[j-nsp] [OT] unit-level vs interface-level description

[Ben Dale]

On 28/05/2013, at 12:58 AM, Nick Kritsky <nick.kritsky at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi fellow J-users,
> 
> I hope I will not trigger some long-forgotten flame-war by that question.
> But I do wonder: what are the best practices for interface/unit
> descriptions?
> Do you put them on interface-level or unit-level? Especially when you have
> pure-L3 interface that only has "unit 0" with "family inet" on it.
> 
> Do you put description to interface level? Unit level? Or both levels? Or
> do you put it on both levels but different descriptions?
> 
> I've seen people using different approaches, and I am just curious what's
> driving them.

For external links I tend to roll with:

set interfaces ge-0/0/0 description "Connected to (Device X Port Y)"
set interfaces ge-0/0/0 unit 0 description "Circuit ID / Carrier Description"

Where I'm talking to kit I control/where available, I tend to leave the physical stuff to something more accurate and self-updating like LLDP.  

On my to do list is writing an event-script that checks interfaces with LLDP neighbours every 24 hours or so and updates interface descriptions appropriately.

Driving my approach is being 6 stanzas deep in a config and being able to run "top show interfaces ?" and getting a nicely summarised list of the ports I should be referencing.

Ben