Documentation

Command line arguments

Run perl ospfviz.pl --help for command line help.

-d <#>	Set the debug level. The higher the level the more output OSPFviz will dump on the screen.
-f <format>	create graph with this format (e.g. graphviz or hypergraph)
-r <file>	Read the network topology from file
-w <file>	Store the discovered OSPF topology in a file. Usefull when finetuning the graph layout without rediscovering the entire network for every try
-s <StartDevice>	Explore the OSPF network starting from this device. Overwrites the device specified in the config file. Can be an IP address or hostname.
-a	Run the OSPF analyser on the topology.
-D <device>	discover a single device. This works only for devices that already exist in the topology file, so use it in conjunction with -r and -w only. For new devices use -s
-C <file>	use an alternate config file. By default the file `ospfviz.conf` is used
-l <file>	Log all debug messages to this file
-b	Do not check the configuration file for syntax errors
-v	print version and revision of core files

Configuration

Almoust all configuration settings are located in the config file ospfviz.conf. This config file is divided into four categories:

misc: general settings are placed here
discovery: relates to the ospf network discovery process
graph: contains all values to tweak the network graph
analyse: which checks are included in the ospf analyser

Misc

DebugLevel = 0,1,2
Set the debug level. Every level corresponds to a different topic. See the @DEBUGNAMES variable inside ospfviz.pl to learn which topic fits to which level.

Logging = 0
write activities to a log file

PathToLogFile = /var/log/ospfviz.log
select a log file (if logging via command line was activated)

NetdiscoLink = http://netdiscohost/netdisco/
If you want interaction with Netdisco, specify the base URL to the netdisco host. Otherwise leave blank.
Each OSPF router is then containing a hyperlink to netdisco for further information.

Discovery

StartRouter = 212.17.39.65
start exploring the ospf network from this device (IP address or hostname)

SNMPcommunity = public
SNMP version 1 and 2 read community

SNMPversion = 2,3
SNMPretries = 1
SNMPtimeout = 2
SNMP version (1, 2 or 3)

SNMP version 3 settings. Refer to the perl module documentation for exact syntax.
SNMPusername = stubbim,admin
SNMPauthkey =
SNMPauthpassword = testmeme,adminpwd
SNMPauthprotocol = md5,md5
SNMPprivkey =
SNMPprivpassword =
SNMPprivprotocol =
The values of each variable are applied in order. Leave a value blank if you don't want to use it for SNMP login.
If you want the first value of e.g. SNMPprivkey blank but the second assigned, use the form SNMPprivkey = ,mysecretkey

QueryDelay = 1
delay after querying a device (for not using too much bandwidth while discovery)

discover_no = 10.0.0.0/8,155.19.3.17
Do not try to access OSPF routers with these IP addresses on in these networks.

Graph

GraphFormat = hypergraph
choose the graph visualization format, currently 'hypergraph', 'graphviz' and 'prefuse_graphview' are supported

GraphSizeWidth = 800
GraphSizeHeight = 600
Select the width and/or height of the graph image in the final web page. Leave one of these values blank to keep the proportions.

All other settings in this category are specific to each visualization format.

Analyser

OSPF network analyser (checks some OSPF config without modifying it), also see section analyser.
IncludeAnalyser = true
PerformCheck01 = 0
ping router
PerformCheck02 = 1
check if bandwidth/metric settings match
PerformCheck03 = 1
ospf cost reference identical on ALL routers?
PerformCheck04 = 1
areas too small?
PerformCheck05 = 1
are there multiple links with identical metric to the same neighbor?
PerformCheck06 = 1
are the recommended capacity rules met?
PerformCheck07 = 1
is OSPF authentication used?
PerformCheck08 = 1
are there OSPF neighbors that are not in the FULL state?
PerformCheck09 = 1
is the OSPF router ID a physical interface or loopback?
PerformCheck10 = 1
For how many links it each router the DR?

Checks number 11 and above are for future checks.

Output control

DebugLevel = 0,1,2
Select how verbose OSPFviz will report what it is doing while exploring the network. This is for debugging and has no effect on the resulting image file. Debug levels are:

level 0: general messages
level 1: miscellaneous output
level 2: error messages (always have this level included!)
level 3: network discovery output
level 4: device
level 5: SNMP related
level 6: graphing
level 7: html
level 8: ospf analyser
level 9: debugging
level 10: IP address
level 11: area
level 12: package
level 13: config
level 14-15: unassigned
level 16: graphing (more detailed)
level 17: html (more detailed)
level 18: ospf analyser (more detailed)
level 19: unassigned

OSPFviz can log everything it dumps to the console window and also to a file. File logging is prefered when working with high debug levels.