Network Visualization - Layer 2

This section describes extended support for Layer 2 devices in NP-View. This support was added in 6.0.1

Note that this feature will be under development for the next few releases as we build out the portfolio of features.

This feature is considered experimental

Layer 2 visibility

This feature adds baseline support for Layer 2 visibility.

Supported devices:

• Cisco IOS
• Cisco ASA

In addition to the layer 3 information inferred from ARP and Route tables, NP-View imports MAC and Interface tables to begin to support layer 2 interfaces. This data is automatically collected by the supported device connectors. Route and Interface data is loaded with the configuration file, while the ARP and MAC data can be added independently to views as auxiliary data.

If loading data manually, load only one configuration file at a time and include all auxiliary data on the same import for proper file association.

Layer 2 Capabilities:

• Control the map from Topology Settings to display or hide Layer 2 Nodes / Links.
• Control the map to expand or collapse Layer 2 Networks and attached hosts.
• Search function to locate, highlight, and open the info panel of a Layer 2 node.
• View VLAN information on the node info panel.
• View Layer 2 / VLAN data in the interface table.

Layer 2 connections are represented by a blue dotted line to a gateway.

To see the Layer 2 details, enable the 'Show Layer 2 Connections' from the topology settings.

Once enabled, Layer 2 networks will be displayed as teal clouds. Hosts / endpoints will be displayed as classic hosts.

Endpoints defined from Layer 2 communications will display the MAC Address where Layer 3 hosts will display a hostname or IP address. Only Layer 2 endpoints

with and IP address will be considered verified.

Clicking on the endpoint will display the info panel with the addition of the new VLAN section.

Note that Layer 2 topologies can get very complex very quickly.

Limitations:

• Duplicate L2 and L3 networks and endpoint may occur if there is no data tying them together.
• Layer 2 from Layer 3 can add a lot of data to the topology making navigation and topology save slower than usual.
• Path analysis does not apply to Layer 2.

Adding a network switch without a config file

There are cases where not all devices have a configuration file (e.g., layer 2 switches) or the configuration file cannot be retrieved.

To fill the void, we created a method to add a network switch to the topology using a manually generated file.

Creating the file

The following is an example of the data that is required. The text file should be a properly formatted YAML ending with .YAML or .YML or it won’t be classified correctly and the import will fail. Note that each manually created switch will use a device license. Be sure to not use special characters within the device name or the interface names. Stick with alphanumeric characters, underscores can be used as shown below.

# This first line must be present, and the identifier must be np_custom_device 
file_identifier: np_custom_device 
# The name of the device, will be represented as such in the app 
device_name: custom_l2_switch 
# Vendor string, merely a description of the device 
vendor: netgear 
# A list of interfaces on the device, you need at least one interface 
interfaces: 
  - name: eth0 
    mac_addr: 0000:1b2b:fefe 
    ip: 192.168.1.100 
    netmask: 255.255.255.0 
  - name: eth1 
    mac_addr: 0101:acdc:80ba 
    ip: 192.168.2.100 
    netmask: 255.255.255.0 

When the above .YAML file is loaded into NP-View, the following device will displayed in NP-View.

With the following interfaces:

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