Network configuration services may be performed by multiple distinct devices, such as routers with service cards and/or dedicated service devices. Such services include connectivity services such as Layer Three Virtual Private Network (L3VPN), Virtual Private Local Area Network Service (VPLS), and Peer to Peer (P2P) services. Other services include network configuration services, such as Dot1q VLAN Service. Network management systems may support these services such that an administrator may easily create and manage these high-level network configuration services. In customer deployments, there may be thousands to millions of connectivity services. When the services are changed, the network management system typically deploys configuration services in the network via transactions. In some cases, there may be concurrent changes across the devices, as multiple administrators may modify the services in parallel.

Network management systems typically have an ability to discover devices in its network an automatically add them, for example, as a device object, for further management, such as pushing a configuration. For example, a user may specify a range of IP addresses or a subnet and specify credentials, such as through simple network management protocol (SNMP). The network management system may then sweep through the list of IP addresses and add all the reachable devices for further management.

In general, this disclosure describes techniques for managing network devices. A network management system may discover network devices behind a network address translation (NAT) device, such as a firewall, and configure the discovered network devices.