Table Of Contents
CiscoWorks Assistant - Overview
Overview of CiscoWorks Assistant
Applications Supported by CiscoWorks Assistant
Dependencies of CiscoWorks Assistant Application
CiscoWorks Assistant - Overview
The following sections provide an overview of CiscoWorks Assistant application and all the functionalities that are available in CiscoWorks Assistant.
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Overview of CiscoWorks Assistant
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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 1.2 only with the following LMS applications' versions:
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To know more about LMS applications, see the User Guides:
http://www.cisco.com/web/psa/products/index.html
What's New in This Release
The following are the new features and enhancements in CiscoWorks Assistant 1.2:
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Multiple Default Credential Support in CiscoWorks Assistant
In this release, CiscoWorks Assistant supports Multiple Default Credentials.
In the earlier version, the Default Credentials let you decide whether to apply the default credentials. In this release, you can configure multiple default credentials sets and apply the credential sets while adding and importing devices.
See Adding Devices for more information.
This release has a new step, Device Credentials Policy Configuration in Server Setup Workflow. This step follows the Default Credential Sets step.
See Configuring Device Credential Policies for more information.
In this release, Set Default Credential is renamed as Default Credential Sets. In the Credential Sets page, there is a Credential Set Name link which is newly added in the Default Credentials list panel.
See Setting Default Credential Sets for more information.
HUM Features in Troubleshooting Workflow
The HUM Troubleshooting report contains:
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In this release, the Device Troubleshooting workflow is enhanced to display the Device Availability report for the devices managed by HUM. The details of this report are fetched from the HUM Device Dashboard page.
You can use the Device Dashboard link to view more details for the selected device.
You can use the Poller link to create pollers for the selected device. The link goes to the Poller Management Page. The Poller link is displayed only if the device does not have any Device Availability template.
See Understanding the Device Troubleshooting Report for more information.
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Device Threshold report is displayed as a section of Device Troubleshooting Workflow for the devices managed by HUM. The details of this report are fetched from the HUM Device Dashboard page.
You can use the Device Dashboard link to view more details for the selected device.
You can use the Poller link to create pollers for the selected device. The link goes to the Poller Management Page. The Poller link is displayed only if the device does not have any Device Availability template.
See Understanding the Device Troubleshooting Report for more information.
RME Features in Troubleshooting Workflow
The RME Troubleshooting workflow contains:
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The Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD) report is displayed in the Device Troubleshooting workflow for the devices managed by RME. The details for this report are fetched from the RME Application Programming Interface (API).
See Understanding the Device Troubleshooting Report for more information.
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The Call Home report is displayed in the Device Troubleshooting workflow for the devices managed by RME. The details for this report are fetched from the RME Application Programming Interface (API).
See Understanding the Device Troubleshooting Report for more information.
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The Embedded Event Manager (EEM) report is displayed in the Device Troubleshooting workflow for the devices managed by RME. The details for this report are fetched from the RME Application Programming Interface (API).
See Understanding the Device Troubleshooting Report for more information.
CiscoWorks Assistant Publisher Process in Daemon Manager
In this release, CiscoWorks Assistant Publisher is a new process added to Daemon Manager. The Daemon Manager is enhanced with this process for the following reasons:
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This process will run for a maximum of five minutes after starting Daemon Manager. After the process has completed running, a message appears, Administrator has Shutdown the Server.
Enhancing IP Address to IPv6
In this release, CiscoWorks Assistant supports the IPv6 Addressing scheme in the following Device Discovery pages:
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In the Device Troubleshooting home page, the existing IP Address field is enhanced to include the IPv6 devices.
Configuring SNMP Fallback Settings
The SNMP Fallback checkbox in the Discovery window, allows the SNMP details to be reverted to the older version.
See Adding Devices for more information.
Applications Supported by CiscoWorks Assistant
CiscoWorks Assistant supports the following workflows:
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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. This workflow allows you to add Multiple Default Credential sets and configure policies, based on default credentials. See Chapter 3, "Configuring LMS Server Using CiscoWorks Assistant".
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You can identify the root cause for device unreachabililty. The generated Device Troubleshooting report contains the following details for the selected device:
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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 3.2 applications.
