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Ask the Expert: CiscoWorks Prime LAN Management Solution - Implementation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting

ciscomoderator
Community Manager
Community Manager

CiscoWorks Prime LAN Management Solution: Implementation, Configuration, and TroubleshootingWith Vinod Arya

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about the design, configuration, and troubleshooting of CiscoWorks Prime LAN Management Solution with Cisco expert Vinod Arya. He can cover questions about Cisco Prime LMS, including initial portal login and use of the Getting Started workflow to configure the server. He will also demonstrate how to explore and customize the dashboards in My Menu, manage portlets, and change the portal layout.

This is a continuation of the live webcast.

Vinod Arya is a High Touch Technical Support (HTTS) engineer in Cisco’s Focused Technical Support (FTS) organization working on Network Management System (NMS) products and technologies. His current focus is on planning and implementing Network Management Infrastructure(s). His areas of expertise also include NMS products and technologies such as the CiscoWorks LAN Management Solution (LMS), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), IP, Service-Level Agreements (SLAs), Cisco Prime Provisioning, Cisco Network Registrar, and many others. He has more than 7 years of experience in IT. Prior to joining Cisco’s HTTS NMS team, Arya worked for Convergys India Pvt Ltd managing and optimizing the Optus Broadband Network. From there he joined HCL Technologies, working with its local switching team before moving on to the Network Management Team. He was also part of its Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Arya holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Kumanun University in Nainital, India, and a MBA in Information Technology from Sikkim Manipal University in Bangalore, India. He holds several Cisco Certifications, including CCNA® and VCP 5.0..

Webcast related links:

53 Replies 53

ciscomoderator
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hello Vinod,

Excellent live webcast. Thank you for sharing your knowlege. There were several questions that remained unanswered during the live session:

  1. How will Cisco Prime LMS overcome the issues with the previous CiscoWorks LMS in terms of usability and stability?
  2. When will Dynamic User Tracking support SNMPv3 informs, instead of just SNMPv2?
  3. In consideration of the continuous migration to INF files, what LMS upgrades are planned and what features are planned in the future (rather than bug fixes and definition updates)?

Thank you for answering them.

Cisco Moderator

Hi Vinod,

Here are some more questions from the live event:

  1. Is there an application programming interface (API) or command-line function that can be used to add devices through an automated process?
  2. Does LMS have per-device licensing, such as Network Control System (NCS)?
  3. Can Cisco Prime monitor/configure options for Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)?
  4. Is it possible assign a topology group user?

Thank you.

Cisco Moderator

Hello,

Following are the answers to the questions :

1. Is there an application programming interface (API) or command-line function that can be used to add devices through an automated process?

We do have command line tools availabel for managing DCR funtions like adding or deleting a device or import or export of devices etc. It has a CLI utility DCRCLI.

For more details please check the guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ciscoworks_lan_management_solution/4.2/user/guide/inventory/cli.html#wp1014553

For more details on API of LMS, please check following Prime LMS Developer Center site:

http://developer.cisco.com/web/lms/overview

2. Does LMS have per-device licensing, such as Network Control System (NCS)?

Yes LMS has per-device license. Each managed IP in LMS is considered a device, including modules which are managed individually in LMS, like NAM, ACE or FWSM etc. Also, CAAM needs a separate License. Though LMS is no more sold individually and is sold with Cisco Prime Infrastructure, but existing LMS customer can still get the

upgrade license as per contract.

For more details check the Licensing your Application :

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ciscoworks_lan_management_solution/4.2/install/guide/prep.html#wp1327286

3. Can Cisco Prime monitor/configure options for Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)?

Cisco Prime LMS is not the software intended to manage Data Centre and Virtualized networks and mostly Fibre Channel networks. There is another application to manage this, known as Cisco Prime™ Data Center Network Manager (DCNM). It provides centralized management of both Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks ad supports prtocols like Cisco FabricPath, and Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV).

For more details, please check DCNM site:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9369/index.html

4. Is it possible assign a topology group user?

In short this is No. We can not have a group user. Topology is created and its data is saved per individual basis in xml format.

-Thanks

Vinod

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

Hello CSC Team,

Thanks for your support on this WebCast and arranging it. Following are the answers to the questions asked during the Webcast session which were left unanswered :

1. How will Cisco Prime LMS overcome the issues with the previous CiscoWorks LMS in terms of usability and stability?

Ciscoworks LMS 4.2.x is very different and demonstrate a future proof user experince when it comes to usability. Technologies and trends continuously evolve and force each product to go through small or radical changes. it will always be a matter of personal choice for liking and disliking those changes. I personally beleive from a prodcut represented as a collection of various modules to a brand new one product with strong management feature, Cisco Prime LMS depicts all traits of one of the industry's best NMS software.

Now, on stability, all existing features of conventional Ciscoworks LMS, seems extremely refined, but yes there are challenges and issues with some new features and even existing, which are continously addressed, with new patches and minor upgrades. As compared of LMS 3.x the newer LMS 4.2 has a lot of todays features and value-added technologies and solutions, such as medianet, EnergyWise, TrustSec and Identity, Auto Smartports, and Smart Install to name a few.

No software is can be perfect, but our contant endeavor to make it one will always be there. Various analysis has understood the need of newer platfroms to be a successor Cisco Prime LMS and hence Cisco is putting their focus on Cisco Prime Infrastructure, which will redefine Network Management for our customers in coming future.

2. When will Dynamic User Tracking support SNMPv3 informs, instead of just SNMPv2?

Currently all new features and enhancements are being reserved for Cisco Prime Infrastructure. I will check more on informs and update later.

SNMP v3 is supported. The only thing that Dynamic UT does is instead of sending the MAC traps as SNMP v3 MAC traps it sends them as SNMP v1/v2c traps.

What I mean by that is that if for example you run a packet capture and are able to capture a MAC trap sent from one of your devices, the packet will show up as being a SNMP v3 packet, but the trap will say it is a SNMP v1/v2c

trap.

3. In consideration of the continuous migration to INF files, what LMS upgrades are planned and what features are planned in the future (rather than bug fixes and definition updates)?

Currently the plan is to develop and finally make Cisco Prime Infrastructure a Successor to Cisco prime LMS. Most of the enhancements are being reserved fir CPI, however LMS would continue to receive bug fixes and new device supports. LMS 4.2.5 is also worked upon as well.

-Thanks

Vinod

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

Hi Vinod,

We have PI 1.3.

All switches are configured with SNMPv3. PI gets all SNMP traps. We have configured email alerts for critical alerts. However each port up/down is a "critical event" and an email is generated for each port up/down event. The idea is that if a swicth management IP is unrechable then only we need an email alert. Can this be done?

And where can we set PI to automatically save configurations of all discoverd to repository?

Regards.

Hello Sonu,

Thanks for your time on CSC Ask the Expert.

This feature has been in demand since Cisco Prime LMS days for either a consolidated alert or a single one.

Though this has been refined to an extent to detect and not to send various port/interfaces down alerts when the entire module is down.

This option is not completely implemented as such alerts depend on both SNMP traps and polling. An interface down alert can be generated by the snmp trap sent by the device, however in the next polling cycle when it detects the entire module down or device unreachable, it generates only one unresponsive/module down or device down alert.

For details on Saving device configurations please check#

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/1.2/user/guide/chgdevconfig.html#wp1053265

-Thanks

Vinod

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

Reuben Farrelly
Level 3
Level 3

Hi Vinod

Are you able to give us some indication of the roadmap from Prime LMS to Prime Infrastructure?  We've purchased Prime Infrastructure and currently using it to manage Wireless infrastructure, but the support for switches/routers is otherwise poor and we'd like to start using it for those parts of the network in the near future.

Are we likely to see much integration with LMS in Prime Infrastructure 2.0 or will it still be very separate at that stage?

Thanks,

Reuben

Hello Reuben,

Thanks for your time on CSC Ask the Expert event.

Mostly till FCS (First Customer Shipment) most of the details are internal and hence unless there is any official statement, we can't share much details about roadmaps externally.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure is expected to bring a major feature integration from LMS and it suppose to be released in few weeks.

Along with some LMS features CPI 2.0 is expected to have some new features like Application Visibility and Control which consists of NBAR2, FNF, PA, QoS, PfR and Performance Monitor. On the exact details of what features will be imported, we will have to wait for release notes to come on CCO.

I am sure you decision to buy CPI is future proof and in short time, it will be able to fufill all your expectations to manage wired infrastructure as well.

-Thanks

Vinod

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

TM13
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Vinod,

  We starting deploy WCS in our current network, which having around 10 controller and 500 LAPs, and tried to upgrade current Plus-500 license to Ent-1000. but reseller saying that Cisco migrated WCS to Prime Infrastructure which made me confuse on it, i've just quick travelled on it and understanding it has similar role of Solarwinds NCM/NPM systems? We invested huge amount on Solarwinds so thinking why we need another Network Monitor/Config tool ... can you clarify on this? we looking only main management system on our Controllers ... If it really having advantages then Solarwinds we can offer to the management ...

Hello Tulgabat,

Thanks for your time on CSC Ask The Expert.

As this ATE session covers Cisco Prime LMS not WCS/NCS, I may not be able to cover all the doubts, but I will give it a try.

Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) is a part of Cisco Unified Wireless Network, which manages your LAP's. WCS was evolved to Network Control System, which is no more sold and both WCS/NCS are now upgraded and replaced by Cisco Prime Infrastructure.

So now any upgrade is directed to new software licenses and hence it seem you may have to work with your partner/reseller on this. In CUWN controller are most important part of it, as all LAPs get registered and are managed from there.

Along with the WCS features Cisco Network management Group has a long term evolution plan of it to make it one NMS software which can replace Cisco Prime LMS (responsible to manage wired infrastructure) and hence with every new release new LMS features are ported in Cisco Prime Infrastruture.

Solarwinds NCM/NPM is equivalent to what Cisco Prime LMS does, but Cisco PI is now :

Cisco Prime Infrastructure = Complete WCS + Cisco Prime LMS (Some feature/In Progress for more features to be incorporated).

So currently to manage your Access Points either you run the current WCS and check with your reseller if they can arranage for upgrade license, or move to Cisco PI, but you need a controller mandatorily to manage your LightWeight Access Points.

-Thanks

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

Hi Vinod,

  Thanks for the detailed response, at the moment we go for the WCS next couple years ... also one thing, is that Prime can upgrade bunch of switches,routers,LAPs,wireless controllers IOS, software versions? we looking for a good solution on it, is there any small tool can do it?

Hello Tulgabat,

Currently Cisco Prime LMS is abale to do all of this, except LAPs. Cisco Prime Infrastructure is able to do it as well including LAPs, but the supported list of Routers and Switches is not much at the moment.

For more details please check following document :

Cisco Prime LMS:

Managing Software Images Using Software Management

Cisco Prime Infrastructure:

Maintaining Software Images

Their is a free tool from Cisco which supports limited features and platforms - Cisco Network Assistant (CNA).

Cisco Network Assistant simplifies wired and wireless network management for networks up to 80 devices with its intuitive GUI and a task-based menu. Cisco Network Assistant is free and is optimized to apply common services across Cisco switches, routers, wireless controllers, and access points.

For more details check the home portal for it:


Cisco Network Assistant

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

bill.thorsdale
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Vinod.

2 quick questions on Cisco Prime?

Can we query the database with crystal reports to create our own custom reports?

Can we custom schedule our polling on different groups ie 24 hours for dists and more for edge switches.

thanks

Hello Bill,

Thanks for your time on CSC ATE.

Following are are answers :

1. As there is Open Database Schema Support in Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution, we access the LMS DB data and details using database access methods such as JDBC and ODBC. For more details see the document explaining how Open Database Connect Support.

2. Please be more specific on if it is Polling from Monitoring or any other function of LMS. If it is Monitoring (Fault Management), there are several ways in which you can control the parameters for a device, interface, or port. Polling and thresholds are always applied on a group level, not on a specific device, port, or interface level.

For more details you can check this document :

Setting Parameters for a Device, Interface, or Ports

-Thanks

Vinod

-Thanks Vinod **Rating Encourages contributors, and its really free. **

ciscomoderator
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hello Vinod,

Here are more questions from the live webcast that were not answered:

  1. Is it possible assign a topology group user?
  2. Can you define the polling interval for LMS per group or for all groups?
  3. Can we manage Light Weight Access Point (LWAP) /other vendor access points in the LMS?
  4. Is there an application programming interface (API) or  command-line function that can be used to add devices through an  automated process?

Thank you for providing the answers.

Cisco Moderator

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