The management server provides two variations of this feature:

Hiding Generic Hosts for One Switch: This feature hides unnamed generic hosts detected by a switch. The management server detects an element by looking at the ports on a switch. If it cannot find additional information about the element, it marks it as generic by displaying a question mark above its icon.

For example, assume you have a switch with 10 discovered elements. The management server detected these elements by looking at the ports on the switch and determined the type of element connected. Discovered elements appear with a question mark above their icon in the topology. The question mark indicates that the management server has detected the element, but it cannot obtain additional information. To learn how to use this feature, see Hiding Generic Hosts for a Switch” on page 291.

Hiding Generic Hosts for All Switches: This feature hides unnamed generic hosts within a domain. To learn how to use this feature, see Hiding Generic Hosts for All Switches” on page 291.

Hiding Generic Hosts for a Switch

Simplify your topology by hiding unnamed generic hosts connected to a switch. If you have an unnamed generic host connected to more than one switch and you want to hide the generic element, you must repeat the following steps for each switch connected to the generic host. You can hide all unnamed generic hosts at once by using the Hide Generic Hosts for All Switches feature. See Hiding Generic Hosts for All Switches” on page 291 for more information.

To hide generic hosts connected to a switch:

1.Right-click the switch.

2.Select Discovered Element > Hide Generic Hosts for the Switch from the menu.

A "+" icon is added to icon of the switch you right-clicked, to indicate it has hidden generic hosts.

Expanding Generic Hosts for a Switch

To display hidden generic hosts connected to a switch:

1.Right-click a switch with a "+" icon. This "+" icon indicates the switch has hidden generic hosts.

2.Select Discovered Element > Expand Generic Hosts for the Switch from the menu. The hidden elements for the switch appear in the upper-right corner of the topology.

Hiding Generic Hosts for All Switches

To hide all unnamed generic hosts and unnamed generic Cisco switches:

1.Right-click a switch.

2.Select Discovered Element > Hide Generic Hosts for All Switches from the menu. All unnamed generic hosts are hidden. A "+" icon is added to the icon of all switches that have generic hosts that have been hidden.

292 Viewing Element Topology and Properties