Required and Blacklist

Introduction to required list and blacklist items

To add an item as required or blacklisted

To edit an item on a required list or blacklist

To remove an item from a required list or blacklist

To display required/blacklist deviations in the Required and Blacklist

Historical required and blacklist

Introduction to required list and blacklist items:

Required list and blacklist are replacing the old reference paths.

Required list and blacklist will be path-specific, not global. Every created path will start with an empty required list and blacklist.

• required list items identify must have items. e.g., adding an IP address to required means that you want to see this IP address in your path. Entuity will raise a path deviation event if this IP address does not appear in the path, and an indicator will appear above the associated bar in the history timeline chart at the bottom of the Path Summary dashboard.
• blacklisted items identify must not have items. e.g., adding an IP address to a blacklist means that you do not want to see this IP address in your path. Entuity will raise a path deviation event if this IP address appears in the path, and an indicator will appear above both the blacklisted node in the path and the associated bar in the history timeline chart at the bottom of the Path Summary dashboard.

Specifying required and blacklisted objects can help you correlate path change with performance issues. You might find it useful to use specify required and blacklisted objects in a path, for example:

• if you see high latency on a particular path, then you can blacklist a node in that path so that if it appears in future, then you can be notified and you can try to fix that.
• if paths keep going through the same router and these paths have high latency, you might want to make a config change to that router.  Or, if you've changed a router config and blacklisted that router, and another admin has changed the config without you knowing, so that the path goes back through this router, then you can be alerted to when this happens.

You can see the items that are required or blacklisted via the Required and Blacklist form, which is accessible via the Required/Blacklist button on the Path Discovery dashlet. This dashlet can be found on on the Summary dashlet for a path or on a custom dashboard that you have created. The Required and Blacklist form lists all required or blacklisted items in a single list.

To add an item to a required list or blacklist:

1. Navigate to the Summary dashboard of the path that you want to edit, or a Path Discovery dashlet for the path in a custom dashboard.
2. You can add items to the required list or blacklist in 2 ways:
   • via Required/Blacklist at the top of the dashlet. This will open the Required and Blacklist form.
     
     
     
     
     1. Click Add.
        
        
        
        
     2. Enter the IPv4 address of the node and specify if it is to be required or blacklisted in the List Type dropdown field.
        
        
        
        
     3. Click Save in the top right of the form, otherwise click Cancel.
   • via the node's context menu.
     • select the node on the path and right click to open its context menu.
     • click Add to Required List or Add to Blacklist as required.
       
       

You will not be allowed to add the same node (IP address) to both a required list and a blacklist at the same time.

To edit an item on a required list or blacklist:

If an item is on a required list or blacklist, you can change the list to which it belongs:

1. Navigate to the Summary dashboard of the path that you want to edit, or a Path Discovery dashlet for the path in a custom dashboard.
2. Click Required/Blacklist at the top of the dashlet. This will open the Required and Blacklist form.
3. Select the listed item that you wish to change, and then specify if it is to be required or blacklisted as appropriate in the List Type dropdown field.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Save in the top right of the form to save your changes, otherwise click Cancel.

To remove an item from a required list or blacklist:

1. Navigate to the Summary dashboard of the path that you want to edit, or a Path Discovery dashlet for the path in a custom dashboard.
2. Click Required/Blacklist at the top of the dashlet. This will open the Required and Blacklist form.
3. Select the listed item that you wish to change and click Remove.
   
   
   
   
4. A deletion confirmation window will open.
   
   

To display required/blacklist deviations in the Required and Blacklist:

By default, the Required and Blacklist form list will highlight node IP addresses that are deviating from the required/blacklisted status that you have assigned to them:

• if you have specified that a node IP address is required, but it does not appear in the path, then the row will display a Required deviation icon and the message This IP address did not appear in the path.
  
  
  
  
• if you have specified that a node IP address is blacklisted, but it appears in the path, then the row will display a Blacklist deviation icon and the message This IP address appeared in the path.
  
  
  
  

To display only the nodes that are deviating from the required or blacklisted status, tick the Show deviations only box at the top of the form.

Historical required and blacklist:

In the Path Discovery dashlet, you can display and view historical paths by selecting the desired time period bar from the historical timeline at the bottom of the dashlet. When you are displaying a historical path, the Required and Blacklist will be updated to reflect its relation to the displayed historical path:

• if a required/blacklisted item has been removed since the historical path, it is displayed in the Required and Blacklist as a non-editable row in the list with the IP address and deviation alert. It carries the message, 'This IP address appeared in the path at the time selected but has since been removed'.
• if a required/blacklisted item still exists (i.e., it has not been removed from the Required and Blacklist), then it will appear as a normal row in the list with the IP address and deviation alert as normal.
• if a required/blacklisted item currently exists but was added after the historical path, then it will appear as a normal row in the list with the IP address but without a deviation alert. It carries the message, 'This IP address was added after the selected path discovery, so was not a deviation a the time of discovery'.