Symptoms

Unix type os classification failure.

Release

All currently supported releases.

Environment

Instance with Discovery plugin installed and discovering unix/linux devices.

Cause

The "Unix - Classify" probe is triggered when the Shazzam phase of discovery identifies ssh/port 22 (unless modified in port probes) on a discovered IP address. The "Unix - Classify" probe is a multiprobe. Multiprobes include other probes. One of the probes included in the "Unix - Classify" multiprobe is the "UNIX - OS" probe. The "UNIX - OS" probe runs the command "uname -a" to determine the os version.

The output from "uname -a" is parsed by the multisensor discovery_sensor_multi_probe.do?sys_id=10e63c5e0a0a0b4f0a078a5cfce81e13 as seen in the code below. 

var output = <string_returned_by_uname>  var unameParts = output.split(/ /);  var osName = unameParts[0];

The "osName" later on sets the ci_data.os_name which is used in the classifier criteria.

The expected format of "uname -a" is as follows:

<OS> <hostname> <version> ...

For example: 

Darwin MMCOIT1025574 16.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 16.7.0 ...

From the multisensor code, in this case the value would be:

Darwin

Thus, if the output of "uname -a" is not in the expected format or the os_name does not match any of the configured classifiers, under "Discovery Definition > CI Classification > UNIX", the identification phase for this device will not be triggered.

Note: If one of the classifier probes returns an unhandled error the classification sensors will be skipped. This is expected behavior. For example, if the classification input payload contains <results error="any_non_empty_string">

Resolution

1. First check that no unhandled errors were returned, a common example KB0743075.
2. Review the input in the payload for "uname -a" from the "Unix - OS" probe.
3. Check that the OS is the first word returned.
4. Check that there is a classification criteria for such OS, this is necessary in order to classify it properly and trigger the identification phase.
5. If no classifier exist, there are classifiers OOB for the linux/unix os types supported OOB, create a new classifier. See one of the other unix classifiers as an example.
6. On the new classifier, go to the related list "Triggers Probes" and add the desired identification probe or pattern.

Additional Information

Other helpful KB and docs:

• Troubleshooting the Classification Phase in Discovery
• Discovery device classification
• Discovery classification parameters
• Discovery classifiers
• Linux discovery
• Credentials required for host discovery
• SSH credentials
• Discovery Linux/Unix discovery fails with error "The message store has reached EOF"
• Failed to Classify Linux server in Kingston after upgrading from Jakarta