Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.2 >

[bschol]

Hello,

What would be the best choice: (I know completely different products..)

Are all the "features" and possibilities of Cisco Smart Net Total Care included in Cisco Prime Infrastructure ??

Thanks for your reply,

Regards Bert

[Nael Mohammad]

You would have to determine if you want a hosted solution versus a behind the firewall solution. There are pro's and cons that can be said for both products but it comes down to a business decision for your environment.

With a hosted solution, you don't need to worry about allocating hardware and network resources other than configuring the devices to communicate directly to SmartNet Total Care. For the PI products, you have complete control over the environment but that comes at a cost of allocating the man power, the hardware/vm, the technical resources and you ensure that your data is not going outside your network.

That was a simplistic approach of looking at it but if you want more details on it, you can contact your reseller and they can help you out.

[daljitsinghtagore]

Hi Nael,

I am new to cisco prime and had some quries. can you please answer these>>

1. May i install prime infrastructre 1.2 on standalsone win 2008 server or it will install only on virtual machine.

2. What is the difference between Cisco Prime. means when we install prime infrastructure then it will automatically install the prime LMS 4.2 or we need to install LMS 4.2 on same server on which Prime infrastructure is installed.

I shall be very thankfull to you for this clearification ..

[Marvin Rhoads]

Prime Infrastructure is based on a hardened Linux distribution and runs only on a virtual machine (with VMware ESxi server) or on a Cisco hardware appliance. More details on system requirements are here.

Prime Infrastructure includes a license and right to use Prime LMS in a separate installation. LMS has a few more options for how it runs. In addition to those used by PI, LMS can run on a Windows VM under VMware ESXi, on a physical Windows server, or on a Solaris server (where it can optionally be within a Solaris zone). Here are the prerequisites for the LMS server.

PI and LMS cannot run on the same physical appliance or VM. They can run as separate VMs on the same ESXi server, assuming each is allocated its respective required resources.

Finally, a comparison ("Functional reference") of the two products is posted here.

[daljitsinghtagore]

Hi Marvin,

Thanks for the clearification and appreciate your knowledge. Still i have little confusion. actually I heared, if we are installing Prime Infrastructure 1.2 then we have not need to install LMS seperate . As Prime Infratstructure is combination of both (NCS & LMS) and we have to need only licenses of LMS. is it correct?

[Marvin Rhoads]

PI does not yet have feature parity with LMS for management of wired networks and some other aspects such as compliance management. If the features that are missing are important to you, then you should install and use LMS (either in addition to or instead of PI - all depending on your network and your requirements). If not, then you can use PI alone.

Please refer to the comparison I linked in my post above.

[daljitsinghtagore]

Thanks marvin,

My company has also purchased (Prime Infrastructure LMS 4.2 - 100 Device Base Lic) . It means that we have also need to install LMS4.2 on another server. May i use same VM for both PI 1.2 & LMS or need to install both on different server. I am plamning to install PI on VM and LMS 4.2 on windows 2008 server. and then will migrate data of LMS to Prime infrastructure.Is it good practice? kindly suggest.

[Marvin Rhoads]

You're welcome.

As I mentioned in my 22 March post above, "PI and LMS cannot run on the same physical appliance or VM. They can run as separate VMs on the same ESXi server, assuming each is allocated its respective required resources."

If you're building a fresh LMS server, it's much easier to do it on a VM using the prepackaged ova files that Cisco provides. (if you have a VMware environment that can host the LMS guest). The ova images have all the settings built in that you otherwise need to manage and ensure on a Windows server.

Whether you run both PI and LMS depends on your environment. If you are leveraging any significant amount of Cisco wireless management, the PI will do that best. If you're primarily a wired environment with little or no Cisco wireless then LMS is best. I don't quite understand what the point would be to build a new LMS server if you plan to migrate it straight away onto PI.

Eventually PI will have full feature parity with LMS for wired infrastructure management. Until it does, I recommend sticking with LMS for what it does best. PI 2.0 should be out soon (currently targeted for June) so re-evalaution of that decision would be good to do then. Even it if looks on the surface to be more or less equivalent, I'd probably wait for the next point release (2.01 or 2.1) until adopting it in a production environment. 2.0 is going to be ambitious in taking over things like the Topology (old Campus Manager) tool which is said to be entirely rewritten for PI 2.0

[GIlrandy Giovani]

Hi Marvin I have some question, coz i m new in cisco prime.

I purchased cisco prime infrastructure 1.2, and i already downloaded it :

Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.2.1 Virtual Appliance - Small

PI-VA-1.2.1.12-small.ova

but my friend told me if you purchase PI 1.2 you got LMS too. its that correct, that i have to download the LMS too? here its my BOQ

NMS Software                       Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.2 support up to 150 Device

R-PI12-K9                             Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.2

CON-SAU-PI12K9B               SW APP SUPP + UPGR NULL SKU-No line item services included

L-PI12-LF-100                        Prime Infrastructure 1.2 - Lifecycle - 100 Device Lic

CON-SAU-PI12LF1H             SW APP SUPP + UPGR PI 1.2 - Lifecycle - 100 Device Lic

L-PI12-LF-100-LIC                  Prime Infrastructure 1.2 - Lifecycle - 100 Device Lic PAK

L-PI12-LF-50-LIC                     Prime Infrastructure 1.2 - Lifecycle - 50 Device Lic PAK

L-PILMS42-100                       Prime Infrastructure LMS 4.2 - 100 Device Base Lic

L-PILMS42-50                          Prime Infrastructure LMS 4.2 - 50 Device Base Lic

L-PI12-LF-50                       Prime Infrastructure 1.2 - Lifecycle - 50 Device Lic

CON-SAU-PI12LF50              SW APP SUPP + UPGR PI 1.2 - Lifecycle - 50 Device Lic

I already install the OVA, install the lifecycle  license, buat when i try to install LMS 4.2 license it cant.

[Marvin Rhoads]

Gilrnady,

Your post implies you tried to add LMS license file to PI. That will not work. You need to download and install LMS OVseparately and install it on it's own distinct VM. That separate VM is where LMS will run and the LMS license file applies to it.

There is no operational integration between PI and LMS (other than a data migration tool for exporting LMS devices to PI). They are distinct products, albeit with some common features.

Your PI license entitiles you run use both products but their combined number of managed devices should not exceed your number of devices allowed by lifecycle license. It's not enforced in software so you're on the 'honor system' for that bit.