Validation Checks

When you discover operational anomalies, you can check whether the devices, hosts, network protocols, and services are operating as expected. NetQ lets you see when changes have occurred to the network, devices, and interfaces by viewing their operation, configuration, and status at an earlier point in time.

Validation support is available in the NetQ UI and the NetQ CLI for the following:

Validation with the NetQ UI

The NetQ UI uses the following cards to create validations and view results for these protocols and services:

• Network Health
• Validation Request
• On-demand and Scheduled Validation Results

For a general understanding of how well your network is operating, the Network Health card workflow is the best place to start as it contains the highest-level view and performance roll-ups.

Validation with the NetQ CLI

The NetQ CLI uses the netq check commands to validate the various elements of your network fabric, looking for inconsistencies in configuration across your fabric, connectivity faults, missing configurations, and so forth. You can run commands from any node in the network.

View Default Validation Tests

To view the list of tests run for a given protocol or service by default, use either netq show unit-tests <protocol/service> or perform a tab completion on netq check <protocol/service> [include|exclude]. Refer to Validation Tests Reference for a description of the individual tests.

Select the Tests to Run

You can include or exclude one or more of the various tests performed during the validation. Each test is assigned a number, which is used to identify which tests to run. By default, all tests are run. The <protocol-number-range-list> value is used with the include and exclude options to indicate which tests to include. It is a number list separated by commas, or a range using a dash, or a combination of these. Do not use spaces after commas. For example:

• include 1,3,5
• include 1-5
• include 1,3-5
• exclude 6,7
• exclude 6-7
• exclude 3,4-7,9

The output indicates whether a given test passed, failed, or was skipped.

Validation Check Result Filtering

You can create filters to suppress false alarms or uninteresting errors and warnings that can be a nuisance in CI workflows. For example, certain configurations permit a singly connected MLAG bond, which generates a standard error that is not useful.

You define these filters in the /etc/netq/check-filter.yml file. You can create a rule for individual check commands or you can create a global rule that applies to all tests run by the check command. Additionally, you can create a rule specific to a particular test run by the check command.

Each rule must contain at least one match criteria and an action response. The only action currently available is filter. The match can comprise multiple criteria, one per line, creating a logical AND. You can match against any column in the validation check output. The match criteria values must match the case and spacing of the column names in the corresponding netq check output and are parsed as regular expressions.

This example shows a global rule for the BGP checks that suppresses any events generated by the DataVrf virtual route forwarding interface coming from swp3 or swp7.. It also shows a test-specific rule to filter all Address Families events from devices with hostnames starting with exit-1 or firewall.

bgp:
    global:
        - rule:
            match:
                VRF: DataVrf
                Peer Name: (swp3|swp7.)
            action:
                filter
    tests:
        Address Families:
            - rule:
                match:
                    Hostname: (^exit1|firewall)
                action:
                    filter

Create Filters for Provisioning Exceptions

You can configure filters to change validation errors to warnings that would normally occur due to the default expectations of the netq check commands. This applies to all protocols and services, except for agents. For example, if you provision BGP with configurations where a BGP peer is not expected or desired, then errors that a BGP peer is missing occur. By creating a filter, you can remove the error in favor of a warning.

To create a validation filter:

1. Navigate to the /etc/netq directory.

2. Create or open the check_filter.yml file using your text editor of choice.

   This file contains the syntax to follow to create one or more rules for one or more protocols or services. Create your own rules, and/or edit and un-comment any example rules you would like to use.

   # Netq check result filter rule definition file.  This is for filtering
   # results based on regex match on one or more columns of each test result.
   # Currently, only action 'filter' is supported. Each test can have one or
   # more rules, and each rule can match on one or more columns.  In addition,
   # rules can also be optionally defined under the 'global' section and will
   # apply to all tests of a check.
   #
   # syntax:
   #
   # <check name>:
   #   tests:
   #     <test name, as shown in test list when using the include/exclude and tab>:
   #       - rule:
   #           match:
   #             <column name>: regex
   #             <more columns and regex.., result is AND>
   #           action:
   #             filter
   #       - <more rules..>
   #   global:
   #     - rule:
   #         . . .
   #     - rule:
   #         . . .
   #
   # <another check name>:
   #   . . .
   #
   # e.g.
   #
   # bgp:
   #   tests:
   #     Address Families:
   #       - rule:
   #           match:
   #             Hostname: (^exit*|^firewall)
   #             VRF: DataVrf1080
   #             Reason: AFI/SAFI evpn not activated on peer
   #           action:
   #             filter
   #       - rule:
   #           match:
   #             Hostname: exit-2
   #             Reason: SAFI evpn not activated on peer
   #           action:
   #             filter
   #     Router ID:
   #       - rule:
   #           match:
   #             Hostname: exit-2
   #           action:
   #             filter
   #
   # evpn:
   #   tests:
   #     EVPN Type 2:
   #       - rule:
   #           match:
   #             Hostname: exit-1
   #           action:
   #             filter
   #
   

Use Validation Commands in Scripts

If you are running scripts based on the older version of the netq check commands and want to stay with the old output, edit the netq.yml file to include old-check: true in the netq-cli section of the file. For example:

netq-cli:
  port: 32708
  server: 127.0.0.1
  old-check: true

Then run netq config restart cli to apply the change.

If you update your scripts to work with the new version of the commands, change the old-check value to false or remove it. Then restart the CLI.