Table Of Contents

Cisco ANA Concepts and Terms

Cisco ANA Concepts and Terms

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Table A-1 provides additional concepts and terms used in Cisco ANA.

Table A-1 Cisco ANA Concepts and Terms 

Term	Description
actionable events	Subset of AEC-recognized events that are of interest to the Cisco ANA fault management subsystem. Actionable events cause Cisco ANA to take an action such as deduplication, correlation, impact analysis, and so on. The Cisco ANA fault management subsystem must have a parser defined for actionable events.
activation script	Script or program written in BeanShell language to realize configuration operations performed by the VNE.
AEC	Cisco ANA Event Collector. Component used in Cisco ANA to collect, filter, store, and forward raw event notifications from the network. AEC is the ingress point into the Cisco ANA system for event notifications.
alarm	Sequence of event notifications that share the same source, cause, or fault. For example, if a single port goes up and then down, these two events in a related sequence may result in a single alarm. An alarm is stateful and is opened when a fault is first detected. Event notifications may be added to the alarm, and it is archived when it is fixed.
alarm correlation	Process of recognizing a series of separate events as the consequence of a single root-cause event. Good alarm correlation reduces the number of useless, repetitive alarms. See also fault correlation.
alarm DB	Storage database used by Cisco ANA to store events, alarms, and tickets.
autodiscovery	Ability of a VNE to connect to the network element it represents, and explore and query it for its inventory, capabilities, configuration, and status.
AVM	Cisco ANA units are divided into AVMs. These AVMs are Java processes that provide the necessary distribution support platform for executing and monitoring multiple VNEs. AVMs and VNEs reside on a Cisco ANA unit as a common configuration, but they can also reside on a Cisco ANA gateway. Some types of AVMs run on the server, but do not run VNEs. These AVMs have reserved ID numbers (AVM 0-100) and these cannot be used. In addition, there are other reserved AVM ID numbers.
BQL	Broadband Query Language. The protocol language used and exposed by the Cisco ANA interface to query the information model.
business element	Construction or organization of certain network elements and their properties into a logical entity, to provide the ability to track them in a way that makes sense from a business perspective.
business tag	A string that is meaningful to the business, and which can be used to label a component of a network element for use in Cisco ANA screens and reports.
Cisco ANA client	An OSS program, script, or application that interfaces with Cisco ANA through its programmatic interface, the Cisco ANA NBI.
DC	Device Component. Represents a single network entity in the internal abstract representation known as the DC model.
DC model	Device Component model. The DC model represents the following network element aspects: •Physical (for example, chassis or card). •Logical (for example, routing protocol or traffic profile). •Networking (for example, IP and Ethernet interfaces).
element management	Element management is the base configuration required to create the managed element. For example, Cisco ANA Manage enables users to create VNEs by entering their IP address, SNMP, and polling rate information.
EP	Event Processor. Client or egress component of the fault management system. Cisco ANA is one EP; there may be other EPs, such as NCM or Netcool.
EPS	events per second. Generic unit of measure that indicates the speed at which records pass particular measuring points. These records can be raw event notifications, parsed event notifications, database records, or API calls that transport an event-related record from one place in the application to another.
event	In the context of network management, a discrete activity that occurred at a specific point in time.
event archive	Storage component that functions as an Event Processor (EP) to the AEC. The event archive stores records that represent event notifications in a relational database.
event notification	Notification in the form of an incoming syslog or SNMP trap, or a Cisco ANA-generated notification (service alarm). An event notification is a message containing information elements that describe an event and are structured according to a protocol. It is possible to have more than one event notification for a single event. Cisco ANA assembles event notifications into alarms, which are correlated into tickets. See also raw event notification.
Event Trap Notification Service	Cisco ANA-supported notification service that emits EPM traps and supports sending actionable event notifications, alarms, tickets, and EMS-generated internal events.
fault	Error, failure, or exceptional condition in the network.
fault correlation	Process of evaluating multiple faults to determine a root cause. Sometimes referred to as root-cause correlation. See also alarm correlation.
gateway	A Cisco ANA component that is the consolidation point for information gathered by the VNEs. The gateway enforces access control and security for all connections. It is also the means through which all Cisco ANA clients access the Cisco ANA IM.
gateway server	Computer that hosts the Cisco ANA gateway. See also unit server.
generic events	See nonactionable events.
IMO	Information Model Object(s). The collective name for the objects in the information model as exposed by Cisco ANA, inspired by TMF-513/608, and queried by BQL.
Impact Analysis	Cisco ANA feature that allows the operator to see which network elements are impacted by a fault or outage. Used also to indicate which service is impacted by a network fault.
incoming event notification	See raw event notification.
information model	Abstract but formal representation of entities including their properties, relationships, and the operations that can be performed on them. An information model is independent of any specific repository, application, protocol, or platform.
inventory	All physical and logical assets of a network. Physical assets include network elements, modules, interfaces, ports, and so on. Logical assets include firmware versions, usage, connectivity, access lists, routing tables, and so on.
IRD	Instrumentation Raw Data, an object that contains atomic management information about a NE; it is created by the VNE-driver, and used by the VNE framework to build up the model of the network element. See also VSDK.
ISDK	Integration Software Development Kit. Provides developers with tools and a standards-based programmatic interface to the Cisco ANA information model to enable the tight integration of Cisco ANA with OSS and other management applications. See also NBI.
license	Cisco ANA client applications and Broadband Query Language (BQL) connectivity are based on installed license files. Cisco ANA Manage enables you to control and monitor the number of client and BQL connections over a limited or unlimited period of time based on the client licenses installed.
logical link	An association between two network elements (based on a chain of physical links between the elements); for example, a tunnel.
managed element	After Cisco ANA Manage installs and runs the process, samples the device, and collects the data, a VNE, or managed element, is created. This managed element includes logical inventory (such as forwarding tables) and physical inventory (such as modules and ports), and can be accessed using Cisco ANA NetworkVision.
map	Graphical representation of the topology of a subset of the managed network.
NBI	Northbound Interface. Broadly speaking, the documented set of protocols and APIs used as the supported programmatic interface for OSS) integration with Cisco ANA.
network element	A network element is a network component that exists in the network; for example, the devices displayed in Cisco ANA and in Cisco ANA NetworkVision.
network element components	Network element components are components of an NE, such as ports, blades, or contexts.
NGN	Next Generation Network. Describes the requirements of very complex "next generation" service provider networks.
nonactionable events	Prior to Cisco ANA 3.7, all events for which corresponding VNEs do not have a parser. This categorization will be dropped in Cisco ANA 3.7 and later releases in which AEC forwards only actionable events to the Cisco ANA fault management subsystem. The terms nonactionable events and generic events are synonymous.
permission	User's ability to perform certain tasks. There are two types of permissions: •Default—Applies only to the activities that are related to GUI functionality, and not the activities related to NEs. For example, a user with the default permission Viewer can view maps and the device list. •Network Element—Enables the administrator to group a collection of managed NEs (in Cisco ANA Manage) so the user can view and manage NEs based on their account role or permission. After the user is allocated a scope (list of NEs) and a role, the user can then perform various activities on the NEs, such as managing alarms in Cisco ANA NetworkVision.
PathTracer	A Cisco ANA feature that displays end-to-end routing information between two network elements (start point and endpoint) in the managed network.
polling group	A polling group is a group of polling rates that can be specified for a device and polled together according to pre-set intervals.
polling interval	Unit servers poll NEs to discover and display accurate and up-to-date network information. The system periodically triggers polling at set intervals. Cisco ANA provides three out-of-the-box polling intervals for VNEs.
protection group	Cluster of related units and standby units. In case of unit failover, the redundant unit is taken from the same protection group.
raw event	An uncorrelated, unassembled, and unacted-upon event. In general, it is the event as it arrives in the AEC.
raw event notification	Event notification that is presented at the ingress interface into the Cisco ANA fault management subsystem. This term emphasizes the uncorrelated, unassembled, and unacted-upon nature of an event notification. The terms raw event notification and incoming event notification are synonymous.
Raw Event Trap Notification Service	A notification service supported by Cisco ANA that maps incoming event notifications (for example, syslogs and traps) into a normalized trap format (EPM-NOTIFICATION-MIB) and emits trap notifications.
recognized event	All events that Cisco ANA can parse. Cisco ANA performs basic parsing of incoming event notifications (primarily for syslogs) and maintains a basic set of templates for syslogs.
redundant unit	Cisco ANA units come with built-in redundancy for maximum uptime and automatic switching. A threshold-configurable watchdog constantly monitors the units and gateway, and can perform an automatic or manual (operator-approved) switchover when there is no response from the monitored entity. The system is always current via real-time network investigation. The redundancy mechanism ensures synchronization of the active and backup units. Once activated, the standby node is immediately synchronized with the network.
registration	A set of specifications that describe how a device attribute is obtained from the NE by the VNE-driver.
registry	Hierarchical set of key-value configurations (currently stored in XML files); used to customize a Cisco ANA deployment.
repository	Structured section of the Cisco ANA registry, used to store registrations and activation scripts.
role	Cisco ANA implements a security engine that combines a role-based security mechanism that is applied on the scopes of NEs granted per user. The system supports user account creation, multiple NE scope definitions, and a set of five predefined roles for security and access control to allow different system functions: •Administrator—Manages the system configuration and security. •Configurator—Activates services and configures the network. •OperatorPlus—Controls alarm life cycle and creates maps. •Operator—Configures business tags and performs most day-to-day operations. •Viewer—Has read-only access to the network and to nonprivileged system functions. Roles can be granted per scope or at an application level (default permission) for all activities that are related to GUI functionality, not the activities related to devices. The default permission includes: •Logging into applications. •Managing alarms in Cisco ANA NetworkVision. •Managing maps—Creating, opening, and deleting maps. •Manipulating maps—Arranging maps, including aggregations, adding NEs, placing NEs in maps, and modifying map backgrounds. •Managing business tags.
root alarm	Alarm that is the root of a correlation tree.
scope	Named collection of managed NEs that have been grouped so that a user can view and manage the NEs according to their specified role. Grouping can be based on geographical location, NE type (such as router or software), NE category (such as access or core), or any other division according to the network administrator's requirements. Using Cisco ANA NetworkVision, a user who has been assigned a scope can view and manage the NEs within this scope according to the role assigned to the user. The user cannot view any information regarding NEs, including basic properties, inventory, or alarms, that are outside the user's scope.
soft property	A property that extends the set of built-in VNE properties. Cisco ANA users can define new soft properties using the Soft Property Builder tool.
static link	Physical link that is not automatically discovered by the system. The user manually creates the static link between NEs by selecting the two end ports from the NE physical inventories.
ticket	Object that represents an attention-worthy root alarm whose type is marked in the registry as "ticketable." A ticket has the same type as the root alarm it represents, and it has a status, which represents the entire correlation tree. A ticket can be acknowledged by the user.
transport link	A transport link is a logical link used for communication between units and for transferring information.
unit server	Computer that is used to host a collection of AVMs. A medium deployment might require several Unit servers. See also gateway server.
unmanaged network	Network, or part of a network, that is not managed by Cisco ANA. An unmanaged network is often represented in network diagrams by a cloud symbol or image.
user	A user must have the following to work with Cisco ANA: •A valid license installed. •A defined Cisco ANA user account. •An assigned permission.
VNE	A virtual runtime representation of a single network element as a modeled component. VNEs all communicate with each other to present a single, common device abstraction for network element discovery, configuration, status collection, fault analysis, and other basic network resource management functions. VNEs can be extended to support new application functionality.
VNE driver	Virtual Network Element driver. Device-specific code of the VNE. The VNE-driver: •Communicates directly with the device. •Implements the device-specific aspects of the VNE functionality (such as discovery). •Converts device-specific information and faults to the common IRD API). •Performs activation scripts. See also IRD.
VSDK	Virtual Network Element Driver Software Development Kit. Collection of APIs, tools, and specifications for VNE-driver developers.
workflow	Consists of several tasks grouped and arranged in a flowchart. All workflows are stored on the gateway. After a workflow is deployed, it can be accessed using Cisco ANA Manage to view its properties and status. Deployed workflow templates can be invoked with the Cisco ANA API using BQL In addition, the user can view a history of the invoked workflows using Cisco ANA EventVision.
workflow engine	Tool that allows the user to represent business and network processes and define a set of rules and dependencies to activate these processes.