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Brownfield Service Discovery#

Field Value
Activity name Brownfield Service Discovery
Activity ID 38
Short Description Discover brownfield services from the network
Difficulty Beginner
Topology Nodes PE1, PE2

1. Objective#

Operations teams typically treat NSP as the operational center for what is deployed across the PEs and groups they manage. When L3VPN and L2VPN services are configured straight on the routers, that configuration stays on the devices until you deliberately import them through brownfield discovery.

In this activity you create one VPRN and one VPLS on PE1 and PE2, then discover them using NSP’s auto-stitching algorithms and service resync to bring those services into the NSP model.

2. Technology explanation#

2.1 Data sync mappers#

Data sync mappers in NSP define how device service data (e.g. VPRN/VPLS on SR OS) maps into NSP's service model. The right mappers must be loaded for the service types you want to discover.

Where are data sync mappers in NSP?

Under Artifacts, select All Artifacts from the dropdown. Search for data-sync; you should find these mappers pre-installed in the system.

2.2 Brownfield discovery and auto-stitching#

NSP groups discovered service sites from multiple devices into one logical service model (e.g. one L3VPN spanning PE1 and PE2). Enabling the right auto-stitching algorithms ensures your VPRN and VPLS across both PEs each become one service in NSP.

Why brownfield discovery is not automatic by default?
  • Cost and impact — A resync walks large configuration and state trees on the nodes you target. Doing that for all devices on a tight schedule or on every small change would add heavy load on controllers and devices and generate a lot of northbound work. Operators run discovery when they intend to reconcile, in a window they control.
  • Not all device config should be imported — A PE may host legacy VPNs, lab services, or shared infrastructure that you never want in NSP's service layer. Automatic import would either surface the wrong services or create duplicates and ownership conflicts with greenfield work.
  • The pipeline must be correct before import — Data sync mappers, CAM artifacts, and stitch rules must match your OS versions and your service model. If NSP ran discovery blindly whenever config changed, you could get failed imports, partial mapping, or inconsistent service data.
  • Stitching and grouping are policy — How separate device-local sites roll up into one logical L3VPN or L2VPN depends on rules and naming conventions that differ per deployment. That is not something the system can safely infer for everyone without explicit configuration.

3. Tasks#

You should read these tasks from top to bottom before beginning the activity.

It is tempting to skip ahead, but tasks may require you to have completed previous tasks before tackling them.

Warning

Remember that you are using a shared NSP system. Include your group number in every workflow input that asks for Group.

3.1 Quick start on NSP Web UI#
NE Session ☰ → Network Search and Inventory → find your group's PE node (for example g7-pe1) → open the row context menu ⋮ → Open in NE Session.
NSP Help ? icon at the top right for context-aware quick help and to open the Help Center. On some pages, the ? icon also links directly to related Help Center articles.
Service Management ☰ → Service Management
Workflow Manager ☰ → Workflows
Artifacts ☰ → Artifacts

To keep the walkthrough in one place, this activity uses a small set of workflows so each step is straightforward and you can see how NSP automates brownfield discovery end to end.

How to check workflow execution status?

To check the execution status of any workflow, navigate to Workflow Manager, select Workflow Executions from the dropdown. Locate your execution. If you see more than one execution (since it is a shared NSP system), double-click one of the entries. From the dropdown, select Input/Output to cross-check your execution. To drill deeper into the flow, select Flow view from the dropdown.

3.2 Create the services#

Note

The workflow targets nodes whose ne-name matches g<N>-pe1 and g<N>-pe2.

  1. Go to Service Management. Open the menu (⋮) in the upper-right corner, then Execute workflow. Under network workflow execution, select configure-brownfield-services.
  2. Set Group to your group ID, Operation to configure, Service Scope to all, and Node Scope to all.
  3. Optionally run the workflow first with Plan set to true to preview a report of the services that will be created.
  4. When you are ready to apply, run the workflow again with the same inputs as above and Plan set to false.

configure-brownfield-services-form

When execution succeeds, open View Result to review what was done.

3.3 Verify services on the network#

  1. On your group's PE1 and PE2, open an NE Session as mentioned in the Quick Start section.
  2. Connect to the NE and run show service service-using.
  3. If you selected all for Service Scope in the previous step, you should see the expected VPRN and VPLS services (for example activity-38-g1-vprn and activity-38-g1-vpls).
CLI check

From NE Session, connect to PE1 and PE2 and run show service service-using. With Service Scope all from Challenge 1, expect entries such as activity-38-g1-vprn and activity-38-g1-vpls (replace 1 with your group ID where applicable).

3.4 Verify auto-stitching#

  1. Go to Service Management. Open the menu (⋮) in the upper-right corner, then Execute workflow. Under network workflow execution, select get-auto-stitch-setting and click Execute.
  2. When execution succeeds, open View Result. For this activity, confirm that route-target is unlocked for both the ELAN and L3VPN service types.

get-auto-stitch-setting report

3.5 Verify service discovery in NSP#

  1. Open Service Fulfillment and select the Services view from the dropdown (if it is not already selected).
  2. Search by Service Name (for example activity-38-g1-vprn, activity-38-g1-vpls) or Service-ID (for example 501, 601 for group 1).
  3. You should see one L3VPN (VPRN) and one L2VPN (VPLS) with the expected names/IDs, each reflecting both PEs (two sites) after stitching.
What if nothing appears yet?

By default, service discovery runs on an interval (often on the order of five minutes). Wait for at least one cycle, refresh the Services view, then verify earlier steps if entries are still missing. If the problem persists, check with the team before changing stitching policy on your own.

4. Summary#

Congratulations! In this activity you explored:

  • How NSP uses workflows to simplify repeated steps and surface clear results
  • How NSP discovers services that already exist on the network
  • How NSP builds its service model through data sync and stitching

5. Next steps#

Now that you have discovered the services and used route-targets for stitching, consider designs that need a different grouping rule (for example, based on customer ID or NE name). For those cases, continue with Custom Service Splitting to split or stitch brownfield services in custom ways.
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