Release Notes for Cisco Info Center Release 1.1

Cisco Info Center is a Service-Level Management (SLM) system that provides a consolidated view of enterprise-wide events and status information. It collects event streams or messages from many different data sources and presents a single, consistent view of the current state of all Cisco Info Center managed systems. It distributes the event information to the operators and administrators responsible for monitoring service levels.

This information can then be:

assigned to operators
passed on to help desk systems
logged in a database
replicated on a remote Cisco Info Center system
used to trigger automatic responses to certain events.

Cisco Info Center allows diverse management platforms, applications, and Internet protocols to be brought together to provide the administrator a single point of monitoring those platforms and applications. Cisco Info Center does not replace the management platforms. It instead compliments them by providing an enterprise wide event/fault and status exchange. Cisco Info Center can also tie together domain limited network management platforms in remote locations.

Cisco Info Center tracks the state of events in a high performance distributed database and presents information of interest to specific users through individually configurable filters and views. Cisco Info Center Automation functions can be used to perform intelligent processing on the current state of managed objects. Cisco Info Center can build upon existing management systems or applications, therefore, it utilizes existing management skills and minimizes deployment time.

Cisco StrataView Plus, BPX/IGX/IPX, AXIS, and Platform Compatibility

Table 1 summarizes the supported combinations. The Cisco Info Center 1.1 release has been tested with Cisco SV+ releases 9.1.04 and 9.1.05, CiscoView 4.2, BPX/IGX/IPX 8.4 and 9.1.06, Axis 4.1.00, and HP Network Node Manager 5.01 on Solaris 2.5.1.

Cisco Info Center	Cisco SV+	CiscoView	HP OpenView	BPX/IGX/IPX	AXIS	Solaris
1.0, 1.1	8.4	Not supported	4.01	8.4	3.0	2.5.1
1.1	9.0	Not supported	4.01	8.4, 8.5	3.0, 4.0	2.5.1
1.1	9.1	4.2	5.01	8.4, 8.5, 9.1	3.0, 4.0, 4.1	2.5.1

Table 1: Platform Compatibility Matrix

Cisco Info Center Cisco SV+ CiscoView HP OpenView BPX/IGX/IPX AXIS Solaris

1.0, 1.1

8.4

Not supported

4.01

8.4

3.0

2.5.1

1.1

9.0

Not supported

4.01

8.4, 8.5

3.0, 4.0

2.5.1

1.1

9.1

4.2

5.01

8.4, 8.5, 9.1

3.0, 4.0, 4.1

2.5.1

Sun Platform Requirements

This section describes the system requirements for the Cisco Info Center 1.1 release.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

You can select from two architectures (multi-system and single-system) for Cisco Info Center 1.1 installation. The multi-system architecture, a fully distributed architecture, is the recommended architecture. For detailed information about Cisco Info Center 1.1 installation, see the Cisco Info Center Installation and Configuration guide.

Table 2 lists the hardware requirements for the multi-system architecture.

Application Type	Machine Type	Size of RAM	Hard Disk Drive	Operating System
Cisco Info Server	Sun Ultra II workstation	256MB	200MB	Solaris 2.5.1
Info Mediator	Sun Ultra II or higher workstation	+64MB	+100MB	Solaris 2.5.1
Cisco Info Admin Desktop	Sun workstation	+48MB	+75MB	Solaris 2.5.1

Table 2: Multi-system Hardware Requirements

Application Type Machine Type Size of RAM Hard Disk Drive Operating System

Cisco Info Server

Sun Ultra II workstation

256MB

200MB

Solaris 2.5.1

Info Mediator

Sun Ultra II or higher workstation

+64MB

+100MB

Solaris 2.5.1

Cisco Info Admin Desktop

Sun workstation

+48MB

+75MB

Solaris 2.5.1

Table 3 lists the hardware requirements for the single-system architecture.

Application Type	Machine Type	Size of RAM	Graphic Card Type	Hard Disk Drive	Operating System
Cisco Info Server + Info Mediator + Cisco Info Admin Desktop	Sun Ultra II or higher workstation	512MB	24 bits	350MB	Solaris 2.5.1

Table 3: Single-system Hardware Requirements

Application Type Machine Type Size of RAM Graphic Card Type Hard Disk Drive Operating System

Cisco Info Server + Info Mediator + Cisco Info Admin Desktop

Sun Ultra II or higher workstation

512MB

24 bits

350MB

Solaris 2.5.1

Note Additional requirements are necessary for the Info Mediator with Cisco SV+ software. See the StrataView Plus 8.4 Release Notes or Installation Guide for more detailed information. Additional requirements are also necessary for any products running on the Cisco Info Admin Desktop.

Additional System Requirement

Cisco Info Center Release 1.1 requires UNIX Motif 1.2 or Common Desktop Environment (CDE)
The required Solaris 2.5.1 Y2000 patch cluster. This patch cluster can be found at: http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/pub-cgi/us/pubpatchpage.pl.

Notes, Cautions, and Limitations

General Installation

It is recommended you install Cisco Info Center 1.1 on top of a fresh installation of HPOV 5.01 and Cisco SV+ 9.1. For new Cisco Info Server installations, refer to the 1.1 Cisco Info Center Installation and Configuration guide for detailed information.
Cisco Info Center 1.1 must be installed in the /opt/Omnibus directory. When not enough space is available in the /opt directory, you must install Cisco Info Center 1.1 in another directory. The Cisco Info Center 1.1 installation script automatically creates a link to the /opt/Omnibus directory. However, in this case, the /opt/Omnibus directory should not exist as a file or directory prior to Cisco Info Center 1.1 installation.
Cisco Info Center 1.1 must be installed as user root.
Run the /opt/Omnibus/install/nco_license script to install the license keys you have purchased.
Host name resolution should be done through the /etc/hosts file. For example, when using a Name Server (that is, NIS, NIS+, or DNS) ensure the /etc/nsswitch.conf file lists files before other name services as follows:

: hosts: files dns nis

IPX/BPX/IGX/AXIS should use the software (SW) and firmware (FW) versions shown in Table 4.

Platform	Software	Firmware
IPX/BPX/IGX	8.4, 9.0, 9.1	Not applicable
AXIS	Not applicable	3.0, 4.0, 4.1

Table 4: IPX/BPX/IGX/AXIS Software and Firmware Versions

Platform Software Firmware

IPX/BPX/IGX

8.4, 9.0, 9.1

Not applicable

AXIS

Not applicable

3.0, 4.0, 4.1

The root PATH environment variable should be prefixed with /bin and /usr/sbin.
Incremental component installation is not supported on one machine. You must not install one component (for example, the Cisco Info Server) and later on install another component (for example, the Cisco Info Mediator) on the same machine. Previous component configuration will be overwritten.
The following information affects the installation of Cisco Info Center 1.1 on multi-system architectures only. The Cisco Info Center 1.1 installation on multi-system architectures requires separate installation and configuration of the Cisco Info Server and Info Mediators on their corresponding host machines. In order for the Process Control agent on the Cisco Info Server host machine to interact with the Process Control agent on the Info Mediator host machine, an entry must be made in the Routing Table section of the Cisco Info Server Process Control configuration file. Therefore, during the Cisco Info Server installation process, you are prompted to specify the name of the Mediator Process Control agent:

: Enter the name for the Process Control on the Cisco SV+ machine [MEDIATOR_PA]:
: When you do not specify a name, the default name, MEDIATOR_PA, is used. It is recommended that you do not use the default name. Instead, it is recommended the names SVHOST1, SVHOST2, etc. be used for each subsequent Mediator Process Control agent you expect to configure.
: Note, during the configuration of the Mediator Process Control agent on the Cisco SV+ host machine, you are prompted for the name of this Mediator Process Control agent. The default name on this machine is SVHOST1. The name you specify must be identical to the name you specified for the Mediator Process Control agent during the installation of the Cisco Info Server.

At the end of the installation process, the following prompt is displayed:

: Do you wish to configure automatic start-up upon system boot? (y/n) [y]
: You should select the default (yes), otherwise, the nco start and nco stop scripts are not generated.

Cisco SV+ Mediators

The Cisco Info Mediator must be installed on the same host machine where
Cisco SV+ 9.1 is installed and running. To check the existence of the Cisco SV+ process, from the command line prompt, specify:

: host# ps -ef | grep <process_name>
: where <process_name> can be either svmain or RtmProxy.

Multiple Cisco SV+ Mediator support. NetworkNames must be unique as appear in the Cisco SV+ hosts' svplus/config.sv files as managed by a single Cisco Info Server. You can edit these files and restart the Cisco SV+ hosts to ensure the names are unique.
dbaccess must only exist in the /usr/users/informix/bin directory and the INFORMIXDIR environment variable must be set to /usr/users/informix for the root user. Note, Cisco SV+ 9.1 installation might choose /usr/users/informix723 as the installation destination. When this is the case, from the command line prompt, specify:

: host# ln -s /usr/users/informix723 /usr/users/informix

The HP Network Node Manager (NNM) should be installed and integrated with
Cisco SV+. When HP NNM is installed after Cisco SV+ is installed, you must invoke the SV+_HPOV.install script. For more details, see the Cisco SV+ Installation and Configuration guide.
Timing behavior of IPX/IGX/BPX intermediate alarms. Certain transition (less than 10 seconds) alarms will appear in the Event Log in HPOV, however, they might not appear in the Cisco Info Center nor Cisco SV+ Proxy. For example, when status changes on a trunk, a bit map (on the Switch) is updated to indicate the change. At this point, the process (A), which sends Robust Messages to Cisco SV+, checks the bit map and sends the latest status using the Robust Message functionality. When the trunk cable is disconnected, a "loss of signal" is sent to Cisco SV+. However, when the cable is reconnected, two events occur on the Switch. The trunk enters a Communication Failure state, then a Clear state. The bit map is set to Communication Failure for a short time (3 to 6 seconds), then to Clear. Therefore, depending upon when the process (A) checks the bit map, the Communication Failure is not always sent to Cisco SV+ when the bit map is already updated to Clear. In this case, Communication Failure is just an intermediate state, not the real state of the trunk.

Cisco SV+ Desktop Launch Point

The Cisco SV+ Desktop launch point from the Cisco Info Center 1.1 Event List menu has changed. This was done to accommodate multiple Cisco SV+ host support. The launch point prompts you to enter the Cisco SV+ host name so different Cisco SV+ Desktops can be launched from different hosts.

CiscoView

CiscoView 4.2 should be installed in the /opt/CSCOcv directory and integrated with
Cisco SV+ 9.1. See CiscoView 4.2 documentation for detailed information.

Informix Database

The Cisco SV+ Informix database name should be set to stratacom.

Network Configuration

IPX/BPX/IGX running 8.4, 9.0, or 9.1 and AXIS running 3.0, 4.0, or 4.1.

Service and Network Agents

The Cisco SV+ Service and Network agent should be installed and running. See the Cisco StrataView Plus Installation and Configuration guide for installation instructions.
The Cisco SV+ SNMP agent must use default port 8161 for SNMP trap registration. The Cisco Info Server uses port 8161 to communicate with the Service and Network agent.

Automation

The Num Lock key must be toggled off in order for the right mouse button to invoke the Automation pop-up menu.
12-hour-Cleared and 24-hour-Deleted Automation is disabled by default. You must manually enable it. See the 1.1 Cisco Info Center documents for detailed information.
Delay in NEType, NEAddress, NetworkName, NEFWVersion lookups. When new networks are added to the Cisco SV+ Desktop, or after a cold start, the incoming events from the new node may be tagged with "Unknown" NEType, NEAddress, NetworkName, and NEFWVersion values. You may experience a minimum delay of sixty seconds before the corresponding Cisco SV+ lookup tables are populated.
No Automation to handle a change of IP address. Currently, when a node has an IP address already configured, changing the IP address on the node will not trigger an update to the Cisco Info Server. This means all incoming events from that node still carry the old NEAddress value. You can create tools to invoke the nco_sql program to run an update on a node when that node's IP address is changed.
End point deletion Automation does not work for AXIS end point deletion. When the master end point of a user connection is AXIS, a user connection alarm is not cleared by Automation when the AXIS end point is deleted.
As designed, object deletion Automation clears all events of the same ObjectType and updates the ObjectStatus and Severity fields as "Cleared". These cleared traps are then physically deleted by the 12-hour-Cleared Automation (when this Automation is enabled).

Filters

Use additional fields in Cisco Info Center 1.1 for multiple networks and the Cisco SV+ Mediators filter. You must build a new filter with new database fields, such as, NetworkName, NEFWVersion, SVVersion, LNNI, and RNNI. See the 1.1 Cisco Info Center documents for detailed information.
The Manager field syntax has changed. The new format is <host>@SV+ or <host>@NNM5.

Tools

Voice and data connections. Only the Administration GUI, CiscoView, and Get Configuration tools are associated with voice and data end point traps in the 1.1 Cisco Info Center release. Tools such as the Real Time Counters (RTC) and add/delete loopback are not available.
FRASM traps. Only the Administration GUI and CiscoView are associated with SNA related traps in the 1.1 Cisco Info Center release. Tools such as the RTC and add/delete loopback are not available.
Intermittent failure on tstcon/tstdelay. tstcon/tstdelay sometimes fail, however, this should be reflected in the results from ConnProxy. Check the /usr/users/svplus/log/ConnProxy.log file, on the machine running the Mediators, if you encounter a tstcon/tstdelay failure.
The dsx3RcvEXZCounter in the RTC tool displays the "does not exist" error message. The AXIS dsx3 counter does not work on SRM cards, however, it does work on BNM cards.
The RTC graph tool occasionally displays the "no such name" error message. This is an HPOV xnmgraph problem. See Section, "Third Party Product Limitations Notes", for more information.
Line loopback support is not provided for BPX/AXIS. addlnloop is available in BPX and AXIS, however, this feature is not supported in the 1.1 Cisco Info Center release.
Connectivity must exist to the Cisco SV+ host machine for all Cisco Info Center tools to function properly. All nodes must be reachable from the Cisco SV+ host machine through IP-relay. The Cisco SV+ gateway node must be LAN connected.

Year 2000 Compliancy

The 1.1 Cisco Info Center release is Year 2000 compliant. To display year 2000 as 2000 and not 00 in the Event List, you must change the /usr/lib/locale/C/LC_TIME/time field: %m%d%y to %m%d%Y.

Cisco Info Center and HPOV Severity Level Assignments

Discrepancies are reported between the severity level assignments of the HP Openview 4.1 and 5.01 releases and the Cisco Info Center 1.0 and 1.1 releases.

The Cisco Info Center 1.0 and 1.1 releases map AXIS alarms to a severity level according to the value of the AXIS SNMP moduleTrapAlarmSeverity varbind. Table 5 provides the mapping details.

AXIS	Cisco Info Center Severity Levels
minor (1)	Minor (3 - Yellow)
major (2)	Major (4 - Mustard)
dontCare (3)	Warning (2 - Sky Blue)
Not applicable	Indeterminate - 1 (Purple)

Table 5: AXIS Alarms Severity Levels

AXIS Cisco Info Center Severity Levels

minor (1)

Minor (3 - Yellow)

major (2)

Major (4 - Mustard)

dontCare (3)

Warning (2 - Sky Blue)

Not applicable

Indeterminate - 1 (Purple)

HPOV maps the AXIS alarms to a severity level according to the /etc/opt/OV/share/conf/C/StrataCom_trapd.conf static file.

HP OpenView Requirements

The 1.1 Cisco Info Center release works with HPOV release 5.01 for Solaris 2.5.1.

For HPOV installation requirements and procedures, refer to the HP OpenView Network Node Manager Products, Installation Guide.

Third Party Product Limitations Notes

1. xnmgraph occasionally displays "no such name" or "wrapped (0->0). Waiting for next" even though the data is available, as tested by xnmbrowser.

2. xnmgraph displays an incremental statistics value which is not consistent with the Text counter display.

Cisco Info Center 1.1 Known Issues

This section contains information about the known Cisco Info Center 1.1 issues.

CSCdk16879

AXIS name and IP address not shown in Event List after feeder deletion.

Resolution: BPX traps limitation. Will be resolved in Cisco SV+ Release 9.2.

CSCdk21367

xnmgraph of Real Time Counters (RTC) displays values as delta/duration.

Resolution: HP NNM xnmgraph limitation.

CSCdk21759

Problem during configuration with NIS+ or DNS environment.

Resolution: Will be fixed in Cisco Info Center Release 2.0.

CSCdk21864

Generating a clear power supply alarm (4004) shows BNI-T3 removed.

Resolution: BPX trap error. The 4004 trap reason sent in the 1000 series trap has the string "BNI-T3 removed". Pending BPX/IGX/IPX bug fix.

CSCdk21868

Cisco Info Center cannot display the 4002 power fail alarm from IPX.

Resolution: BPX trap error. Defect forwarded to SWSW.

CSCdk22581

Missing local end point upon connection deletion when the end point is Frame Relay.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ RTM limitation. Pending Cisco SV+ bug fix.

CSCdk23593

Changing the Port Protocol Type from the GUI shows ObjectStatus as unknown.

Resolution: AXIS trap error. Pending AXIS bug fix.

CSCdk25021

RTC tool counters display zeros for BXM trunks carrying ATM traffic.

Resolution: BPX counter error. Pending BPX/IGX/IPX bug fix.

CSCdk25758

AXIS: line.trunk events are not generated for the BNM-155 card.

Resolution: AXIS error. Pending AXIS bug fix.

CSCdk26019

xnmgraph does not display for line alarm events on the AUSM-8E1.

Resolution: HPOV Network Node Manager xnmgraph error. Defect forwarded to HP.

CSCdk26076

Clear event not received when RcvLOF alarm is cleared.

Resolution: This is a BPX/IGX/IPX limitation. Pending BPX/IGX/IPX bug fix.

CSCdk26234

The Test Delay tool does not work for VPC connections.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ bug. Pending Cisco SV+ bug fix.

CSCdk27561

FRSM-4E1: line.access events for line addition/deletion are not generated.

Resolution: Axis trap error. Pending AXIS bug fix.

CSCdk27569

FRSM-8T1: line.access events for line deletion are not generated.

Resolution: Axis trap error. Pending AXIS bug fix.

CSCdk27621

The Get Configuration tool shows the wrong line and port numbers for ATM-FR connections.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ bug. Pending Cisco SV+ bug fix.

CSCdk28379

CE-CE connections are displayed as ATM-ATM connections.

Resolution: BPX/IGX/IPX limitation. Pending BPX/IGX/IPX bug fix.

CSCdk28768

Logical port displayed as "-" when adding a port on an IGX.

Resolution: BPX/IGX/IPX 1000 series trap limitation.

CSCdk28798

Wrong line number shown in PSAP column for UFM port activation.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ bug. Pending Cisco SV+ bug fix.

CSCdk32705

IGX (9.2.7.2) get_config displays BC as present when it is actually missing.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ Informix database error. Pending Cisco SV+ bug fix.

CSCdk34206

Problem displaying full Cisco Info Server name in the GUI.

Resolution: Cisco Info Server limitation. Pending a bug fix.

CSCdk40620

Wrong NEType for some events.

Resolution: Cisco Info Server limitation. Pending a bug fix.

CSCdk55762

Wrong varbind for some 50240 traps.

Resolution: AXIS MIB problem. Pending an AXIS bug fix.

CSCdk57599

The Test Delay tool fails for ATM-ATM connections.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ 9.1 proxy limitation.

CSCdk57922

Degrading a node sends a wrong trap.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ limitation.

CSCdk67858

The SubObjectType field is populated with the wrong value.

Resolution: Cisco Info Center 1.1 limitation.

CSCdk83370

The Cisco SV+ Informix database name (dbName) must be set to stratacom.

Resolution: Cisco Info Center 1.1 limitation.

CSCdk91518

A blank message screen is displayed when the Test Connection and Test Delay tools are launched.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ and Info Center limitation.

CSCdk92588

The Test Connection and Test Delay tools do not launch.

Resolution: Cisco SV+ and Info Center limitation.

Cisco Connection Online

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Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, CCO provides a wealth of standard and value-added services to Cisco's customers and business partners. CCO services include product information, product documentation, software updates, release notes, technical tips, the Bug Navigator, configuration notes, brochures, descriptions of service offerings, and download access to public and authorized files.

CCO serves a wide variety of users through two interfaces that are updated and enhanced simultaneously: a character-based version and a multimedia version that resides on the World Wide Web (WWW). The character-based CCO supports Zmodem, Kermit, Xmodem, FTP, and Internet e-mail, and it is excellent for quick access to information over lower bandwidths. The WWW version of CCO provides richly formatted documents with photographs, figures, graphics, and video, as well as hyperlinks to related information.

You can access CCO in the following ways:

WWW: http://www.cisco.com
WWW: http://www-europe.cisco.com
WWW: http://www-china.cisco.com
Telnet: cco.cisco.com
Modem: From North America, 408 526-8070; from Europe, 33 1 64 46 40 82. Use the following terminal settings: VT100 emulation; databits: 8; parity: none; stop bits: 1; and connection rates up to 28.8 kbps.

For a copy of CCO's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), contact cco-help@cisco.com. For additional information, contact cco-team@cisco.com.

Note If you are a network administrator and need personal technical assistance with a Cisco product that is under warranty or covered by a maintenance contract, contact Cisco's Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at 800 553-2447, 408 526-7209, or tac@cisco.com. To obtain general information about Cisco Systems, Cisco products, or upgrades, contact 800 553-6387, 408 526-7208, or cs-rep@cisco.com.

Documentation CD-ROM

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Table of Contents

Release Notes for Cisco Info Center Release 1.1

CSCdk16879

CSCdk21367

CSCdk21759

CSCdk21864

CSCdk21868

CSCdk22581

CSCdk23593

CSCdk25021

CSCdk25758

CSCdk26019

CSCdk26076

CSCdk26234

CSCdk27561

CSCdk27569

CSCdk27621

CSCdk28379

CSCdk28768

CSCdk28798

CSCdk32705

CSCdk34206

CSCdk40620

CSCdk55762

CSCdk57599

CSCdk57922

CSCdk67858

CSCdk83370

CSCdk91518

CSCdk92588