Cisco Network Management Tools


The Cisco network management tools have been developed on the Cisco AVVID architecture guidelines. These tools provide centralized monitoring and management capabilities to enterprises working in different types of network environments such as WAN, wireless and mobile networks, or VLAN setups.

The basic parameters that determine network service levels are availability, resilience, responsiveness, and security. Using Cisco’s network management tools, you can diagnose the specific causes of failure or disruptions on the network. These tools can be used independently or in combination, using a modular approach to meet the diagnostic requirements of the network. For example, CiscoView can be used as a diagnostic tool for the WAN management solutions provided by CiscoWorks.

CiscoView

CiscoView is a device management tool that uses a Graphic User Interface (GUI) to display the status of Cisco devices on the network. It provides real-time information about the status and configuration of Cisco devices on the network. CiscoView integrates with various other Cisco solutions such as CiscoWorks to provide centralized management of Cisco devices. The color codes and schemes of CiscoView enable you to view problems within the network, as well as their severity, through a single console.

The tool has been designed to diagnose and troubleshoot any errors in the network. Its major advantage is that it provides all the information about the network on a single interface, enabling you to manage large networks from a central location. This reduces the chances of network disruptions and increases system performance, because the entire network is constantly monitored.

CiscoWorks

CiscoWorks is a comprehensive application for managing networks of different sizes and types. It constitutes a family of products including LAN and WAN management solutions, IP telephony network management solutions, and mobile network management. These products manage various aspects of the network and provide troubleshooting capabilities.

The CiscoWorks suite is available in four versions, with varied capabilities and functionality:

CiscoWorks2000: A Web-based application suite that provides platform independent management capabilities for networks.

CiscoWorks Blue: A suite of applications used for managing highly complex networks for IBM SNA and IP environments.

CiscoWorks Switched Internetwork Solution (CWSI): A management application for switched networks that provides monitoring and analysis features. It can be integrated with SNMP management platforms, such as SunNet Manager, HP OpenView, and NetView. It also consists of LAN management applications such as VLAN Director, Traffic Director, and CiscoView.

CiscoWorks Windows: A management product for PC-based networks that provides network management capabilities for small and medium-sized networks.

Functions that can be performed using CiscoWorks include:

Device management: CiscoWorks allows you to create a database of the network inventory consisting of hardware, software, release levels of operation components, and the individuals who need to manage the inventory.

Device monitoring: Using this application, you can monitor the status of network devices. You can configure the interval after which the device state should to be checked. This information is logged using the Log Manager.

Security management: Authorizing user access can be easily configured for CiscoWorks in order to enhance security.

Inventory management: CiscoWorks provides a Sybase database, which can be used to store the status of software and hardware devices. The device information in the database is sorted by platform and software image. It invokes the Device Software Manager, which updates the status of the specific device.

Show commands: These commands display configuration information along with version details and interface states. They can be executed from the CiscoWorks console.

Configuration management: CiscoWorks simplifies the analysis of configuration files on local and remote Cisco system devices. You can compare the configuration files in the database or the currently active configuration running on the device with the configuration when the last database-to-device command was executed.

Configuration snap-in management: CiscoWorks supports the Global Command Scheduler application, which you can use to execute system commands on a device or a group of devices.

Traffic Director RMON

The Traffic Director Remote Monitor is a traffic management solution for switched networks. It performs traffic analysis and performance management functions for the embedded RMON agent within Catalyst switches and standalone Cisco SwitchProbe products. It determines the traffic utilization, broadcast levels, error rates, and number of collisions on particular ports. To persistently monitor the performance of Catalyst switches, you can configure predefined thresholds that generate alerts each time the threshold limit is exceeded.

Traffic Director performs advanced monitoring and troubleshooting functions and allows multilayer traffic analysis, threshold alerts, and remote packet capture. The thresholds are configured for Management Information Base (MIB) variables within the RMON agent. If these thresholds are violated, traps are sent to the required station, and notifications are sent to the technical support staff about the problem.

Traffic Director is an enterprise-level solution that also performs the following functions:

  • Trend and pattern analysis of network traffic

  • Protocol-level troubleshooting

  • Trend reporting based on history data

  • Configuration of thresholds for generating alerts

This application has been developed for providing high-end support for Catalyst LAN switches using the Cisco IOS RMON agents. A switch is managed by the Traffic Director as a special device with an embedded RMON (containing statistics, history, alarms, event-related tasks, and information) and Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) that provides continuous support to RMON and RMON2 agents for all ports on the switch. In addition, this application can simultaneously recognize four SwitchProbes on a Fast Ethernet trunk or server link. This information can be integrated with traffic displays and viewed simultaneously for enhanced SwitchProbe management.

In addition, Traffic Director can manage VLANs and provide SQL-based trend reporting capabilities. You can use these trend reports to study traffic patterns and determine the busiest devices on the network. Using this information, you can perform load balancing and tuning tasks for enhancing performance. This application is highly comprehensive and provides a number of capabilities:

Seven-layer traffic analysis: You can monitor network traffic for all seven layers of the network. The RMON agent and SwitchProbe display network traffic for the entire enterprise from the Network, Data-link, Transport, and Application layers. It provides a multilayer traffic summary that enables you to assess network load and protocol distribution. You can view detailed information about each segment, ring, switch, or port. Using the real-time capabilities of the application, you can also perform high-end diagnostic functions for hosts, connections, or packets.

Protocol analysis: Traffic Director provides seven-layer decodes for the AppleTalk, DECnet, IP, ISO, Novell, SNA, Sun, NFS, Banyan VINES, and XNS protocol suites. As a result, Traffic Director provides centralized diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities. The data is stored in a sniffer format, which is available for further analysis of protocol-related problems.

Distributed polling and threshold configuration: The Resource Monitor tool available with Traffic Director enables polling and monitoring of SNMP thresholds for large and remote networks.

VLAN Monitoring: You can analyze the activities performed within the VLAN setup along with trunk links, LAN segments, rings, and switch ports. The application provides a breakup of the statistics for each VLAN, which enables a drill-down analysis of network activities and events at the lowest level.

It also provides information pertaining to utilization, broadcast, multicast, and error rates for VLANs.

VLAN Director Switch Management

The VLAN Director Switch Management application provides management capabilities for VLAN ports. This application simplifies VLAN port assignment in the network and enables:

  • Physical network representation and configuration management

  • Access to device-specific configuration information

  • Discrepancy reports in case of configuration conflicts

  • Identification of erroneous device configurations for system level VLANs and troubleshooting

  • Fast detection of switch port changes in VLANs

  • Security implementation through user authentication and write protection

The GUI of the VLAN Director provides mapping capabilities for configuring logically defined workgroups. The VLAN Director provides drag-and-drop features for easy port configuration when configuring users for VLANs. In addition, it can be integrated with common SNMP management platforms such as HP OpenViewtm, Sun Solaristm, and Tivoli TME 10tm to optimize resource utilization and enhance reporting capabilities.

While VLANs enhance network manageability by segregating the network into logical segments with respect to network users and functionality, the VLAN Director makes it easy to configure and manage VLANs in large networks. It automates the configuration of interswitch VLAN links, reducing the errors that may occur during manual configuration. The interface makes administration of VLANs easier, especially when you need to add, remove, or modify VLANs.

WAN Manager

The Cisco WAN Manager (CWM) is a multi-protocol network management application based on SNMP. As the name suggests, the application has been designed for WAN management. CWM can integrate with other Cisco applications, such as Cisco Info Center and Cisco Provisioning Center. In addition, CWM supports the management of Cisco BPX Service Expansion Shelf (SES) and Cisco Advanced ATM Multiservice Portfolio (AAMP).

CWM is designed to provide exhaustive service management capabilities and process automation, and as a result, it ensures simplified management of complex networks. CWM is usually associated with service provider networks that demand management of high-level connections and a variety of services. This task becomes highly cumbersome when it needs to be done on a large scale, as in the case of WANs.

Using CWM, you can easily manage connections, detect faults, configure devices, and track network statistics. The network statistics can be stored in the SQL database and integrated with the currently active network management and operating systems. The functions performed by CWM are:

Fault management: CWM can detect, isolate, and rectify network faults. It can also generate reports about faulty network services. The fault management function of CWM correlates several services such as availability, reliability, survival, quality assurance, and alarms. These services combine to provide a comprehensive fault management solution.

Configuration management: CWM enables you to configure and control network elements, identify resources, collect information about resources such as CPU and memory, and manage connectivity between network elements. This involves monitoring the state of network elements, services, and resources.

Performance management: CWM enables performance management by collecting and reporting trends in network elements and services, including tasks such as quality assurance, management, control, and analysis.

Account management: This feature of CWM enables data collection for measuring the utilization of network resources and services. It also provides enterprise-control capabilities and allows management of the flow of funds within the enterprise, including tariff or pricing and usage measurement.

Security management: CWM detects and prevents unauthorized access to network resources. In addition, it recovers network elements in the event of a security breach.

Planning, modeling, and analysis: This is a management level function of CWM, which can anticipate potential network performance bottlenecks. This function includes simulation of networks and management systems, inventory, bandwidth capacity, usage, and cost analysis. Based on the data collected for these parameters, future network usage patterns can be defined.

CWM consists of various tools that perform the above-mentioned functions. For example, the network administrator provides information such as the node name and IP address of the node in your network. Other tools available with CWM are:

Statistics Collection Manager (SCM): Collects statistical data from the network nodes at predefined intervals. This data is stored in the database and is used for analysis. The SCM enables you to define network objects such as connections, ports, and trunks. In addition, it provides extensive error handling capabilities.

Informix Reporting Application: Handles history or trend data through the SQL architecture because of the large volume of data in the database and the

error-prone process of retrieving the data using SNMP. The statistics reports generated by CWM are available through the Informix Wingz Report application. Based on this application, CWM can provide data on the rate of node use. The reports are generated with respect to certain predefined criteria, which can be a network object or report interval.

NetSys Network Management Suite

NetSys is a simulation tool that provides network planners, analysts, and managers with planning and analytical capabilities. This tool is especially useful when a new network design is being considered. NetSys is also used to display, debug, and validate the network configuration.

There are two versions of NetSys that cater to different network platforms and adopt specific functionality for simulation and planning: NetSys Baseliner (for Windows NT) and the NetSys SLM Suite.

NetSys Baseliner 4.0

The NetSys Baseliner is a tool that diagnoses network problems by simulating the current configuration of the network. It instantly creates a network model with the current network configuration and detects potential problems that might occur in the network. Based on this diagnosis, you can change the network configurations.

The Connectivity Baseliner creates a network map, while the Connectivity Solver analyzes the environment for various network device failures and their impact on performance, connectivity, and process flow.

This tool gathers the entire configuration data from a live network and uses these configurations to process Cisco IOS commands and build a network model. This model is then analyzed for errors and topology-related issues. Reports are generated, which can be used to reconfigure the problem areas in the model. After the configuration changes are tested, they can be applied to the live network.

NetSys SLM Suite

The NetSys SLM suite is a policy-based network management application, which establishes service levels while defining, monitoring, and assessing network connectivity, security, and performance policies.

The product consists of four modules that perform a specific set of functions:

Connectivity Manager: Monitors the existing network configuration and analyzes data for the availability of key network services. You can configure service levels for checking connectivity, reliability, and security of services. The View, Isolate, Solve, Test, and Apply (VISTA) methodology is adopted for diagnosing problems.

Performance Manager: Works in conjunction with the Connectivity Manager module to check the performance standards of network services. Using this module, you can define, monitor, and determine the optimum performance standards. Using the modeling feature of this module, you can develop accurate network models and then define performance standards during simulation.

LAN Service Manager: Provides LAN switching topology views for the Connectivity Manager module. This provides an integrated view of router/LAN switching networks and traffic paths. The LAN Service Manager monitors the LAN switch domain functionality and helps enhance the spanning tree configuration settings.

WAN Service Manager: Provides WAN switching analysis for SLM. The WAN Service Manager includes features such as integrated Layer 2/Layer 3 topologies and automated integrity checking. In addition, it provides a “What If” analysis capability for the WAN setup.

The modules interoperate and integrate depending on the requirements of the planners and analysts.




Cisco IP Routing Protocols(c) Trouble Shooting Techniques
Cisco IP Routing Protocols: Trouble Shooting Techniques (Charles River Media Networking/Security)
ISBN: 1584503416
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 130

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