Table Of Contents

Cisco ANA Overview

What Is Cisco ANA?

Cisco ANA Customization Components

Soft Properties Manager

Workflow Editor

Command Builder

Cisco ANA Shell Interface

Cisco BQL

Cisco ANA Overview

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The following topics introduce you to the Cisco Active Network Abstraction (Cisco ANA) customization products. These topics briefly explain what Cisco ANA is, and describe the Cisco ANA customization tools.

•What Is Cisco ANA?

•Cisco ANA Customization Components

What Is Cisco ANA?

Cisco ANA is a resource management platform that serves as an active mediation layer between the operation and network layers. It provides a set of easy-to-use applications and well defined APIs for Operations Support Systems (OSS). Cisco ANA enables service providers to efficiently respond to the constant market demand for new, reliable, and more complex services, while hiding the complexity of large, multivendor, mixed-technology networks.

Cisco ANA can manage diverse network environments. It offers an integrated process for network modeling, intelligent fault analysis, and a highly flexible network configuration and activation engine. This enables fully correlated management of global scale networks that need to support millions of subscribers and customers.

Cisco ANA is a network management system that provides a fully integrated, service-oriented offering including:

•Multivendor network element support (physical components that can be managed through an IP address).

•Mixed technologies (such as IP and Ethernet).

•Multiple functions (network discovery, fault, activation, and configuration).

•Standards-based Northbound Interfaces (NBIs) that provide integration with assorted OSS and Business Support Systems (BSS) applications.

Based on a patented architecture of distributed autonomous virtual network elements (VNEs), Cisco ANA enables integration management for multivendor, multitechnology network environments, while at the same time scaling according to network growth and evolution.

Cisco ANA hides the complexity of large, multivendor, mixed-technology networks while allowing you to constantly modify your network in response to ongoing market demand for new, reliable, and more sophisticated services.

Cisco ANA Customization Components

Cisco ANA customization components provide the ability to monitor and make changes to network elements. These customization components include:

•Soft Properties Manager

•Workflow Editor

•Command Builder

•Cisco BQL

Soft Properties Manager

Using Soft Properties Manager, you can manage soft properties and Threshold Crossing Alarms (TCAs). Soft properties enable you to extend the set of supported properties for each network element (NE), by adding soft properties to the VNEs. These properties extend the Cisco IMO and are available through the client GUI as well as through the BQL API. Soft properties are retrieved from the NE using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or Telnet/Secure Shell Protocol (SSH). In addition, alarm thresholds enable you to constantly monitor selected properties and generate an alarm every time these properties cross a user-defined threshold or violate a condition.

These properties extend the Cisco ANA model. For more information, see:

•Chapter 2, "Introducing the Cisco ANA Soft Properties Manager"

•Chapter 3, "Getting Started with the Soft Properties Manager"

•Chapter 4, "Soft Property Examples"

•Chapter 5, "Parsing Operators/Rules"

•Chapter 6, "Alarm Threshold Triggers"

•Chapter 7, "Regular Expressions for Soft Properties Manager"

Workflow Editor

Using Workflow Editor, you can create workflows of tasks, calling multiple activation scripts to perform configuration changes on multiple network elements. You can run activation scripts sequentially, in parallel, on demand, or at a scheduled time. You can view workflows with Cisco ANA Workflow Editor, Cisco ANA Manage, and Cisco ANA EventVision. Workflows are stored on the gateway, where you can check workflow properties and status. It is intended for use by a system administrator.

Dralasoft Workflow Studio can be customized to meet an individual customer's specific needs. Dralasoft Workflow Studio menus and toolbars are customized for use with Cisco ANA. For more information, see:

•Chapter 8, "Introducing the Cisco ANA Workflow Editor"

•Chapter 9, "Working with the Cisco ANA Workflow Editor"

•Chapter 10, "Getting Started with the Workflow Editor"

•Chapter 11, "Managing Workflows"

•Chapter 12, "Customizing the Workflow Editor"

Command Builder

Using Command Builder (a template-based configuration tool), you can create activation scripts to make physical and logical configuration changes on a network element.

Command scripts enable users to execute a programmable sequence of SNMP or Telnet command lines. These scripts can include data properties taken from the Cisco ANA information model (built-in), as well as user-defined input parameters entered during runtime.

For more information on the Cisco ANA Macro Language, its syntax, how to use parameters, pragmas, and a detailed example for writing Cisco ANA Macro Language scripts, see:

•Chapter 13, "Introducing Command Builder"

•Chapter 14, "Getting Started with Command Builder"

•Chapter 15, "Creating a Cisco ANA Macro Language Command: An Example"

•Chapter 16, "Running Command Scripts"

•Chapter 17, "Cisco ANA Macro Language"

•Chapter 18, "Bean Shell Commands"

Cisco ANA Shell Interface

The Cisco ANA shell interface is the command-line interface (CLI) of the Cisco ANA Shell Manage system. The shell interface provides you with the following features:

•A subset of the system-supported commands so you can manage VNEs, surveillance, and provisioning.

•A flat command hierarchy with a limited number of modes and an unlimited number of nesting levels.

•The ability to export all commands supported by the system.

For more information on the Cisco ANA shell interface, the supported commands, output formats, and examples, see:

•Chapter 19, "Introducing the Cisco ANA Shell Interface"

•Chapter 20, "Understanding Cisco ANA Shell Behavior"

•Chapter 21, "Regular Expressions for Cisco ANA Shell"

•Chapter 22, "Cisco ANA Shell Potential Errors"

Cisco BQL

Cisco Broadband Query Language (BQL) is a generic machine interface language, implemented by the Cisco ANA gateway, for general-purpose northbound integration. BQL covers all Cisco ANA functionality:

•Information reporting (such as inventory, topology, or fault)

•Service activation

•System administration

For more information about Cisco BQL as an open XML-based query language for northbound integration with the Cisco ANA network service management application, the basic functions and concepts of BQL and IMO, and BQL code examples, see:

•Chapter 23, "Getting Started with BQL"

•Chapter 24, "Understanding IMO"

•Chapter 25, "IMO Specification"

•Chapter 26, "BQL Generic Commands"

•Chapter 27, "Encrypted SSL Sockets"

•Chapter 28, "Detailed BQL Errors Catalog and Examples"

•Chapter 29, "Best Practices for Integration BQL Parsing"