[Feature Request] Add/Import CDP Cabling Data from pnics

[Littlericket]

Enabling CDP on the pnic displays some references which can be used to cable vhosts to switches, also can be used to add neighbour devices directly to netbox.

You can get the PhysicalNicCdpInfo info with QueryNetworkHint when quering the hostSystem -> configManager-> networkSystem and using the method queryNetworkHint (vmnicXX as parameter or empty) on the returned networkSystem. This will return a PhysicalNicHintInfo with a PhysicalNicCdpInfo below connectedSwitchPort.

Took me a while to find out. Hidden like the most secret information on earth.

The returned PhysicalNicCdpInfo can be used to import network devices and cables to the vhost automatically, if cdp is enabled.

I would suggest that this feature needs to be opt-in, if the infrastructure below the vcenter has cdp enabled through all devices.

[Littlericket]

@bb-Ricardo not familiar with python sadly, but as far as I tested you can get the data in connection.py add_host when you loop the pnics

obj.configManager.networkSystem.QueryNetworkHint(pnic_name)

devId/systemName is the device name of the connected switch - which should be existing already or can be created by the script. linking the pnic with a cable to the portId of the given systemName would be awesome.

[bb-Ricardo]

Hi, Thank you for the idea. This would be a great addition to the existing FR #318

[bb-Ricardo]

Hey @Littlericket,

I looked into it and it would be rather difficult to implement this. In most cases (at least to my knowledge) server will be connected via patch panel to switches. And it would bring a whole bag of other dependencies which are hard to maintain.

I added a hint to the interface description about the connected switch port (if the information is available).

Cheers Ricardo

[Littlericket]

Hi @bb-Ricardo, even if this repo is postponed sadly, QueryNetworkHint needs a pnic_name.
After moving the try-block 4a61095#diff-e7a495959928cbb6f10cb4c5343bbcae7a58acda168716b8db7690442f8e8a7eR1773 into the for-loop (after line 1781), the descriptions get set (passing pnic_name as an argument).

--- a/module/sources/vmware/connection.py
+++ b/module/sources/vmware/connection.py
@@ -1769,18 +1769,19 @@ class VMWareHandler(SourceBase):
         # now iterate over all physical interfaces and collect data
         pnic_data_dict = dict()
         pnic_hints = dict()
-        # noinspection PyBroadException
-        try:
-            for hint in obj.configManager.networkSystem.QueryNetworkHint(""):
-                pnic_hints[hint.device] = hint
-        except Exception:
-            pass

         for pnic in grab(obj, "config.network.pnic", fallback=list()):

             pnic_name = grab(pnic, "device")
             pnic_key = grab(pnic, "key")

+            # noinspection PyBroadException
+            try:
+                for hint in obj.configManager.networkSystem.QueryNetworkHint(pnic_name):
+                    pnic_hints[hint.device] = hint
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+
             log.debug2("Parsing {}: {}".format(grab(pnic, "_wsdlName"), pnic_name))

[bb-Ricardo]

Can you create a PR for this please?