VLAN management (and topology..)

[MassiPi]

Hello,
just set up NAX and i'm impressed with the easiness of discovery!
i have several vlans at home and it could ARP all of them, very nice!
However, i keep some doubts:

• i can configure VLAN (and bssid) for every device, but i can't understand if there is a way to configure MULTIPLE vlan/bssid for a single device. My AP, for example, lives in different vlans and has different ssid, i can't setup multiple vlans/ssid and so this is not reflected in topology. Am i missing something?
• i have a device that has 2 NIC in the same vlan. different mac addresses. Well, NAX discovered only one of the two, not the other. If i arp-scan the subnet within the NAX container, it sees both (even if it can't resolve the name). Can't understand why, any hint?
• i think the same is happening for my base router: it has an ip for each vlan, but i can see only one of them and i can't understand why, but if i got them all i wouldn't be able to link all to the same device, right? :)

Thanks!

[jokob-sk]

i can configure VLAN (and bssid) for every device, but i can't understand if there is a way to configure MULTIPLE vlan/bssid for a single device. My AP, for example, lives in different vlans and has different ssid, i can't setup multiple vlans/ssid

Currently only one VLAN/SSID per device is supported. You could create multiple dummy devices with corresponding IPs to represent devices in different VLANS, but I understand that is not optimal.

Wouldn't different VLANs also mean different IPs? If so then multiple device entries per VLAN could make sense (although a fake mac has to be used as currently there is a PK constraint on MACs)

and so this is not reflected in topology. Am i missing something?

How would you imagine this to work (FYI I only added the VLAN field 2 weeks ago so still building out capability depth with it)

i have a device that has 2 NIC in the same vlan. different mac addresses. Well, NAX discovered only one of the two, not the other. If i arp-scan the subnet within the NAX container, it sees both (even if it can't resolve the name). Can't understand why, any hint?

Woudl have to see logs, but MACs have to be unique. You can add it manually if you want. https://docs.netalertx.com/DEVICE_MANAGEMENT/?h=dumm#dummy-devices

i think the same is happening for my base router: it has an ip for each vlan, but i can see only one of them and i can't understand why, but if i got them all i wouldn't be able to link all to the same device, right? :)

Explore the concept of NIC relationships (which are hidden from lists by default) - it may help getting you closer to how you want to connect things: https://docs.netalertx.com/NETWORK_TREE/?h=network#3-assign-connected-devices

[MassiPi]

Currently only one VLAN/SSID per device is supported. You could create multiple dummy devices with corresponding IPs to represent devices in different VLANS, but I understand that is not optimal.

Wouldn't different VLANs also mean different IPs? If so then multiple device entries per VLAN could make sense (although a fake mac has to be used as currently there is a PK constraint on MACs)

i think the biggest example is for AP. My AP has a single ip (in the trusted vlan), but makes its work: it manages ssids. And i have 4 with three of them bridged on other vlans. I assume also in topology makes a lot of sense being able to connect devices to specific ssid (probably in this case is more the ssid to drive the topology). I imagine a "secondary" entity (the bssid) to be attached N:1 with the AP and being shown in the topology. Probably same approach could be followed for VLAN, being attached N:1 with routers/gateway.
For sure, the edge case of devices belonging to multiple vlan/ssid would be hardly drawable..

MACs have to be unique.

ok this is clearly my limit :) in logs NAX discovers both ips, but they are on the same mac and i can't link multiple ips to the same device, right? So i gave another mac address, now i have to keep 2 separate devices?

Explore the concept of NIC relationships (which are hidden from lists by default) - it may help getting you closer to how you want to connect things: https://docs.netalertx.com/NETWORK_TREE/?h=network#3-assign-connected-devices

i fear i didn't get you :( is this about creating "fake" devices?
thanks a lot, this tool is much more aligned with my (home) expectation that molocks like zabbix.. keep going!!

[jokob-sk]

I fear i didn't get you :( is this about creating "fake" devices?

You can create a device wrapper if it has multiple NICs. And then each individual device an be connected via a nic relationship. You can also enable Require NICs online on the wrapper device so it's only online if devices with the nic relationship are online.

ok this is clearly my limit :) in logs NAX discovers both ips, but they are on the same mac and i can't link multiple ips to the same device, right? So i gave another mac address, now i have to keep 2 separate devices?

yes, see the solution I outlined above. I might remove this limitation in the future but it requires a more extensive rewrite of the internal relationships and device uniqueness detection. (see #724 for details)

i think the biggest example is for AP. My AP has a single ip (in the trusted vlan), but makes its work: it manages ssids. And i have 4 with three of them bridged on other vlans. I assume also in topology makes a lot of sense being able to connect devices to specific ssid (probably in this case is more the ssid to drive the topology). I imagine a "secondary" entity (the bssid) to be attached N:1 with the AP and being shown in the topology. Probably same approach could be followed for VLAN, being attached N:1 with routers/gateway.
For sure, the edge case of devices belonging to multiple vlan/ssid would be hardly drawable..

getting lost - a diagram or table or mockup would be helpful

[MassiPi]

connected via a nic relationship

i think i get it now, and thank you. However, i still see a couple of points:

• this is still not working if with the same MAC address. I undertand this is the design of NAX don't worry :) but for routers it's common to have different interfaces on the same mac address.. my openwrt has 6 (on different vlans). I should create fake devices with face mac addresses, right?
• even if i could get all ips detected, i had to select one interface as "master" and connect the second with a nic relationship. I'm not sure this is correct.. so it seems in any way there is the need for a fake device, isn't it?

getting lost - a diagram or table or mockup would be helpful

before wasting more of your time, i want to try creating fake ssid devices and see what comes out..
thanks!

[jokob-sk]

AFAIK

this is still not working if with the same MAC address. I undertand this is the design of NAX don't worry :) but for routers it's common to have different interfaces on the same mac address.. my openwrt has 6 (on different vlans). I should create fake devices with face mac addresses, right?

yes

even if i could get all ips detected, i had to select one interface as "master" and connect the second with a nic relationship. I'm not sure this is correct.. so it seems in any way there is the need for a fake device, isn't it?

yes