Nebula Auto Naming Wired Clients

SkyGoat · September 10

I've noticed what I think is some new (useful) behaviour in Nebula in the last few months.

It used to be that when a Windows PC is connected via ethernet to a Nebula Switch, Nebula would just show the PC's MAC address as the client name.

Recently though I've seen Nebula is now detecting the OS as "Windows 7 or newer" and the Hostname of some Windows PCs and naming the client automatically on Nebula.

It's working on both Windows 10 and 11 computers.

I think the switch is intercepting the clients DHCP requests to get this information. Why? If I take one of the computers, change it to a static IP address, then rename the computer and restart, Nebula stays as the old name. If I change the computer back to DHCP mode, Nebula then auto updates to the new name after a few minutes.

But, Nebula isn't able to do this for every Windows device, for reasons I haven't yet been able to work out.

Is anyone else seeing this?

Zyxel_Melen · September 12

Hi @SkyGoat

Thanks for asking. We are clarifying this question and we will update you once we get further information.

GiuseppeR · September 13

Hi @SkyGoat

I see similar problems, it seems the way that Nebula follows to display also other (e.g. LLDP) infos.

As you can see here:

I have 2 NICs from the same server where with one of them I have:

IP
System name
OS

While the other one seems to be a ghost.

In my case consider that both of those MACs have reserved IPs as you can see in my DHCP table:

If you use Advanced IP Scanner inside that network, for example, you can see all the IPs.

SkyGoat · September 17

Hi @GiuseppeR

Are the two NICs in your server are the same make, model, driver version? Is the second NIC definitely set to DHCP mode in Windows?

In my case, my DHCP server is a Windows server rather than Zyxel.

I don't think the switch is picking up the name and OS from LLDP, because I disabled LLDP on one of the computers, and disabled LLDP on the port it is connected to, and Nebula was still able to report the correct hostname and OS automatically.

GiuseppeR · September 17

Hi @SkyGoat

both NICs are the same, twins on each settings.

Both goes for DHCP on the firewall, while the other PCs in my domain use one of those NICs for their DNS (primary) and then firewall DNS (secondary).

I do not understand how Nebula uses and shows the Clients' name area.

It seems a mix of LLDP, NetBIOS names, MAC addresses: so I am not so satisfied by this table of contents, for example to know which IPs are taken I have to use an IP scanner inside my networks instead of reading these values directly from firewalls/security routers made by Zyxel.

MTGabriele · October 24

Salve,

ho necessità di mantenere allineati i nomi host su Nebula con i nomi host della lan del Cliente che attualmente utilizza una rete Microsoft con dominio e domain controller con server Dhcp e Dns Microsoft con risoluzione integrata in ADirectory ed inoltro su Server Google per la risoluzione dei nomi internet.

Sino ad oggi gli switch XGS2220, GS1920 e GS1915 hanno registrato esclusivamente i Mac address come nomi host obbliganto il supporto IT ad un lavoro aggiuntivo per la mappatura degli stessi.

C'è un modo per ovviare a tale comportamento ad oggi?

Grazie

Zyxel_Melen · October 29

Hi @MTGabriele

Please reference the table below to learn the switch client page behavior.

Scenario	Switch client page
With Firewall and/or AP in the same site	Will sync the client data from Firewall and AP. If they learn client's name from DHCP process and LLDP, the Firewall/AP and switch will display the client's name.
Without Firewall and/or AP in the same site	The switch will only learn the MAC addresss information, therefore, the client's name will be its MAC address.

For the original issue, the client shows it device's name is because this site has AP. The switch learns the client's name from AP.

Nebula Auto Naming Wired Clients

All Replies

Categories

Nebula Tips & Tricks

Nebula Help Center