Manage Network Device Vendors in rConfig V8 Core

Vendors in rConfig V8 Core tag each device with its manufacturer, giving you a structured way to organise inventory, drive vendor-specific reporting, and segment your network by equipment type. After reading this page, you can understand how vendor records fit into rConfig and add, edit, or remove a vendor.

rConfig V8 Core ships with a list of common network equipment vendors pre-configured, so you can start assigning devices immediately and extend the list to match your environment.

What vendor records do

A vendor is a categorical label that identifies the manufacturer of a device. Maintaining accurate vendor data unlocks several operational benefits.

• Device organisation: Vendors give you a natural way to group and filter devices in your inventory, which matters most when you manage hundreds or thousands of devices.
• Reporting and analytics: Vendor-based reporting helps you analyse infrastructure composition, identify vendor concentration, and plan hardware refresh cycles by manufacturer.
• Standardisation planning: Tracking device counts per vendor over time lets you measure progress on a consolidation or standardisation initiative.

How vendors connect to the rest of rConfig

The vendor collection links to several other components.

• Device records: Each device is associated with a single vendor, linking inventory directly to manufacturer.
• Categories: Vendors work alongside device categories (routers, switches, firewalls) to give you a two-dimensional classification system.
• Connection templates: Vendor data is captured during device onboarding alongside the connection template that controls how rConfig connects to and backs up the device.
• Reporting: The reporting engine uses vendor as a key dimension for infrastructure and inventory reports.

When to use this

Work through this page when you set up rConfig for the first time and need to confirm the pre-configured vendor list covers your equipment, or when you onboard a manufacturer that is not yet listed. Edit or delete vendor records when a manufacturer rebrands, when you consolidate duplicate entries, or when you retire a vendor from your estate.

Prerequisites

• An rConfig V8 Core login with permission to manage device settings.
• A clear idea of which manufacturers exist in your environment, so you avoid creating duplicate entries.

Viewing the vendor collection

Open the Vendors section from the main navigation to see every manufacturer defined in your instance. The vendor table lists the vendor name, the number of devices associated with each vendor, and when the record was last modified.

Adding a new vendor

Check for duplicates first

Before adding a vendor, confirm it does not already exist under a similar name or abbreviation. Duplicate entries fragment your inventory and split reporting across two records.

1. Click Add Vendor in the vendors listing.
2. Enter the vendor name in the name field.
3. Click Save to create the vendor record.

The new vendor is immediately available for device assignment and appears in vendor dropdowns across the application.

Follow consistent naming so reporting stays clean.

• Use the official manufacturer name consistently (for example “Cisco Systems” rather than “Cisco Inc.” or “CISCO”).
• Avoid abbreviations unless they are the vendor’s official designation. “HP” is fine, but spell out lesser-known vendors.
• If a vendor is acquired or rebranded, edit the existing record rather than creating a second entry.

Editing a vendor

1. Locate the vendor in the vendors listing.
2. Click the Edit action for that vendor.
3. Update the vendor name or details.
4. Click Save to apply the change.

Edits propagate to every associated device

Renaming a vendor affects every device currently associated with it. The change applies immediately across the system, including existing reports and scheduled backup jobs. Confirm the change is intentional before you save.

Deleting a vendor

1. Locate the vendor you want to remove in the vendors listing.
2. Click the Delete action for that vendor.
3. Confirm the deletion in the warning dialog.

Deletion has constraints worth knowing before you start.

• A vendor that is still associated with active devices cannot be deleted directly. Reassign or remove those devices first.
• A vendor with no device associations can be deleted immediately.
• Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

Prefer reassignment over deletion

If a vendor is no longer in use but still has historical device associations, consider leaving the record in place rather than deleting it. This preserves historical data integrity while you decide how to migrate the affected devices.

Watch: adding and editing vendors

Assigning a vendor to a device

You set the vendor when you create or edit a device record.

1. In the device create or edit form, open the Vendor dropdown.
2. Select the manufacturer from the list.
3. Save the device record to store the association.

To review every device for a given vendor, open the Devices section, apply the vendor filter, and select the vendor. The device list updates to show only that manufacturer’s equipment.

Common gotchas

Watch for these vendor pitfalls

• Duplicate names such as “Cisco”, “Cisco Systems”, and “Cisco Inc.” fragment your inventory. Standardise on one name and reassign devices off the variants before deleting them.
• A delete that fails with an association error means devices are still linked to the vendor. Filter the device list by that vendor, reassign every device, then retry.
• A device count that does not match the filtered device list usually means cached statistics. Refresh the Vendors page, then confirm the count by filtering the device list manually.
• A vendor missing from the device dropdown has either not been created yet or has been removed. Confirm it exists in the Vendors collection before reporting a fault.

What’s next

• Add and manage devices to associate each device with its vendor.
• Set up connection templates to control how rConfig connects to each vendor’s equipment.
• Generate configuration reports that use vendor as a reporting dimension.