| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
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| 2357.1 | What else needs to be managed? | TOOK::R_SPENCE | Nets don't fail me now... | Tue Feb 18 1992 13:23 | 16 |
| I don't have all your answers but I do have a comment.
What are the OTHER things in the network that will need management?
Routers are only a small (in terms of numbers of units) part of a
network. There are usually many other things that will need management.
If the network is entirely TCP/IP and only IP (or SNMP) things need
manageing, MSU may be the right choice.
What other requirements are there of the maagement system? What about
alarms, data recording, reporting etc? These issues will influence
your choice of management system. Which router you choose isn't
going to really influence the choice.
s/rob
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| 2357.2 | | SUBWAY::REILLY | Mike Reilly - New York Bank District | Tue Feb 18 1992 14:52 | 49 |
| > Do these private MIBs provide all of the management functions of
> which the routers are capable or will the cisco and Proteon
> proprietary management systems be able to do some things MCC and
> MSU cannot do?
With the basic MIB II variables you get a good feel for the status
of the individual interfaces on the routers, and it's TCP-IP status.
With the Cisco extended MIB you get some additional router
specific counters and 'other' protocol counters. This is not even
close to 'all of the management functions of which these routers are
capable' Basically a Cisco can be monitored via SNMP with real
management and configuration performed via a Telnet session. I
have not seen the Proteon MIB but I would doubt it is much better.
The cisco management platform performs some configuration control
which we do not perform under DECmcc. This configuration control
utility just sets the machine up as a TFTP server and reads in the
configuration files from the routers and will allow you to maintain
a local load server. You could develop your own shell scripts to do
this, assuming you can get TFTP to work under Ultrix...
When comparing DECmcc to other management stations consider
the following MCC advantages..
- SNMP is just one of the device classes it handles in a
consistent manner.
- The TCPIP Performance FM which gives useful performance numbers
not just a bunch of counters.
- The Graphing for those of us who cannot understand the numbers..
- Alarm rules, and the ability to generate alarms based on the
performance FM statistics.
- Handles SNMP traps.
- Command line interface, Remember routers usually fail at 3am
when the telco's 'know' nobody would notice.
- The ability to store historical data.. Long term reporting is
usually desirable for routers, as they are attached to those
expensive WAN links.
Hopefully somebody else can tell you about the Proteon Mgmt
station.
- Mike
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| 2357.3 | MSU w/ cisco, Proteon | ASDS::PUOPLO | | Tue Feb 18 1992 17:21 | 12 |
|
I suggest posting in the ENUF::MSU notes file this note with a request
for who is actually using MSU to manage Cisco and Proteon routers. Then
have them clarify what are they doing.
To my knowledge, folks like Standord find MSU useful for doing monitoring
and reporting on Cisco standard and private MIB variables. I don't have
any knowledge myself regarding configuration management (e.g.,
reconfiguring the router via SNMP SETS.)
Jerry
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| 2357.4 | about cisco MIB, Config Mgt,..? | TRCOA::BBUTLER | diviner | Wed Feb 19 1992 16:49 | 76 |
|
We are competing on a large multi-protocol router bid with a large
Network Management System component. At the end of this note I have
provided more information about the background of this bid at end of
this note.
I need functional details concering cisco and Proteon management
in order to determine whether to bid MCC or MSU, also compare our
capabilities with those of the competition.
I four questions:
q1. I found a copy of the cisco private ASN.1 concise MIB in the
MCC notes file, note 1747. Most of the variables are read-only.
I intend to copy the MIBII rfc from the network to see if it
contains read-write variables.
I want to know whether TELNET is simply an easier way or whether
it is the ONLY way for MCC to remotely do actions such as turning
cisco interfaces and protocols on/off.
Does cisco NetCentral use a TELNET access method or do they
have an SNMP application to perform configuration management?
q2. Is it possible to report utilization data for cpu utilization
of a cisco router? Because this is a mandatory I suspect that
cisco NetCentral station can report this; usually rfp authors
check the facts with the vendor before making something mandatory;
so the information is probably available, but can we get it?
I see a 'freeMem' variable in the concise private MIB, but I
don't see anything for 'freeCPU'.
q3. Is it possible to display route table information from the cisco
router? If so then can route table info be displayed for TCP/IP
DECnet, NetWare, OSPF? What MIB variable contains this info?
q4. Is there a utility to analyze a stored cisco configuration with
the configuration of the running system? The idea is to check
whether the original configuration which was down-line loaded to
the router is identical to the config currently running;
i.e. software change control on a component basis.
If discrepancies exist, could the network management station
restore the original configuration without disrupting the entire
router?
It sounds like these capabilities would require customization.
How difficult would it be to interpret the load file and compare
with the running system config? Can anyone suggest a method?
thanks,
Brad Butler
dtn: 637-3532
Toronto, CANADA
Cross posted in enuf::msu
Background for this bid:
The RFP is the beginning of a government process to consolidate
separate LAN and WAN networks. The networks are DECnet, TCP/IP,
SDLC, IPX and a few other protocols. This RFP is for data only.
But since the government agency also supports telecom, voice network
management capabilities could provide a competitive advantage.
The government has an IBM network which they intend to integrate
using routers from whomever wins this RFP.
They will buy either cisco or Protoen, likely cisco. We have a
couple of bid plans for this RFP which is why I originally
asked about both cisco and Proteon.
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| 2357.5 | | SUBWAY::REILLY | Mike Reilly - New York Bank District | Fri Feb 21 1992 10:52 | 109 |
| >q1. I found a copy of the cisco private ASN.1 concise MIB in the
> MCC notes file, note 1747. Most of the variables are read-only.
> I intend to copy the MIBII rfc from the network to see if it
> contains read-write variables.
>
MIB II has some additional IP management type variables.
> I want to know whether TELNET is simply an easier way or whether
> it is the ONLY way for MCC to remotely do actions such as turning
> cisco interfaces and protocols on/off.
The MIB II variable ifAdminStatus can be used to turn a line
on/off on a cisco router. However, there is no way to control only
one protocol on a line via SNMP. If I set ifAdminStatus to 'down'
then all protocols on the interface shut down.
> Does cisco NetCentral use a TELNET access method or do they
> have an SNMP application to perform configuration management?
As Netcentral uses the same SNMP MIB as you have, they can
only perform the same SNMP actions as DECmcc or MSU . If I
remember correctly NETcentral will allow you to edit a configuration
text file on the mgmt. station and then TFTP the config to the
router. You too can offer this feature... all you need is an editor
on your mgmt station.
To perform any real mgmt of a Cisco you must Telnet to the box. SNMP
is really just a monitoring protocol at the moment.
>q2. Is it possible to report utilization data for cpu utilization
> of a cisco router? Because this is a mandatory I suspect that
> cisco NetCentral station can report this; usually rfp authors
> check the facts with the vendor before making something mandatory;
> so the information is probably available, but can we get it?
>
> I see a 'freeMem' variable in the concise private MIB, but I
> don't see anything for 'freeCPU'.
It's there.. freeCPU = 100% - avgBusy1
From the Lsystem section of the cisco mib:
busyPer OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER
ACCESS read-only
STATUS mandatory
DESCRIPTION
"CPU busy percentage in the last 5 second
period. Not the last 5 realtime seconds but
the last 5 second period in the scheduler."
::= { lsystem 56 }
avgBusy1 OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER
ACCESS read-only
STATUS mandatory
DESCRIPTION
"1 minute exponentially-decayed moving
average of the CPU busy percentage."
::= { lsystem 57 }
avgBusy5 OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER
ACCESS read-only
STATUS mandatory
DESCRIPTION
"5 minute exponentially-decayed moving
average of the CPU busy percentage."
::= { lsystem 58 }
>q3. Is it possible to display route table information from the cisco
> router? If so then can route table info be displayed for TCP/IP
> DECnet, NetWare, OSPF? What MIB variable contains this info?
>
The IP routing table and ARP table are in MIBII, the other
routing tables are not there, just Telnet to the router and show them.
>q4. Is there a utility to analyze a stored cisco configuration with
> the configuration of the running system? The idea is to check
> whether the original configuration which was down-line loaded to
> the router is identical to the config currently running;
> i.e. software change control on a component basis.
>
> If discrepancies exist, could the network management station
> restore the original configuration without disrupting the entire
> router?
>
> It sounds like these capabilities would require customization.
> How difficult would it be to interpret the load file and compare
> with the running system config? Can anyone suggest a method?
If you can get TFTP to work on Ultrix then this is easy. You
need a shell script to perform the following.
1. TFTP config from the router
2. diff the current config with the stored config
3. if there is a diff use Data Collector AM to send event
to DECmcc
4. wait 1 hour
5. goto 1
I havn't been able to get TFTP to run on Ultrix yet so I havn't
tested this. You should also take a look at the utilities which
reside at ftp.cisco.com, there are a number of programs there which
may help you.
- Mike
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