User Guide for CiscoWorks Assistant 1.1 (with LMS 3.1)
Chapter 2 Getting Started with CiscoWorks Assistant

Table Of Contents

Getting Started with CiscoWorks Assistant

Launching CiscoWorks Assistant

Using CiscoWorks Assistant Shortcuts

User Privileges for CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows

Setting Debug Level

CiscoWorks Assistant Process and the Dependency Processes

Launching Online Help


Getting Started with CiscoWorks Assistant


CiscoWorks Assistant is installed as part of CiscoWorks Common Services. The following topics help you to work with and understand the CiscoWorks Assistant user interface:

Launching CiscoWorks Assistant

Using CiscoWorks Assistant Shortcuts

User Privileges for CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows

Setting Debug Level

CiscoWorks Assistant Process and the Dependency Processes

Launching Online Help

Launching CiscoWorks Assistant

CiscoWorks LMS Portal home page is the first page that appears when you launch the LMS application. It serves as an interface, launch point and provides top-level navigation for the frequently used functions in the application.

You can view important statistics and details on the LMS applications installed on your CiscoWorks Server, in a single page instead of navigating through several pages to view the required data.

If you have installed CiscoWorks Server and are logging in for the first time, use the reserved admin user name and password you have specified during installation.

You can launch CiscoWorks Assistant workflows using:

CiscoWorks Assistant home page (See Launching CiscoWorks Assistant from CiscoWorks LMS Portal.)

LMS Applications' home page (See Launching CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows from LMS Applications' Home Page).

Launching CiscoWorks Assistant from CiscoWorks LMS Portal

To launch CiscoWorks Assistant from CiscoWorks LMS Portal:


Step 1 Enter the URL for your CiscoWorks Server in your browser.

http://server_name:port_number

Where server_name is the name of the CiscoWorks Server and port_number is the TCP port used by the CiscoWorks Server. In normal mode (HTTP), the default TCP port for CiscoWorks server is 1741.

For example:

http://ciscoworksserver:1741


Note If you enter, http://server_name:port_number/login.html in your web browser, the CiscoWorks Server will not launch. Also, do not bookmark the URL with the trailing login.html.


On Windows, CiscoWorks Server always uses the normal mode port 1741 and secure mode port 443 in normal and secure modes.

On Solaris, if the default TCP ports are used by other applications, you can select different ports for secure and normal modes during CiscoWorks LMS installation.

For more information, see Installing and Getting Started with CiscoWorks LAN Management Solution 3.1

The login screen appears.

Step 2 Enter the username in the User ID field, and the password for admin user in the Password field of the Login page.

Enter the same admin password that you entered while installing CiscoWorks LMS.

The default username is admin.

Step 3 Click Login or press Enter.

You are now logged into CiscoWorks Server.

After you log into CiscoWorks, the CiscoWorks LMS Portal home page is displayed. CiscoWorks LMS Portal is the primary user interface and the launch point for all the applications.

Step 4 Click the CiscoWorks Assistant link or the Home link under CiscoWorks Assistant portlet on the CiscoWorks LMS Portal home page.

The CiscoWorks Assistant home page appears in a new window. The CiscoWorks Assistant home page is an easy way to access frequently used operations. The following links are available.

Workflows

Server Setup

Device Troubleshooting

End Host/IP Phone Down

Administration

Log Level Settings


Launching CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows from LMS Applications' Home Page

You can launch the Device Troubleshooting and End Host/IP Phone Down workflows from other LMS applications.

You should allocate devices in the LMS applications before launching these workflows.

Table 2-1 provides the launch points for the CiscoWorks Assistant workflows.

Table 2-1 Launch Points for CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows from LMS Applications

Workflow
Application Name
Navigation

Device Troubleshooting Workflow

Campus Manager

To launch CiscoWorks Assistant from Topology Services:

1. Select any device from the Topology View:

2. Right-click and select Troubleshoot.

The Device Troubleshooting window appears.

CiscoWorks LMS Portal

You can also launch Device Troubleshooting workflow from the N-Hop View portlet. N-Hop View portlet is a HTML-based, light-weight feature and is available as a part of CiscoWorks Portal.

To launch Device Troubleshooting, select any device, right-click and select Troubleshoot.

Device Diagnostic Tools Portlet

To launch this application, select Device Diagnostic Tools > Device Troubleshooting.

Device Fault Manager

You can launch CiscoWorks Assistant from Detailed Device View.

To start Detailed Device View:

1. Go to Device Fault Manager> Device Management > Device Details.

2. Select a device from the Device Selector and click View.

The Device Details report appears.

3. Click on the device name in the report to open Detailed Device View page.

4. Click Get Troubleshooting Info to launch Device Troubleshooting workflow.

End Host/IP Phone Down Workflow

Campus Manager

You can launch End Host/IP Phone report from User Tracking window:

1. Select Campus Manager > Admin > User Tracking > Reports > Report Generator page.

2. Select End Host & All Host Entries from the drop down box and generate the report.

3. In the report, click on MAC Address or Host Name or IP Address.

The Host center page appears.

4. On the Host center page, click Troubleshoot.


Using CiscoWorks Assistant Shortcuts

You can add shortcuts to frequently used CiscoWorks Assistant links in the CiscoWorks LMS Portal. Use these shortcuts to run frequently used tasks and functions.

You can register a URL and add it to either Third Party or Custom Tool under External Links portlet view.

For more information on Registering Links With CiscoWorks LMS Portal see the User Guide for CiscoWorks LMS Portal. To access this, go to Help > LMS Portal:

You can use the shortcuts as given in Table 2-2:

Table 2-2 CiscoWorks Assistant Shortcut URLs

Task
URL1

CiscoWorks Assistant Home

http://ServerName:PortNumber/cwa/CWAHome.jsp

Device Troubleshooting Workflow

http://ServerName:PortNumber/cwa/linkDown.do

End Host/IP Phone Down

http://ServerName:PortNumber/cwa/endhostDown.do

Server Setup

http://ServerName:PortNumber/cwa/serverSetup.do

Log Level Settings

http://ServerName:PortNumber/cwa/logLevel.do

1 Where, ServerName is the CiscoWorks LMS Server hostname or IP address and PortNumber is the HTTP or HTTPS port number.


User Privileges for CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows

CiscoWorks Assistant uses the privileges that the logged-in user has in the installed applications.

In the Server Setup workflow the system identity user or a Local User with all roles assigned can performing all Manage Servers tasks (CiscoWorks Assistant > Server Setup > Manage Servers).

Setting Debug Level

You can use this option to set the logging levels for CiscoWorks Assistant packages.

The CiscoWorks Assistant log file (CWA.log) is available in the following location:

NMSROOT/log (on Windows)

/var/adm/CSCOpx/log (on Solaris)

The OPSXML logs are available in the following location:

NMSROOT/objects/wfengine/program/TFTP/Backup/DeviceTrace/CScript

To set the log levels:


Step 1 Select CiscoWorks Assistant > Administration > Log Level Settings.

The Set CiscoWorks Assistant Logging Level page appears.

Step 2 Select the appropriate log level from the Logging Level drop-down list.

Step 3 Select the Enable Engine Logging check box to enable logging for CiscoWorks Assistant Engine.

Step 4 Click Reset to apply the default logging levels.

The default logging level is INFO for CiscoWorks Assistant packages.

When you click Reset, the logging level is set to INFO and the CiscoWorks Assistant Engine logging is disabled.

Step 5 Click Apply after you set the log levels.

A message appears that the log levels have been successfully updated.


CiscoWorks Assistant Process and the Dependency Processes

The following table lists the CiscoWorks Assistant processes and their dependency processes.

If you stop or restart any of these processes you must stop and restart their dependency processes. See Table 2-3 for the list of dependent processes.

You can stop and restart the process using Common Services > Admin > Process.

Table 2-3 CiscoWorks Assistant Process and the Dependency Processes

Process Name
Dependency (Sequential)
Description

OpsXML Runtime

ProcSysBus

OpsxmlDbEngine

System service: CiscoWorks Assistant workflow engine.

ProcSysBus

None

System service: Message Bus Service for CiscoWorks Assistant

OpsxmlDbEngine

None

System service: the database engine for CiscoWorks Assistant Engine.


Launching Online Help

On the CiscoWorks Assistant home page, click Help to Launch the CiscoWorks Assistant online help. This Help button is available at the top right corner of your CiscoWorks Assistant home page. The CiscoWorks Online help is launched in a separate browser window.

The complete User Guide can be viewed in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) from within the Online help. To view the PDF, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or later is required.

The CiscoWorks Online help window contains the following buttons and links:

Button
Description

Contents
(Button)

Displays the Online help table of content for the launched LMS application.

That is, if you have launched Common Services Online help, the table of content for the Common Services application appears.

Index
(Button)

Displays the index entries for the launched LMS application.

That is, if you have launched Common Services Online help, the index entries for the Common Services application appears.

Search
(Button)

Allows you search any key words within the launched LMS application.

That is, if you have launched Common Services Online help, you can search for any keywords within the Common Services Online help.

If you want to search key words in all of the installed LMS application, you must select All in the application drop-down box (second drop-down box).

If you want to search key words in specific LMS application, you must select the application name in the application drop-down box (second drop-down box).

That is, if you want to search in CiscoWorks Assistant, select CiscoWorks Assistant from application drop-down box.

Main
(Link)

This link is available in the top right corner of the CiscoWorks Online Help window.

Launches the home page of LMS applications online help.

Based on your LMS installed applications, the table of content area lists the LMS Application Online help.

If you have installed all the LMS applications, the table of content lists the following:

Campus Manager—Launches the Campus Manager Online help.

CiscoWorks Assistant—Launches the CiscoWorks Assistant Online help.

CiscoWorks Common Services—Launches the Common Services Online help

Device Fault Manager—Launches the Device Fault Manager Online help.

Device Manager—Launches the CiscoView application (Basic) and CiscoView device packages (ATM Manager, AP1100, Catalyst 4000 IOS, etc.) Online help.

Internetwork Performance Monitor—Launches the Internetwork Performance Monitor Online help.

Resource Manager Essentials—Launches Resource Manager Essentials application (RME User Guide) and device packages (Cisco 10000 Series Routers, Cisco 2600XM Multiservice Router, etc.) Online help.