This concerns the appearance of interfaces flagged as "unknown" when looking at the device home page or when browsing through the "Managing Nodes" component on the web console.
FYI - we are running version 10.7 of the Solarwinds Orion Network Performance Monitor along with version 7.2.2 of Network Configuration Manager and version 4.0.3 of Network Traffic Analyzer. We also have running a trial version of Web Performance Monitor, version 2.0.1.
As far as I know from reading of Thwack and Solarwinds.co these interfaces are marked "unknown" by NPM because the application cannot discern what the parent of the object (interface) is.
What I have observed is that this seems to happen when a device (router, switch, etc.,) is upgraded or replaced while retaining the same IP address and/or hostname. Probably not only at that time, but almost certainly one will see "unknown" interfaces when that does happen. What I have been doing is completely deleting and then recreating the device instance in NPM and that seems to result in a correct depiction of the device in the home page and no comment in the associated field when browsing through "Managing Nodes."
What I would like to know is whether there is another way to approach this issue and make the appearance of these "unknown" interface a thing of the past?
Part of the reason for this is that I would like to retain the statistical history of the node regardless of the upgrade (i.e., card addition or change) or even if the device is entirely replaced (i.e., replacing a 2800 series router with a 2900 series or other newer model.)
Also, has anyone heard of if and when a tool (as I have heard requested on this forum) that will cull such instances of "unknown" interfaces and flag them will appear?
(Hopefully the tool/process will also repair the device resource list so as to correctly portray the new/upgraded device?)
The reason for all this is simple - statistical history is important in this day and age of compliance and heightened security - and 'throwing away' (not quite true) that history by deleting and re-creating a node to rid the program of the bogeyman unknown interface is inconvenient.
Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions and information.
R
