I am a network engineer working for a Cisco Silver partner for 3 years now. I have done a number of CiscoWorks implementations in which i got the chance to learn the CiscoWorks LMS server. Since I did not find any post making some suggestions, i thought I start one. Feel free to add if you like .
First thing: LMS web interface is slow; I mean dead slow. Every time I try to demonstrate the product to the client i get stressed. For instace, lets say that i want to generate a report. When i click on submit, sometimes the page just keeps loading for a minute or so. Why is that? If we were running it on a 56k modem it would be normal; but LMS is on the same LAN as our management console. This means that LMS as a server is slow. I would suggest that the interface be more like the one of CS-MARS or ACS 5.x. This is much smoother.
Topology Services.
LMS creates a topology based on CDP. When CDP is enabled on all devices, it displays the topology beautifully. How about when CDP cannot pass through? For instance, when a firewall is in between? In this case LMS just puts the network device disconnected from the rest of the network. I have 2 suggestions for that.
- Fix the problem so that topology services do not work only with CDP. CS-MARS and CSM can design the topology with SNMP, so there is another way.
- Make a way for the administrator to 'edit' the network diagram and put the connection himself. Just like a map.
User tracking.
I have been implementing user tracking for one client and i have found that the IOS did not support snmp configuration per interface basis. My recommendation is to put a warning in a wizard saying that you need the minimum IOS of 12.x before trying to implement user tracking.
Updates.
LMS does not perfom device update for ALL devices; only the ones it wants. We had an issue with a client in which we had difficulty seeing a 2911 router on LMS 3.2. I have updated several times with no success; After a couple of days we have seen that the device update needed to be manually downloaded and installed.
Another thing is the fact that even with the smallest device update you need to restart LMS. Cant we just make the service restart (i.e. CiscoView or DFM)? Do we need to wait 10 minutes for just a 20k patch?
Software and backup.
Does this even work? Has anyone tried it with success? And it would be great to support FTP traffic as well (the available ones are TFTP, SCP, HTTP).
NetFlow Support.
Well this would make it a killer application dont you think?
Simpler GUI for administration.
LMS is a management tool rather than a monitoring tool. Its big, its agly, its slow and it is expensive. But sometimes when the clients buy it, they expect something simpler. I would suggest embedd Cisco Configuration Professional inside LMS so that it makes device administration simpler per device. I had a case in which the client said that CCP was much better than LMS and CCP is free. Why not bundle it inside?
Thank you for reading.
TIA,
Nicos Nicolaides
