zones and the different functionality around them.
Zones – Defined
Zones in NP-View are the most granular form of segmentation that is offered. Zones are visual markers that group nodes together. They can be created by user’s on demand, or through the Auto Generate Zones function in Manage Zones, on the main menu. Zones can be named and assigned a criticality.
Below is an example of a Zone with a High Criticality, named EMS-Backup.
Adding Zones
Adding, Editing, and Deleting Zones can be done
- Manually – From the Topology
- Automatically – From the Main Menu >> Manage Zones
Manually – The Topology
- Hold Shift
- Select a group of nodes
- The Multi-Selection panel will open over the main menu
- In the middle of the panel there is a Save Selection as Zone segment
- Give the grouping a name and criticality
- Create Zone
- The Zone will appear on the Topology
Automatically – Manage Zones
From the Main Menu Manage Zones can be accessed. This is the primary place to work with Zones in NP-View. From Manage Zones you can Autogenerate Zones based on keywords found in the section below.
| Keyword | Criticality | Color | Best Practice | NERC-CIP | PCI (Future) |
| bcc | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| datacenter* | HIGH | light red | X | X | X |
| dist | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| dmz* | HIGH | light red | X | X | |
| *ems* | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| ^esp | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| pcc | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| scada | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| trust | HIGH | light red | X | ||
| backoffice | MEDIUM | light yellow | X | X | |
| bu* | MEDIUM | light yellow | X | ||
| corp | MEDIUM | light yellow | X | X | X |
| office | LOW | light blue | X | X | |
| internet | UNTRUSTED | light gray | X | X | X |
| remote | UNTRUSTED | light gray | X | X | X |
Manage Zones from menu
Auto generate zones only available if no zones have been created.
Zones will be automatically named and color coded based on asset keywords.
Once Zones have been generated they will appear on the map and each zone will be listed in manage zones. Clicking any zone, either on the Topology or from Manage Zones will open the details for the Zone
Edit/ Delete Zones
Once created, zones can be manually reclassified or deleted by clicking inside the zone space and selecting the appropriate option from the menu. If some devices are not properly included in a zone, the devices can be selected and manually (or right clicked on and added to a zone).
Once automatic zones are created, the Auto Generate Zones function is disabled until all zones are deleted.
For manual zone creation, the user can select two or more objects from the topology map and the zone panel will display.
From the panel, the user can create a zone, name it and assign a criticality. The user can also assign tags and criticalities to the selected devices.
For existing zones, the user can add / remove nodes from zones, edit the name or criticality or delete the selected zones.
Selecting a zone name displays the details for the zone. The user can rename the zone or reassign the criticality. They can also perform a zone analysis of inbound and outbound paths.
Right clicking on any topology object will allow for the addition or removal of an object from a zone.
