Technical troubleshooting for common ConnectNow issues

FAQ 

Q: "I upgraded to 10.0, added nodes to a map, then clicked ConnectNow. Nothing happened. Why not?"
A: This could be caused by many issues. See the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "How does Orion NPM gather topology data?"
A: Topology data is gathered from multiple sources. The two primary sources are the Bridge and ARP tables. See the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "ConnectNow displays two devices as connected, but they are not connected. Why do I see false connections?"
A: This is probably caused by a faulty ARP table. See the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "What do you mean when you say Solarwinds does not support Layer 3 connections? I have a Layer 3 switch that is showing connections."
A: Orion NPM discovers connections as they exist in the Bridge MIB.See the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "Using ARP and CDP, I can see device connections, but ConnectNow is not showing these connections."
A: For Orion NPM to discover device connections, corresponding MAC addresses must be listed in the Bridge MIB for the connected devices. See the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "I have two devices on the same subnet. Why does ConnectNow not connect them?"
A: ConnectNow only draws lines between devices that are directly connected on Layer 2. Devices may be on the same subnet, but, if they are not directly connected on Layer 2, Orion NPM will not discover a connection. To confirm if two devices are connected on Layer 2, see the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

Q: "When I drag a node to the map, and click ConnectNow, why doesn't ConnectNow also add the neighbor nodes to the map?"
A: We are aware of this limitation, and we are considering it for a future improvement. As a workaround, drag multiple nodes onto the map and then remove those that do not connect.

Q: "Does ConnectNow automatically update discovered connections?"
A: No. Topology data in Orion can be automatically updated by scheduling a discovery in Network Sonar. However, mapped connections are only updated to correspond with updated topology data when you click ConnectNow in Network Atlas. For more information about scheduling discoveries in Network Sonar, see "Network Discovery Using the Network Sonar Wizard" and "Managing Scheduled Discovery Results" in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide.

Q: "Will ConnectNow remove old links from my map?"
A: No. ConnectNow only adds links to your existing map.

Q: "Why does some of my topology change when I rerun a network discovery?"
A: Topology data is completely deleted and rewritten every time a network discovery runs. If an existing discovery profile is changed, old topology data discovered using the previous profile will not remain in the results set of the previous profile. For more information about Network Sonar Discovery, see "Network Discovery Using the Network Sonar Wizard" in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide.

Q: "If I manually added nodes in Orion, how do I get ConnectNow to work?"
A: Complete the following steps to use ConnectNow on manually added nodes:

1. Export a list, preferably in .txt, of your manually added nodes with their corresponding IP addresses.
2. Create a discovery using the Specific Nodes option on the Network page of the Network Sonar Wizard. See "Network Discovery Using the Network Sonar Wizard" in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide.
3. Complete the discovery.
   Note: You do not need to import these nodes after discovery completes because Orion NPM is already monitoring them. You just have to run discovery to populate the discovery and topology tables.

Q: "Where in the database can I find my topology data?"
A: For more information about viewing topology data in the database, see the following section, ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.

ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions

The following procedures provide general guidance for addressing ConnectNow issues.

1. Confirm that you are only looking for Layer 2 connections.
   Note: ConnectNow only detects Layer 2 connections.
2. Run Network Sonar Discovery again and confirm that the following conditions are met:
   Notes:
   • For more information, see "Network Discovery Using the Network Sonar Wizard" in the SolarWinds Orion NPM Administrator Guide.
   • Confirm that your discovery is defined to cover enough IP ranges to include all the nodes you want to connect. All nodes you want to connect must be discovered in the same discovery.
   • Confirm that the discovery completes successfully. Topology data is populated during discovery and import.
3. Confirm that the two devices you want to connect are directly, physically connected on Layer 2, and confirm that devices are bridged on an access port, not on a trunk port.
   Note: It is possible to investigate bridging on a Cisco device using the following commands, which should provide the Cisco device in question in the command results:
   • show mac-addr
   • show cam dyn
   • show cdp neigh
4. Check the Bridge table on the devices you want to display as connected. ConnectNow displays only connections to MAC addresses that exist in the device Bridge table. To check a device Bridge table, complete the following steps:
   1. Open a command line interface (CLI) on the device you are checking to verify that the device is bridging the MAC address you expect to be connected.
   2. Enter show MAC-addr, show cam dyn, or similar.
      Note: If the connected MAC address is found on a VLAN, that information can be used in further debugging.See the following section, More ConnectNow Issues and Resolutions.
5. Confirm that the Bridge MIB and ARP MIB are available via SNMP from the Orion server, as shown in the following procedure:
   1. Bridge MIB access can be detected using the Switch Port Mapper from the Engineer's Toolset. See www.solarwinds.com.
      1. Install SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset, and run the Switch Port Mapper gadget in the WorkSpace Studio.
         Note: The classic version does not support all Bridge MIBs
      2. Provide the IP address and credentials of one of the switches you expect to be connected.
      3. If any results are displayed, the Bridge MIB is reachable.
      4. Confirm that the MAC address of the device where you expect the switch to be connected is listed among the MAC addresses in Switch Port Mapper.
      5. If the MAC address you expect to be connected is not in the Switch Port Mapper results, continue troubleshooting.
   2. Browse the MIBs using the SNMP MIB-Browser in the Engineer's Toolset.
      1. To view the Bridge table via SNMP on a Cisco device, browse the Bridge-MIB::dot1dTpFdbTable(1.3.6.1.2.1.17.4.3) using a community string built like: community@
         For example, if you are looking for a MAC address on VLAN 400 and you are using the community string public, use public@400 to view the bridge table for that VLAN.
      2. To view the Bridge table for a non-Cisco device, browse the dot1qTpFdbTable(1.3.6.1.2.1.17.7.1.2.2) MIB using the raw community string, as in public.
   3. If the MIB-Browser returns Table not supported error for either of these tables, verify that you are trying to read the correct table and that you are using the correct community string.
   4. If the table and community string are correct, the Bridge table is not accessible. The table may not be accessible for any of the following reasons:
      • The device does not expose the bridge table via SNMP.
      • There is a view limitation in place limiting the access of the selected community string.
      • There is no bridging occurring on the selected VLAN.
   5. Browse for the ARP-IP::ipNetToMediaEntry(1.3.6.1.2.1.4.22.1) table using the raw community string (no need to add the VLAN ID) on devices on the same subnet that were captured in the discovery, and verify the MAC addresses are found.
      Note: ConnectNow requires Layer 3 information to correlate MAC addresses to Orion nodes.