ALL ABOUT ADMIN VERIFICATION

​If you are using Intravue for a short term audit or network assessment you may not care about the admin verification features.
If you are using Intravue to maintain network documentation and resolve network issues you should have the goal of all known devices being admin verified at their validated switch locations.

Admin verification accomplishes the following:

• Acknowledge the device belongs on the network
  
• Distinguishes the device from new devices thereby making new devices easy to see because of their icon color
  
• For a verified device that changes its location, the new and old locations are easily viewed
  
• Shows when a device is replaced by a new device having different Ethernet/IP or Profinet models or versions
  
• Enables MAC and IP address analysis for duplicates in Analytics

As the new legend in IntraVUE will show, there inside color of a device will indicate one of three states.

​New, Changed, or new Location.  This is a either a new device, the current location of device verified to be at another location, or an admin verified which changed important attributes, or 

​Verified Location and Unchanged.  This is a device which has been verified to be at a location (port of a switch) and possibly its model/vendor/version and it is currently at that location with the same attributes.

Verified Location but Moved.  This is a device which had been admin verified but which has now changed location.  The red 'ghost' indicates where the device was verified to be, a yellow node will show the current location.

​In the ideal case, when you view the IntraVUE map, every node will have a blue center.  This tells you every device is at its verified position and no changes to mac, model, or version numbers.
Any device having a yellow center will indicate a new device or a changed device with details in its sidebar.

Methods of Verification

1.  ​Editing the admin state in the sidebar

2.  ​Editing the admin state in the Device List

3.  ​In bulk, using Export Database, modifying the 'Verified' column, Import the modified CSV file, 1 equals verified.

4.  ​Using 'Admin Verify All' in the Configure / Scanner tab.  This verifies every device having an IP to its current position.  Note 'n/a' nodes are not verified, the admin must decide the validity of the n/a node.

Why aren't n/a nodes verified by 'Verify All Devices'.

​'n/a' nodes will only appear on a port of a managed switch.  When Intravue discovers more than one mac address reported by a managed switch on a port and there isn't a managed switch under that same port to claim that mac, it means something is allowing two or more devices to be connected to the same port.

In order for two or more devices to appear on the port of a managed switch, some device or technology is allowing this to happen.  ​IntraVUE only has the information from managed switches to determine topology, the reason more than one mac may appear on a port could be:

• There is a managed switch missing for that network's range of ip addresses to scan
• There is an unmanaged switch under this port.  A unmanaged switch does not report 'port for mac address' information via SNMP.  In this case, the n/a represents one (or more) unmanaged switches and should be relabeled/edited to describe the situation.
• The devices belong to a virtual machine server, eg VMWare ESX.  The VM has a virtual switch that groups multiple VM clients on the same 'port'.
• The devices are part of a device level ring which does not require a switch.  If the device level rings used the LLDP protocol IntraVUE should show the devices without a n/a node.
• The devices are wireless and the n/a node represents the wireless access point (WAP).  If the WAP has an IP Address in the scan range it will be one of the devices under the n/a node.  You should edit the IP of the WAP, go to Advanced when editing and select 'VM, Hub, or non-snmp Switch.  This will cause the node under the n/a to claim all the other children of the n/a.  As a result the n/a will disappear and the WAP will become directly connected to the switch and have the wireless devices as children.  If this is a WAP, also select the WAP control which will cause the connecting line to be a dashed line representing the wireless connection.

The IntraVUE administrator should determine the cause of any n/a node and take action that results in either the n/a node going away or admin verifying the node manually with a description indicating to others what the situation is, for instance 'Unmanaged NTRON Switch'.

​If you have a large number of n/a nodes and need help understanding the cause, please contact WBC-INS.