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If you have not yet installed the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software onto your computer, insert the installation CD into your CD-ROM drive and close the drive's door.
You should be sure to copy all of the configuration files you want to include in your baseline. You will not be able to add or delete configuration files from the baseline after it has been created (except through the Collect Cisco Router Configurations command on the Tools menu, or the run_ngs command-line utility described in the chapter "Keeping Baselines Up-to-date").
These files will be copied into a subdirectory of your installation directory. This subdirectory will be created by the program as part of the process of building a new baseline.
For information about how to gather configuration files by communicating directly with your network routers, see the chapter "Keeping Baselines Up-to-date" elsewhere in this reference guide.
When the software has been properly installed and set up and you have access to a valid set of configuration files, double-click on the Cisco Netsys Baseliner icon in the Netsys program folder on the Windows NT Start menu.
An About Cisco Netsys dialog will be displayed while the program starts. This window will be automatically closed when the main window opens. To redisplay this dialog at any time while the program is running, choose the About Cisco Netsys Baseliner command on the Help menu in the main window. The window will close when the mouse is moved outside of the window's borders.
When you first start the program, the main window will be empty except for the menu bar and status line. Before you can do anything, you must first open (or create) a baseline---a model of your network based on your configuration files.
Whenever you make changes to your baseline using the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software, your changes will be recorded in these baseline files, without altering your actual network configuration or the original configuration files which you specified when the baseline was created. This allows you to experiment with various configurations without disrupting the actual network.
You can update your baseline at any time with current router configurations obtained directly from the network, either from within the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software or by running a DOS command-line batch file. For more information on updating your configurations, see the chapter "Keeping Baselines Up-to-date" elsewhere in this reference guide.
The following steps describe the process of creating a baseline:
Step 1 Select the New Baseline command from the File menu. The Creating a baseline wizard opens. (If you already have a baseline open, a message will inform you that you must close the current baseline first. Only one baseline can be open at a time.)
Step 2 Click the Next button in the bottom right corner of the Creating a baseline wizard window.
Step 3 Using the Creating a baseline wizard's file-picker window, locate the directory that contains your configuration files.
You can either enter a full path in the Directory edit control, or you can navigate to the desired directory by clicking the mouse on directory names in the middle window or by double-clicking on the ..\ <up one directory level> entry. To change drives, clear the Directory control and enter the desired drive letter, either alone (but with the colon) or as part of a full path to a directory on the new drive, and press the Enter key.
(The list in the middle window contains both subdirectory names---which end in a backslash---and filenames. Use any valid DOS wildcard character in the Filter control to refine the contents of the list that is displayed. For example, if you enter netsys*.* in the Filter field and press the Enter key, the list will filter out all entries except those that begin with the string netsys. The Filter field is case sensitive.)
As you navigate using the list, the entry in the Directory edit control changes to reflect your current location.
When you have located the directory (not a filename) that contains your configuration files, click the Next button to proceed, or Back to return to the previous step.
Step 4 Use the buttons displayed in the wizard window to choose whether you want your baseline to include all of the configuration files that are located in the selected directory or only a subset of those files. Click the Next button to proceed.
Step 5 If you selected the option to use all files in the configuration directory, you need to name your baseline now. Use only letters, numbers, and the underscore character; the software will not allow spaces or punctuation characters in baseline names. Enter the name in the edit box, then click Next. You must enter a unique name.
When the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software creates a new baseline, a Windows directory of the same name will be created (along with a file of that name with the extension .baseline, in the newly created baseline directory).
Windows will not allow duplicate directory names, which means you cannot overwrite an existing baseline of the same name. If you want to delete or overwrite a baseline, you will have to delete the files and associated subdirectories using the Windows NT Explorer or other utility before creating the new baseline.
(When creating a new baseline, you need to specify the directory in which the configuration files can be found. When opening an existing baseline---described later in the text---you need to specify the filename of the baseline, which will be found in the baseline directory, with the filename extension baseline.)
Step 6 If you are not going to use the entire contents of the selected directory but instead elected to use a subset of the files, you need to identify the files you want to use by highlighting them in the file picker window. When all of the files that are to be included in the baseline are highlighted, click the Next button, then name the baseline as described in the previous step.
Step 7 When you have named your baseline, click the Create button. The wizard window will close and a progress window will be displayed while the baseline is being created.
When the file-picker dialog opens, locate the subdirectory that contains your baseline.
Select the baseline (the filename with the extension baseline, not the directory) and click the Open button (or double-click on the filename).
Use the Reopen Baseline command to force the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software to reread configuration data for the baseline that is currently open. This will incorporate any changes you may have made to your configuration files.
To close a baseline, select the Close Baseline command on the File menu. (Baseline data is automatically saved in the baseline files whenever you make a change. Therefore, there is no explicit Save command for baseline data. However, if you have moved elements around in a a topology without choosing the Save Layout command on the Action menu, a warning message will be displayed when you exit, asking if you want to save the layout.)
When a baseline is open, the main window of the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software consists of a navigation panel on the left and a data display panel on the right. The navigation panel allows you to select from various options for each of the three methods of viewing your network and its data. You select by choosing one of the three tabs at the top of the panel:
When the product is started and the first baseline opened, the Reports tab is selected and the Integrity Check report is displayed in the panel on the right of the main window. See the section on viewing reports later in this chapter. Or, for a more detailed discussion of the Integrity Check report, see the chapter "Integrity Checks Report" elsewhere in this reference guide.
The contents and functionality of the data tree in the navigation pane depend on which of the three tabs at the top of the pane has been selected.
When the Reports tab has been selected, the tree gives you access to one of the ten different main reports that are available.
When the Topology tab is selected, the tree shows a Topology folder with a Views branch and a Bookmarks branch.
The Views branch can be expanded to display a list of the different types of topologies you are able to generate and view, while the Bookmarks branch can be expanded to show a list of previously saved views which you may have customized to better reflect your specific requirements.
The tree that is displayed when the Elements tab is selected gives you access to detailed information about the individual devices that make up the network. When you expand a device-name branch, a list of the device's interfaces will be displayed. If you click the mouse on a device name (not an interface) using the right mouse button, a menu with a single item---Edit---will appear. Select this Edit command to open the device's configuration file using the Microsoft Windows Notepad accessory. (The file that is opened is the copy of the configuration file that was placed in the Netsys\data directory at the time you created the baseline, not the configuration file you pointed to as a source file.)
The main window's display panel---the pane on the right side of the window---is used to present various reports that are available to you in the currently opened baseline. To view reports, select the Reports tab in the navigation pane and double click on a report name.
Topologies are displayed in a separate, independent window. This allows you to display both the topology and either reports or element information simultaneously.
You can also choose to limit the topology display to only those parts of your network that are of interest at any given time---for example, only those devices which support a particular protocol.
To view a particular topology for the currently open baseline, do the following:
Step 1 Select the Topology tab at the top of the navigation panel (left pane).
Step 2 Click on the plus sign ("+") next to the Views branch of the data tree. (To expand any of the tree's branches, click on the plus sign or double click on the name itself; to collapse the list, click on the minus sign adjacent to a branch name or double click on the name itself.)
Step 3 Double-click on the view name. A topology window will open, with the selected view displayed.
The window's title bar displays the name of the view, followed by the name of the baseline (Campus: test in the title bar means the campus view is being displayed for the baseline test).
You can choose one of the following views (for a more detailed explanation of each, see the chapter "Topologies" elsewhere in this reference guide).
To change to another view, you can either click on a different name in the Views tree in the main window's left pane, or you can use the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the topology window.
In addition to the Views branch, the tree in the main window's left pane contains a Bookmarks branch. Bookmarks identify specific topologies and topology layouts that you have previously marked using one of the Bookmark commands (by clicking on the Action button in a topology window). For more information about using bookmarks, see the chapter "Topologies" elsewhere in this reference guide.
To view a report, double-click on its name in the data tree. For a more detailed discussion of these reports, see either of the chapters "Reports" or "Integrity Checks Report," elsewhere in this reference guide.
The print mechanism of the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software actually utilizes the printing function of your default web browser. To change your printer setup data, you need to open the browser and use its printer setup function.
You can save reports as HTML files for viewing in a web browser, as text files for working in a word processor, or in comma-separated-value (CSV) format for importing into a spreadsheet.
For more information about saving and printing reports, see the chapter "Reports."
Click the right mouse button on a device name (not an interface) in the navigation panel's data tree to edit the device's configuration file.
When you change a configuration file using the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software, you are actually editing a copy that was made when you created the baseline---not the configuration file that you specified as a source file. Because you are working with an offline copy of the configuration file, you can experiment and observe the effects of your changes without risk to network traffic. If you want to incorporate your changes into your network, you will need to copy the baseline version of the configuration file onto your network, or edit the real file outside of the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software.
If any changes you make to your configuration files would result in a device or one of its interfaces no longer being available for network traffic---if you shut an interface down, for example---a View Information window will open the next time you display a topology, to remind you about the changes.
Posted: Tue Apr 27 11:54:47 PDT 1999
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