Table of Contents

Product Overview
Key Features and Benefits

Complete Dial Management Solution

Specifications

Configuration

Stack Configuration Functions
Shelf Configuration Functions

Monitoring
Reporting
Security
Scalable Point-of-Presence Management
Summary

Ordering Information

Cisco AccessPath Manager

Product Overview

Cisco AccessPath Manager is a web-based access management system designed explicitly to deploy and operate large, complex, distributed dial pools.

As Internet service providers (ISPs) and large enterprises implement large, fault-tolerant access solutions, configuration and management tools become critical to accomplish rapid deployment and ensure the highest degree of availability. Cisco AccessPath Manager is a targeted access management system that facilitates configuration, quick installation, and advanced reporting for AccessPath solutions. AccessPath Manager guarantees optimum utilization of your AccessPath dial infrastructure investment.

Cisco AccessPath Manager is a high-performance application with several unique capabilities:

• Management of multiple dial shelves as a single entity

• Easy access from any point in the network through a secure, Web-based interface

• Rapid deployment of dial ports

• Extensive centralized modem management

• Traffic reporting and analysis tools

Key Features and Benefits

Complete Dial Management Solution

Lower operating costs and rapid port deployment are achievable through the management capabilities contained within AccessPath Manager. AccessPath Manager supports centralized, simultaneous management of distributed AccessPath systems with multiple configuration options, including in-band/out-of-band management and single-channel or multi-channel configurations. With these multiple-service configuration options, AccessPath Manager provides superior flexibility, performance tuning, and solution reliability.

A key strength of AccessPath Manager is that it provides all features in a unified manner across multiple dial shelves. In the same way that Cisco`s Multichassis Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol (MMP) technology allows multiple dial shelves to appear as one dial pool, AccessPath Manager facilitates the distributed management of multiple dial shelves as a single entity.

AccessPath Manager offers the following features:

• Channel and modem utilization views across an AccessPath system, a dial shelf, and a single Primary Rate Interface (PRI)/CT1/CE1

• At-a-glance displays of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)/analog call distribution

• Reporting tools for capacity planning and statistical fault diagnostics

• Identification of usage trends through statistical analysis

• Traffic loading and profiling displays

• Problem circuit identification through DS1 utilization reports

• Improved modem management through new Cisco POP Management Information Bases (MIBs)

In addition, AccessPath Manager offers unrivaled flexibility. Management access can be through a WAN in-band connection or through out-of-band LAN or WAN access. The built-in system controller, which provides the out-of-band shelf management access, also provides fail-safe console access for all AccessPath Manager-managed components.

Specifications

Configuration

Stack and shelf configuration are at the heart of AccessPath Manager`s rapid deployment capability. By selecting the Stack Create option, the user invokes the stack creation panel, which queries the user for all data global to the stack, including the addressing and security parameters required prior to dial-shelf creation. The user then activates and populates the shelf configuration to generate the working configuration files.

Stack Configuration Functions

• Stack Add-Add a new AccessPath to the system

• Stack Modify-Modify an existing AccessPath system

• Stack Delete-Remove a stack from the AccessPath Manager system

• Stack View-View the configuration data associated with a selected AccessPath

Shelf Configuration Functions

• Shelf Add-Add a shelf to the system

• Shelf Modify-Modify an existing shelf

• Shelf Restore-Restore a saved shelf configuration

• Shelf Delete-Remove a shelf from the stack

• Shelf View-View the shelf configuration data

Monitoring

AccessPath monitoring works on a per-stack or per-shelf basis and provides an aggregated view of the following data:

• Total number of PRIs/CT1s/CE1s

• Total number of channels

• Total number of modems in the AccessPath system

• Number of modems in use

• Number of modems available

• Number of modems unavailable

• Number of modems administratively off line

• Number of analog calls, and percentage of calls that are analog

• Number of calls rejected or cleared

• Number of ISDN calls, and percentage of calls that are ISDN

This same data can also be viewed on a shelf-by-shelf basis. AccessPath Manager monitoring can also display channel usage, modem status, and channel-to-modem mappings as well as line statistics and shelf throughput in bits per second, packets per second, and call counts.

Reporting

AccessPath Manager includes a reporting subsystem to facilitate capacity planning and provide statistical diagnostics. These reports include traffic profiles, traffic load, channel utilization, call counts, and modem connection statistics.

Reports are run daily at regular intervals, and are available for viewing in HTML format for users with Web browsers, or as comma-delimited text files for use with spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. Reports can be stored locally on the AccessPath Manager system, or automatically sent via electronic mail to system managers or remote data repositories.

Traffic load and connection statistics are displayed in a tabular format, while traffic profile reports may be displayed in either a tabular or a graphed format.

Security

Security is a key requirement for effective, large-scale, dial-pool management. AccessPath Manager supports per-user access privileges via username and password mechanisms. These access privileges can be applied based on username, allowing for a tiered management configuration for environments with multiple support personnel. For example, a capacity planner could be given "read-only" access while the network manager creates and modifies the dial pool.

Scalable Point-of-Presence Management

AccessPath Manager currently supports both a locally installed database and a remote database option, thus (through the DBMS constructs) redundant, fault-tolerant, high-volume data management requirements are fully supported. The AccessPath-TS3 will now include an enhanced, out-of-band capability via a new Cisco-provided component called a system controller. The system controller is a Cisco IOS-based, embedded component that monitors and controls shelves within an AccessPath system. It provides the fail-safe console port connectivity to all AccessPath platforms. Future enhancements to the system controller will include local point-of-presence (POP) polling with local storage, bulk data upload to a central site, shelf image loading, shelf health monitoring, automated modem diagnostics with central-site notification, "plug-and-play" shelf discovery, and a syslog messages repository.

Summary

Cisco AccessPath Manager provides network operations centers with extensive centralized management to deploy, maintain, and proactively manage the high-density dial solutions required in today`s markets.

Ordering Information

Posted: Wed Sep 27 05:13:35 PDT 2000
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