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Administration Guide

L3 polling

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L3 polling

L3 Polling is one in a series of initial setup windows designed to help you get your FortiNAC program up and running as quickly as possible. Similar functions exist in other parts of the software, but this window provides access to the most essential configuration information.

L3 Polling triggers the IP address to MAC address conversion. Based on the information returned, FortiNAC resolves the MAC addresses associated with IP addresses for hosts and other devices on the network.

L3 devices are polled based on the following:

  • L3 polling interval as defined for the device model
  • Whether a host is being evaluated by a device profiling rule that requires IP address information. Device Profiler will attempt to find an up-to-date IP address for a particular host for 30 minutes before giving up if an up-to-date IP address cannot be found.

Use this window to set a polling interval for switches and routers.

As devices are added or discovered they are automatically added into the L2 Network Devices group and either the L2 Wired Devices or L2 Wireless Devices sub-groups. A default L3 (IP --> MAC ) group is created by FortiNAC but is not automatically populated. You must add your L3 devices to this group.

By default this window displays devices that have been manually placed in the L3 (IP --> MAC ) group. If you have not placed any devices in this group, the window does not display any devices. Select the All Devices option and click Refresh to display all network devices in the window.

To access click Network Devices > L3 Polling (IP-->MAC).

Settings

Fields used in filters are also defined in this table.

Field

Definition

Display

All Devices: Displays all network devices. When Group is selected in the Filter By section, all device groups are displayed in the Group drop-down.

L3 (IP --> MAC) Devices: Displays all devices in the L3 (IP --> MAC) Devices group. When Group is selected in the Filter By section, the L3 Devices group and any sub-groups are displayed in the Group drop-down.

#

Indicates the order of display.

Name

Name of the selected device.

IP address

IP address of the selected device. IP addresses or Address Ranges are used to add or discover devices.

Type

Indicate the type of devices, such as, switch, printer, router, etc.

Status

Indicates whether or not communication has been established with the device. Displays either Established or Lost.

Groups

Indicates that the device is a member of the groups listed.

Views

Series of icons that can be clicked to provide additional details about the selected device. Icons provide access to Device Properties, group membership and Ports and Hosts. Click an icon to access the view.

L3 Polling

Indicates whether or not L3 polling is enabled and the time interval between polls.

L3 Priority

Indicates high, medium or low priority given to the device when hosts connect to the network. Devices are polled in batches based on priority to retrieve host IP addresses. It is recommended that high traffic routers and switches be given a higher priority to allow hosts on those devices to connect more quickly.

L3 Last Polled

Date and time of the last polling attempt, regardless of whether it was successful or not.

L3 Last Poll Success

Date and time of the last successful poll.

Container

Container in the Topology where the device is stored. Containers are a grouping mechanism similar to folders.

Export

Exports data to a file in the default downloads location. File types include CSV, Excel, PDF, or RTF. See Export data.

Right click options

Add To Group

Adds selected devices to a user specified device group.

Remove From Group

Removes selected devices from a user specified group.

Set Polling

Allows you to enable or disable polling and set the polling time interval for the selected device(s).

Poll Now

Polls selected devices immediately instead of waiting for the next poll interval.

Set L3 polling

L3 devices have a Priority setting that allows you to associate a High, Medium or Low polling priority with each L3 device. When hosts connect to an L3 device the priority setting determines how quickly the device is polled. For example, if you have a high traffic device and a low traffic device and hosts are seen on both, which should be polled first? Typically you would give the high traffic device a high priority and the low traffic device a low or medium priority. When hosts are seen by both devices, the high priority device would be polled first. If you expand this example throughout your network, devices will be polled in groups by their priority with high priority devices being polled first.

  1. Click Network Devices > L3 Polling (IP-->MAC).
  2. The Devices window displays.
  3. Select one or more devices from the list. To select all devices, click Select All.
  4. Click Set Polling.
  5. Use the Enable Polling check box to enable or disable polling for the selected device.
  6. If polling is enabled, select a time interval to control how often polling should occur. The interval can be set in Hours or Minutes.
  7. In the Priority field, select the priority given to the device when hosts connect to the network. The higher the priority the more quickly a host connects.
  8. Click OK.

L3 polling

L3 Polling is one in a series of initial setup windows designed to help you get your FortiNAC program up and running as quickly as possible. Similar functions exist in other parts of the software, but this window provides access to the most essential configuration information.

L3 Polling triggers the IP address to MAC address conversion. Based on the information returned, FortiNAC resolves the MAC addresses associated with IP addresses for hosts and other devices on the network.

L3 devices are polled based on the following:

  • L3 polling interval as defined for the device model
  • Whether a host is being evaluated by a device profiling rule that requires IP address information. Device Profiler will attempt to find an up-to-date IP address for a particular host for 30 minutes before giving up if an up-to-date IP address cannot be found.

Use this window to set a polling interval for switches and routers.

As devices are added or discovered they are automatically added into the L2 Network Devices group and either the L2 Wired Devices or L2 Wireless Devices sub-groups. A default L3 (IP --> MAC ) group is created by FortiNAC but is not automatically populated. You must add your L3 devices to this group.

By default this window displays devices that have been manually placed in the L3 (IP --> MAC ) group. If you have not placed any devices in this group, the window does not display any devices. Select the All Devices option and click Refresh to display all network devices in the window.

To access click Network Devices > L3 Polling (IP-->MAC).

Settings

Fields used in filters are also defined in this table.

Field

Definition

Display

All Devices: Displays all network devices. When Group is selected in the Filter By section, all device groups are displayed in the Group drop-down.

L3 (IP --> MAC) Devices: Displays all devices in the L3 (IP --> MAC) Devices group. When Group is selected in the Filter By section, the L3 Devices group and any sub-groups are displayed in the Group drop-down.

#

Indicates the order of display.

Name

Name of the selected device.

IP address

IP address of the selected device. IP addresses or Address Ranges are used to add or discover devices.

Type

Indicate the type of devices, such as, switch, printer, router, etc.

Status

Indicates whether or not communication has been established with the device. Displays either Established or Lost.

Groups

Indicates that the device is a member of the groups listed.

Views

Series of icons that can be clicked to provide additional details about the selected device. Icons provide access to Device Properties, group membership and Ports and Hosts. Click an icon to access the view.

L3 Polling

Indicates whether or not L3 polling is enabled and the time interval between polls.

L3 Priority

Indicates high, medium or low priority given to the device when hosts connect to the network. Devices are polled in batches based on priority to retrieve host IP addresses. It is recommended that high traffic routers and switches be given a higher priority to allow hosts on those devices to connect more quickly.

L3 Last Polled

Date and time of the last polling attempt, regardless of whether it was successful or not.

L3 Last Poll Success

Date and time of the last successful poll.

Container

Container in the Topology where the device is stored. Containers are a grouping mechanism similar to folders.

Export

Exports data to a file in the default downloads location. File types include CSV, Excel, PDF, or RTF. See Export data.

Right click options

Add To Group

Adds selected devices to a user specified device group.

Remove From Group

Removes selected devices from a user specified group.

Set Polling

Allows you to enable or disable polling and set the polling time interval for the selected device(s).

Poll Now

Polls selected devices immediately instead of waiting for the next poll interval.

Set L3 polling

L3 devices have a Priority setting that allows you to associate a High, Medium or Low polling priority with each L3 device. When hosts connect to an L3 device the priority setting determines how quickly the device is polled. For example, if you have a high traffic device and a low traffic device and hosts are seen on both, which should be polled first? Typically you would give the high traffic device a high priority and the low traffic device a low or medium priority. When hosts are seen by both devices, the high priority device would be polled first. If you expand this example throughout your network, devices will be polled in groups by their priority with high priority devices being polled first.

  1. Click Network Devices > L3 Polling (IP-->MAC).
  2. The Devices window displays.
  3. Select one or more devices from the list. To select all devices, click Select All.
  4. Click Set Polling.
  5. Use the Enable Polling check box to enable or disable polling for the selected device.
  6. If polling is enabled, select a time interval to control how often polling should occur. The interval can be set in Hours or Minutes.
  7. In the Priority field, select the priority given to the device when hosts connect to the network. The higher the priority the more quickly a host connects.
  8. Click OK.