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Manipulate Source Strings for Auto-Provisioning

For certain auto-provisioning options, you can add or remove characters from the source string to identify the site, device name, or device profile that you want to assign to a device.

When adding auto-provisioning rules, you can transform a device attribute into a device name, site name, or profile name by extracting characters, ignoring characters, selecting characters, or adding characters.

You also can use multiple transformation options together.

Use these examples to experiment with the various options and understand how to transform your source strings into the desired result.

Note:

Different options are available for different device attributes.

Divide a String into Segments

With this option, Juniper Mist selects one segment of a character-delimited source string. The source string must include one of the permitted delimiter characters:

  • - (dash)

  • _ (underscore)

  • . (period)

  • / (forward slash)

  1. On the Organization Settings page, click Configure Auto-Provisioning.
  2. Select the type of auto-provisioning: Site Assignment, AP Name Generation, or Profile Assignment.
  3. Click Enabled.
  4. (For Site Assignment or Profile Assignment only) Select the Source.
  5. Select the check box for Divide into segments separated by.
  6. For Separator, enter a valid delimiter character: - _ . /
  7. Select the segment that you want to use for auto-provisioning (1st, 2nd, and so on).
  8. Verify your selections by entering sample strings in the gray box at the bottom of the Auto-Provisioning window.

    In this example, the administrator wants Juniper Mist to use only the characters in the second segment of the AP name. To verify that this will enable Juniper Mist to generate the desired name, the administrator enters a sample AP name. Juniper Mist responds with the resulting name.

    Configuration interface for parsing text strings. Extracts the 2nd segment from strings divided by underscore delimiter. Example: LLDP Port Desc set as East_Floor 7_Nursing outputs AP Name as Floor 7.
  9. Click OK.

Ignore Starting or Ending Characters

With this option, Juniper Mist ignores the first characters, the final characters, or both ends of the source string.
  1. On the Organization Settings page, select Configure Auto-Provisioning.
  2. Select the type of auto-provisioning: Site Assignment, AP Name Generation, or Profile Assignment.
  3. Click Enabled.
  4. (For Site Assignment or Profile Assignment only) Select the Source.
  5. Select the check box for Number of starting characters to ignore.
  6. Enter the number of characters to ignore.
    You must enter a number in at least one of the characters to ignore text boxes.
  7. Verify your selections by entering sample strings in the gray box at the bottom of the Auto-Provisioning window.

    In this example, the administrator wants Juniper Mist to ignore the first five characters of the AP name. To verify that this will enable Juniper Mist to generate the desired name, the administrator enters a sample AP name. Juniper Mist responds with the resulting name.

    Configuration interface for setting network port descriptions, showing options to divide segments, select or ignore characters, and fields for LLDP Port Desc and AP Name with examples East_Floor_7_Nursing and Floor_7_Nursing.
  8. Click OK.

Select the First Characters

With this option, Juniper Mist uses only the specified number of characters from the start of the source string.
  1. On the Organization Settings page, select Configure Auto-Provisioning.
  2. Select the type of auto-provisioning: Site Assignment, AP Name Generation, or Profile Assignment.
  3. Click Enabled.
  4. (For Site Assignment or Profile Assignment only) Select the Source.
  5. Select the check box for Select first characters.
  6. Enter the number of characters to use.
  7. Verify your selections by entering sample strings in the gray box at the bottom of the Auto-Provisioning window.

    In this example, the administrator wants Juniper Mist to select the first 12 characters of the AP name. To verify that this will enable Juniper Mist to generate the desired name, the administrator enters a sample AP name. Juniper Mist responds with the resulting name.

    Configuration interface for parsing text strings with options to divide text by separators, select specific segments, and ignore starting or ending characters. LLDP Port Description shows East_Floor 7_Nursing, and AP Name displays East_Floor 7.
  8. Click OK.

Add a Prefix or Suffix

With these options, Juniper Mist adds characters to the start of the source string (prefix), the end of the source string (suffix), or both.
  1. On the Organization Settings page, select Configure Auto-Provisioning.
  2. Select the type of auto-provisioning: Site Assignment or Profile Assignment.
    Note:

    You cannot add a prefix or suffix when setting up auto-provisioning to generate an AP name.
  3. Click Enabled.
  4. Select the check box for Add a prefix, Add a suffix, or both.
  5. Enter the characters to add.
  6. Verify your selections by entering sample strings in the gray box at the bottom of the Auto-Provisioning window.

    In this example, the administrator wants Juniper Mist to use only the characters in the second segment of the AP name.

    In this example, the administrator wants Juniper Mist to add a prefix consisting of these characters: Site A. To verify that these selections will enable Juniper Mist to find the corresponding device profile, the administrator enters a sample AP name. Juniper Mist responds with the resulting device profile name.

    Configuration interface for assigning device profiles with options to segment names, ignore characters, and add prefix Site A. Resulting profile name: Site A Floor 7.
  7. Click OK.

Using Multiple Transformation Options Together

When you use multiple options together, the string is transformed by the first selected option. Then the resulting characters are transformed by the next option, and so on until all options are applied.

Let's look at this example, where five options are selected.

Configuration interface for deriving profile name based on AP Name. Options include dividing into segments separated by a period, selecting the 1st segment, ignoring 2 starting characters, adding prefix a, and suffix b.

Let's say that the source string is 1234.5678.

  • With the first option, the source string is segmented a the dot (.), and the first segment is selected. The result is 1234. Only these characters are processed by the next option.

  • Next, the first two characters are ignored, resulting in 34. Only these characters are processed by the next option.

  • Next, only the first character, 3, is selected. Only this character is processed by the next option.

  • Now the letter a is added as a prefix, resulting in a3.

  • Finally, the letter b is added as a suffix, resulting in a3b.