See Network Integrity Installation Guide for more information about software requirements and compatibility.

Network Integrity 7.3.6.4 includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Support for Filtering Devices by Entering Resource Name

• Using NI Purge Scripts to Delete Large Volumes of Discovery and Reconciliation Data

• Identifying and Resolving the Missing Entity Discrepancies at Root-level Entities in NI

• Redirecting the Import and Discovery Scans to ManagedServer for Achieving a Better LoadBalancing in a Cluster

• Support for Parallel Processing in persistResults() API

• Deploying Cartridges with Modified Specification Characteristics

• Support to Choose a Customizable Scan Mode for SNMP Scans

• Support to Export Huge Amounts of NI Records into Excel Sheets

• Viewing SNMP Polling Details in NI

• Third-party Software Upgrades and OSCS Scan

• Support to Display Characteristics in a Custom Order

• Support to View NI Reports in Oracle Analytics Server

• Sorting the NI Logical Data in MIB-II for SNMP

• Community String is Mandatory for SNMP Version 1 and Version 2 Scans

• Enhancements in Post Installation Procedure

• Changes in NI Upgrade Procedure

• Expanding NI from WebLogic Console

• Support for Sequential Reconciliation

• Searching Scope while Editing or Creating a Discovery Scan

• Support for Multithreading in Import Scans

• Support to Filter Discrepancies Using Error Reason

• Customizing Response Timeout for Devices in SNMP Discovery Scan

• Platform Upgrade

You can now filter the Device search results according to one or more resource names.

To do so:

1. Open NI user interface.

2. Go to Display Scan Results.

3. Click on a scan record to view the discovery scan results.

4. Go to Resource Name and use the filter option to choose either of the following options:

   • Equals

   • Contains

   • Starts with

   • Ends with

5. Enter the device name in the text field for the resource name.

6. Click Search

   The search result displays the devices with the entered names.

7. (Optional) You can view the device search results for multiple names as follows:

   1. Enter the device names separated with commas.

   2. From the filter, select Contains.

   3. Click Search.

   The search result displays all devices with the entered name.

You can use NI Purge scripts to delete large volumes of discovery and reconciliation data, without using the NI application. A date-based condition can be used for filtering the OCIM and NI table data. This results in identifying the data that will be cleared based on the date condition and you can delete this data using the purge scripts. See Network Integrity System Administrator's Guide for more information on Purge.

The latest version of NI data purge script provides:

• Parallel execution of OCIM and NI table purge scripts.

• Tables to capture the following:

  • Individual purge records (on both tables and scan levels).

  • Scan IDs on which the purge script is run.

  • Errors captured during the purge run.

• Batch-wise deletion of tables with comparatively high volume of data.
• Bash shell script to run the SQLs with the corresponding DB connection details.

NI supports identifying and resolving the missing entity discrepancies at root-level entities such as Physical Device and Logical Device.

The UIM integration cartridge contains the required matcher and a resolution procedure, where the missing entity is handled as follows:

1. Run the Import scan for Node A and Node B that are available in UIM.

2. Run the Discovery scan for Node A and Node B with discrepancy enabled.

   Note:

   If NI discovers Node B, then NI will show the discrepancy on Node A as a missing entity.

3. Click Review Discrepancies to view the list of discrepancies, select the corresponding discrepancy Entity-.

4. From Actions, select Correct in UIM to remove Node A in UIM.

You can redirect the Import and Discovery scans to a ManagedServer (MS) for achieving a better LoadBalancing in a WebLogic or NI cluster domain.

To achieve this better load balancing:

1. Configure new JMS sub-deployments and JMS Connection Factory. See NI System Administrator’s Guide for more information.
2. Create and model the Discovery or Import scan to have a new custom attribute JMS_CF.

The scans will be performed in the corresponding cluster MSs, if you have created a new Discovery or Import scan with the Connection Factory values in the JMS_CF attribute at the scan-level. This process of scheduling the scans and redirecting them to each MS helps you in attaining a better load balancing.

NI core has an API persistResults() that stores the entities added to the context.

The process of storing the entities happens in a sequence. If the data volume is high, you may need to store the results simultaneously. You can enable the parallel processing by setting the configuration parameter PersistResultsInParallel value to true under System MBean browser. By default, this option is turned off. See Network Integrity System Administrator's Guide for more information on System MBean Configuration Services.

This parallel processing uses work-manager concept of WebLogic. The work-manager configuration is available in NetworkIntegrity.ear/META-INF/weblogic-application.xml as follows:

<work-manager>
     <name>wm/IntegrityWorkManager</name>
	 <min-threads-constraint>
	   <name>IntegrityWorkManager_minthreads</name>
		<count>0</count>
	 </min-threads-constraint>
	 <max-threads-constraint>
	   <name>IntegrityWorkManager_maxthreads</name>
		<count>5</count>
	 </max-threads-constraint>
  </work-manager>

The work-manager is configured with max-threads-constraint=5. You can change the value and redeploy the ear file.

In NI, you can deploy the cartridges with specifications having changes in characteristics by using a configurable disableValidationForSpecExtension parameter. This parameter adds or removes any required characteristics without a need for undeploying and redeploying the cartridges to reflect these changes.

The default value of disableValidationForSpecExtension is false and you need to change the value to true to enable this option.

The configurable parameter disableValidationForSpecExtension is set to true from NIConfigurationService of the System MBean browser, after logging into WebLogic em console. See Network Integrity System Administrator's Guide for more information on System MBean Configuration Services.

You can now choose and assign a scan mode to each SNMP scan by using a configurable scanMode parameter. You can use the existing Global property file to perform all scans simultaneously using a single mode.

The SNMP scans can be performed as follows:

From the Review Discrepancies page of NI, you can now export huge amounts of NI records into Excel sheets using a configurable discrepancy.page.size value.

1. Go to the domain_home/lib folder and open the discrepancy.properties file.

2. Set the required discrepancy.page.size value that in turn sets fetchSize in DB.

   Note:

   use fetchSize to select the number of rows to be fetched from DB

3. Depending on the pagination and the size of data to be exported, set the value as follows:

   • Enter discrepancy.page.size value as 25 for exporting normal activities. This is the default value if the file is not present.

   • Enter discrepancy.page.size value as 1000 for exporting huge amounts of NI records.

You can now view SNMP polling information in the form of log messages and failure reasons in NI. This information helps in understanding and analyzing the cause and the reason for not detecting the corresponding device. You can view these details under the Failure Reason tab in NI in the form of error messages when a scan fails.

A device scan may fail when:

• The server is unable to ping the device.

• There are missing scan parameters such as authentication protocol, privacy protocol, and so on.

• There is a session timeout.

• Incorrect credentials are entered.

If there is any other error that is not listed above, the error code and the corresponding error message appear from the device. You can view the list of possible error codes and the corresponding error messages from https://www.webnms.com/snmp/help/snmpapi/snmpv3/javadocs/constant-values.html

NI supports the following upgraded third-party software versions:

Note: NI acquired the OSCS product approval for all third-party jars that are being used in NI core and cartridges.

In NI, you can now view characteristics in a customized order as per your requirement. You can achieve this by changing the catridge-side tooltip value. The tooltip parameter must contain a numerical value. The characteristic with higher tooltip value appears at the top in the Entity Details page of NI.

You can customize the characteristics order for any existing entities by updating the corresponding tooltip value.

See Modeling Network Integrity for more information on tooltip.

You can now view NI reports on Oracle Analytics 6.4. These reports (OAS reports) help you in understanding and analyzing the network data.

You can generate the following OAS reports:

• Scan History report

• Discrepancy Corrective Action report

• Discovery Scan Summary report

• Device Discrepancy Detection Summary report

• Device Discrepancy Detection Detailed report

In NI Scan Results page, you can view the entities (at all levels) sorted in an alphabetical order for all scans.

This enables you for a faster identification of interface names in technologies such as SDH, DWDM, and Ethernet where STMs and GigEs appear in channels.

For all SNMP Version 1 and Version 2 scans, Community String is mandatory while saving the scans. It is optional for SNMP Version 3 scans.

During the post installation, before NI startup, add the following Java option to the start Weblogic.sh file:

Dorg.apache.logging.log4j.simplelog.StatusLogger.level=OFF

Before you start upgrading NI to a latest version:

1. Stop all managed servers, except admin server.
2. Undeploy snmpAdapter from the console.
3. Start all managed servers.
4. Proceed with the normal NI upgrade.

To expand NI from WebLogic console for a cluster installation, add AdminServer from WebLogic console for the following libraries:

• oracle.communications.platform.cui.webapp
• oracle.communications.platform.ies
• oracle.communications.platform.poms
• oracle.communications.platform.WsFramework

You can set a scan to perform reconciliation in a sequential order by setting resolveInSequence parameter inside the AutoResolutionParameter scan group.

The resolveInSequence is a boolean type parameter and the default value is false.

To perform a scan in a sequential order, set resolveInSequence to true.

For cartridges that do not have AutoResolutionParameter scan group, you can perform one of the following:

• Add AutoResolutionParameter scan group from the NetworkIntegritySDk cartridge.

• Add resolveInSequence characteristic to any of the scan parameter groups that are present in the cartridge.

You can search scope while editing or creating a Discovery scan in NI.

To do so:

1. From the Tasks panel, click Manage Scans.

   The Manage Scans page appears.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Click the Create icon on the Search Results table.

     The Create Scan page appears.

   • Select a scan record and click the Edit icon.

     The Edit Scan page appears.

3. Go to the Scope tab.

4. Select an option for Search Scope and enter the corresponding value.

5. Click Search.

   The scan is created or edited according to the scope.

6. (Optional) Enter a value in the text field and click the Add Address icon to add a network address.

7. (Optional) From the Network Address table, select a record and click the Delete Address icon to delete the network address.

You can have multithreading in import scans. The thread size can be configured using the following configuration in deployment descriptor files. By default, multithreading is enabled. You can change this configuration and redeploy the NetworkIntegrity.ear. By commenting this configuration, you can disable multithreading and all import scans will then run in sequence.

To use multithreading in import scans:

1. Update NetworkIntegrity.ear/META-INF/weblogic-application.xml as follows:

   <work-manager>
        <name>wm/IntegrityImportWorkManager</name>
                 <min-threads-constraint>
                    <name>IntegrityImportWorkManager_minthreads</name>
                                <count>0</count>
                 </min-threads-constraint>
                 <max-threads-constraint>
                    <name>IntegrityImportWorkManager_maxthreads</name>
                                <count>5</count>
                 </max-threads-constraint>
     </work-manager>
     <managed-executor-service>
          <name>integrityImportMES</name>
          <dispatch-policy>wm/IntegrityImportWorkManager</dispatch-policy>
      </managed-executor-service>
      <resource-env-description>
                                <resource-env-ref-name> java:app/env/integrityImportMES </resource-env-ref-name>
                                <resource-link>integrityImportMES</resource-link>
      </resource-env-description>
   </weblogic-application>
   

2. Update NetworkIntegrity.ear/META-INF/application.xml as follows:

   <resource-env-ref>
                <resource-env-ref-name>java:app/env/integrityImportMES</resource-env-ref-name>
                <resource-env-ref-type>javax.enterprise.concurrent.ManagedExecutorService</resource-env-ref-type>
   </resource-env-ref>
   

You can filter discrepancies based on error reasons.

To do so:

1. From the Review Discrepancies page, click Advanced.

   A list of fields under Search criteria appear.

2. Go to Error Reason and select either of the following according to your filter criteria:

   • Equals

   • Contains

   • Not Equals

3. Enter the corresponding error value that you want to filter with.

4. Click Search

   The list of discrepancies appear, according to the selected error reason.

5. (Optional) Using the Error Reason column from the search results, you can select, isolate, and verify any specific discrepancy.

You can customize response timeout for devices in SNMP discovery scan using Response Timeout field on Edit Scan or Create Scan pages.

Setting the response timeout for a scan enables you to stop any device or devices that take longer than the required time, without disturbing the scan.

You can set the response timeout only for SnmpParameters group of a Discovery Scan.

To customize the response timeout for a Discovery scan:

1. Go to Manage Scans.

2. Select the required SNMP Discovery scan from Search Results.

   Or, click the Create icon to create a new scan.

3. From the Edit Scan or Create Scan page, enter the corresponding SNMP Discovery scan details.

4. Under Scan Action Parameters section, select SnmpParameters from Select Parameter Group list.

5. Set the required timeout value in Response Timeout.

6. Click Save and Close.

   The scan is set with the required response timeout value.

The Network Integrity 7.3.6.4 application platform upgrade includes the following versions:

• Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c (12.2.1.4.0)

• Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1.4.0)

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 19c

• Server Operating System:

  • Oracle Linux 7.x (x>=3)

  • Oracle Linux 8.x (x>=2)

  Note:

  Oracle products certified on Oracle Linux are also supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to implicit compatibility between both distributions. Oracle does not run any additional testing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux products. Oracle recommends the latest available update, because later updates may provide modest performance gains.

Network Integrity 7.3.6 includes the following new features and enhancements:

With Network Integrity 7.3.6, the application platform upgrades Oracle Fusion Middleware Application software and Oracle Database to the following versions:

• Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c (12.2.1.3.0)

• Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1.3.0)

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.1)

See Network Integrity Installation Guide for more information on the software version requirements.

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.