Task 5—Setting Up a Web Portal for the Dial NMS

As the number of devices and applications in a network increase, the operations support team may become inundated with a myriad of management products. To support a dial service, a web portal provides easy access to:

• Product manuals, design guides, white papers, and troubleshooting guides.

• Light-weight tools and scripts.

• Network policies, procedures, and reports.

• Periodic and just-in-time reporting.

  • The help desk can access operational information
    (for example, current connected caller status).

  • The operations staff can report on current service levels.

Tips For more information on building a management intranet, go to http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/serv/mkt/nmps/ent/tech/bmi_wi.htm

Table 22: Utilities Provided by the Web Portal for the Dial NMS

Utility	Function
Documentation Center	A web server used as an online-documentation hub to share network operations information.
Device Linker	A web page used for bookmarking URLs for quick device telnet and out of band (console) access. See the "Building a Device Linker Web Page" section.
Cisco IOS CLI Command Center	A web page that provides HTTP access to frequently used CiscoIOS CLI commands. The operations team and help desk can use this utility to troubleshoot connectivity problems. See the "Using HTTP to Access CLI Commands" section.
IP Tracker	A web page that uses two scripts to keep track of IP address block assignments by using DNS reverse lookup zones. See the "Creating an IP Tracker Web Page" section.
SNMP Commander	A script that aids the MIB research task by enabling engineers to build web-based object identification (OIDs) bookmarks. You can poll for network statistics by using OIDbookmarks and a web browser. No keyboard is required. See the "About SNMP Commander" section.
Syslog Viewer	A utility that uses FTP to access a syslog server and a web browser to view syslog messages. Migration to HTTP is straightforward after security issues are addressed. The use of non-wrapping text is useful when viewing debug messages and modem call records. See the "Inspecting Syslog Messages in the Log File" section.
Modem Call Record Viewer	Light-weight scripts used to parse and view modem call records. See the "About Syslog" section.
CiscoWorks 2000 Resource Manager Essentials	A utility used to remotely monitor and maintain devices through a web-based browser interface. See the "Task 8Using CiscoWorks 2000 Resource Manager Essentials" section.

• Simplifies access to the many device-management interfaces in the network.

• Provides links to the telnet, console, and HTTP ports of Cisco IOS devices.

Figure 19:
Device Linker Used to Access Devices

By using a Cisco terminal server for out-of-band console access, such as a Cisco 2511, the consoles are available at TCP port 20xx on a terminal server. The target line number replaces xx. For example to get to line 1, telnet to port 2001. The equivalent URL is telnet://172.21.101.250:2001

Step 2   Collect the device console out-of-band (OOB) paths for the terminal server and the lines connected to Cisco IOS devices.

Figure 20:
A Device Linker Management Page

Step 5   Click on an active device link. After a telnet session opens, log in.

Figure 21:
Console Port Login

!
line 1 16

 no exec

 transport input telnet

!
 

Step 2   If the console port is blocked, you may need to telnet to the terminal server and clear the line. Enter the show users EXEC command followed by the clear line type number command.

!
line 1 16

 no exec  

 exec-timeout 30 0

 transport input telnet

!
 

Note   To create the link for a CLI command, specify the IP address of the Cisco IOS device followed by the command. Remember to include the forward slashes (/) between each command mode and key word.

Table 25: Formula and Example for Linking a CLI Command

Formula	Example
http://ip-address/exec/ios-key-word/.../cr	http:/172.23.84.20/exec/sh/caller/cr