Table Of Contents

CiscoWorks Assistant - Overview

Overview of CiscoWorks Assistant

What's New in This Release

Applications Supported by CiscoWorks Assistant

Dependencies of CiscoWorks Assistant Application

CiscoWorks Assistant - Overview

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The following sections provide an overview of CiscoWorks Assistant application and all the functionalities that are available in CiscoWorks Assistant.

•Overview of CiscoWorks Assistant

•What's New in This Release

•Applications Supported by CiscoWorks Assistant

•Dependencies of CiscoWorks Assistant Application

Overview of CiscoWorks Assistant

CiscoWorks Assistant is a web-based tool that provides workflows to help you to overcome network management and software deployment challenges. CiscoWorks Assistant is available along with CiscoWorks LAN Management Solution (LMS). This application is installed along with CiscoWorks Common Services.

A workflow is a compilation of tasks that assist you to deploy LMS servers and troubleshoot your network. The CiscoWorks Assistant Engine, which works in the backend, executes the workflows and allows you to navigate between the various tasks.

CiscoWorks Assistant workflows contain functionalities that are available across LMS applications. These functionalities are grouped logically to setup and configure the LMS server and to troubleshoot your network devices.

You can use CiscoWorks Assistant 1.1 only with the following LMS applications' versions:

•Common Services 3.2 (CS 3.2)

•CiscoView 6.1.8 (CV 6.1.8)

•Campus Manager 5.1 (CM 5.1)

•Resource Manager Essentials 4.2 (RME 4.2)

•Device Fault Manager 3.1 (DFM 3.1)

•Internetwork Performance Monitor 4.1 (IPM 4.1)

•Health and Utilization Monitor 1.1 (HUM 1.1)

•Integration Utility 1.8 (NMIM)

To know more about LMS applications, see the User Guides:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/netmgtsw/tsd_products_support_category_home.html

What's New in This Release

The following are the new features in CiscoWorks Assistant 1.1:

•Device Allocation Policy

•Changes to Device Troubleshooting Workflow

•Changes in Device Discovery

•Improved Server Response Time for Workflow Tasks

•Selection of an End Host From a Multiple End Hosts List

Device Allocation Policy

Earlier, the devices were directly added to DCR and were managed by applications. This made it difficult to update the device information in DCR for newly added devices.

In this release, CiscoWorks Assistant provides a launch point that lets you group selected devices for all CiscoWorks applications. This allows you to perform device management tasks for the desired group only.

In a multi-server setup, devices are allocated to groups for all applications running in all peer servers in the same DCR domain.

See Configuring LMS Server Using CiscoWorks Assistant for more information.

Changes to Device Troubleshooting Workflow

In this release, the Device Troubleshooting workflow is enhanced to generate the Device Credential Verification information or CDA information from RME.

You can use the Run Now link to open the Check Device Credentials page. You can set your options in the Check Device Credentials page and start an immediate CDA job.

See Troubleshooting Your Network Using CiscoWorks Assistant for more information.

Changes in Device Discovery

The CiscoWorks Assistant Server Setup workflow (Add Devices page) has been enhanced for the Device Discovery changes in Common Services.

The enhanced user interface for Device Discovery helps you to:

•Select a group from the Group Selector and add discovered devices to the selected group using the Global Settings tab.

•Select a SysObjectID from the Device Type Selector provided for SysObjectID based Device Discovery Filters.

•Select the Jump Router Boundaries option for CDP based Discovery jobs in the Seed Devices Settings tab.

See Adding Devices Using Common Services Device Discovery and User Guide for CiscoWorks Common Services 3.2 for more information.

Improved Server Response Time for Workflow Tasks

In this release, the server response time is improved and time taken by the server is reduced for:

•Collecting local and peer server information

•Launching EndHost/IP Phone Down workflow

Selection of an End Host From a Multiple End Hosts List

Earlier, the End Host/IP Down report was generated for first end host in the list when there were many end hosts available for a specified input type.

In this release, CiscoWorks Assistant provides a Multiple End Hosts report and allows you to select an end host from the list.

See Selecting an End Host From the End Hosts List for more information.

Applications Supported by CiscoWorks Assistant

CiscoWorks Assistant supports the following workflows:

•Server Setup

The Server Setup workflow helps you to create a Multi-server set up. It also assists you in adding and managing devices and configuring the AAA mode to ACS. You can add devices to Device and Credential Repository and import these devices across LMS applications. See Chapter 3, "Configuring LMS Server Using CiscoWorks Assistant".

•Device Troubleshooting

You can identify the root cause for device unreachabililty. The generated Device Troubleshooting report contains the following details for the selected device:

–Alerts and Syslog Messages

–Last configuration change

–Details of the device topology

–Device Credential Verification reports for RME CDA job.

–Details on network inconsistencies, misconfiguration in the network device. See Chapter 4, "Troubleshooting Your Network Using CiscoWorks Assistant".

•End Host/IP Phone Down

You can get the information required to troubleshoot as well as analyze the connectivity issues. See Chapter 4, "Troubleshooting Your Network Using CiscoWorks Assistant".

Dependencies of CiscoWorks Assistant Application

CiscoWorks Assistant workflow depends on the LMS applications. Some of functionalities will not be available if you have not installed the relevant LMS application.

Table 1-1 describes the CiscoWorks Assistant workflows and the corresponding dependent LMS 3.1 applications.

Table 1-1 CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows and the Dependent LMS Applications

CiscoWorks Assistant Workflows		LMS Applications
Server Setup	Manage Servers, Add Servers, Add Devices, Change Device Management Mode, Auto Allocation, Change ACS Settings	Common Services 3.2 and all LMS 3.1 applications.
Device Troubleshooting	Device information	•Common Services 3.2 (Device and Credential Repository) •All the installed LMS 3.1 applications.
	Connectivity status	Common Services 3.2
	Topology and Neighbor information	Campus Manager 5.1
	Syslog messages	Resource Manager Essentials 4.2
	Device alerts	Device Fault Manager 3.1
	Last configuration change	Resource Manager Essentials 4.2
	Device Credentials Verification reports	Resource Manager Essentials 4.2
	Change Audit reports	Resource Manager Essentials 4.2
	CDA reports	Resource Manager Essentials 4.2
	DFM Alerts	Device Fault Manager 3.1
	Discrepancies in this device	Campus Manager 5.1
End Host/IP Phone Down	End Host down	Campus Manager 5.1
	IP Phone down	Campus Manager  5.1
Log Level Settings	—	None.