Skip to content

SensAI🔗

Installation

For information on installing or updating SensAI, see the section on SensAI System Applications.

SensAI is Verity's AI-powered messaging assistant designed to help network professionals monitor and configure their network architecture. Through its intuitive interface, the assistant enables administrators to quickly diagnose problems and identify solutions.

Getting Started with SensAI🔗

Click the Open AI Panel button to open SensAI.

Chat Message Interface🔗

The chat message interface is where users interact with SensAI. The chat window has the typical layout and features users expect.

  1. SensAI Response Field
  2. Search Documents
  3. User Submission Field
  4. User Submission Button
  5. Help

As you submit queries and commands to SensAI, you may want to revisit your previous submissions. To do so, press the up or down arrow keys while the SensAI user submission field is active.

Fuzzy Matching🔗

SensAI is designed to anticipate user intent when object names are queried. Since object names may occasionally differ slightly from what users type, SensAI employs a technique known as fuzzy matching to interpret and correct user input. For example, if a user searches for an object named "Spine-1" but enters "Spine 1" (omitting the hyphen), SensAI will attempt to identify and match the intended object. SensAI notifies the user of the change by posting the word "corrected" beneath the query.

If the current query results in multiple potential matches—creating naming collisions—fuzzy matching is temporarily disabled. In such cases, SensAI prompts the user to clarify their query.

Help🔗

SensAI provides a useful help menu with examples of its capabilities. To view Help, click the question mark icon in the upper right corner of the SensAI chat window.

Note

SensAI's scope is limited to specific objects and tasks. This documentation provides a general overview of its capabilities. For a detailed list of applicable objects and actions please view the Help option in the application.

Behaviors🔗

SensAI responds to user prompts in the chat message window by displaying data in various formats and visual styles. In addition to displaying data, SensAI can also respond to user queries by executing site-wide commands that impact overall system operations. This distinction between displaying network information and executing system-altering operations is organized in the documentation under two categories: Data Presentation Behaviors and System Change Behaviors.

Data Presentation Behaviors🔗

Data Presentation Behaviors refer to the ways in which SensAI presents data to users.

Display Jumps🔗

SensAI responds to navigation commands by performing a jump and quickly navigating to the referenced object. A command such as Navigate to Leaf 2 will center the view window to Leaf 2, making the object the focal point.

Displaying Objects🔗

SensAI displays objects that match the query scope. The query scope can include a single object or many objects.

In the example below, a device named SAN B is returned from the query.

Object Information🔗

Objects are displayed with information about their status. Each information symbol is described in the diagram below.

  1. Status indicator
  2. Provisioning indicator
  3. Hex Button (The HEX button behaves the same as it does throughout the rest of the application. Hover, left click and right click functionality is identical)
  4. Name
  5. Alarms (Alarms are notifications that inform the administrator about changes in the network state)
  6. Context (Describes the containing object or environment)

Show/Hide Lists🔗

Lists have a Hide/Show feature that allows users to collapse (hide) and expand (show) lists in the chat.

Verity Documentation Reference🔗

When prompting SensAI, material from the official documentation may be presented and/or requested by the user. This information is usually presented in aggregate form from different sections of the documentation, with individual reference links to the source material included. Responses may include documentation content as part of a larger reply, or users can directly request official documentation by enabling the Docs (Search Documents) button .

Reports🔗

Report data is presented directly in the chat window with hyperlinks to the source Report(s).

Highlighting🔗

Highlighter is a powerful tool for tracing an object usage anywhere in the UI. When prompting SensAI to use the highlighter feature, the selected object and any trace objects associated with it are highlighted in purple.

In the example below, all ports using the VLAN number 101 are traced. Viewing each port profile and inspecting their assigned services reveals that all listed ports are assigned VLAN 101.

The instant search allows users to quickly find objects by name. To use this feature, preface the search with the @ symbol and type the name of the object or device you are searching for. Use the up and down arrows to choose from the presented items, and press Tab to auto-populate the selection in the submission field.

Instant Search for Statistics🔗

Instant search lets you quickly view different statistical descriptors for devices and provisioning objects using this format: @stat:{stat name}.

In this example, all switches with a CPU usage of less than 80 percent are listed.

Configuration Questions🔗

SensAI replies to configuration questions with instructions administrators can follow.

System Change Behaviors🔗

System Change Behaviors are actions that change the system state. The current version of Verity supports the following SensAI System Change Behaviors.

Confirmation Dialog🔗

All system change behaviors return a validation message that users must approve in order to commit the change(s).

Load Network Time Traveler Backup🔗

When Time Traveler backups are listed, users can revert to a previous state by loading a selected instance by clicking the Restore Network Time Traveler Backup button.

A validation message is presented asking the user to apply the changes or cancel.

Naming Collision Errors🔗

Provisioning objects with duplicate names (using the same name more than once), name collisions (names that are too similar), or common words (such as naming objects with generic terms like 'a') will trigger a notification icon with a red dot at the top of the sensAI messaging window. Clicking this icon opens a notification window that describes the naming issue.