Creating NIC with NI Family Tree

NIC can also support the expansion of Seed NI with child NIs. To support the seed NI with Child NI, there are adjustments needed in NIC nodes such as Seed NI, Seed Logic, Target Seed and Member NI.

Using OSPF diagnosis as the example, we create a Home NI, OSPF Check, which includes a configuration diagnosis to check whether the OSPF configuration has changed and a CLI diagnosis to use the command show ip ospf interface to check the general OSPF neighbor status. Further, we create a Child NI, OSPF Detail Check, which uses the commands show ip ospf border-routers and show ip route ospf to perform a detailed check on OSPF neighbors. This Child NI is added as a follow-up NI of the Home NI, OSPF Check.  

Now we will create a NIC with OSPF Check as the Seed NI. The main difference between replicating a NI with Child NI and without Child NI is defining Seed Logic (Step 3) and Target Seed (Step 6): you need to define the Seed Logic for Home NI and Child NIs, and then you can select the matched seed devices from these seed logics while defining Target Seed.

Step 1: Select the Input Devices for NIC. For this example, a device group of OSPF-enabled devices is created and selected as Input Device. There is no difference in defining the Input Devices with or without Child NI.

Step 2: Select NI OSPF Check as Seed NI. The home NI is set as the current NI, and its devices are listed under the seed devices with the alias. You can edit the seed device, such as modifying the alias and changing the seed device. You can expand the Intent Family Tree to view its Child NIs and select one Child NI to set it as the current NI so that the devices of this Child NI are listed under the seed devices with the alias.

Step 3: Define the Seed Logics for NIC. You will define the seed logic for the Home NI and Child NIs. By default, the Home NI is set as the current NI. You can expand the Intent Family tree and select the Home NI or Child NIs to set it as the current NI. Only the Seed Devices under the current NI can be selected when defining the Seed Logics for the current NI.  

In this example, we add the Neighbor-level Logic for both Home and Child NI and select the Full Mesh as the replica logic.

Step 4: Define the Device Classifiers. There is no difference in defining the Device Classifiers with or without Child NI.

Step 5: Define Group by Eigen Values. There is no difference in defining the Eigen Values with or without Child NI.

Step 6: Define the Target Seed. Click on +Add Criteria to add matching criteria for Seed Devices. When selecting the Matched Selected Device, users can select the Home NI or Child NIs, and then select the seed logic and devices defined in Step 3.

Users can define matching Macro Variables for both Home NI and Child NI.

Step 7: Generate Member NI. Click on Create Member Network Intent to generate Member NI. Both Home NI and Child NIs will be replicated.

The logic to generate Member NI has been adjusted for Child NI: The Eigen Value and Signature Value are only generated for Home NI, not for Child NI; The name of the generated Child NI and its Intent Map will be the same as that of the original Child NI.

Execute Member NI with Child NI

There are two execution scopes for Member NI: Home NI only or Home NI and Child NIs. The execution scope can be set by clicking on the gear icon on the Member NI node.