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App-Netdisco-2.024003
River stage one • 1 direct dependent • 1 total dependent
16 ++
/ App::Netdisco

NAME

App::Netdisco - An open source web-based network management tool.

Introduction

Netdisco is a web-based network management tool designed for network administrators. Data is collected into a PostgreSQL database using SNMP.

Some of the things you can do with Netdisco:

  • Locate a machine on the network by MAC or IP and show the switch port it lives at

  • Turn off a switch port, or change the VLAN or PoE status of a port

  • Inventory your network hardware by model, vendor, software and operating system

  • Pretty pictures of your network

App::Netdisco provides a web frontend with built-in web server, and a backend daemon to handle interactive requests such as changing port or device properties.

If you have any trouble getting installed or running, check out the Deployment notes, or speak to someone in the #netdisco IRC channel (on freenode). Before installing or upgrading please always review the latest Release Notes.

Dependencies

Netdisco has several Perl library dependencies which will be automatically installed. However it's strongly recommended that you first install DBD::Pg, SNMP, and a compiler using your operating system packages.

On Ubuntu/Debian:

 root:~# apt-get install libdbd-pg-perl libsnmp-perl build-essential

On Fedora/Red-Hat:

 root:~# yum install perl-DBD-Pg net-snmp-perl make automake gcc

With those installed, we can proceed...

Create a user on your system called netdisco if one does not already exist. We'll install Netdisco and its dependencies into this user's home area, which will take about 250MB including MIB files.

 root:~# useradd -m -p x -s /bin/bash netdisco

Netdisco uses the PostgreSQL database server. Install PostgreSQL (at least version 8.4) and then change to the PostgreSQL superuser (usually postgres). Create a new database and PostgreSQL user for the Netdisco application:

 root:~# su - postgres
  
 postgres:~$ createuser -DRSP netdisco
 Enter password for new role:
 Enter it again:
  
 postgres:~$ createdb -O netdisco netdisco

Installation

The following is a general guide which works well in most circumstances. It assumes you have a user netdisco on your system, that you want to perform an on-line installation, and have the application run self-contained from within that user's home. There are alternatives: see the Deployment documentation for further details.

To avoid muddying your system, use the following script to download and install Netdisco and its dependencies into the netdisco user's home area (~netdisco/perl5):

 su - netdisco
 curl -L http://cpanmin.us/ | perl - --notest --verbose --local-lib ~/perl5 App::Netdisco

Link some of the newly installed apps into a handy location:

 mkdir ~/bin
 ln -s ~/perl5/bin/{localenv,netdisco-*} ~/bin/

Test the installation by running the following command, which should only produce a status message (it's just a test - you'll start the daemon properly, later on):

 ~/bin/netdisco-daemon status

Configuration

Make a directory for your local configuration and copy the configuration template from this distribution:

 mkdir ~/environments
 cp ~/perl5/lib/perl5/auto/share/dist/App-Netdisco/environments/deployment.yml ~/environments
 chmod +w ~/environments/deployment.yml

Edit the file ("~/environments/deployment.yml") and change the database connection parameters to match those for your local system (that is, the name, host, user and pass).

In the same file uncomment and edit the domain_suffix setting to be appropriate for your local site. If this is a fresh install, uncomment and set the no_auth value to true (temporarily disables user authentication). Have a quick read of the other settings to make sure you're happy, then move on.

Bootstrap

The database either needs configuring if new, or updating from the current release of Netdisco (1.x). You also need vendor MAC address prefixes (OUI data) and some MIBs if you want to run the daemon. The following script will take care of all this for you:

 ~/bin/netdisco-deploy

Answer yes to all questions, if this is a new installation of Netdisco 2.

Startup

Run the following command to start the web-app server as a backgrounded daemon (listening on port 5000):

 ~/bin/netdisco-web start

If the Inventory is empty because this is a new installation, you probably want to run some polling jobs. This can be done from from the web interface or command-line (see netdisco-do).

Run the following command to start the job control daemon (port control, etc):

 ~/bin/netdisco-daemon start

You should take care not to run this Netdisco daemon and the Netdisco 1.x daemon at the same time. Similarly, if you use the device discovery with Netdisco 2, disable your system's cron jobs for the Netdisco 1.x poller.

At this point you can revisit the ~/environments/deployment.yml file to uncomment more configuration. Enable the community string settings, and housekeeping which enables the automatic periodic device discovery. See Configuration for further details.

Upgrading

Before upgrading please review the latest Release Notes. Then, the process is as follows:

 # upgrade Netdisco
 ~/bin/localenv cpanm --notest App::Netdisco
 
 # apply database schema updates
 ~/bin/netdisco-deploy
 
 # restart web service
 ~/bin/netdisco-web restart
 
 # restart job daemon (if you use it)
 ~/bin/netdisco-daemon restart

Tips and Tricks

Searching

The main black navigation bar has a search box which is smart enough to work out what you're looking for in most cases. For example device names, node IP or MAC addreses, VLAN numbers, and so on.

Command-Line Device and Port Actions

To run a device (discover, etc) or port control job from the command-line, use the bundled netdisco-do program. For example:

 ~/bin/netdisco-do -D discover -d 192.0.2.1

Import Topology

Netdisco 1.x had support for a topology information file to fill in device port relations which could not be discovered. This is now stored in the database (and edited in the web interface). To import a legacy topology file, run:

 ~/bin/localenv nd-import-topology /path/to/netdisco-topology.txt

Deployment Scenarios

More documentation on how to deploy the application in other scenarios, for example behind a web proxy, is in the Deployment documentation.

Database API

Bundled with this distribution is a DBIx::Class layer for the Netdisco database. This abstracts away all the SQL into an elegant, re-usable OO interface. See the Developer documentation for further information.

Plugins

Netdisco includes a Plugin subsystem for customizing the web user interface. See App::Netdisco::Web::Plugin for further information.

Developing

Lots of information about the architecture of this application is contained within the Developer documentation.

AUTHOR

Oliver Gorwits <oliver@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2012, 2013, 2014 by The Netdisco Developer Team.

 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
     * Neither the name of the Netdisco Project nor the
       names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
       derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
 
 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
 ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
 DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE NETDISCO DEVELOPER TEAM BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
 (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
 LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
 ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
 (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.