Table of Contents
Topologies
The navigator panel (left pane) of the software's main window provides access to various topology views of your network.
Available views are listed under the Views branch of the data tree structure that is displayed in the navigation panel when the Topology tab is selected.
If you have previously created bookmarks of any of these views, the Bookmarks branch of the data tree contains links that allow you to return to your bookmarked views. (For more information about bookmarks, see the Action button discussion in the section "Topology Control Buttons" later in this chapter.)
To open a topology view, double click on the item's name in the data tree. An auxiliary window will open to display a graphic representation of your network, using the selected view. You can reposition or resize this window as desired, allowing you to simultaneously view a topology and an associated report.
(To reposition a window on your screen, click and drag the window's title bar. To resize the window, carefully place the cursor on an edge of the window. When the cursor shape changes to a thin arrow with arrowheads on both ends, click and drag the window until it is the desired size or shape. Click in a corner to simultaneously resize the horizontal and vertical dimensions.)
Figure 4-1: Topology Window with Flat View Displayed
You can have multiple topologies open at the same time, or you can tell the program to use a single window for all topologies (only one can be opened at a time). For more information about this option, see the discussion about the Global Topology Options command on the Display button menu, in the "Topology Control Buttons" section elsewhere in this chapter.
If your network is very large (hundreds of routers), it may take several minutes to render the topology view each time the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software has to display the window. Due to the nature of the drawing process, the cursor may not always be shown as an hourglass for the entire time, but the topology will be displayed eventually. A faster processor and more RAM should significantly reduce the time required to draw the image.
If your monitor is large enough, you may want to resize or reposition the Cisco Netsys Baseliner windows so that the topology views do not get covered up when you switch focus.
The Topology View window provides numerous options allowing you a substantial amount of control over how a particular view is displayed.
While the topology window is open, you can change from one view to another by selecting a different view from the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the window. This will cause the current view to be replaced by the selected view, in the currently open topology window. (The current window will be reused even if you have selected multiple windows in the Global Topology Options dialog; to open views in individual windows, use the data tree in the main window to select the views).
The four Zoom buttons immediately to the right of the views list allow you to control how much of your network is displayed within the window.
Figure 4-2: Zoom Buttons
Click the Zoom to Fit All button to fit the entire network into the window.
Click the Zoom Out button to reduce the size of the image, thereby showing more of the network in the window.
Click the Zoom In button to increase the size of the image (but not the window), thereby showing less of the network in the window.
Click the Zoom Normalize button to return the display to its original proportions, but at the current scale. The vertical dimension will be adjusted to be proportional to the horizontal. (Proportions are easily distorted if you use the program's right-click-and-drag feature to define a new zoom region---place the cursor in the display window and drag the mouse with the right button held down; a bounding rectangle will outline a region that will fill the window when the mouse button is released.)
The three large buttons at the top of the topology window, to the right of the Zoom button group, provide a variety of options to control the contents, appearance, and state of the topology.
Figure 4-3: Topology Control Buttons
The Action button presents various options related to display and program behavior. Click on the button to open a menu with the following selections:
- Undo Move---if you have moved an element in the topology view, this option returns that element to its previous position.
- Find---locates an element in the topology by drawing a highlighting rectangle around the element's icon, in the color selected in the Global Topology Options dialog (default color is yellow).
- Zoom---opens a submenu with commands duplicating the functionality of the topology window's Zoom buttons.
- Refresh---removes all currently displayed interface labels and addresses from the screen, clears all highlighted network elements, and deselects all selected network elements.
- Recalculate Layout---recalculates how to lay out the devices in the topology according to the current configuration data contained in the baseline model (including configuration changes made during the current session). This action will overwrite the previously saved layout; the newly recalculated layout will become the currently saved layout.
- Change Object Sizes---submenu options allow fine-tuning of sizes of different parts of the topology (relative positions among elements are maintained; all positional-type bookmarks are removed but device-based bookmarks are maintained):
- Shrink Objects---halves the size of all displayed network elements but maintains current size of campuses.
- Enlarge Objects---doubles the size of all displayed network elements but maintains current size of campuses.
- Shrink Campuses and Objects---halves the size of all displayed network elements and campuses.
- Enlarge Campuses and Objects---doubles the size of all displayed network elements and campuses.
- Save Layout---saves all customizations that have been made to the current view (and overwrites any previously saved layout for this view). The next time you open the view, it will use the saved layout. Recalculating the layout will overwrite any device repositionings you may have made in this saved layout.
- Print---displays the Print View dialog, which allows you to send the current view to a printer, with the following options:
- Objects Displayed in Window---prints all baseline objects currently visible in the topology window
- All Objects in View---prints all baseline objects that would be visible if no zoom factor were in effect
- Campus---prints the campus that is selected in the accompanying list (this option will be disabled if the current view does not group elements into campuses)
Figure 4-4: Print Campus View Dialog
- You can send the image to a Postscript-enabled printer of your choosing (select from the list of available printers in the adjacent drop-down list), or to a Postscript file (enter a filename, which can include a relative or absolute path, in the adjacent edit control).
- The width and height page dimensions determine the size of the logical page; the image will be formatted to fit a page of these dimensions (with a 1/2 inch margin on all sides).
- The rows and columns determine how many pages the image will span when printed. If you specify 2 rows by 2 columns, the image will be tiled into four panels and printed on four pages, with each of the four images formatted to the specified dimensions.
- You can add a note about the image in the Page Footer edit field; the note will be added to the bottom of the page (or on each of the pages, if you have specified more than one row or column). Though you can enter a lengthy annotation in this field, only one line will be printed. It will not wrap to print multiple lines.
- You can choose to send the topology to the printer as a color or gray-scale image.
- Bookmarks---creates a snapshot of the current topology, which can be redisplayed at a later time by clicking on its name in the navigator panel of the main window. When you create a bookmark, it is automatically named new_bookmark_<n> (where <n> is a number to differentiate it from any existing new_bookmark_<n> entries). To give the bookmark a more meaningful name, use the Edit Bookmark command. The View, Subview, Options, and Zoom selection in effect at the time you create the bookmark are saved. To create or edit a bookmark, select one of the following submenu items:
- Add Positional Bookmark---saves the currently displayed area of the topology without regard to which devices are actually present. If you zoom in to show a single device, add a positional bookmark, then use the mouse to move the device to a new location, the topology window will show an empty region when you return to this view using the bookmark.
- Add Device-based Bookmark---saves the identify and current zoom factor of a selected network element, without regard to its current location in the topology view. If you select a device, add a device-based bookmark, move the device to a new location, then use this bookmark to reopen the topology, the device will be displayed at its new position in the topology and at the zoom factor in effect when the bookmark was created.
- Edit Bookmark---when this command is displayed on the menu, it opens the Topology Tools dialog box with the Bookmarks tab selected. This command is not displayed on the menu if there are no bookmarks in the baseline.
Figure 4-5: Topology Tools Dialog Box, with Bookmarks Tab Selected
- The Topology Tools dialog is global to all topologies of the baseline (even though it is opened within a specific view window). When the Bookmarks tab is selected, the dialog lists all bookmarks for all views. To jump to a view identified by a bookmark, select it then choose the Open button.
- To change the name of a bookmark, select it and choose the Edit button. The Rename Bookmark dialog will open.
Figure 4-6: Rename Bookmark dialog
- Replace the name in the edit field and click the Rename button (or click the Cancel button to close the Rename Bookmark dialog without taking any action). Bookmark names can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, periods, and the underscore character.
- To remove a bookmark from the baseline, select it in the Topology Tools dialog and choose the Delete button.
- To force the software to always open at the selected bookmark whenever the view listed in the center column is opened, select it and choose the Make Default to View button in the Topology Tools dialog.
- (Certain small windows, including the Rename Bookmark window, exhibit semi-modal behavior that can appear to lock up the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software. Because they are small, and because they do not display an icon in response to the Alt-Tab key press, these windows can be difficult to find if they become hidden behind other windows on the desktop. They are especially hard to find if you have applications other than the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software running in the background. But the program is not locked up; it is merely waiting for you to find and close the hidden window.)
- Schemes---opens the Topology Tools dialog box with the Schemes tab selected, which allows you to select from among various color schemes for the elements shown in the display, providing a means of quick identification of different equipment, protocols and bandwidths. The dialog also includes a checkbox which allows you to turn display of the selected scheme on or off in the topology view.
- Use the Current Scheme drop-down list to choose from among the following color schemes:
- WAN types---assigns different colors to each of the following WAN types: HDLC (High-level Data Link Control encapsulated links); PPP SLIP (Point-to-Point Protocol - Serial Line Internet Protocol links); SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Service links); Frame Relay links; X.25 links; ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode); HSSI (High-Speed Serial Interface links) and HDLC links up to 64Kbps
Figure 4-7: Topology Tools Dialog Box, with Schemes Tab Selected
- Cisco router types---assigns different colors to each of the following router types: multiBus, igs, 1000, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3810, AGS+, 4000, 4500, 4700, AS5100 AS5200, 7000, 7000RSP, 7010, 7200, 7505, 7507, 7513, and all BayNetworks. The Cisco Netsys Baseliner software attempts to identify router types based on the presence of certain IOS commands in the configuration. In many cases, there are insufficient commands to identify the type properly. You can force the software to consider a specific router to be a particular Cisco router type by entering its name in the data.router_types file.
- Media bandwidth---assigns different colors to connections in each of the following ranges: 0-64 Kbps; 64-128 Kbps; 128-256 Kbps; 256-512 Kbps; 512-1544 Kbps; 1544-2048 Kbps; 2048 Kbps to 4 Mbps; 4-10 Mbps; 10-16 Mbps; 16-45 Mbps; 45-100 Mbps; 100-155 Mbps; 155-620 Mpbs; and 620 Mbps to 1 Gbps
- The data.router_types file is an ASCII text file located in the directory that contains your baseline file. Each entry in this file should be in the following form:
data-router-type,<router's hostname>,<router type>,<observed type>
- Fields should be separated by commas, without spaces. The first field must be entered as data-router-type (entered as a single word, with dashes). The second field should identify the router by hostname. The third field should identify the router type (must be one of the types shown in the Topology Tools dialog; precede numbered routers by the word cisco---lowercase, no space, as cisco2500---except the 7000RSP, which should be entered as ciscoRSP7000; the AGS+, which should be entered as AGSplus; and the AS5100 and AS5200 routers, which should be entered as cisco5100 and cisco5200). The fourth field, which is optional, identifies the actual type---for example, a router you are designating as a 2500 may actually be a 2502, which you could list as the observed type.
- Lines beginning with the pound sign ("#") will be ignored, as will blank lines.
- Notes---opens the Topology Tools dialog box with the Notes tab selected, allowing you to edit notes that have been attached to devices.
Figure 4-8: Topology Tools Dialog Box, with Notes Tab Selected
- Each device can have up to four notes. An upper case "T" within a circle is attached to the corner of the device's icon, unless the Display text instead of icon checkbox is selected---this causes the entire note to be displayed in place of the "T" symbol.
- To add a note, right-click on a device in the topology window and select the Add Note command from the Options menu that appears. A note icon will be added to the topology view. You must then select the Notes command on the Action button menu in order to change the text from the default string New Note.
- To attach the note's icon (or text) to a different corner of the device's icon, select the note from the list then click on the desired corner on the Position key.
- To change the color of a note, select the note and click on the desired color in the Color key.
- To edit the text of a note, select it in the list, then use the bottom edit box to change the text.
- To remove a note, select it from the list and choose the Delete button.
- The Devices column identifies the network devices to which notes are attached.
- The Display column indicates what will be shown in the topology view---text or icon, depending on the state of the Display text instead of icon checkbox at the bottom of the dialog (the column can be sorted as a quick way of locating devices whose notes are fully displayed in a network consisting of many devices).
- The Text column shows the text of the note as entered in the lower edit control.
- When you pass the cursor over a column heading, its shape changes to an icon of a three-button mouse, as a reminder that you can sort notes according to column headings.
- The Close button dismisses the Topology Tools dialog box.
- Close---this Action button menu command closes the topology view window.
The Display topology control button allows you to choose how, or whether, certain things are visible in the window. Click on the button to open a menu with the following commands:
- Labels---opens a submenu which you can use to show or hide labels identifying network elements
- Objects---opens a submenu which you can use to show or hide network elements
- Toolbars---opens a submenu which allows you to show or hide any of the following toolbars at the top of the topology window (when visible, toolbars will be displayed just below the drop-down view list and zoom and control buttons):
- Labels---toolbar contains buttons to show or hide labels for network elements. For information about what the individual buttons do, see the section "Labels Toolbar Buttons" elsewhere in this chapter.
- Objects---toolbar contains buttons to show or hide objects from the topology. For information about what the individual buttons do, see the section "Objects Toolbar Buttons" elsewhere in this chapter.
- Layout---toolbar contains buttons which control various layout options. For information about what the individual buttons do, see the section "Layout Toolbar Buttons" elsewhere in this chapter.
- Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area---shows or hides a tabbed panel at the bottom of the topology window, offering the following features:
- Listing---when the Listing tab is selected, the pane displays a list of all items in the network. Click on an item in the list to highlight its icon in the topology view. Enter a device name in the edit control and click the Find button to zoom in on the item's icon in the topology view. Use the Reset button to clear the entry in the edit control (the drop-down list stores previously found items that have been cleared). Use an asterisk as a wildcard character to filter the list to show only those items with similar names (net* will restrict the list to those entries which begin with the string net; however, an asterisk will always be appended to the end of an entry, so that entering *192 will restrict the list to those entries which contain the numbers 192 in any position).
Figure 4-9: Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area, with Listing Tab Selected
Figure 4-10: Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area, with Subview Tab Selected
- Subview---when the Subview tab is selected, the pane presents options about which elements to display in the topology window (functionality is similar to that provided by the menu displayed when the Subview button at the top of the topology window is clicked). For information about the Condition and Label drop down lists, see the section "Controlling View Contents" elsewhere in this chapter.
- Summary Map---shows a miniature map of the topology (present on both Listing and Subview tabs). The map lets you keep track of the current mouse location in relation to the entire network even though not all of the network is visible in the main display.
- If the map---in the box at the right of the List/Subview/Summary Map Area panel---takes too long to draw (if your network is very large, for example), you can turn this feature off by deselecting the appropriate check box in the Display dialog. (Click on the Display button, select the Options command, and choose Display).
- The summary map provides a constant view of the entire topology. As the cursor is moved within the topology window, its current location in relation to the entire topology is tracked within the summary map.
- When you click within the summary map, the corresponding area is centered within the current topology display.
- As you zoom in and out of the topology, a red box is drawn within the summary map outlining the topology area that is currently displayed in the topology window. You can display a particular area within the topology by pressing the right mouse button and dragging the red box around the desired area, either in the main topology window or within the summary map area. When you release the button, the area within the bounding box is expanded to fill the topology window. (Images in the display can easily become distorted when you use this feature. To restore the images in the window to their original proportions but at the new scale---as defined by the horizontal dimension---click on the Zoom Normalize button at the top of the topology window.)
- Configure Campuses---opens the Configure Campuses dialog box which displays a list of the campuses in the topology (this option is available only when a campus view is displayed in the topology window).
Figure 4-11: Configure Campuses Dialog Box
- You can delete campuses, individually display campus labels, and assign new names to existing campuses via this dialog box. (If your network has more campuses than can be seen in the dialog box when it opens, either use the scroll bar at the right or expand the dialog box by dragging the bottom margin down.) You may change data for one or more campuses in this dialog, then click the OK button to implement all of your changes at once.
Figure 4-12: Display Options
Figure 4-13: Colors
- Colors---opens the Global Topology Options dialog box with the Colors tab selected. Allows customization of various display elements.
- Color settings are global to the software and will be used for all views in all baselines.
- Campus background---color used to fill the rectangle on which a campus is drawn.
- Node fill---color used to fill the interior region of an icon.
- Node outline---color used to outline an icon.
- Serial links---color used to draw the path of serial links.
- Implicit links---color used to draw the path between a device and an end system not explicitly identified by baseline configuration files.
- Label color---color used for text within labels (but see connection text).
- Proposed link---color used to draw paths to a serial device added via the Add Serial Link option.
- Selection---color used to outline the currently selected device.
- Highlighted Object---color used to draw a highlighting rectangle around a device that is selected in a report or other list (such as a subview list).
- Connection text---color used to draw the text within a label identifying connected end systems of a selected router
- Window background---color used as background in the topology view window.
- To change the color of an item, locate the desired item in the list and click on the adjacent button (with three horizontal stripes) at the far right margin of the dialog.
- In the Color Chooser dialog box that opens, you can select a color by name from the scrollable list at the left, or you can choose a color model using the buttons at the top of the dialog. Adjust the sliders to control the color's Red-Green-Blue (RGB), Cyan-Magenta-Yellow (CMY), or Hue-Saturation-Brightness (HSB) values. There is no difference in the colors produced by the different color models; they simply represent three different ways of defining colors.
- The Color Chooser dialog opens to the right of the current location of the Global Topology Options dialog. If you have moved the options dialog to the right side of your screen, you may not be able to see the Color Chooser dialog because it opened offscreen. If this happens, relocate the options dialog and reopen the Color Chooser.
- When you have made your selections, click the Save button in the Display tab of the Global Topology Options dialog to register your changes for later use.
- Click the Apply button to change the colors during the current working session.
- If you click Save but not Apply, you will not see your changes until you exit and restart the Cisco Netsys Baseliner software. If you click Apply but not Save, your changes will be used for all baselines opened during the current working session, but they will be discarded when you exit the software.
Figure 4-14: Color Chooser
The Subview topology control button can be used to fine-tune the display so that it shows only a specific subset of devices/protocols. Click on the button to display a menu with various devices/protocols from which you can choose. The selections available to you will vary according to the type of topology view that is currently open. (The specific options available for each view are enumerated elsewhere in this chapter, in the section "Subview Options.")
When you select an item, only those devices meeting the condition of the selected subview will be displayed in the topology view.
The Subview menu also includes a Use Advanced Subview Query command, which opens the List/Subview/Summary Map Area panel with the Subview tab selected. (This menu item duplicates the functionality of the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area item on the Display button menu.) Using the subview tab on this dialog, you can set the display to show one or more different sets of devices, using the Condition drop-down list.
The Help button provides on-line access to this reference guide, viewed through your default web browser. Click on the button to open a menu of help topics:
- Overview
- Navigation
- Action
- Display
- Subview
The topology view you select determines how the devices and connections that make up your network will be displayed in the topology window.
The Campus view depicts devices in a rough approximation of the physical layout of your network (campus boundaries are determined by WAN links). Campus names are derived from the names of the routers they contain. When a campus contains only one router, the router's full name is used to create the campus name. If the campus contains more than one router, the campus name is derived from the first three letters of the most commonly occurring router name.
You can change a campus name by clicking the Display button at the top of the topology window and choosing the Configure Campus command, or by clicking the right mouse button with the cursor over the campus background and choosing Rename from the Options menu that opens.
WAN link connections (thick lines) can be displayed in the foreground (the default behavior; the line is prominently displayed over the top of campuses) or background (a thin, grey line is shown on the window background but not over campus areas). Select by clicking the Display button at the top of the window, selecting the Objects item on the menu, and toggling the Inter-Campus Links command on the submenu that opens. The thickness of the line indicates the WAN link bandwidth. Thicker lines represent higher-bandwidth WAN links.
The Flat view arranges networks and devices in the view to best display all interconnections without regard to their physical locations. This view is very effective for viewing smaller networks (75 or fewer routers). However, this view can also take a long time to display if your network is large.
The WAN line connections (thick lines) can be displayed (default) or not displayed by selecting the Inter-Campus Links item on the Display button menu, as described in the previous discussion about the Campus view.
The RSRB view displays Source-Route Bridging (SRB), Remote Source-Route Bridging (RSRB), Token Ring, and Data Link Switching (DLSw) network elements comprising ring groups. Although clicking on a router icon in the RSRB view shows that router's peers, the same is not applicable for DLSw configured routers.
Drill-down views are available for Virtual Rings. Click the right mouse button on a virtual ring (router icons will be placed on a campus-colored rectangle) and choose the View -> command to see a view of just those routers that are a part of the virtual ring.
The OSPF view groups routers supporting the IP OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) together into campuses. Each campus contains routers belonging to the same OSPF area using the same autonomous system number. The campus names have a format of 109_0.0.0.0, where 109 is an autonomous system number and 0.0.0.0 is an OSPF area number.
An area border router is a router existing in multiple OSPF areas. The symbolic name assigned to an area border router follows the format: abr_<router_id>, where <router_id> is computed as follows:
The OSPF-Areas view is defined the same as the previous view (OSPF), except that each campus contains routers belonging to the same OSPF area regardless of the autonomous system number. The campus names have a format of 0.0.0.0.
When a topology has only one autonomous system, the OSPF and OSPF-Area views create the same layout. The only difference is the default campus names assigned to the campuses in each view.
The AppleTalk view groups routers into campuses according to their primary zones. The default campus names assigned to primary zones containing routers having all of their interfaces wholly contained within a zone have a z_ prefix. The default campus names assigned to primary zones containing routers having interfaces assigned to different primary zones have a zb_ prefix.
The DECnet view groups routers into campuses according to the DECnet areas to which they belong. The default campus names follow the format a_<area_number>.
(Other protocol addresses may be displayed in this view, as there is no notion of DECnet addresses on segments observed from the router configuration files.)
The BGP view groups routers into campuses according to the autonomous system to which they belong. When multiple autonomous systems exist, multiple campuses are displayed.
Default BGP campus names have the format as<autonomous_system_number>.
When you click on a router icon in this view, the neighbor IP addresses are displayed in red boxes.
When you first open a BGP view, the topology window will open with the Autonomous-Systems subview selected. To see all BGP routers, select the BGP item on the menu that is displayed when you click on the Subview button.
The IS-IS view groups routers into campuses according to either their area addresses or system IDs. When multiple area addresses or system IDs exist, multiple campuses are displayed. Area IDs have the format: <aa.aaaa.aaaa.aaaa>. System IDs have the format:<ssss.ssss.ssss>.
The By-Name view displays campus groups consisting of routers with similar names (devices are grouped with others whose names start with the same first two letters).
For example, when your network contains routers whose names start with ne, ci, and s1, three campus groups are created. The routers whose names start with ne are grouped in one campus, the routers whose names start with ci are grouped in a separate campus group, and the routers whose names start with s1 are grouped in a third campus group.
The Voice view provides options to display Cisco MC3810 routers and their interfaces supporting POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) and only the routers and PVCs involved in vofr (voice over Frame Relay), voatm (voice over ATM), and vohdlc (voice over HDLC), as currently observed within the baseline.
The VPDN view provides options to display all network elements with VPDN enabled (All), all configured home gateways (Home-Gateways), and tunnels between the NAS (Network Access Server) and the home gateways (one per subview), as currently observed within the baseline.
Topology layouts are recalculated whenever new devices are added. (To add a router, you must first add it to the Device Password Database maintained by the baseline. Select the Set Up Router Access command from the Tools menu of the main window and follow the wizard steps to add the router to the database. Next, select the Collect Cisco Router Configurations command on the same Tools menu to add the new configuration data to the baseline. LANs can be added through configuration modifications to the existing set of interface descriptions.)
When a new device is assigned to an existing campus by the program's layout algorithm, the device is placed along the bottom of that campus.
When new campuses are created, they are laid out along the bottom of the topology window.
When the layout algorithm assigns an existing device to a different campus than it currently resides in, it remains where it is.
You can move these devices as desired. Existing placements are not invalidated, so there is no reason to worry about losing all of your device repositionings.
You generate an up-to-date global topology layout according to the current state of the baseline (including any configuration changes made during the current session) by clicking the Action button and selecting the Recalculate Layout menu option.
However, the following caveat concerning OSPF views exists: when you make configuration file edits to network area statements, you may be implicitly reassigning routers and LANs to different OSPF areas than they previously were in. Therefore, the cached OSPF layout may differ from the current configuration.
You should select the Recalculate Layout menu option when significant OSPF area reassignments have occurred.
The icons used to represent various elements in a topology are as follows:
- Router---thick disk with arrows
- NAS Router (network access server; VPDN-enabled router)---circle with arrows, enclosed in a square
- Token Ring---circle
- FDDI---circle within a circle
- Voice (POTS)---triangle
- Ethernet/Fast Ethernet/CIP/ATM---thin horizontal rectangle
- ATM LAN---an "X" drawn within a rectangle
- WAN cloud---cloud (used to denote Frame Relay, X.25, and SMDS internal circuits)
Figure 4-15: Topology Icons
- Multi-Media LANs---multidirectional arrows drawn within a rectangle. Represents a LAN connected to router interfaces of different types (such as Ethernet and FDDI). The Cisco Netsys Baseliner software treats this device as a logical translating or transparent bridge.
In addition, the topology view uses the following graphic elements to convey information:
- Objects with drill downs---icons for network elements that have drill down windows associated with them (such as RSRB peering relationships) are displayed over a small rectangular block which is the same color as a campus background.
- WAN link---thick line. The thickness of the line drawn is proportional to the bandwidth of the WAN link. The thicker the line, the greater the bandwidth. The default color is black.
- Multiple WAN links between two devices---thick dashed line. The thickness of the line drawn is proportional to the bandwidth of the top WAN link (which is also the link used for labeling, status line information, colorations, and double-click actions). The thicker the line, the greater the bandwidth. When you place the cursor over a dashed line, the number of multiple WAN links represented by this icon, in this view, is displayed at the bottom of the window. When two multiple links exist and you remove one, the link's icon is colored black and its width is changed to reflect the properties of the remaining link. When you change subviews within a topology window, a dashed WAN link icon changes to a black WAN link icon when only one WAN link exists within that subview.
- Implicit LAN link---thin line. The default color is grey.
Click on the Help button to display documentation about the topology window. The help text consists of an on-line version of this reference guide, displayed in your default web browser. Where there are differences between the text of the printed guide and the on-line help, accept the on-line version as the more recently revised text.
You can fill in missing information about a known, existing subnet---add a serial link between two routers, for example---by selecting the Add Serial Link option from the Options menu for a router, campus, or network. (The Options menu is displayed when you click on the right mouse button.)
When one or more serial interfaces are available for the item or region selected by the right mouse click (campus, router, or entire network), the Add Serial Link window is displayed.
Figure 4-16: Add Serial Link Window
All available serial interfaces are listed in the window's Source Endpoint pane (top).
The Destination Endpoint pane (bottom) is populated with all of the interfaces that can be connected to the interface currently selected in the Source Endpoint window.
When you have selected source and destination endpoints, a green line will be drawn between the two devices in the topology view window, to show you the proposed connection. (To change the color the software uses to indicate a proposed link, choose the Global Topology Options command on the Display button menu, select Colors, and customize the Proposed Link color.)
To change either endpoint, click the mouse on a different entry in the Add Serial Link window.
When you have selected the desired source and destination endpoints, click on the OK button to add the desired serial link to the topology.
Each serial link which you create is assigned the same symbolic name, unnumbered.
When a new serial link is added from within the topology window, the following rules regarding legal connections are in effect:
- IP unnumbered interfaces can only connect to other IP unnumbered interfaces
- IP numbered interfaces can only connect to other IP numbered interfaces on the same subnet.
While a topology view is open, you can choose to limit the display to show only subsets of your network---that is, only those devices that support certain protocols, processes, or encapsulations; and you can selectively label certain devices in order to more easily identify and locate them.
You can choose to limit the display to show only some network elements by using the Condition drop-down list on the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
To show the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane, choose the Display button at the top of the topology window. For more information about this pane, see the section discussion of the Display button functionality in the section "Topology Control Buttons" elsewhere in this chapter.
Options available to you via the Condition list are as follows:
- Equal---displays all network elements that support the selected routing protocol or encapsulation. (Protocols can be selected from either the menu that is displayed when you click on the Subview button at the top of the topology window or the Subview tab in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane).
- Or---displays the network elements that support any of the currently selected routing algorithms, routing processes, and/or encapsulations. For example, when you select both IP and AppleTalk in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane, all network elements which support the IP protocol (if any) are displayed, as well as all network elements which support the AppleTalk protocol (if any).
- And---displays only those network elements that support all of the currently selected protocols or encapsulations. For example, if you select IP, IPX, and AppleTalk in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane, only those network elements that support the IP, IPX, and AppleTalk protocols are displayed in the topology window.
The default selection in the Condition list is equal.
When none of the network elements in the current scenario support any of the selected routing algorithms, the topology window will be empty except for a No Objects in Subview message.
When multiple selections are allowed, the items in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area are listed in the form of checkboxes.
When only one item may be selected, the listings are in the form of radio buttons.
You can choose to display labels in a format appropriate to a particular protocol, using the Label drop down list on the Subview tab of the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area dialog (selection in the Condition list must be either or or and).
To do so, click an appropriate button in the Labels toolbar (or select a command from the Labels submenu of the Action button menu). Then make a selection from the Label drop-down list. Labels for a given device will show information appropriate for the selected protocol.
For example, when you select the IP and IPX routing algorithm checkboxes while the or condition is in effect, then select Ethernet from the Labels toolbar, the labels for each LAN will display IPX addresses when IPX is selected on the Label drop-down list, and IP addresses when IP is selected.
(By definition, when the Condition list selection is equal, all devices displayed in the topology view support the selected protocol, and only one protocol can be selected at a time; therefore, they will all be labeled or not labeled depending on the state of the toolbar button or menu command.)
Which subview options are available in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area dialog (or on the Subview menu) depends on the type of view being displayed and the capabilities of the devices in the baseline.
Subview options available for each view are:
Campus---choose to display routers according to protocol supported (menu always shows IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES; in addition, any other protocols and encapsulations supported by devices in the baseline will be added).
Flat---choose to display routers according to protocol supported (menu always shows IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES; in addition, any other protocols and encapsulations supported by devices in the baseline will be added).
RSRB---choose whether ring group numbers are displayed as Decimal or Hexadecimal.
OSPF---choose to display by OSPF Area, or only those devices which support various protocols and encapsulations.
OSPF-Areas---same as OSPF.
DECnet---choose to display by DECnet Area, or only those devices which support various protocols and encapsulations.
AppleTalk---choose to group devices according to Primary-Zones (campus names will begin with z_ if routers in them have all of their interfaces wholly contained within the zone, or zb_ if routers in them have interfaces assigned to different primary zones); or, display devices according to encapsulation options supported.
BGP---choose to display Autonomous Systems, Route-Reflection (router reflection groups), or devices according to whatever routing protocols and encapsulations are supported by devices in the baseline.
IS-IS---choose to display routers according to protocol supported (menu always shows IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES; in addition, any other protocols and encapsulations supported by devices in the baseline will be added).
By-Name---choose to display routers according to protocol supported (menu always shows IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES; in addition, any other protocols and encapsulations supported by devices in the baseline will be added).
Voice---choose to display routers according to protocol supported (menu always shows IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES; in addition, any other protocols and encapsulations supported by devices in the baseline will be added).
VPDN---choose to display all devices, only the home gateway devices, or individual domain-name servers as defined in the NAS device's configuration file (shown on the Subview list by internet domain name: something.com).
The buttons on the Labels toolbar allow you to show or hide labels for various network elements. When a button is selected (appears depressed), labels will be shown. To remove the labels, click on the button a second time (button will appear to be raised).
Figure 4-17: Labels Toolbar
You click on this button to display names associated with groupings of LAN components. This option is active when viewing the topology in Campus, AppleTalk, OSPF, OSPF-Areas, DECnet, BGP, ISIS, or By-Name views.
(Campus names are derived from the names of the routers they contain, as identified in your router configuration files. To rename campuses, use the Configure Campuses item on the menu that is displayed when you choose the Display button at the top of the topology window. The Configure Campuses menu item is disabled when a non-campus view is displayed.)
You click on this button to display names of routers that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display the Ethernet interface network addresses of devices that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display the FDDI ring interface network addresses of devices that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display the Token Ring interface network addresses of devices that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display WAN cloud labels (or the circuit address labels when the Frame Relay/X.25/SMDS circuits item on the Objects submenu of the Display button menu is selected) for WANs that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display the ATM LAN interface network addresses for LANs that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane.
You click on this button to display the labels of the LANs connected to router interfaces of different types (Ethernet or FDDI, for example), for LANs that support the protocol selected in the Label list in the Listing/Subview/Summary Map Area pane. The Cisco Netsys Baseliner software treats this device as a logical translating or transparent bridge.
You click on this button to display network addresses for Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) networks.
You click on this button to show the link's network addresses in the topology view.
The Objects toolbar allows you to show or hide campus links, secondary LANs, terminal LANs, Frame Relay, X.25, and SMDS circuits, and all baseline objects.
Figure 4-18: Objects Toolbar
You select this option to display non-multipoint WAN links as thick lines in the foreground in the topology window (black is the default color for this link, though this can be changed). When this option is not selected, WAN links are not shown when in a flat view and they are shown as thin grey lines in the background---not over a campus---when in a campus view. Displaying WAN links is the default.
You select this option to display LAN segments that are only connected to a single router. This feature is used to remove clutter from the topology layout. Displaying terminal LAN segments is the default.
You select this option to display secondary LANs, created by adding an ip address [secondary] command to the configuration file. In effect, turning off this option keeps LANs from secondary addresses from being displayed. Displaying secondary LANs is the default.
You select this option to display Frame Relay/X.25/SMDS circuits instead of WAN clouds. Not displaying Frame Relay/X.25/SMDS circuits is the default. For heavily meshed clouds, not all of the internal circuits are displayed in the topology, as the topology would become very cluttered and hard to read. To view all links and permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) in the WAN cloud, open the WAN Links Derivation Report and sort by the Shared IP column. The report is made up of all of the WAN links in the baseline, and the PVCs will be clustered together in the sorting order.
You select this option to display the notes you created using the Add Notes option on the Network Element Options menu (displayed when you right-click on an element's icon).
You select this option to display all of the objects in the current topology. Devices that exist in the network but are not displayed in the current subview (as a result of the Subview options selected) will appear as stippled icons, unless the view is zoomed in too close.
The Layout buttons allow you to set relative sizes of objects in the view.
Figure 4-19: Layout Toolbar
You select this button to shrink the size of icons for objects, without changing the displayed size of campuses.
You select this button to enlarge the size of icons for objects, without changing the displayed size of campuses.
You select this button to shrink both object icons and campuses.
You select this button to enlarge both object icons and campuses.
Clicking once on the right mouse button opens a floating Options menu.
Which commands are available on the Options menu depends on what the cursor is over when the right mouse button is clicked.
Options menu displayed while cursor is over the topology window's background (not over any of the campuses):
- Add Campus---allows you to define a new campus in the currently open view. This allows you to visually group devices according to your own criteria, rather than criteria imposed by the software. For example, you might want all routers that are located in a certain building grouped together on your screen, even though they are not linked into a common network (and would therefore not be grouped together by the software's Campus view). When you select this option, a small hint window will open in the lower left corner of the topology view to tell you the functions of each of the buttons on a three-button mouse (1 is left, 2 is middle, and 3 is right).
- Add Serial Link---opens a window (described elsewhere in this chapter) to allow you to define a new serial link between devices. To use this feature, there must be open serial interfaces defined in the configuration files.
Options menu displayed while cursor is over a campus background (but not touching any element in the campus):
Options menu displayed while cursor is touching a router icon:
Options menu displayed while cursor is touching a LAN segment icon:
- View <object_name>---when a single icon is displayed against its own campus-view background, this command opens an associated drill-down window. For example, when the RSRB view is displayed, a virtual ring icon representing multiple routers has a drill-down view available. You select this option to display the routers represented by the virtual ring in a separate Topology View window.
- Add Notes---adds a note to the device, highlights the device, and opens the Topology Tools dialog so that you can edit the newly added note.
- Always Show Label---causes the name of the device to be displayed regardless of the selection on the Labels menu or toolbar, which applies to all similar devices.
Options menu displayed while cursor is touching a WAN link segment:
Options menu displayed while cursor is touching a link segment representing multiple links between two devices:
- link: <device_label>---opens a new view which contains the devices represented in the multiple link, and displays the connections among them. For example, in the RSRB topology view, the options menu for a virtual ring made up of three routers would allow you to display those three routers and their connections in a separate view.
Options menu displayed while cursor is touching a WAN cloud icon:
- Add Notes---adds a note to the cloud, highlights the cloud, and opens the Topology Tools dialog to allow you to edit the new note.
- Always Show Label---causes the WAN cloud's symbolic name to be displayed regardless of the selection on the Labels menu or toolbar, which applies to all WAN clouds.
The Status line along the bottom edge of the topology window displays information about elements in the window.
When you position the cursor over an icon in the topology, the device or element's name and address are displayed in this area (such as router: {IP: netsys9a}, Link: {IP: 199.35.15.32}, tokenring: {IP: 199.35.38.128}, fddiring: {IP: 132.108.50.0}).
When appropriate, a suffix in the form of a number following a slash ("/xx" ) is added to the address value, where xx indicates the total number of contiguous bits in the subnet mask (for example, the string ethernet: {IP: 199.92.24.0/24} means there are 24 contiguous bits in the subnet mask while the string tokenring: {IP: 199.35.38.128/26} shows 26 contiguous bits).
An alternative method for altering the display characteristics of the topology window is through the use of the mouse buttons. (Descriptions of the functions provided by the mouse buttons are available on-screen by placing the cursor over the three mouse icons to the left of the horizontal scroll bar in the topology window.)
You can select multiple devices in the topology window using the Shift or Control keys on the keyboard, in conjunction with the mouse buttons. To select multiple devices, you click on a device icon with the left mouse button then press the Shift key and click over additional device icons with the left mouse button.
To select multiple devices, hold down the Control key on the keyboard and left button on the mouse while you drag the mouse across a surface. A bounding box will expand across the screen. When you release the mouse button, all objects within the bounding box will be selected. To add devices to a selection of devices, hold the shift key down and repeat the process.
To deselect a device, you press Shift and the left mouse button over the device's icon. To deselect all of the devices, you click the left mouse button over the topology window's background.
The left mouse button is used to display a router's symbolic interface names, to display network element configuration windows, to resize campuses, and to enable drag and drop capabilities.
You single-click the left mouse button over a network element icon to display the symbolic interface names of its attached connection end points. For example, when a router has an interface called TokenRing0 and another called Ethernet2, T0/0 is displayed above the corresponding LAN Token Ring icon and E2/0 is displayed over its corresponding LAN Ethernet icon. The first letter in the abbreviated format indicates the interface type (Token Ring, Ethernet, FDDI, HSSI, BRI.) The numbers refer to the interface/port and card number. When you click the left mouse button over a WAN link, the symbolic interface names at each router at the end of the WAN link are displayed.
You click the left mouse button in the background of the topology window to remove the interface labels and addresses from the on-screen display.
You press and hold the left mouse button down to enable drag and drop capabilities. When the cursor is located over a network element icon (other than a link) or within an area denoting a campus within a campus view, you press and hold the left mouse button down to drag the icon or campus area to a new location within the topology window. You release the mouse button when the icon or campus area is in the desired location.
As you move an object, icons of elements that exist in the network but that are not displayed in the current subview are shown as stippled objects. This helps you avoid dropping an object on top of another network element that is not currently displayed.
You click on the middle mouse button (on a three-button mouse) to display the topology in a smaller scale (zoomed out) within the topology window. To zoom in, you click on the middle mouse button while simultaneously holding down the Shift key on the keyboard. The zoom centers on the point where you clicked.
You double-click the right mouse button to display the entire topology within the topology window. This is equivalent to selecting the Zoom to Fit All button.
You press and hold the right mouse button to draw a bounding box around an area either within the topology window or the Summary Map area. When you release the button, the view zooms in to fill the topology window with the area defined by the bounding box.
Clicking the right mouse button once in a topology window opens a floating Options menu which can be used to accomplish various tasks.
Posted: Tue Apr 27 11:55:32 PDT 1999
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