Discovering Your Enterprise › Discovering Your Network Devices on Demand Using Classic Discovery › How IPX Discovery Works

How IPX Discovery Works

IPX Discovery searches for Novell NetWare servers and network segments that use the IPX protocol. Objects representing the NetWare servers and their associated segments are stored in the MDB. The objects appear on the 2D Map under the IPX Network icon.

• For each server the Discovery process finds, an IPX_Host object is created and stored in the CA MDB. The physical MAC address and its segment from the primary physical interface identify the server. In addition, the server has the following properties: a server name, an IPX/SPX version, a virtual MAC address, and a virtual segment address. The virtual information is retrieved from the first virtual IPX interface in the server. Each server object is included in a segment object.
• The segment object name refers to the segment of the first nonvirtual interface found in the server. Each server can then have one or more physical interfaces (IPX_Generic_Interface). Each physical interface entry in the IPX_Generic_Interface class has properties pertaining to the LAN card itself. The IPX_Generic_Interface properties are as follows:
  • MAC Address and segment; both of which are physical. LAN cards do not have virtual segments or MAC addresses. These are found only on the server.
  • IRQ and DMA channels for the interface.
  • A text description by the manufacturer.
• If IPX Discovery finds a NetWare server already in the CA MDB, it ignores it and moves on to the next server with no interruption. If an existing server is found with new interfaces installed that were not previously discovered, the new interfaces are added to the CA MDB.
• IPX Discovery can run concurrently with Auto Discovery, which uses SNMP and TCP/IP protocols. When Auto Discovery and IPX Discovery find two or more objects with matching MAC addresses and different interface types, a Multi_Protocol_Host object can be created from them using the utility multi_if. Use multi_if after running Discovery and IPX Discovery to create relationships between two servers with different protocols that share the same MAC address.