Devices are autodiscovered when a controller is saved and cannot be created any other way.
Note: Highlight won't discover any watches on a device with status dormant.

Status

This is read-only and shows Enabled or Disabled; the status of a device is set on the SD-WAN network, not within Highlight.

Watch creation

Pending

Auto

Pending

Selecting this means any uplinks, tunnels, tests and switches on a device will NOT be created and are instead visible only on the Controllers Admin page. These will not gather data so cannot change the colour of a heat tile nor send an alert.

Auto

This is the default option. Selecting this means any uplinks, tunnels, tests and switches on a device will be created as enabled and start gathering data. These may change the colour of a heat tile and send an alert if a measurement is below threshold.

Find out more about Controller watch pending.

Name

This is read-only and shows the autodiscovered name. This name is combined with the interface name to auto-populate the description of the watches on this device.

Description

This is optional and can contain a maximum of 100 characters.

Reference

This is optional and can contain a maximum of 50 characters, a reference set on a device is inherited by child uplinks and tunnels unless a different reference has been set on a child uplink or tunnel, see the Inherited reference section below for more details.

Type

This is read-only and shows the type:

Discovered

This is read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the device.

Controller

This is read-only and shows the controller for this device - click to open the controller. If you do not have permission to view the controller you see the text: You do not have access to this controller.

Save

Use to save any changes. Note: only description and reference can be changed.

Delete

Use to manually remove the device from Highlight along with any previously autodiscovered watches and the parent location (if it was autodiscovered and is now empty).
Any that still exist on the external network will be rediscovered.

  This device no longer exists. Scheduled for deletion.    This message is shown if a device has been deleted on the external network. The device can be manually deleted in Highlight if needed. Alternatively, it will be deleted from Highlight after the retention period has passed. See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Main tab

Use this panel to edit a watch. Controller watches are autodiscovered when a controller is saved and cannot be created any other way.

Name

This is read-only and shows the autodiscovered name.

Discovered

This is read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the watch.

Description

This is auto-populated on creation with the parent device name and the uplink name, excluding the unique identifier number. This can be overwritten and can contain a maximum of 100 characters. Note: Cisco Catalyst uses the ifname instead of the uplink name.

Visibility

Shown only if you are a service provider. It determines if the watch will be visible to all users, or just to service provider internal staff.
There are two options:

• Customer: this is the default. Anyone can view the watch, and those with permission "edit watch" can edit/delete it
• Internal: customers cannot view, edit or delete this watch as it is only seen by service providers

Enable

By default, all four options are checked:

Collect data

Uncheck to turn off polling, which keeps the watch in the system and can appear in Highlight statistical reports, but stops data being collected from the device so no alerts will be raised; used for displaying history of an old watch, for example.

Show data

Uncheck to turn off display of the watch in the UI and in any Highlight statistical reports, although data can still be collected. If this is unchecked then the watch will not appear in the tree search, only the admin search. Used for discovered but unused VLANs for example.

Send alerts

Uncheck to turn off alerting for the bearer watch and any discovered elements plus performance tests. Data will continue to affect heat tiles (when thresholds are crossed) but no alerts will be generated. Used for testing and demonstration watches, for example.

Generate statistical reports

Uncheck to turn off gathering of statistics for Network Reporting although data will still be collected. Note: this option may not be available for all users.

Device name

The name of the parent device. Clicking this opens the edit panel for it.

Poll Frequency

This is read-only, shows the polling interval for this watch in minutes, and seconds if applicable, and is useful to determine the time from when an issue starts until alerts are sent and watches/tiles change colour. Refer to the sensitivity page for more details.

Interface

This is read-only and shows the selected interface Highlight is monitoring on the watch.

Dormant interface

Unchecked by default, check this box to set the watch as dormant. Dormant interfaces only send stability alerts if the device is uncontactable or Highlight has detected that the underlying connectivity service is unavailable.

Site Link

Unchecked by default, check this box to set the watch as a bearer contributing to the Site Availability report statistics.

Down/Upstream

Bandwidth values are required with 8 kbps as a minimum. Initially autodiscovered speeds of the monitored interface are shown with a pale blue background and can be changed if needed. The background changes to white if any field is changed. Use to revert both Downstream and Upstream to autodiscovered values.

Sensitivity

Optional and if setup, you can choose a different alerting sensitivity for each parent watch and discovered subwatches. Read more about alerting sensitivity.

SLA target %

Shown for bearers only. An optional percentage field, used in Reporting to compare actual availability with this SLA. Enter a number between 0 and 100 with up to 3 decimal places, such as 99.999. If SLA Now is disabled on the Features tab of a parent folder, then this field will not be available to edit.

Product Type

Optional text field which can contain a maximum of 20 characters and enables service providers to display the service name for a watch rather than the Highlight default of SD-WAN. The Product Type displays on watch status cards.

Reference

Optional and can contain a maximum of 50 characters. May be useful for customer specific information. See the Inherited reference section below for more details.

  Parent device no longer exists    See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Save One save stores details for all tabs

Performance tab

This tab is visible on any watch with performance tests enabled.

If the controller option is changed to None after performance tests have been discovered, these will continue to work and can be manually disabled if needed. No new performance tests will be discovered.

If there are no tests or the option has been changed, you will see the message "No performance tests have been discovered. Please check performance test autodiscovery is enabled on the parent controller."

Type

Shows the performance test icon and the test name as obtained from the third-party dashboard - otherwise the test type is shown. The full name is shown on hover.

Status

Enabled or Disabled, disabling a test means:

• no data is collected for the test
• alerts cannot be sent nor colours changed (green to amber for example)
• the watch status card disappears for the test
• the performance chart (on the details page) disappears for the test

Details

Name

Read-only and comprised of
[Source performance agent name] to [Target IP or hostname]

Discovered

Read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the test.

ALERTING THRESHOLDS

You will see the thresholds in one of two possible states:

Inherited:

The field is read-only and greyed out meaning the setting is inherited from a parent folder, path shown. Use Override to disregard the inherited value and create a local, custom setting.

Defined locally:

The field is editable with a white background meaning the setting is defined at this point in the tree. Change the value here or alternatively use Revert to remove a local definition and return to inheriting the value from a parent folder, path shown.

The default setting for these values are set on a folder, inherited by all subfolders and used on the initial creation of tests only. Contact us to change defaults. Highlight compares the value reported by the third-party network to the threshold set here to determine if the fuel gauge should be incremented or decremented. Delay and packet loss impact Health and 100% packet loss impacts Stability. Read more about the Highlight Alerting Mechanism.

Delay

Also known as latency or round trip delay, test results are compared to this threshold.

Jitter

If available, the value reported by the third-party is compared to this jitter threshold to colour the chart on the Details page but Highlight does not alert on jitter.

Pkt loss

If available, packet loss is expressed as a percentage of all packets sent and compared to this threshold.

Discontinued tests

See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Main tab

Use this panel to edit a tunnel. If the parent controller has the option to autodiscover tunnels selected, then Highlight discovers tunnels. Tunnels cannot be created any other way. Note: This option is currently only available for Meraki.

Discovered

Read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the tunnel.

Name

Read-only and shows the autodiscovered name which is the "from" device Network ID _to_ the "to" device Network ID plus the Highlight unique identifier for the "from" device.

Description

Auto-generated using the "from" location - To - the "to" location.
This cannot be changed in this dialog and appears throughout Highlight instead of the name.

Enable

By default, all four options are checked:

Collect data

Uncheck to turn off polling, which keeps the tunnel in the system and can appear in Highlight statistical reports, but stops data being collected from the device so no alerts will be raised. Used for displaying history of an old tunnel, for example.

Show data

Uncheck to turn off display of the tunnel in the UI and in any Highlight statistical reports, although data can still be collected. If this is unchecked then the watch will not appear in the tree search, only the admin search.

Send alerts

Uncheck to turn off alerting for the tunnel. Data will continue to affect heat tiles (when thresholds are crossed) but no alerts will be generated. Used for testing and demonstration, for example.

Generate statistical reports

Uncheck to turn off gathering of statistics for Network Reporting although data will still be collected. Note: this option may not be available for all users.

FROM / TO

Location

where the device is in Highlight

Device

a link to the device description (if available) otherwise the name

Product Type

Read-only text set to Tunnel and appears on watch status cards.

Reference

Optional and can contain a maximum of 50 characters. May be useful for customer specific information, see the Inherited reference section below for more details.

Save One save stores details for all tabs

  Parent device no longer exists    See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Discontinued tunnels

See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Discontinued tunnels are labelled in the following ways:

Performance tab

This tab is visible on any tunnel. If Tunnels with perf tests has been selected on the parent controller then Highlight automatically discovers and creates tunnels and any performance tests as subwatches of their parent tunnel.

If the controller option is changed to None after tunnels and performance tests have been discovered, these will continue to work and can be manually disabled if needed. No new tunnels or tests will be discovered.

If there are no tests or the option is to Tunnels, you will see the message "No performance tests have been discovered. Please check performance test autodiscovery is enabled on the parent controller."

Type

Shows the performance test icon and the test type.

Status

Enabled or Disabled, disabling a test means:

• no data is collected for the test
• alerts cannot be sent nor colours changed (green to amber for example)
• the watch status card disappears for the test
• the performance chart (on the details page) disappears for the test

Details

Name

Read-only and comprised of
[Source interface] [Source device description (if available, otherwise the device name)] to
[Target interface] [Target device description (if available, otherwise the device name)]

Discovered

Read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the test.

ALERTING THRESHOLDS

The default setting for these values are set on a folder, inherited by all subfolders and used on the initial creation of tests only. Contact us to change defaults. Highlight compares the value reported by the external network to the threshold set here to determine if the fuel gauge should be incremented or decremented. Delay, packet loss and score impact Health and 100% packet loss impacts Stability. Read more about the Highlight Alerting Mechanism.

Delay

Also known as latency or round trip delay, test results are compared to this threshold.

Jitter

Value reported by the external network is compared to this jitter threshold to colour the chart on the Details page but Highlight does not alert on jitter.

Pkt loss

Packet loss is expressed as a percentage of all packets sent and compared to this threshold.

Score

If available for the test type, the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) on the scale of 1 - 5 with 5 indicating excellent quality and compared to this threshold. Otherwise, if not available, this field is disabled.

Discontinued tests

See the Discontinued items section on this page.

Note: Controller cellular watches are currently only available for Meraki

Cellular tab

This tab is visible on any cellular uplink with Cellular Clarity enabled. If Enable with Cellular Clarity has been selected on the parent controller then Highlight automatically discovers and creates cellular uplinks with Cellular Clarity enabled.

If the controller option is changed to None or Enabled after uplinks have been discovered, these will continue to work and can be manually disabled if needed. No new cellular watches will be discovered.

Type

Shows the Cellular Clarity icon.

Status

Enabled or Disabled, disabling a test means:

• no data is collected for the watch
• alerts cannot be sent nor colours changed (green to amber for example)
• the watch status card disappears for the test
• the Cellular Clarity Signal Strength chart (on the details page) disappears for the watch

Details

Name

Read-only and comprised of
CELL_[parent watch name]

Discovered

Read-only and shows the date of autodiscovery of the watch.

ALERTING THRESHOLDS

You will see the Score threshold in one of two possible states:

Inherited:

The field is read-only and greyed out meaning the setting is inherited from a parent folder, path shown. Use Override to disregard the inherited value and create a local, custom setting.

Defined locally:

The field is editable with a white background meaning the setting is defined at this point in the tree. Change the value here or alternatively use Revert to remove a local definition and return to inheriting the value from a parent folder, path shown.

Note: Controller switches are currently only available for Meraki

Use this tab to select one or more ports as Critical. Refer to how critical ports affect heat tiles and generate alerts for more information on critical ports.

For switches, each port on the device is listed with the following information:

Critical

whether this port is recognised as Critical by Highlight, in which case it will affect heat tiles and generate alerts.

Slot

number

Port

number

Interface

the name used on the device to reference that port

Alias

the description configured on the interface, if any

Speed

the current speed of this port; some switches return ‘Unknown’ if the port is not in use

Save One save stores details for all tabs

The number of fields available when editing a Wireless Access Point is reduced. Refer to the Edit Watch - Main Tab section above for a description of each field.

The Containers tab enables you to include this watch in one or more containers. Logos will be shown if a logo has been added to the container.

Available containers - left panel

Filter...

Enter text to select containers whose name or description contain that string (case is ignored).

Click to add this watch to the container.

Indicates this watch is already included in the container, click to remove it.

Included in these containers - right panel

See a list of all containers in which this watch is included. Use to remove this watch from the container.

You will not see a container listed on this tab if:

the container is above your user folder/location in the tree
the container is set to Visibility: Internal and you are a user in a customer folder
the container is enabled for maintenance and you do not have the Manage maintenance permission

Save One save stores details for all tabs

Discontinued items can include devices, tunnels, performance tests, etc.

Previously discovered items may disappear from the external network temporarily or permanently. These are deleted from Highlight automatically after a retention period - contact us to adjust this period. A red bar with a message shows during the retention period.

Example messages are:

  This device no longer exists. Scheduled for deletion.   

  Tunnel cannot be found: watch scheduled for deletion   

  Scheduled for deletion as no perforamnce test found   

  Parent device no longer exists   

If a discontinued item reappears on the external network during the retention period, then the red label is removed and the item resumes collecting and displaying data. If a discontinued item does not reappear and the retention period ends, then it is deleted from Highlight.

There is a reference field available on controller devices, uplink watches and tunnels. The field is optional and can contain a maximum of 50 characters. A reference is useful to store customer specific information for a watch which will be available in a report or an alert. A reference set on a device is inherited by child uplinks and tunnels unless a different reference has been set on a child uplink or tunnel.

The behaviour of the reference field is explained in this example below:

A controller device has 2 uplinks and 2 tunnels.

Monday

All reference fields on all items are blank by default.

Tuesday

A reference of "123abc" is manually set on the device, and this is inherited by all the uplinks and tunnels.

Wednesday

The reference on one uplink is manually changed to "456def," The reference on all other items remains "123abc".

Thursday

The reference on the device is manually changed to "789ghi," and this is inherited by all the uplinks and tunnels except the one which was previously changed.

The reference on a performance test matches the reference on the parent tunnel. This reference can be seen in reports and alerts for performance tests and cannot be changed for an individual test.