We have added a feature to the UNET NM (Network Management) facility.
If you do not use NM, you can ignore the rest of this mail file.

When in the web page that displays the contents of a network, there is
now a button labled "Export".  If you click this button, it will take
you to a page that will allow you to download an extract of the hosts in
a network to your workstation.

Extracts can be produced in either comma delimited format or as NM batch
jobs which can be fe back into NM.  There are options on the page to
control the format of the extracts.

The comma delimited format is useful for importing back into some other
programs (spreadsheats, databases, etc.)

The batch format is useful for making backups of your data or for moving
to a new IP address allocation.

Notes:

    * The extract facility can export hosts with multiple IP and MAC
      addresses but the batch facility does not yet support these
      (adding this support is high on the to-do list).
    * The default is to NOT include hosts with multiple IP addresses in
      batch formatted extracts.  This is to prevent unintentional
      deletion of routers (for those with authorization to do so) and to
      prevent error messages for those without that authorization.
    * The options normally seen after the "More" button on the host
      screen are NOT supported (CNAME, MX, DHCP options, etc).
    * We plan to add a similar extract to the Domain view.
    * Some other features are possible, but are not high on the list yet
      (regular expression match to control which hosts are exported,
      supress hosts with the extra unsupported data).

An example of how to use to move to a new subnet.

   1. Go to the export page for your OLD network as decribed above.
   2. Click the "Download" button.
   3. When asked for a file name for download, give it a name like
      "backup.txt" or something similar.  This is a backup copy of your
      current network IP address allocation
   4. After the download completes, Click the button labled "AUTO in
      place of IP address", click the "Refresh" button and in the text
      box, replace the OLD network address (at the top of the box
      preceeded by the word "network") with your NEW network.
   5. Cick the "Download" button.
   6. When asked for a file name for download, accept the default or
      give it a name you will remember, this is the batch job used to
      add your machines to your new network.
   7. After the download completes, click the button labled "Build a
      delete batch" and then click the "Refresh" butthon.
   8. Click the "Download" button.
   9. When asked for a file name for download, acccept the default or
      give it a name you will remember, this is the batch job used to
      delete your machines from your old network.
  10. Click the "Batch" button at the top of the window, browse to or
      type the name of your delete job and click the "Run" button.  Be
      sure to check the results for errors.
  11. Now browse to or type in the name of your add batch and click the
      "Run" button.  Again check for errors.

Notes:

    * Since MX, CNAME, IP address alias and DHCP data are not supported
      by the batch function, you might want to delete machines with this
      kind of data from your delete job and move them manually later.
       You can do this either in the text box before downloading or
      using an editor on your workstation.

P.S.:

    This has been on our to-do list for years, but never quite bubbled
    to the top.  Last thursday when changes to NM broke a program used
    by some people to build batch jobs for moving to new subnets we
    decided it was time to bring this to the top of the to-do list.

    Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

--
Irelann Kerry Anderson          phone:    (207)581-3508
Systems Group                   internet  [log in to unmask]
UNET (formerly CAPS) Technology Services
University of Maine System