network assistant help

[henderson-josh]

For some reason, no matter how many times I tell my boss I don't know almost anything about networking and less than nothing about cisco switches in particular, he has still put me on "prepping" this catalyst 4503 switch (I still don't know what that means but the configuration has been reset and that seemed to make him happy enough). Figured out how to put another set of ports in and reset them, too. I had to be shown how to hook it up to a computer through a serial from the computer to the console on the switch and use Putty to talk to it. That is my whole background with switches.

The last thing (please god) that I was told to do with it before they take it to install is find a GUI and make sure it works. So I found cisco network assistant and downloaded it and that's as far as I have gotten. It wants an ip address to connect to and I don't know how to give or find an ip for a switch and the instructions kinda pass that over since they assume the user has at least a working knowledge of this stuff. What I am hoping is that someone can tell me is how to connect to the switch through CNA in "a dummies guide to...." way.

Thanks for any help you guys can give!

[ccube]

Would need some basic information about what IOS version is on the switch, what CNA version you have installed to start. Basically a minimum configuration would need to be on the switch which includes IP address, http access enabled and that the switch meet a minimum IOS version. A lot of this is discussed in the CNA release notes:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/docs/net_mgmt/cisco_network_assistant/version5_0/release/notes/OL12210a.html

Since I do not know what your initial switch config looks like (do not post that here), cannot comment on what you have. In the simplest form, assuming only the default vlan (1) on the switch, you would use the CLI (using putty via the serial interface) to enter the ENABLE mode, then get to the config mode by entering "config t". this gives you the switch(config)# prompt. From there, to get to the config interface prompt for vlan1, enter "interface vlan1. This should produce a switch(config-if)# prompt. To give an ip address to vlan1, enter " ip address x.x.x.x y.y.y.y" where x.x.x.x is the ip address and y.y.y.y is the subnet mask you want to use for your network.

This is kind of a start, but read through the CNA release notes to get a start of what is required. You csn always come back to post additional questions or you can open a TAC service request for assistance if needed.

Hope that helps get you started,

Cary

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[henderson-josh]

Thanks Cary, that was a helpful start one more question. I've assigned the IP address and apparently it was acceptable because I can ping it. can you think of any reason using it in the connect screen of network assistant or configuation assistant (I believe i have the latest versions of each, btw) wouldn't work? Thanks again!

[ccube]

There is a minimum config needed on the switch to allow CNA to communicate with it. CNA uses http and https for communication so one or both have to be enabled on the device. Review the CNA release notes as to what is required for this. I believe once you resolve this, you will be able to use CNA to manage the device.

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