Wired Intelligent Edge

 View Only
last person joined: 2 days ago 

Bring performance and reliability to your network with the HPE Aruba Networking Core, Aggregation, and Access layer switches. Discuss the latest features and functionality of your switching devices, and find ways to improve security across your network to bring together a mobile-first solution
Expand all | Collapse all

NetEdit… Still needs improvements

This thread has been viewed 54 times
  • 1.  NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP
    Posted Mar 08, 2021 10:55 PM

    Hey guys -


    Where are we with role based auth/tacacs+ access?  Have not see anything recent regarding this important missing feature. 


    Additionally, what's the deal with editing the config on multiple interfaces at a time?  I have a couple of  3 switch VRF stacks and while I really want to use NetEdit, I don't even bother when I have work to do on those. (I can imagine if there were a 6400 or 8400 with a full complement of ports, that would be torturous).  I mean, I tried, but it's not..  it's a no for me. 

    In the CLI, I can
    conf t
    int 1/1/1-1/1/52
    mtu 9128
    end

    in NetEdit, we'll, you know - I just type mtu 9128, but I do it 52 times. Or 156 on the stacks. 



    And one more thing -  when multiple switches are being edited, there has got to be a better way to apply the line to the 1 switch that doesn't have it.

    for example- 6 switches in edit config - 1 switch is a recent addition, so it doesn't have the aaa authentication lines. 

    That's easy to see that 5/6 of the switches has that line - why can't I just click that and have a bullet or radio button to apply to all, or if there are 4/6 with the config, apply to 1,2,3,4,6?  The point of NE is click and done, but there are several not so clickables still there  

    I find myself typing out the lines of config if they are short because the copy doesn't always work and paste sometimes does some illegal line or something. 

    Thoughts?  Others with similar issues?  Am I just missing something?





    ------------------------------
    Phillip Horn
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Mar 09, 2021 04:29 AM
    Hi Phillip,
    Regarding missing features, and roadmap, we can not elaborate in this forum.
    I would suggest to contact your Aruba SE/rep and ask for a NetEdit roadmap update.

    ------------------------------
    Vincent Giles
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP
    Posted Mar 09, 2021 10:54 AM

    Hey Vincent,

    Thank you for the info.  I would, however, like to point out (from a customer standpoint) that this forum seems a perfect place to see and discuss missing features and roadmaps.

    I understand that there's some amount of secrecy that is necessary, but how much better would it be if there were more open discussion about what might be needed?  How do you decide what to release and when?  Do you discuss privately with select customers?  Seems like you would want to get as much feedback as possible from those of us using the product daily who are willing to provide data so that you can decide what to work on next.. 

    (I don't mean any of that to be rude - I would really like to know.)
    By saying "we can not elaborate in this forum", it makes me feel like maybe it's not going to help at all to come here and post about NE, and I'm sure that's not what you mean... (but it does feel like that..)  

    So - are you working on the things I posted about?  TACACS - yes - that's been asked before and you've said yes.  But it's been a long time.  Are we talking ETA of Q1 2021, or Q3??  I've got 7 employees that need to use the system, and a couple of work study users that can change each semester.  If we're looking at this summer, then ok - I'll just hang tight.  But if it's going to be a year, then I need to go ahead and create a new temporary policy to allow local accounts in this system for the guys and get them access.  Is that a lot of paperwork for me?  Sure.  Is it worth it?  I can't know until I see when it might show up.  Is my 7 person team a huge deal to create accounts for?  No, but if you answered that here, then those larger entities would also be able to see where we are.

    But what about multi-line editing?  Multi-switch config reconciliation?  Why can't we know about that? 

    I have contacted my SE for clarification.  I want to use NetEdit (why else would I post here?)  But it's another system to manage and maintain.  And if I have to use the CLI anyway, then what's left in NetEdit is firmware updates and switch status...  I have Airwave, so..

    (sometimes my son leaves me with that last "so" when he's talking about something he wants me to fix... It's a dramatic end/not end to the sentence... did it work here?  :)


    ------------------------------
    Phillip Horn
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP GURU
    Posted Mar 09, 2021 12:11 PM
    Hi Phillip, with regard to "usability" of a tool (UI design -> operation simplicity -> effectiveness) I'm with you 100%. +1.

    Anecdote: I remember a time when - on ArubaOS-CX 10.2 IIRC - I had to set interface MTU at 9198 on one hundred ports (VSX) - port by port - and I needed to do it really fast (to avoid traffic disruptions we were observing at very high rate) because the famous <interface-range> option simply was not implemented yet on the ArubaOS-CX grammar.

    At least now it is, after it was long awaited by many users...and by reading your last sentence...I immediately thought that - let me imagine the scene - somebody at Aruba in that occasion heard "You know that ArubaOS-CX lacks of interface-range on the CLI? so...".

    ------------------------------
    Davide Poletto
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Mar 10, 2021 04:34 AM
    Fully acknowledged, and the NetEdit product manager will help your Aruba SE to provide you all the necessary update that you deserve to receive.
    All your points are valid, and FYI, I asked as well for long time the support of TACACS.
    However, we can not reveal roadmap in this forum. We can of course discuss the missing features or problems, and this is what the forum is about, to take your inputs in order to improve our products and your experience of them.
    However, the confirmation of when a particular feature is coming is out of the policy; and this is why I recommend to contact in parallel your Aruba SE who should answer you in timely manner.

    ------------------------------
    Vincent Giles
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP
    Posted Mar 10, 2021 09:50 AM
    Vincent (and Davide) - thanks for the responses.

    I hear what you're saying about TACACS, and I understand.  My SE is working on that.

    What about the other things mentioned?  Are those on the list?  Do you see that those are issues?  It wasn't really addressed in your post.  

    1 - Multi-line editing is seriously lacking.  Can you put that in to the product?  Who else has trouble?


    2 - Multi-switch config reconciliation is tedious at best.  Can you add some ways to more easily add a line to a switch that's missing it? 


    Also, Davide...
    "You know that ArubaOS-CX lacks of interface-range on the CLI? so...".   🤣

    ------------------------------
    Phillip Horn
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    Posted Mar 26, 2021 07:52 PM
    Last time I tried NetEdit it was really lacking in the editing. You really had to be careful what you wanted to do. It was mainly suitable for something like updating the firmware for every device or changing a single common line. When I wanted to some more config edit I would always run to those copy/paste issues (I guess what you mentioned as multi-line edits?). Some lines went missing, some lines messed up and some lines just showed me errors even though they were correct.

    Also fixing the differences between switches wasn't very easy either. And always you're with the fear that somewhere you removed some lines by doing copy paste you didn't meant to do...

    I believe most of these would be better done with Ansible, and with less room for errors. But of course for a company that does not use Ansible, there's a bit steeper learning curve. But once you're past that it will be easier to just use Ansible.


  • 8.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP
    Posted Mar 26, 2021 10:09 PM

    I should probably make a new post, but this still falls under the needs improvement heading for net edit..


    I've added a switch, but it's not completing. 
    It still looks like it is processing (orange circle spinning round and round):

     This is going on a week ..

     

    The plan shows the device success: 



    But the log... did you all know there's a log at the bottom when you click the device ip??  Mine showed up there as a very tiny sliver that was not obvious. Anyway for this switch, the log says, no man – it's already here..

     

    But..  where?

     

     

     

     

    Layout issues still – why do the columns default to crazy sized? User "system" and Category "DEVICE" take up a significantly larger portion than they need to.  I know the first 4 are sized equally, but I have the same problem in the devices view (which I have mentioned before).

     

    Default:

    Resized:

    ASIDE:

    Under plans, there's a listing for the switch I added using the discover devices. I didn't realize that the discover devices button generates a plan entry:


    Aside ASIDE:(Naming of the plans needs to be more apparent – I have tons of Device import entries, and Configuration change request, and.. well.. just take a look)

    I know I can click them and rename them, but when creating the plan initially, and when I'm a new user to the platform, it is not clear that I should name the plan.



    Finally, a tip:  in the discover devices popup - It isn't apparent, but you don't need to enter anything at the top section add a device, only the seed addresses. Just found out that this works like that.



    If you already have the password set for the subnet, then you can just add seeds.

    :) 
    Thanks,
    Phillip
    Network and System Engineer 
    Sent from my phone.





  • 9.  RE: NetEdit… Still needs improvements

    MVP
    Posted Apr 05, 2021 02:50 PM
    Just saw that the pictures didn't come through in that last post.  I just edited the post and tried to add back the screen shots.  Hopefully this helps.

    And please - ignore the user in the modified by and deployed by columns..  I..  I just.. I edited the screenshots to make it look like the admin user did it...  In real life, we have TAC.. er, individual accounts for each user of the system.. yeah...  so... 😅

    ------------------------------
    Phillip Horn
    ------------------------------