How to create generic Basic Level Diagnosis for Intent-Based Triggered Automation?

Introduction

Integrating a 3rd party IT system with NetBrain for Intent-Based Triggered Automation brings your network automation task to the next level. Typically, an incident type is defined as the automation procedure for a particular network problem category that can be repetitively applied to a great number of incident tickets. With this said, the incident types are incrementally added based on your needs on demand.

What if you want to run some basic level diagnosis in general for the tickets that are not yet qualified for any existing incident types? Or, maybe you are still designing the specific incident types for your top network problems but would like to have the basic level diagnosis available. It will always be beneficial to have some valuable pre-checking data/results ready for an incident when it is just reported.

This article describes how to deploy a generic Basic Level Diagnosis (BLD) for Intent-Based Triggered Automation in NetBrain (IEv10.1 and above).

Note: To proceed with this article, the 4 items below must be met.

1. NetBrain PDAS Automation Library must be deployed.
2. A 3rd party ITSM, such as ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, etc., must be integrated with NetBrain TAF framework.
3. You should have a basic understanding of the Intent-Based Triggered Automation use case in general and how an incident type can be created with some diagnosis enabled. If you are not familiar with it yet, please find more information from NetBrain Online Help Documentation.
4. The 3rd party ITSM must be sending the reported issue device hostname within the ticket data to NetBrain in any of the fields being configured in the Integrated IT System instance source and category. For example: Configuration_itemName for ServiceNow. The instruction below will use ServiceNow App 3.0 solution as an example to describe the settings.

Key Concepts

1. Matching Order - The priority of an Incident Type for the NetBrain system to implement the incident type lookup. In this configuration, the Basic Level Diagnosis Incident Type must be maintained with the lowest Matching Order in the system. 

Resolution

Create the following resources with the specified settings. 

1. Incident Type
   1. Basic Level Diagnosis Incident Type
      1. Basic Settings
         1. Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Description: L2/L3 Map; Site Map; Health Check
         3. Source: <The ServiceNow source, i.e. https://ven01750.service-now.com/>
         4. Category: <The ticket category, i.e. incident>
         5. Condition: Empty
         6. 
      2. Dynamic Diagnosis: Disabled
         1. 
      3. Incident Merging Settings
         1. Match Existing Incident Only: Disabled
         2. Merge into Incident by Signature: Configuration_itemName
         3. Merge into Incident by Time (This setting can be changed accordingly based on your needs):
            1. Creation Time: Unchecked
            2. Updated Time: less than 1 hour
         4. 
         5. New Incident Settings
            1. 
      4. Incident Message
         1. Define Incident Message:

            1. Please check the basic level diagnosis results of {Configuration_itemName}.

               1. Maps

               - L2 Neighbor Map

               - L3 Neighbor Map

               - Site Map

               2. Diagnosis

               - Device Check

               - Config Change Check

               - Logging - Common Check

            2. 

         2. Recommended Interactive Automation: Disabled
         3. 
2. Static Diagnosis
   1. BLD - L2 Neighbor Map
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - L2 Neighbor Map
         2. Description: Basic Level - Map - Basic Level Diagnosis
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. Select: NIC For L2 Neighbor Map
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. 
         6. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. device_name (Signature Variable) Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Insert Intent Map Only
         2. Customized Incident Message for Map: L2 Neighbor Map of {Configuration_itemName}
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1. 
   2. BLD - L3 Neighbor Map
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - L3 Neighbor Map
         2. Description: Basic Level - Map - L3 Neighbor Map
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. Select: NIC For L3 Neighbor Map
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. device_name (Signature Variable) Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Insert Intent Map Only
         2. Customized Incident Message for Map: L3 Neighbor Map of {Configuration_itemName}
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1. 
   3. BLD - Site Map
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - Site Map
         2. Description: Basic Level - Map - Site Map
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. Select NIC For Site Map
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. 
         6. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. Member Device Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Insert Intent Map Only
         2. Customized Incident Message for Map: Site Map of {Configuration_itemName}
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1. 
   4. BLD - Device Check
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - Device Check
         2. Description: Basic Level - Diagnosis
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. L1 - Device Check [Cisco IOS]
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. 
         6. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. device_name (Signature Variable) Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Execute Network Intent Only
         2. Network Intent Execution Settings
            1. Set Incident Device after Execution:
               1. Enabled
               2. Include Network Intent Device with Alert Status Codes
            2. Create Incident Message with NI Status Code: Enabled
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1. 
   5. BLD - Config Change Check
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - Config Change Check
         2. Description: Basic Level - Diagnosis - Config Change Check
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. L1 - Config Change Check [Cisco IOS]
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. 
         6. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. device_name (Signature Variable) Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Execute Network Intent Only
         2. Network Intent Execution Settings
            1. Set Incident Device after Execution:
               1. Enabled
               2. Include Network Intent Device with Alert Status Codes
            2. Create Incident Message with NI Status Code: Enabled
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1. 
   6. BLD - Logging Common Check
      1. Basic Setting
         1. Name: BLD - Logging Common Check
         2. Description: Basic Level - Diagnosis - Logging Common Check
         3. Type:
            1. Network Intent Cluster
            2. L1 - Logging - Common Check [Cisco IOS]
         4. Enable Diagnosis: Enabled
         5. 
         6. Enable Self-service: Enabled
            1. 
      2. Filter Incoming Incident
         1. Incoming Incident Type: Basic Level Diagnosis
         2. Define filter(s) to trigger diagnosis by data field(s) of incoming API call
            1. Configuration_itemName is not null
         3. Boolean Expression: A
         4. 
      3. Match Member Network Intents
         1. Match member NI(s) to be executed by signature variable, member device, or member NI tag
            1. device_name (Signature Variable) Contains Configuration_itemName
         2. Boolean Expression: A
         3. Maximum number of Network Intent(s) matched for one trigger task: 1
         4. 
      4. Member Network Intent Execution
         1. Execution Mode: Execute Network Intent Only
         2. Network Intent Execution Settings
            1. Set Incident Device after Execution:
               1. Enabled
               2. Include Network Intent Device with Alert Status Codes
            2. Create Incident Message with NI Status Code: Enabled
         3. 
      5. Guide for Interactive Automation: Disabled
         1. 
      6. Subscribe Alert(s) from Preventative Automation: Disabled
         1.