Thorsten,

I helped setup an environment that needed this function a number of years ago. I can talk about it in general terms.

1 -- doing a config poll is still VERY IMPORTANT. Don't let people tell you that you should not do this. If this is true, then you have lost much of the power of NetView. You will end up with many 'islands' of nodes in your view. It is better to discover all the interfaces on a device and unmanage the interfaces that you do not wish to monitor.

1 (part b) NetView generates a trap every time a new interfaces is discovered. You can log those to see if new interfaces should be managed. Some automation is possible with scripts too to see if the change is ok. If not ok, then have script unmanage the interface.

2 -- you need a 'database' of nodes with IP addresses that you will be managing. This database needs to be able to generate a list of IP addresses and node names to discover/manage....as well as be able to generate a list of managed IP addresses (all interfaces). Then you can do the following:
a) take the list of IP addresses and node names and update your DNS (hopefully running on your NetView server)
b) the the list of IP addresses and node names and use 'loadhosts' to discover them. (via a script that does a demandpoll right away)
c) either manually or via a script verify the interfaces on those new nodes are just those you want to manage. Unmanage any interface you need to.
d) run another script that takes your NetView database and generates DNS zone files for the IP addr to name mapping. This gives EVERY IP address in your NetView a DNS name. But you want to leave your name to IP Adress lookup to remain one IP address. (should be the IP interface on node that you are doing management through).

3 - For the delete process, I still think it is best to have a person do this using the map. NetView will do its own cleanup after a period of time, but usually you want it done before that.

Stephen Hochstetler shochste AT us.ibm DOT com
International Technical Support Organization at IBM
Office - 512-838-6198 (t/l 678) FAX - 512-838-6931
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com