4.4.1 Discovery and Construction
When you discover a new device, AutoNOC takes the relevant probes (as defined by the device template being discovered) that have not been disabled and it tries to resolve each probe to see which ones work for the device and which ones do not.

In this process, each probe will attempt to discover as a child of an existing device component type if the component type is automatically constructed. If it is not an automatically constructed component (like a device interface) then AutoNOC will test to see if the probe works stand alone for the device and if it does, it will create the necessary category and component for it.

These settings can be customized for every probe as is shown in the following screen:

The Category field specifies which category under the device that the software will place the probe. The Component Type field specifies the type of component to create. The following is a table showing which probe templates auto-create categories and components as well as the ones that require an existing component to already be defined.

Lastly, for probe templates that automatically create their own components, the Custom Component Name allows the user to specify a name for the component that it creates. Note also that a probe template that has been disabled will not be discovered on devices.

4.4.2 Database
Every probe and log utilizes AutoNOC's persistent, highly compressed database capability to store incoming acquired data. Log files store data as compressed text while probes have a variable ability to store data in many different formats. How each probe stores it's data is defined in the probe template and can be selected by changing the Internal Record Format field on the Expression tab of the probe template.

Supported record types include various forms of integers, floating point numbers, and text. Keep in mind that the format chosen will have an effect on how much space is used when storing the data for the probe.

For more information on AutoNOC's recoiling database architecture, see 1.8 - Recoiling Database. AutoNOC's recoiling database with data compression enables the maintenance of very large histories in a reasonable amount of disk space.

4.4.3 Graphing
Probe templates in AutoNOC also allow the user to specify how data should be graphed. The following screenshot shows the example setup of the Traffic In (Cisco) probe which computes incoming traffic to an interface on a Cisco specific device:

Graph Minimum and Graph Maximum specify values that indicate the y-axis on graphs showing the data from this probe. If either field is left blank, then AutoNOC will compute the field automatically. Note that these are expressions evaluated at the scope of the probe and so your settings can be setup to vary dynamically.

The Display Format utilizes a sprintf C++ string formatting expression to display specific values with a label and to a certain precision. See any C++ manual for examples of how to author formatting expressions for use with AutoNOC.

By default, when the minimum and maximum ranges far exceed the range of the actual data being acquired then AutoNOC will zoom in and auto-scale the data (and display the maximum as text on the graph). Turn on No Graph Zoom to disable this feature. Display of the graph can also be disabled by turning off Show Graph.

4.4.4 Expression and Component Rule
Every probe has a data acquisition expression. This expression is solved, in parallel with other currently being solved expressions on the device, by the AutoNOC OSP Command Prompt. For a complete discussion of expression authoring in the interpreter see 4.3 - Interpreter.

The discussion in 1.4 - Acquisition Stacks is also very beneficial for understanding how exactly AutoNOC acquires data. When you click on the AutoNOC OSP Command Prompt button for an instance of a probe it will load the expression specified in the probe's template. This is helpful in debugging custom probe expressions and for authoring new ones.

Below the acquisition expression is a field entitled Component Rule. This expression is evaluated by the AutoNOC OSP Command Prompt. If the expression is TRUE (non-zero), then AutoNOC will hide the component that the instance probe is a child of.

4.4.5 Visualization
Some probes can also be visualized within AutoNOC. For instance, the Traffic Flow probe can be setup to actually show the direction of data flow on the network diagram live on the display. Visualization settings are available on the Visualize tab as shown in this screenshot:

The tab has two fields indicating the type of visualization to use for the probe and a 3-letter abbreviation that is used for display of the probe visualization.