Codima autoMap™ FAQs

Following are some frequently asked questions specifically about autoMap™ Network Mapping Software. Click each FAQ to view the answer.

autoMap™ Background Information:

1. How does autoMap™discover the network? How does autoMap™discover the network?

   The Codima Discovery Engine associated with the autoMap™starts the discovery from a seed-device, which must be SNMP-capable. The Codima Discovery Engine will inspect the ARP table, Routing and Forwarding Tables for the seed-device to see who is communicating with whom and then start to interrogate those devices. As it finds the next switch or router it starts to see more devices and the discovery process works in a recursive manner until it sees all active devices.

   As ARP tables get flushed after 5 minutes by default, the Discovery Engine can force those tables to be populated by using a controlled ping scan of the network and that way also discover connected devices that have not been recently active. We strongly recommend using a router as the seed-device as this will have the most reliable and extensive ARP table and typically will have most devices on the network in its ARP table.

   The Discovery Engine then goes on to interrogate the devices using SNMP and WMI technology etc.

   A large part of the discovery engine’s functionality is dedicated to discovering the capabilities and inter-connectivity between switches and routers. These are the major infrastructure nodes and are the components used to build the topology of a network. Much of the information needed to discover a network’s topology is stored in proprietary MIBs and we support CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol), CDP (Cabletron Discovery Protocol) and EDP (Extreme Discovery Protocol) to get the requisite information. In fact our knowledge of these vendors (Cabletron is now called Enterasys) and Nortel Networks and the particularities of their extensive product families is one of the key differentiators of the Codima Discovery Engine against our competition.

   The discovery engine used by the autoMap™ and autoAsset™ tools is the same (with some minor version variations only).

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2. Do I need to install Agents to provide information? Do I need to install Agents to provide information?

   The Codima Discovery engine used by autoMap™makes use of information already available from devices on the network, i.e., ARP Tables, Forwarding, Routing Tables. It will also interrogate any existing active SNMP Agents on the network and make use of WMI to obtain information on Microsoft devices.

   autoMap™ provides facilities to allow you to see the parts of your network that are unmanaged. It includes a facility to troubleshoot the results of running a discovery, it involves running the "Show Discovery Troubleshooter" autoMap™ query, which will highlight the unknown sectors of the networks. The user can for example establish if additional management should be provided on the network, for example by activating an SNMP Agent on a key device.

   You will not need to install Agents as part of the autoMap™installation. However it is recommended that you activate as many SNMP Agents as possible prior to running an discovery. autoMap™ installation only take a few minutes.

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3. Can I easily identify the unmanaged sectors of the network? Can I easily identify the unmanaged sectors of the network?
   autoMap™ provides facilities to allow you to see the parts of your network that are unmanaged. It includes a facility to troubleshoot the results of running a discovery, it involves running the "Show Discovery Troubleshooter" autoMap™ query, which will highlight the unknown sectors of the networks. The user can for example establish if additional management should be provided on the network, for example by activating an SNMP Agent on a key device.
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4. What device types are supported by the discovery engine? What device types are supported by the discovery engine?
   Over 3900 devices are supported. The device support is enhanced on an ongoing basis. Following is a link to a file that covers the device type list supported in autoMap™: Supported Device Types
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5. What type of database is used to store discovery results? And can I access it with other applications? What type of database is used to store discovery results? And can I access it with other applications?
   autoMap™ defaults to use an Microsoft Access® database to store discovery results. Microsoft Access® databases are 100% open, so SQL queries can be run on them. The installation program installs and configures an Microsoft Access® database connector to the autoMap™ database.
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6. How large will the discovery database be? How large will the discovery database be?
   It is not possible to give exact figures, as the size will be subject to amount of information gathered for each device. However as a guide, a thousand device network for example would typically produce a 15Mb file.
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7. What layers of the OSI Model does the autoMap™ address? What layers of the OSI Model does the autoMap™ address?
   The inventory applies to information obtained from Forwarding and Routing tables, so the layers involved are layer 2 (Link) and layer 3 (Network).
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8. I am a consultant, can I load autoMap™ on my laptop and use in my customers' networks? I am a consultant, can I load autoMap™ on my laptop and use in my customers' networks?
   When you bring autoMap™ from one network to the other, you need to create a new name (thus a new database) for that network. You will not require additional licenses to cover the new network, provided the license you have is a match for the customer environment. For example, if you have a 500 device license you can map any customer network up to 500 devices. At any time you can increase your license size by purchasing a larger license that can be added to your current one with a new license key.
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Scope / Applications:

1. What Operating Systems can we obtain WMI information from? What Operating Systems can we obtain WMI information from?
   Can obtain WMI from:

   • Windows 2000 (SP4 or later)
   • Windows XP
   • Windows 2003

   Cannot obtain WMI from:

   • Windows 95
   • Windows 98
   • Windows NT (pre SP6)

   May be able to obtain WMI from:

   • Windows NT (SP6 or later)

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2. Are there any limits to the number of devices I have in an autoMap™ discovery? Are there any limits to the number of devices I have in an autoMap™ discovery?

   Yes, if you have a standard Toolbox license (as opposed to a subscription license), then the toolbox License will set the number of Managed Devices the autoMap™discovery will include.

   Unmanaged devices, i.e., devices that just respond to pings or a discovered because their MAC address is a table on a managed device are only limited by the range of IP addresses the discovery run is set to cover.

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3. When I have a limited license, can I ensure that the more important devices are included in the discovery? When I have a limited license, can I ensure that the more important devices are included in the discovery?
   If you wish to ensure that a license for a limited number of Managed Devices focuses on your key devices, i.e., switches and routers. You can use the Seed address device list facility to make all the key devices start points for the discovery process.
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4. Can the autoMap™ display Vendor specific Icons? Can the autoMap™ display Vendor specific Icons?
   No. The map icons (provided in the Microsoft® Office Visio® stencil), are not vendor specific, as they need to be resized and colored to reflect a range of functions in the autoMap™. We have found that most Vendor icons do not resize well.
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5. Can I used autoMap™ to obtain asset reports? Can I used autoMap™ to obtain asset reports?
   Yes, but you will need the autoAsset™ Addon. The discovery process used by the autoMap™ tool provides both asset and topology information, with the autoAsset™ Add on, you are able to access the full range of asset information as HTML Reports.
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6. Can I see IP Phones in autoMap™? Can I see IP Phones in autoMap™?
   To view IP Phones in the autoMap™ Visio Views or autoAsset™ inventory, the discovery engine needs to be able to identify them as VoIP phones, it does this using SNMP so the Phones need to:

   • Support SNMP
   • Have SNMP enabled
   • Be included in the Codima Discovery Engine device type list

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7. Can I see IP Phones in autoMap™ if the phone does not support SNMP? Can I see IP Phones in autoMap™ if the phone does not support SNMP?
   SIP phones identified by the autoVoIP™ system can be included in autoMap™ topology drawings, the display can be updated in real time to show Phone status and QoS information. This is a special facility that is available only to users of Microsoft® Office Visio Professional 2007, it requires the user to have both autoMap™ and autoVoIP™. It will therefore be available to users who have the autoVoIP™ Consultancy Kit installed.
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8. Can I change the layout of the Visio drawings? Can I change the layout of the Visio drawings?
   Yes, the drawings are created using Microsoft® Office Visio®, so can be manipulated using the standard Microsoft® Office Visio® functions, i.e., you can move the items in the drawing by hand. However to make more dramatic changes to the layout, you can use a special layout option which automatically changes the layout for the currently selected Visio View, (e.g., from a wheel layout to a tree layout).
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9. Can I run multiple discoveries and have autoMap™ highlight what has changed? Can I run multiple discoveries and have autoMap™ highlight what has changed?
   Yes, the changes will be highlighted in the autoMap™ view of the latest discovery run and in the asset overview table. You can also obtain an HTML Asset Report listing devices that are added or removed between discovery runs.
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10. Can I schedule discoveries and automatically produce Visio drawings and Asset Reports? Can I schedule discoveries and automatically produce Visio drawings and Asset Reports?
    Yes, the autoMap™ scheduler can be set to automatically:

    1. Start the autoMap™ discovery engine at a preset range of times
    2. Load the SQL database when discovery is complete
    3. Open selected autoMap™ Visio™ Views to present the discovery results as Microsoft® Office Visio® drawings
    4. Save the drawings to a predefined network drive (.vsd and html file format).
    5. Create HTML Asset web reports (applies only if the user has the autoAsset™ Add on).
    6. Save HTML Asset reports to the predefined network folder (applies only if the user has the autoAsset™ Add on).

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Codima Discovery Engine Background Information:

1. How does the discovery process work? How does the discovery process work?

   The Discovery Engine uses a variety of techniques to discover devices, such as inspection of ARP tables, Routing and Forwarding tables and controlled scanning techniques. This overcomes a limitation of many existing approaches, which need to know what to discover in order to draw a network. Once discovered, devices are queried using SNMP for MIB 2 and current vendor MIBs. WMI is also supported. The autoMap™ has a Device database covering most current and many old generation equipment types.

   The protocols used in the process include SNMP, ICMP, xDP (Cisco, Cabletron and Extreme Discovery Protocols), NetBIOS, and STP, the discovery process is an active function.

   To obtain WMI information autoMap™ must be run from a Domain Administrator account.

   You should enable as many SNMP Agents as possible prior to running the discovery, and consider the firewall configuration on your network and the impact on the discovery process.

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2. How does the discovery process use the device type list? How does the discovery process use the device type list?

   The discovery process used by autoMap™ will involve browsing mib-2 on any devices it finds during its discovery, so if the devices support mib-2 we will take the asset information from there - the System and Interfaces branch of the mib-2 tree for example provide information describing the system and the port connections.

   The device list is used to identify a device. It contains the MIB-2 system group sysObjectId. This is like a vendor’s model number for a device. The discovery engine can identify the device using this, to give the device:

   1. a product name e.g. Catalyst 2650
   2. a vendor name e.g. Cisco
   3. and we then can assign a type to it e.g., switch.

   All SNMP agents support this variable. The device type list contains everything the discovery engine can currently identify.

   A separate process "Network Object Procedures" allows custom procedures to be applied to devices, for example to find out where in the vendor part of the SNMP MIB tree to get serial numbers for a device. Codima can implement the custom procedures and apply them to the autoMap™, see entry below titled Adding new devices.

   If the device also supports WMI we can get even more detailed info on the device (not controlled by "Network Object Procedures").

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3. How does Codima Discovery Engine deal with firewalls? How does Codima Discovery Engine deal with firewalls?

   The Codima discovery engine interacts with firewalls in much the same way as other management applications. Ideally a firewall should be configured so that the Host PC (used by autoMap™) is set up as a trusted device that is allowed to communicate through the firewall. In order for the autoMap™ discovery to work the Host PC needs to transmit and receive ICMP, SNMP, NetBIOS and WMI traffic.

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4. What is the network utilization (bandwidth) associated with running the discovery engine? What is the network utilization (bandwidth) associated with running the discovery engine?

   Each device takes a maximum of 64kbit/s, i.e., one ISDN channel. Note that this is a maximum, and the average is more around 30kbit/s. Each device is actually assigned one process, and each process is tuned to use up to 64kbit/s maximum. Therefore, the number of parallel processes determines the number of devices that may be processed at the same time. And this determines the maximum bandwidth that will be used.

   For example, if the number of parallel processes is set to 10 (maximum with autoMap™) and there are 10 devices in the inventory stack, the discovery engine will process those 10 devices in parallel. And will use UP TO 640kbit/second.

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5. Can the Codima Discovery Engine support NAT'ed IP ranges? Can the Codima Discovery Engine support NAT'ed IP ranges?

   Due of the nature of NAT networks the autoMap™ application will retrieve the ARP table from edge NAT router but will not talk to any of the devices in the NAT subnet. There are 2 solutions:

   1. Deploy the autoMap™ Host PC so that it is within the NAT subnet and do a discovery for that subnet. You can use the Merge facility, to combine the discovery information with an earlier discovery.
   2. Create a VPN connection from the remote autoMap™ PC to the NAT subnet this will discovery all the devices in the NAT

   autoMap™ retrieves (using WMI) the installed applications, Services and tasks running on all PCs within a Domain as long as you are the domain administrator.

   Note: To view this information you will need to have the autoAsset™ Addon.

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