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Aruba Central Next Gen

Consume Aruba Central Next Gen API

Actions82

Overview

This node interacts with the Aruba Central Next Gen API to retrieve monitoring data related to gateways. Specifically, the "Get Gateway VPN Availability Trend" operation fetches historical availability trends of VPN connections on a specified gateway device. This is useful for network administrators who want to analyze VPN uptime and performance over time, identify patterns or outages, and ensure reliable remote connectivity.

Practical examples include:

  • Monitoring VPN availability for a critical gateway to detect intermittent connectivity issues.
  • Generating reports on VPN uptime trends for compliance or SLA verification.
  • Correlating VPN availability with other network metrics to troubleshoot broader network problems.

Properties

Name Meaning
Debug Mode Whether to enable detailed debug logs for troubleshooting (true/false).
Domain API domain to interact with:
- Monitoring: Monitor devices, clients, and sites
- Configuration: Configure devices, groups, and profiles
Serial Number Gateway serial number identifying the specific gateway device to query (string).
Time Range Optional timestamp range for data retrieval (defaults to last 3 hours):
- Start Time (ISO 8601 datetime)
- End Time (ISO 8601 datetime)

Output

The node outputs JSON data representing the VPN availability trend for the specified gateway within the given time range. The structure typically includes timestamps and corresponding availability metrics (e.g., percentage uptime or status indicators) that show how VPN availability changed over time.

If binary data were output, it would represent raw files or media related to the VPN trend, but this node focuses on JSON metric data only.

Dependencies

  • Requires an active connection to Aruba Central Next Gen API.
  • Needs an API authentication token configured in n8n credentials (an OAuth2 or similar API key credential).
  • Network access to Aruba Central endpoints.
  • Proper permissions on the API to read gateway monitoring data.

Troubleshooting

  • Common Issues:

    • Invalid or missing gateway serial number will cause the API call to fail.
    • Incorrect or expired API credentials will result in authentication errors.
    • Specifying an invalid time range (e.g., start time after end time) may cause no data to be returned or errors.
    • Network connectivity issues to Aruba Central API endpoints can cause timeouts or failures.
  • Error Messages:

    • "Unknown error in node execution": Generic catch-all error; check debug logs if enabled.
    • Authentication errors: Verify API credentials and permissions.
    • Validation errors: Ensure required fields like serial number and domain are correctly set.

Enabling Debug Mode helps by providing detailed logs to diagnose issues.

Links and References

  • Aruba Central Next Gen API Documentation (official Aruba Networks site)
  • n8n documentation on creating custom nodes and using API credentials
  • General best practices for monitoring VPN availability and network health

Discussion