Cisco ACNS Software Deployment and Configuration Guide, Release 5.0 - Chapter 5: Configuring the CDN [Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) Software]

Table Of Contents

Configuring the CDN

Working with Locations

Creating and Modifying Locations

Deleting Locations

Viewing the Location Tree

Working with Multicast Clouds

Creating and Modifying Multicast Clouds

Enabling Content Engines for Multicasting

Configuring a Multicast Cloud

Adding and Removing Receiver Content Engines

Modifying a Multicast Cloud

Deleting Multicast Clouds

Viewing Multicast Clouds

Commands Related to Multicasting

Working with Content Providers

Creating and Modifying Content Providers

Deleting Content Providers

Viewing Content Providers

Working with Websites

Creating and Modifying Websites

Deleting Websites

Viewing Websites

Working with Channels

Creating and Modifying Channels

Adding and Removing Content Engines from Channels

Adding and Removing Device Groups from Channels

Designating the Root Content Engine

Assigning and Removing Multicast Clouds from Channels

Updating Channel Content

Viewing the Status of Content Replication for a Channel

Viewing the Status of Content Replication for a Content Engine

Deleting Channels

Viewing Channels

Modifying System Properties

Printing CDN Data

Configuring the CDN

Once the hardware devices that make up your CDN are properly installed and registered, you are ready to use the information contained in this chapter to organize those devices into a CDN that is capable of serving pre-positioned or live media to end users.

This chapter provides information about configuring CDN network elements. It contains the following sections:

•Working with Locations

•Working with Multicast Clouds

•Working with Content Providers

•Working with Websites

•Working with Channels

•Modifying System Properties

•Printing CDN Data

Working with Locations

Locations are set up in the Content Distribution Manager GUI, and they organize and group Content Engines into virtual networks for distribution of content through channels. (See the "Channel Distribution" section.)

Locations need to be configured before you can activate Content Engines and Content Routers and bring them on line in the CDN.

Working with locations entails:

•Creating and Modifying Locations

•Deleting Locations

•Viewing the Location Tree

Creating and Modifying Locations

To create a new location or modify an existing one, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Locations.

The Locations window appears. (See Figure 5-1.)

Figure 5-1 Locations Window

Step 2 Click the Create New Location icon in the taskbar. The Creating New Location window appears. (See Figure 5-2.)

Figure 5-2 Creating New Location Window

Step 3 Enter a location name in the Name field.

Note Fields marked with an asterisk are required.

Step 4 Choose a parent location from the Parent Location drop-down list.

A location with no parent location assigned is a level 1 location. A location with a level 1 parent becomes a level 2 location, and so forth. The location level is displayed after you choose a parent location (or choose None) and click Submit to save the configuration.

Step 5 If you wish, enter comments about the location in the Comments field. This step is optional.

Step 6 Click Submit.

Step 7 To modify a location, go to the Locations window and click the Edit icon next to the name of the location you want to modify.

Step 8 Change the location name, parent location, or description as needed and click Submit to save the changes.

Deleting Locations

You can delete locations as needed, as long as they are not the root locations of activated Content Engines or Content Routers.

Note If a location has a Content Engine or Content Router assigned to it, you can first assign the Content Engine or Content Router to another location and then delete the original location.

To delete a location, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Locations. The Locations window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the location that you want to delete.

The Modifying Location window appears.

Step 3 Click the Trash icon. You are asked to confirm your decision to delete the location.

Step 4 Click OK. The location is deleted.

Viewing the Location Tree

The location tree represents the network topology you configured when you assigned a parent to each location. The Content Distribution Manager GUI graphically displays the relationships between the locations configured in your CDN.

To view the location tree, choose Network > Location Trees. The location tree is displayed. Figure 5-3 shows an example of a location tree display.

Figure 5-3 Location Tree Display

Working with Multicast Clouds

A multicast cloud consists of one sender Content Engine and a list of receiver Content Engines. Each Content Engine in the multicast cloud must have a multicast distribution license key (purchased from Cisco Systems) and must be enabled for multicasting. These items are enabled in the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

Working with multicast clouds consists of:

•Creating and Modifying Multicast Clouds

•Deleting Multicast Clouds

•Viewing Multicast Clouds

Creating and Modifying Multicast Clouds

Before you can create a multicast cloud, you must have Content Engines that are enabled for multicasting. These multicast-enabled Content Engines can then be assigned as sender and receiver Content Engines when you configure the multicast cloud.

Enabling Content Engines for Multicasting

To enable Content Engines for multicasting, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Devices > Content Engines.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the Content Engine that you want to enable for multicasting. The Modifying Content Engine window appears.

Step 3 In the Contents pane, choose CDN Settings > Multicast Distribution License. The Distribution Multicast License Agreement window appears.

Step 4 Read the end user license agreement and check the Accept License check box.

Step 5 Click Submit. The Distribution Multicast License Settings window appears.

Step 6 Click the Add Settings button.

Step 7 Check the Enable check box, and enter the license key in the License Key field.

Checking the Evaluate check box enables an evaluation license key.

Step 8 Click Submit.

Step 9 Return to the Modifying Content Engine window and repeat Step 1 through Step 8 to enable multicasting on other Content Engines in your CDN.

Step 10 Content Engines for multicasting must be assigned to multicast-enabled channels.

•To create a multicast-enabled channel, proceed to the "Creating and Modifying Channels" section.

•To add a multicast-enabled Content Engine to a multicast-enabled channel, proceed to the "Adding and Removing Content Engines from Channels" section.

Configuring a Multicast Cloud

A multicast cloud is configured by specifying an IP multicast address for advertising the data being transferred, an IP multicast address range for transferring the data, a sender Content Engine, a set of receiver Content Engines, and a maximum rate at which to send the data. Other parameters, such as Time To Live (TTL), are also configurable.

Note We highly recommend that you avoid using multicast addresses of the form x.0.0.y (for example, 238.0.0.1). These addresses hash to the same Ethernet address space as 224.0.0.x, which is used frequently by routers and switches for local multicasts. Additional traffic on these addresses adds to the workload of these network elements.

To configure a multicast cloud, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Multicast Clouds. The Multicast Clouds window appears.

Step 2 Click the Create New Multicast Cloud icon in the taskbar. The Creating New Multicast Cloud window appears. (See Figure 5-4.)

Figure 5-4 Creating New Multicast Cloud Window

Step 3 Enter the information in the fields, as described in Table 5-1. Required fields are marked with an asterisk in the GUI and in Table 5-1.

Step 4 Click Submit to save the configuration.

Your multicast cloud configuration is saved, and you can proceed to Step 3 in the "Adding and Removing Receiver Content Engines" section.

Note If you have not assigned any receiver Content Engines, a message appears stating that your transaction is not complete until you assign receiver Content Engines to the multicast cloud.

Table 5-1 describes the parameters that you need to define in the Content Distribution Manager GUI when configuring a multicast cloud.

Table 5-1 Multicast Cloud Parameters

Field

Description

Multicast Cloud Information

Name*¹

Name to use as the identifier for the multicast cloud. The name must be unique across the system.

Advertisement IP address*

Multicast address collectively known and used by a multicast cloud to implement a communication channel.

The advertisement IP address must conform to these guidelines:

•It must be unique across the system.

•It cannot be used in another multicast cloud.

•It cannot be outside the range of the IP multicast addresses.

•It must be within the RFC multicast range (224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255).

•It must not be used as the multicast IP address in any channel-to-multicast cloud relationships.

•Each cloud must have one advertisement address.

•Different clouds must have different advertisement addresses.

See "IP Multicasting," for information on multicast address restrictions.

Port*

Port used for both the advertisement IP address and file addresses. The default port is 7777.

Multicast Address Settings

Multicast Sender*

Content Engine forwarder that pushes content to a set of Content Engine receivers using multicast.

The sender cannot be a sender in another multicast cloud.

The sender cannot be a receiver in the same multicast cloud.

A sender Content Engine cannot be deleted from the network. Before deleting a sender Content Engine, you must choose another Content Engine as the sender for the multicast cloud.

Start IP address*

Start of the IP address range.

The start IP address must be within the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.

The IP address range in one multicast cloud can overlap that of another multicast cloud. A message alerts you that there is an overlap, but allows the operation.

See "IP Multicasting," for information on multicast address restrictions.

End IP address*

End of the IP address range.

The end IP address must be bigger than the start IP address.

The end IP address must be within the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.

See "IP Multicasting," for information on multicast address restrictions.

Default Multicast-out Bandwidth*

Maximum multicast rate in kilobits per second (kbps).

This is the default multicast-out bandwidth, which is applied 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The multicast-out bandwidth is associated with the sender Content Engine only.

The minimum rate is 10 kbps.

To customize bandwidth rates for different days and times, use the A&D Bandwidth Settings page. These settings override the default for the time and period that you specify. (See the "Adding New Acquisition and Distribution Bandwidth Settings" section.)

Advanced Settings

Multicast medium

Means of transmitting the multicast, either satellite or terrestrial.

The default is satellite.

TTL

Time To Live in number of hops.

The range is 1-255.

The default is 255.

FEC transmission group

Size of an FEC (forward error correction) block in packets. (Refer to RFC 3208 PGM Reliable Transport Protocol Specification for more information.)

The allowable inputs are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128.

The default is 8.

# of Carousel passes

Number of times that a multicast sender is to send the content of the channel to which it is assigned.

The range is 1-100.

The default is 1.

Note This parameter is used mostly in satellite environments where bad weather could cause transmission problems. When this parameter is set, the multicast sender continues to resend the channel content for the assigned number of carousel passes.

Delay between passes

Delay between file transmissions, in minutes.

The range is 0-10080 (7 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes).

The default is 60 minutes.

Comments

Comments about the multicast cloud.

¹* = required field. All other fields are optional.

Adding and Removing Receiver Content Engines

Note Content Engines must be multicast-enabled with the multicast distribution license before you can add them to a multicast cloud. (See the "Enabling Content Engines for Multicasting" section.)

To create a functional multicast cloud, you must add at least one receiver Content Engine. Use the following guidelines when adding receiver Content Engines:

•You must choose at least one Content Engine to be a receiver.

•The maximum number of receivers you can add is the total number of Content Engines in the system (excluding the sender Content Engine).

•The receiver cannot be a receiver in another multicast cloud.

•The receiver cannot be a sender in the same multicast cloud. Only Content Engines that are not assigned to another multicast cloud are displayed as selections in the user interface.

•Only a fully configured multicast cloud, with at least one receiver Content Engine can be associated with a channel to enable the multicast capability.

•The list of Content Engines for selection is sorted by location. You can choose individual Content Engines from one or more locations to add to this multicast cloud.

Note Only Content Engines that are not assigned as receiver Content Engines to another multicast cloud or as sender Content Engines to this cloud are displayed as selections in the user interface.

To add receiver Content Engines to a multicast cloud, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Multicast Clouds. The Multicast Clouds window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the multicast cloud to which you want to add receiver Content Engines. The Modifying Multicast Cloud window appears.

Step 3 In the Contents pane, click Assign receiver CEs. The Assigning Receiver CEs to Multicast Cloud window appears.

Step 4 To add individual Content Engine receivers, click the name of a location. A list of Content Engines in that location appears.

Step 5 To add one of the Content Engines in the list to the multicast cloud, check the check box next to the name of the Content Engine that you want to add.

Step 6 Click Add and then click Submit. You should see the message "Change Submitted" in the message bar to the left of the Submit button.

After the multicast cloud is configured, you can add the multicast cloud to a multicast-enabled channel. (See the "Assigning and Removing Multicast Clouds from Channels" section.)

Step 7 To remove a Content Engine from the multicast cloud, check the check box next to the name of the Content Engine that you want to remove.

Step 8 Click Remove Selected CEs and then click Submit.

Modifying a Multicast Cloud

To modify a multicast cloud, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Multicast Clouds.

The Multicast Clouds window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the multicast cloud that you want to change.

The Modifying Multicast Cloud window appears.

Step 3 Edit the information or settings as needed.

Step 4 Click Submit to save the changes.

Deleting Multicast Clouds

To delete a multicast cloud, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Multicast Clouds. The Multicast Clouds window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the multicast cloud that you want to delete. The Modifying Multicast Cloud window appears.

Step 3 Click the Trash icon in the taskbar. You are prompted to confirm your action.

Step 4 Click OK. The multicast cloud is deleted.

Viewing Multicast Clouds

To view a list of all the multicast clouds configured in your network, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Network > Multicast Clouds. The Multicast Clouds window appears, listing all the multicast clouds in your CDN.

The table also displays the sender Content Engine for each multicast cloud.

Step 2 To print the table data, click the Printer icon.

Commands Related to Multicasting

Table 5-2 lists and describes commands that are related to multicasting. For complete descriptions of these commands, including usage guidelines and examples, refer to the Cisco ACNS Software Command Reference, Release 5.0 publication.

Table 5-2 Multicast-Related Commands

Command

Syntax

Description

multicast

multicast {accept-license-agreement | enable | evaluate | license-key key | sender-delay delay}

Controls enabling and disabling multicasting, including reading and accepting the license and entering the key.

Note We recommend that you use the Content Distribution Manager GUI to configure multicasting.

show multicast

show multicast [license-agreement]

Displays the current status of the multicast client. If the license-agreement option is included in the command string, the full text of the multicast license agreement is displayed.

show distribution

show distribution mcast-data-receiver

show distribution mcast-data-sender

Shows the multicast receiver or the sender state. Displays information about the multicast cloud.

show statistics distribution

show statistics distribution mcast-data-receiver

show statistics distribution mcast-data-sender

Displays the content distribution statistics of the multicast data receiver or sender.

clear statistics distribution

clear statistics distribution mcast-data-receiver

clear statistics distribution mcast-data-sender

Clears multicast statistics.

Working with Content Providers

The Content Distribution Manager GUI allows you to create a content provider directory that lists the name and contact information for each of your content providers. You need to create at least one content provider listing before you can create a directory of content providers' websites. Both content providers and websites must be set up in your CDN before you can create channels.

You work with content providers by:

•Creating and Modifying Content Providers

•Deleting Content Providers

•Viewing Content Providers

Creating and Modifying Content Providers

You can create or modify a content provider by entering or changing the company name and address, the primary contact information, or the optional secondary contact information.

To create or modify a content provider, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Content Provider.

The Content Providers window appears.

Step 2 Click the Create New Content Provider icon in the taskbar. The Creating New Content Provider window appears.

Step 3 Enter the company name. You also have the option to enter the address and contact information.

Step 4 Click Submit.

Step 5 To modify a content provider, go to the Content Providers window and click the Edit icon next to the content provider name that you want to modify.

The Modifying Content Provider window appears. (See Figure 5-5.)

Figure 5-5 Modifying Content Provider Window

Step 6 Enter any changes you want to make to the company name and address, the primary contact information, or the optional secondary contact information.

Note Clicking Cancel returns you to the Content Providers window.

Step 7 Click Submit.

Deleting Content Providers

You can delete content providers as needed.

Note When you delete a content provider, all websites and channels that have been added for the content provider are also deleted.

To delete a content provider, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Content Provider.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the content provider name that you want to delete.

The Modifying Content Provider window appears. (See Figure 5-5.)

Step 3 Click the Trash icon. You are prompted to confirm your decision.

Step 4 Click OK to execute your request.

Viewing Content Providers

To view content providers, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Content Provider.

The Content Providers window appears, displaying a list of all the Content Providers in your CDN. (See Figure 5-6.)

Figure 5-6 Content Providers Window

Step 2 To sort the display table by primary contact, phone number, or e-mail address, click the respective column heading.

Step 3 To print the table, click the Printer icon.

Working with Websites

The Content Distribution Manager GUI allows you to create a directory that lists all the websites in your CDN. A website listing must have a content provider, and must provide the URL for the origin web server that stores the website content.

Both websites and content providers must be set up in your CDN before you can create channels. Channels then map the website content to the Content Engines in your CDN.

You work with websites by:

•Creating and Modifying Websites

•Deleting Websites

•Viewing Websites

Creating and Modifying Websites

To create or modify a website, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Web Sites.

The Web Sites window appears, displaying a list of all websites on your CDN.

Step 2 To create a new website, click the Create New Web Site icon in the taskbar. The Creating New Web Site window appears.

Figure 5-7 Creating New Web Site Window

Step 3 Enter the name, content provider, and origin server for the website. (See Table 5-3 for a description of website properties.)

Note You must configure your content providers before you create a website.

Table 5-3 Website Properties

Property

Description

Name*¹

Unique name for the website.

Origin Server*

Fully qualified domain name of the origin server where the content resides.

WMT Authentication Type

Basic authentication or NTLM authentication.

Note This setting must match the setting on the origin server for the stream to play correctly.

Content Provider*

Name of the company that is providing the content.

Note The content provider must be predefined in the Creating New Content Provider window. (See the "Creating and Modifying Content Providers" section.)

Request Routed FQDN

Fully qualified domain name to route requests.

¹* = required field. All other fields are optional.

Step 4 If you wish, choose a WMT authentication type from the WMT Authentication Type drop-down list. This step is optional.

Note This setting must match the setting on the origin server for the stream to play correctly.

Step 5 Click Submit to save the configuration.

Step 6 To modify a website, go to the Web Sites window and click the Edit icon next to the name of the website that you want to modify. The Modifying Web Site window appears.

Step 7 Enter changes to the website data as needed.

Step 8 Click Submit to save the changes.

Deleting Websites

Note When you delete a website, all channels that have been added for the website are also deleted.

To delete a website, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Web Sites.

The Web Sites window appears, displaying a list of all websites on your CDN.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the website that you want to delete. The Modifying Web Site window appears.

Step 3 Click the Trash icon. You are prompted to confirm your decision.

Step 4 Click OK to execute your request.

Viewing Websites

To view the list of websites associated with content providers, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Web Sites.

The Web Sites window appears, displaying a list of all websites on your CDN.

Step 2 To sort the display table by website, FQDN, origin server, or content provider, click the respective column heading.

Step 3 To print the table, click the Printer icon.

Working with Channels

Channels map the content from a website to the devices in your CDN. Before you can create a channel, you must first create a directory of your content providers and provide URLs to their websites. (See the "Working with Content Providers" section and the "Working with Websites" section.)

Using the features of the Content Distribution Manager, you can create, modify, or remove channels from the CDN. Keep in mind that modifying channels can affect the availability of content on the CDN.

You work with channels by:

•Creating and Modifying Channels

•Deleting Channels

•Viewing Channels

Creating and Modifying Channels

You create a channel by defining the following items:

•Name

•Content provider

•Website

•Manifest file

•Channel properties (channel priority, multicasting)

To create a channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels. The Channels window appears, listing all the channels in your CDN.

Step 2 Click the Create New Channel icon in the taskbar. The Creating New Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-8.)

Figure 5-8 Creating New Channel Window

Step 3 Use the fields provided under the Channel Information heading to configure the channel name and website that the channel is associated with.

Step 4 Use the fields provided under the Acquisition and Distribution Properties heading to configure channel priority, enable multicasting, or disable encryption. (See Table 5-4 for a description of the channel properties fields. Required fields are indicated by an asterisk in the GUI and in Table 5-4.)

Table 5-4 Manifest and Channel Properties

Property

Description

Channel information

Name*¹

Unique name for the channel.

Request Routed FQDN

Fully qualified domain name to route requests.

Origin Server

Fully qualified domain name of the origin server.

Content Provider*

Name of the content provider associated with this channel.

WebSite*

Name of the website belonging to the content provider that is associated with this channel. After you choose a content provider in the window, the window refreshes to display only websites belonging to that content provider.

Note The website must be predefined in the Creating New Web Site window.

Acquisition and Distribution Properties

Distribution Priority*

Content distribution priority setting. Options are High, Normal, and Low. The default is Normal.

Multicast/Unicast or Unicast*

Enables multicast or unicast.

Disable Encryption for Distribution

Disables encryption for distribution when checked.

Manifest

Manifest URL

Address of the manifest file for the channel. The manifest URL must be a well-formed URL. If the protocol (FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS) for the URL is not specified, HTTP is used.

Quota*

Maximum content storage size in megabytes for pre-positioning content for this channel. (Required if the manifest URL is specified.)

Update Interval*

Frequency in minutes with which the Content Engines assigned to the channel check for updates to the manifest file. (This field is required if the manifest file is specified.)

Valid input range is 0 to 52560000.

Weak Certificate Verification

Enables weak certificate verification for the manifest file when checked. This is applicable when the manifest file is fetched using the HTTPS protocol.

Note To use weak certification for channel content, you need to specify weak certification within the manifest file.

Manifest Username

Username to fetch the manifest. The manifest username must be a valid ID. If the server allows anonymous login, the user ID can be null.

Note The Username and Password fields allow you to enter any secure login information needed to access the manifest file at its remote location.

Manifest Password

Password for the user.

Confirm Password

Password confirmation.

¹* = required field. All other fields are optional.

Step 5 Use the fields provided under the Manifest heading to configure the location or information identifying the manifest file for the channel. The manifest file provides information about live and video-on-demand (VOD) content served through the channel. (See Table 5-4 for a description of the manifest fields. Required fields are indicated by an asterisk in the GUI and in Table 5-4.)

Step 6 If you wish to add comments regarding the channel for the benefit of other Content Distribution Manager users, enter them in the Comments field provided.

Step 7 Click Submit to save the channel configuration.

Step 8 To modify a channel, go to the Channels window and click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel that you want to change. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Figure 5-9 Modifying Channel Window

Step 9 Make changes to the channel configuration as needed.

Note The information in the Content Provider and WebSite fields cannot be modified in this window; the parameters can be set only during the creation of a channel.

Step 10 Click Submit to effect any changes you have made to the channel configuration. The Content Distribution Manager updates the channel information.

After you create a new channel, you need to designate a root Content Engine for the channel and then assign Content Engines or device groups to the channel. Although designating a root Content Engine and assigning devices to the channel can be done from the same GUI window, the following sections break out these steps into separate procedures.

Adding and Removing Content Engines from Channels

To add or remove Content Engines from a channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel that you want to change. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Step 3 In the Contents pane, choose Assign content engines. The Content Engines Assigned to Channel window appears.

Note Content Engines can be added to the channel from more than one location.

Step 4 Click the name of the location where the Content Engines that you wish to add are located. A list of the Content Engines in that location appears.

Step 5 Check the check box next to the name of the Content Engine that you wish to associate with the channel.

Step 6 Click Add and then click Submit to add the Content Engines to the channel.

The list of Content Engines to which the channel is assigned refreshes, listing the newly added Content Engines.

Step 7 To remove Content Engines, check the check box next to the name of the Content Engines that you wish to remove from this list and click Remove Selected CEs.

Step 8 Click Submit. The browser window refreshes, listing the updated channels. The list of Content Engines in the channel shows the updated count.

Adding and Removing Device Groups from Channels

Device groups are assigned to channels through the Content Distribution Manager GUI. Whenever a channel is created and additional device groups are added, or a channel assignment to the device group changes, devices in the group are notified of their subscription to the associated channel.

The relationship between device groups and channels is many-to-many. A channel can have multiple device groups and device groups in turn can belong to multiple channels.

To add or remove a device group from a channel, follow these steps.

Note When a device group is removed from a channel, the Content Engines that were part of the device group are still assigned to the channel. To remove the Content Engines from the channel, see the "Adding and Removing Content Engines from Channels" section.

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel to which you want to assign a device group or from which you want to remove a device group. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Step 3 In the Contents pane, choose Assign device groups. The Device Groups Assigned to Channel window appears.

Step 4 Check the check box next to the name of the device group that you wish to associate with the channel.

Step 5 Click Add Selected DGs and then click Submit to add the device group to your channel.

Step 6 To remove a device group, check the check box next to the name of the device group that you wish to remove from the channel, and click Remove Selected DGs.

Step 7 Click Submit.

Designating the Root Content Engine

To designate one Content Engine to be the root Content Engine for a channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel to which you want to assign a root Content Engine. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Step 3 You can designate a root Content Engine when assigning device groups to the channel or when assigning Content Engines to the channel.

•In the Contents pane click Assign content engines. The Content Engines Assigned to Channel window appears. Click the name of a location, or choose all locations and proceed to Step 4.

•Alternatively, click Assign device groups. The Device Groups Assigned to Channel window appears. Check the check box next to the name of a device group and proceed to Step 4.

Step 4 Choose a Content Engine from the Root CE drop-down list. The list contains all of the Content Engines currently assigned to the channel in which you are working.

Note If there are no Content Engines or device groups assigned to the channel, no choices appear in the Root CE drop-down list.

Step 5 Click Submit.

Assigning and Removing Multicast Clouds from Channels

You can assign or remove multicast clouds only from channels that are multicast-enabled. A channel is multicast-enabled when you click the Multicast/Unicast radio button when you create or modify the channel. (See the "Creating and Modifying Channels" section.)

Note When a multicast cloud is assigned to a channel, the Content Engines that are part of the multicast cloud must also be individually assigned to the channel for multicasting. To assign Content Engines to a channel, follow the procedure in the "Adding and Removing Content Engines from Channels" section.

To assign or remove a multicast cloud from a multicast-enabled channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel to which you want to assign a multicast cloud or from which you want to remove a multicast cloud. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Step 3 Enable multicasting on the channel, if you have not already done so.

a. Click the Multicast/Unicast radio button.

b. Click Submit.

Step 4 In the Contents pane, choose Assign Multicast Cloud. The Assigning Multicast Clouds to Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-10.)

Figure 5-10 Assigning Multicast Clouds to Channel Window

Step 5 Click the Assign Multicast Cloud to Channel icon in the taskbar. The Assign Multicast Cloud to Channel Assignment window appears.

Step 6 Choose a multicast cloud from the drop-down list. The window refreshes, showing the IP address range for that multicast cloud. In the IP address to use for this Channel field, enter any available IP address from this range to assign to this channel. (The first available address automatically populates this field; however, you can change the address.)

In Figure 5-11 a multicast cloud has already been selected and the screen has refreshed, showing the IP address range for the cloud.

Figure 5-11 Assigning Multicast Cloud to Channel Assignment Window

Step 7 Click Submit.

Step 8 To remove a multicast cloud from a channel, go to the Assigning Multicast Clouds to Channel window. (See Figure 5-10.)

Step 9 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the multicast cloud that you want to remove. The Assign Multicast Cloud to Channel Assignment window appears.

Step 10 Click the Trash icon. You are prompted to confirm the action.

Step 11 Click OK. The channel is removed.

Updating Channel Content

At any point after you have replicated content to the Content Engines that are associated with your channel, you can update that content using the fetch manifest feature. For example, if you modify your manifest file to point to new content or remove references to content that you want to make obsolete, you must fetch the manifest file to begin replication of any new channel content, and to sever connections to content that you want to make obsolete.

Note Content that is removed from the manifest file is made unavailable as soon as that updated manifest file is fetched. Obsolete content is not immediately deleted from the channel cache but is eventually removed to make room for new channel content.

To fetch a new or updated manifest file, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel to open your channel for editing.

Step 3 Verify that the Manifest URL field points to the correct manifest file for the channel.

Step 4 Click the Fetch Manifest icon in the taskbar. You are prompted to confirm your decision.

Step 5 Click OK to execute your request.

Step 6 Click OK.

To force the replication of channel content and refresh the information, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel that you want to modify to open your channel for editing.

Step 3 In the Contents pane, click Replication Status. The Channel Replication Status window appears.

Step 4 Click the Force Replication icon in the taskbar. You are prompted to confirm your decision.

Step 5 Click OK. You are notified that your request has been sent and prompted to check back in a few minutes.

Step 6 Click OK. After a time, the Channel Replication Status window refreshes.

For a description of the channel replication status data, see the next section, "Viewing the Status of Content Replication for a Channel."

Viewing the Status of Content Replication for a Channel

The replication status feature allows you to view the progress of the content acquisition and distribution process. Content replication status can be viewed using the Content Distribution Manager GUI or can be obtained as screen output from the CLI or as an API file.

Replication status gives you the information to decide whether a site should go live based on the completeness of the replicated contents. It also allows you to troubleshoot when the content on a site is not fully replicated.

To view the content replication status for a particular channel, from the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels. The Channels window appears and lists all the channels in your CDN, including status information for each channel. Table 5-5 describes the information that is displayed.

Table 5-5 Channels Window Status Information

Column Heading

Description

Channel

Name of the channel.

WebSite

Name of the website that you associated with the channel when you created the channel.

Content Provider

Name of the content provider that you associated with the channel when you created the channel.

Replication Status

Content replication status on a particular channel. The status is complete when content replication is complete for all Content Engines assigned to a channel. The status is incomplete when content replication is still in process on at least one Content Engine in the channel.

Valid Since

Time stamp of the earliest update for that channel from an active Content Engine (that is, the Content Engine is not offline).

Indicates the number of offline Content Engines on the basis of the time stamps recorded on each Content Engine.

Disk Used/Available

Used and available disk space recorded by the root Content Engine.

Manifest Status

Status of the last attempt to fetch the manifest file. Any status other than "valid" causes the replication status of the channel to be "incomplete."

Alternatively, you can use the Content Engine CLI to view the content replication status for a channel by using the following commands:

•Use the show distribution channel channel-id command to see if there is an unfinished job listed for the channel. The last line in this example shows that there are no unfinished jobs.
ContentEngine# show distribution channel channel-id 158
                        Channel ID:                  158
                      Channel Name:                sz300
                      Website Name:             website3
                  Channel Priority:                  500
          ID of Configured Root CE:                  140
        Name of Configured Root CE:               sz590b
          IP of Configured Root CE:           10.1.1.170
                    This CE's Role:        Not a Root CE
                    In Full Reload:                   No
                   Mcast Receiving:                   No
                     Mcast Sending:                   No
             Metadata-Forwarder ID:                  140
           Metadata-Forwarder Name:               sz590b
             Metadata-Forwarder IP:           10.1.1.170
                Ucast-Forwarder ID:                  140
              Ucast-Forwarder Name:               sz590b
                Ucast-Forwarder IP:           10.1.1.170
                Last gen-id Switch:                Never
           ID of Effective Root CE:                  140
               Current root-ce-uid:           1042665163
          Current low-water-marker:                    1
                Current max-gen-id:                  300
            Current max-del-gen-id:                    0
                Has Unfinished Job:                   No
Note The Has Unfinished Job line is only available if the Content Engine is not a root Content Engine. It is available on the receiver Content Engine.

•Use the show statistics replication command to view replication status of content items in the channel.

In the following example, replication status information is being shown for the BasicAcquisition channel, autotest website.
CE-6# show statistics replication channels selected-channel autotest BasicAcquisition
Gathering replication status may take some time.... (enter ctrl-c to stop)
Content Engine:CE-6 (id 148) receiver
Channel:'BasicAcquisition', WebSite:'autotest' (channel id 133)
6 out of 6 contents are fully replicated
Number of items failed to be replicated:0
Number of items yet to be replicated:0
Content size:5MB
The following example shows the replication status of all fully replicated content items for the 
BasicAcquisition channel.
CE-6# show statistics replication content-items * selected-channel autotest 
BasicAcquisition fully-replicated
Gathering replication status may take some time.... (enter ctrl-c to stop)
There are 6 content items for Channel:'BasicAcquisition', WebSite:'autotest' 
(channel id 133) that match the request.
Content URL:http://autotest.com/sad28.asf
Status:Complete
Size:50KB
Modification Time:Tue Jul 16 16:02:45 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/unixListing/unixListwelcome1.asf
Status:Complete
Size:352KB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 07:30:08 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/NT-ftp-backslash/backwelcome1.asf
Status:Complete
Size:352KB
Modification Time:Tue Sep 03 10:28:40 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/ntListingBackSlash/backsad28.asf
Status:Complete
Size:50KB
Modification Time:Tue Jul 16 16:02:45 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/httpsNonStdPort/nonstdport100kbs.asf
Status:Complete
Size:2MB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 09:57:37 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/Aq/unixListing/unixListwelcome2.asf
Status:Complete
Size:2MB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 07:25:19 GMT-08:00 2002
The following example shows the replication status of all fully replicated content items with the .asf extension for the BasicAcquisition channel:
CE-6# show statistics replication content-items *.asf selected-channel autotest 
BasicAcquisition fully-replicated
Gathering replication status may take some time.... (enter ctrl-c to stop)
There are 6 content items for Channel:'BasicAcquisition', WebSite:'autotest' 
(channel id 133) that match the request.
Content URL:http://autotest.com/sad28.asf
Status:Complete
Size:50KB
Modification Time:Tue Jul 16 16:02:45 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/unixListing/unixListwelcome1.asf
Status:Complete
Size:352KB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 07:30:08 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/NT-ftp-backslash/backwelcome1.asf
Status:Complete
Size:352KB
Modification Time:Tue Sep 03 10:28:40 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/ntListingBackSlash/backsad28.asf
Status:Complete
Size:50KB
Modification Time:Tue Jul 16 16:02:45 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/httpsNonStdPort/nonstdport100kbs.asf
Status:Complete
Size:2MB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 09:57:37 GMT-08:00 2002
Content URL:http://autotest.com/Aq/unixListing/unixListwelcome2.asf
Status:Complete
Size:2MB
Modification Time:Fri Aug 30 07:25:19 GMT-08:00 2002
The following example shows that there are no content items with the .asf extension in the BasicAcquisition channel that have not been fully replicated.
CE-6# show statistics replication content-items *.asf selected-channel autotest 
BasicAcquisition not-fully-replicated
Gathering replication status may take some time.... (enter ctrl-c to stop)
There are no content items that match the query.
The following example shows the replication status of all the channels.
CE-6# show statistics replication channels
Gathering replication status may take some time.... (enter ctrl-c to stop)
Content Engine:CE-6 (id 148) receiver
Channel:'BasicAcquisition', WebSite:'autotest' (channel id 133)
6 out of 6 contents are fully replicated
Number of items failed to be replicated:0
Number of items yet to be replicated:0
Content size:5MB
Content Engine:CE-6 (id 148) receiver
Channel:'AQ-FTPDeltaCrawlingParametersChange', WebSite:'autotest' (channel id 171)
18 out of 18 contents are fully replicated
Number of items failed to be replicated:0
Number of items yet to be replicated:0
Content size:58MB
Content Engine:CE-6 (id 148) receiver
Channel:'BasicCrawling', WebSite:'pc-15' (channel id 134)
54 out of 54 contents are fully replicated
Number of items failed to be replicated:0
Number of items yet to be replicated:0
Content size:3MB
.
.
.
[output omitted]
Viewing the Status of Content Replication for a Content Engine

To view the replication status of individual Content Engines assigned to a particular channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels. The Channels window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the channel that you want to view. The Modifying Channel window appears.

Step 3 In the Contents pane, choose Basic Settings > Replication Status. The Replication Status for Channel window appears, listing all the Content Engines assigned to that channel. (See Figure 5-12.)

See Table 5-6 for an explanation of the information that is displayed in this window.

Figure 5-12 Replication Status for Channel Window

Table 5-6 Content Engine Replication Status Information

Column Heading

Description

Content Engine

Name of the Content Engines assigned to the channel.

Replication Status

Content replication status on a particular Content Engine. The status is complete when the following conditions are met:

•No manifest is being processed.

•No manifest errors exist.

•No errors exist in single items or crawled items.

•No items are being acquired, reacquired, or have not yet been acquired.

The content replication status on a particular Content Engine is incomplete if at least one of the above conditions is not met.

Valid Since

Time stamp of the last update from that Content Engine.

Content Description Status

State of the device's knowledge about content items known to the root Content Engine: Current, Out of Sync, or Unknown.

If the device is current, then it knows about all the content that the root Content Engine knows about.

If the device is out of sync, then it is missing some update information (such as new content items, new versions of content items, or deletions of content items). Updates are occurring, but are not complete.

Step 4 Alternatively, you can use the Content Distribution Manager CLI to view the content replication status for a Content Engine by using the show statistics replication content-engines command. The content-engines option is only available from the Content Distribution Manager CLI.
CDM-7# show statistics replication ?
channels         Display replication status of channel(s)
content-engines  Display replication status of content engine(s)
content-items    Display replication status of content item(s)
Another way to view the same information is by looking up the replication status for a particular Content Engine in the Devices menu. To view the status of content replication on an individual Content Engine from the Devices menu, follow these steps:

Step 1 In the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Devices > Content Engines. The Content Engines window appears.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the Content Engine that you want to view. The Modifying Content Engine window appears.

Step 3 In the Contents pane, choose CDN Settings > Replication Status. The Content Engine Replication Status window appears.

The replication status information for that Content Engine is displayed by channel assignment. (The information is the same as in Table 5-6; however, the first column lists the channels to which the Content Engine is assigned.)

Deleting Channels

To delete a channel, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the name of the channel that you want to delete. The Modifying Channel window appears. (See Figure 5-9.)

Step 3 Click the Trash icon. You are prompted to confirm your decision to delete the channel.

Step 4 Click OK to confirm your decision. The channel is removed from the CDN.

Viewing Channels

To view all channels across your CDN, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels.

The Channels window appears, listing all the channels in your CDN. (See Figure 5-13.)

Figure 5-13 Channels Window

The website and the content provider that are associated with each channel are listed across the row for the channel.

Step 2 To sort the channels by website or by content provider, click the respective column heading.

Step 3 To print the channel display table, click the Printer icon.

Modifying System Properties

You can modify the following system properties:

•Length of a Content Distribution Manager session (in minutes)

•Content Engine feature overlapping (enable or disable)

•Poll rate of the Content Engine or the Content Router to the Content Distribution Manager (in seconds)

•Replication status periodic calculations on a Content Engine (enable or disable)

•Replication status update rate (in minutes)

To modify system properties, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose System > System Configuration. The Config Properties window appears.

Figure 5-14 Config Properties Window

Step 2 Click the Edit icon next to the system property that you want to change. The Modifying Config Property window appears.

Step 3 Enter the new value of the system property that you want to change.

Step 4 Click Submit.

Printing CDN Data

Using the features of the Content Distribution Manager, you can print any tabular data about your CDN network. This includes lists of content providers, websites, and locations, or any of the resources of your CDN, such as Content Engines, channels, and so on.

To print data from the Content Distribution Manager, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Content Distribution Manager GUI, locate the information that you wish to print.

For example, if you wanted to print data about the locations defined for your CDN, you would choose Network > Locations.

Step 2 To print your CDN data using the default printer on your operating system, click the Printer icon.