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This chapter provides general information about CiscoView and contains the following sections:
CiscoView 4.2(1) is a graphical SNMP-based device management tool that provides powerful real-time views of your networked Cisco Systems devices. These views deliver a continuously updated physical picture of device configuration and performance conditions, with simultaneous views available for multiple device sessions. CiscoView is run from a centralized network management site from which you can review, reconfigure, and monitor essential device data from a simple GUI (that displays information such as dynamic status reports, performance statistics, and network inquiries) without having to physically check connections for each device, module, or port at every different or remote location.
CiscoView also contains device-specific applications, such as Threshold Manager, StackMaker, and Flash File System, that further enhance your network management, monitoring, and troubleshooting capabilities. Additionally, CiscoView is designed for integration with the following leading network management platforms to provide seamless and powerful methods of managing Cisco devices (such as routers, switches, hubs, concentrators, and adapters):
Cisco's routers and switches are referred to as network devices. Router and switch devices must be physically installed in the appropriate chassis and connected to your network (using each specific device's hardware installation guide). Device software is installed as a device package; for example, the LightStream 1010 software is installed as the LS1010.pkg. CiscoView uses the device package to display a dynamic panel view of the physical device and all its modules, submodules, ports, and the like.
The CiscoView engine controls and manages physically connected devices via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). The SNMP system consists of three parts: SNMP manager, SNMP agent, and Management Information Base (MIB). Each installed device's SNMP agent uses sets of MIB variables that you can configure, monitor, and modify (as necessary) using CiscoView and each installed device package's software.
CiscoView also provides the interface for a number of applications that supply additional configuration and monitoring functionality. Although CiscoView is designed expressly to manage all devices, in some cases, there are special management requirements that an application can streamline for you, as in the case of stacked devices. A separate application specifically for managing stacked devices, called StackMaker, is available for you to use in conjunction with CiscoView or as a standalone product.
Some applications are embedded in the CiscoView software; others, such as the AS5200 Manager, must be downloaded from CCO, like the devices, as a package. Each of these applications can be run as a standalone application or used collectively with CiscoView.
Figure 1-1 illustrates how CiscoView and its various devices and applications work together.
Networks typically are managed using standard SNMP, a request/response protocol that defines how information is passed between network management systems and their agents. SNMP contains all MIBs - collections of management information base variables.
Each network request is processed in the context of a MIB tree view. For example, CiscoView's relationship to a physical device, such as a LightStream 1010 Switch, is managed by the CiscoView engine as a function of both SNMP and the IP address assigned to the installed LS1010 device.
Sets of MIB variables are passed as requests/responses between device package software and the CiscoView engine. In fact, while you are opening a new device package to display its view for the very first time, the CiscoView engine is retrieving the system object ID from the physical device using the MIB variable sysObjectID. This ID is returned to the device-package software and all established configuration parameters are discovered and automatically displayed as read-only information in configuration tables for that device. When the device view is displayed, you can click on various configurable objects (ports, cards, etc.) and display the associated tables, in turn, that contain discovered configuration information.
MIBs operate as either single or multiple request instances. Multiple instances are processed by an SNMP agent on each device and responses are presented in the CiscoView GUI as a MIB table (which resides in the device software as part of the firmware structure). These tables contain system-discovered configuration information or user-defined configuration information. You enter user-defined configuration information into the pink fields in a table; gray fields contain all discovered read-only information.
CiscoView uses SNMP largely to replace the command driven MIB network configuration and management process. However, there are a few command line setup tasks to perform for certain devices before starting CiscoView. See the section "Setup Requirements Before Displaying a Device" later in this chapter.
There is a list of currently available internetworking device packages supported by CiscoView in the Release Notes for CiscoView, Release 4.2(1). There is also a product list on CCO that provides a brief description of each device or its family of devices, and the package name (bearing a .pkg extension) with which it is downloaded.
Table 1-1 is a list of the applications supported by CiscoView.
| Application | Description | Device Support |
|---|---|---|
Threshold Manager / Threshold-solaris.pkgThreshold-HP.pkg, Threshold-AIX.pkg, or Threshold-NT.pkg | All devices with appropriate Cisco IOS or RMON features except for the Catalyst 5000 series for CWSI, which uses Traffic Director. | |
StackMaker / stackmkr.pkg | Cisco and CiscoPro 1600, 3600, 3620, 3640, Catalyst 1900, Catalyst 2820, CPW1220, CPW 1420, Fasthub 100+ and NetBeyond, Fasthub 300. | |
Flash File System / 7000.pkg | Cisco 7000, 7010, 7104, 7206, 7505, 7507, 7513 routers. | |
AS5200 Manager / AS5200.pkg | AS5200 Access Server | |
TN3270 Monitor / TN3270 Monitor | FOR UNIX PLATFORM ONLY; Cisco IOS 11.0(13)BT or 11.2 with cip22-14 Cisco 7000 and 7500 (with a CIP card) |
For additional information on CiscoView and specific devices, see the context-sensitive online help. This comprehensive online help provides procedures, overview material, and links to related information.
Step 1 Install CiscoView from the CD-ROM package or from CCO.
Refer to the CiscoView Installation Guide for detailed installation instructions.When installing CiscoView, you can also choose the device package(s) (with the .pkg extension) you want to install at the same time. For incremental updates or new releases of device packages, you will also need to download device packages from CCO from time to time (see step 2).
Step 2 Download device packages (.pkg) from CCO as needed. Cisco Systems device packages are updated on an ongoing basis, so you will need to to download incremental releases of these .pkg files when they become available. Refer to "Downloading Device Packages to a Windows NT Host" in Chapter 3 of this guide, or "Downloading Device Packages to a UNIX Host" in Chapter 2 of this guide.
Do not start CiscoView yet.
Step 3 Telnet allows you to remotely issue CLI (Command Line Interface) commands to a device chassis. Refer to the Command Reference Guide for information about using CLI to perform these setup tasks. Before starting CiscoView, use the Telnet Command Line via the Console Port to:
Follow these steps to Start CiscoView and display an installed device:
Step 1 From a UNIX host, start CiscoView by entering nmcview from the install directory. From a Windows NT host, start CiscoView by using the Start>Programs>CiscoView Start menu options.
Step 2 To display a device in CiscoView from either a Windows NT or UNIX host, select Open Device from the CiscoView-Main File menu. Figure 1-2 shows the CiscoView startup display and main menu.
Step 3 In the Open Device window, enter the host IP address you configured via the command line, then enter a read community password string and a write community password string. The community string is an SNMP security feature that requires a password to access SNMP features on a host, such as a Cisco switch or router. Community strings can be set to read-only permission or read-write permission. Device displays bearing read-only permission do not allow you to change modifiable information.
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You use CiscoView to display and configure (or reconfigure) devices and their modules, submodules, ports, CPUs, channels, and network services, as represented by the graphical view. Configuration is a process that establishes the characteristics of the device and its connections and components on the network and records this information in appropriate files. After detailed aspects of the device are configured, the system can identify the device and dynamically monitor its performance. Using the same CiscoView GUI device displays, tables, and statistical/status windows, you can manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the device and each of its component's performance results on an ongoing and automatically updated basis.
CiscoView facilitates the configuration process by communicating with the SNMP agent residing on the device to discover established configuration parameters. Configuration information that is automatically discovered by CiscoView is displayed in a read-only format in CiscoView tables. Thus, some configuration information is presented in tables as read-write data (which requires your input and is subsequently modifiable), while other "discovered" configuration information is provided by the system as read-only data.
The Configuration information that you are required to provide (for device, card, and port configurations) is a straightforward selection process using the CiscoView Configure menu. The Configure menu options vary depending on the device you are using and the component you have selected (i.e., highlighted) to configure on the GUI device view: you can select the device, a card, subcard, CPU, power supply, or port (or set of ports).
See the online help for details about configuring specific devices.
CiscoView's device displays are dynamic GUI views that contain selectable modules, subcards, ports, and the like. To view CiscoView information tables, you first highlight the component in the view for which you want data, then select either Configuration or Monitoring options from the CiscoView main menu or from complementary popup menus.
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Each selected component in the view displays secondary windows containing either configuration or performance data, as chosen by you. Configuration information is displayed in CiscoView Configuration windows. Performance information is displayed in CiscoView real-time Monitoring windows, which are sometimes referred to as dashboard monitors.
For some devices, CiscoView allows you to select multiple ports. You can display configuration or performance information for multiple ports or port groups, in one window. The entries that can be modified are displayed in pink. Figure 1-4 shows the table for three of the ports on an AS5200 card.
To display a CiscoView table, take the following steps:
Step 1 Select multiple ports by clicking on them as you hold down the Shift key.
Step 2 Click Configure or Monitor in the CiscoView main menu.
A CiscoView table displays information in tabular format. The first column contains data for all the ports you selected in the device display.
You can add, delete, or modify entries in pink fields within a CiscoView table. Table 1-2 describes how to make edits to CiscoView tables.
| Edit | Action |
|---|---|
Select Create. | |
Modify an entry. | Step 1 Select the table column entry you want to modify. Step 2 Display the possible values, if available, by selecting the popup menu next to the entry. Step 3 Select or enter the new value in the table column. Step 4 Click Modify (or in some cases, Apply). Step 5 Click OK. |
Step 1 Select any column in the table row that you want to delete. Step 2 Click Delete. Step 3 Click OK. |
Step 1 In the CiscoView main window, select Options>Properties.
The CiscoView Properties window opens.
Step 3 Enter a new value in the Retries field to change the number of retries.
The default Retries value is 3. The retries value indicates how many times CiscoView resends an SNMP request to the agent. In busy networks, SNMP datagrams can be discarded. The Retries value allows the application to continue operation during network problems. A setting of 3 is considered a reasonable value; increase the value if the network is slow.
Step 4 Enter a new value in the Timeout field to change the timeout interval.
A timeout indicates the amount of time it takes to reach a device. If it takes longer than the time specified, the device is considered to be either unreachable or down. The interval value is specified in seconds; the default is 3 seconds.
As a guideline, the timeout value should be set to twice the average end-to-end delay in your network. If you have a network with several slow links, you might need to set the timeout to a higher value. If you have only LAN links in your network, a value of 2 seconds is reasonable to account for processing delays and timer accuracy.
In high traffic situations, you might experience timeouts. You should not reduce the polling frequency because this could cause a general error. Increase the timeout interval if you consistently experience timeouts.
Step 6 Enter the read or write community string in the appropriate field. This allows you to enter the write community string for a device after you display the device.
This setting is useful, for example, when you want to make changes to a device or port setting but did not specify the write community string when you first opened the device display. You can enter the write community string in the Write Community field without exiting and reopening the window.
Step 8 Click OK to make your Properties settings take effect.
You use the Options menu to change the presentation and operating characteristics of CiscoView. For example, if you want to display the toolbar or change the polling frequency, you do it through the Options menu. Table 1-3 describes the Options menu.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
Display or hide the toolbar to access shortcut commands. | |
Display or hide the legend. | |
Display or hide system information. | |
Set various operating characteristics, including polling frequency, the number of retries, the timeout interval, the read and write community string, MIB1 labels displayed as descriptors or an alias, and where to launch CiscoView---in the same window or a separate one. | |
Displays troubleshooting information. Debug should be used only in consultation with technical support. Writes the trace for device discovery and status polling to the /tmp/.cvlog. | |
Displays all SNMP2 traffic in encoded form to and from the device. Debug SNMP should be used only in consultation with technical support. |
| 1MIB=Management Information Base 2SNMP=Simple Network Management Protocol |
The dashboard monitor displays various types of network performance information, such as poll utilization errors. The display varies, depending on the type of device or port in use, but it always consists of dials or stripcharts (Figure 1-5). Each display represents information provided by a MIB variable, with the common meaning indicated above the display.
Context-sensitive online help provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to use CiscoView applications. The online help system also provides a glossary and keyword search capability. Table 1-4 provides a quick guideline to access help from different places.
| For Information About | Do This |
|---|---|
Online help for specific products | Select Help>Contents |
How to use the help system | Select Help>Using Help |
How to use CiscoView features | Select Help>Using CiscoView |
Current CiscoView versions | Select Help>About CiscoView |
The current device package version | Select Help>About CiscoView |
How to display configuration and performance, dashboard windows, and field descriptions | Click Help in the dialog box |
How to change a component value | Click the Help button over the field |
How to use help view | Select Help>On Help |
The Help Contents tab has three functional tabs:
For information about using this table select Help>On Help.
Each help window has a menu bar and a button bar. The menu bar provides standard help functions for printing, copying, and pasting text from help topics, making online notes about particular help topics, and placing bookmarks.
The button bar has the following buttons:
Select File>Exit on the menu bar in the Help window to exit Help.
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