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User Guide for CiscoWorks Common Services 3.1.1
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Open Source License Acknowledgements
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Preface
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Chapter 1 Overview of Common Services
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Chapter 2 Interacting With CiscoWorks Home Page
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Chapter 3 Using Common Services Home
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Chapter 4 Configuring the Server
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Chapter 5 Managing Device and Credentials
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Chapter 6 Administering Groups
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Chapter 7 Using LMS Setup Center
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Chapter 8 Using Device Center
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Chapter 9 Working With Software Center
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Chapter 10 Diagnosing Problems With CiscoWorks Server
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Appendix A Understanding CiscoWorks Security
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Appendix B Acronyms Used in Common Services Documentation
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Index
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Table Of Contents
Understanding Time Zone Settings
Learning More About Common Services
Overview of Common Services
CiscoWorks Common Services (Common Services) represents a common set of management services that are shared by CiscoWorks applications. CiscoWorks is a family of products based on Internet standards for managing networks and devices. All CiscoWorks products use and depend on Common Services.
Common Services provides a foundation for CiscoWorks applications to share a common model for data storage, login, user role definitions, access privileges, security protocols, as well as navigation.
Common Services creates a standard user experience for all management functions. It also provides a common framework for all basic system-level operations such as installation, data management including backup-restore and import-export, event and message handling, and job and process management.
Common Services provides a set of new features required to give the CiscoWorks applications a common look and feel. The CiscoWorks home page replaces the existing desktop.
Common Services enables sharing of critical information among the various products, and provides a new framework for delivering timely support of new devices. In addition, it supports new platforms, and provides enhanced security mechanisms.
This chapter contains the following sections:
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Understanding Time Zone Settings
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What's New In This Release
The following are the new features and enhancements in Common Services 3.1.1:
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SNMPv3 AuthPriv Support
In this release, Common Services extends its support to SNMPv3 AuthPriv level of security.
SNMPv3 AuthPriv support provides secure access to devices by authenticating and encrypting packets over the network. This ensures that a packet has not been tampered with in-transit and scrambles the contents of a packet to prevent it from being seen by an unauthorized source.
AuthPriv mode supports the following protocols of authentication and privacy:
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Changes in DCR and DCR Administration
DCR Administration user interface is now enhanced to allow you to enter a single set of SNMPv3 credentials for all security levels (NoAuthNoPriv, AuthNoPriv, and AuthPriv) and store them in DCR.
See Managing Device and Credentials for more information.
Changes in Device Center Connectivity Tools
The SNMPSet, SNMPWalk, and Management Station to Device tools now allow you to enter SNMPv3 AuthPriv credentials to troubleshoot and gather information about devices.
See Using Device Center for more information.
Common Services Device Discovery
In this release, Common Services supports Device Discovery based on many discovery modules.
The Device Discovery based on Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) that was earlier supported in Campus Manager is also supported in Common Services.
The device discovery engine integrated with Common Services allows you to start the Device Discovery from the Common Services application and update device information in DCR.
The new user interface provided for Device Discovery helps you to:
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Common Services 3.1.1 supports Device Discovery operations from CLI also.
See Discovering Devices for more information.
Enhancements in Common Services Logging Configuration
In this release, the Common Services Logging Configuration user interface is enhanced to allow you to debug the Common Services Device Discovery module.
You do not need to restart the Daemon Manager after you have enabled the debugging options for these modules.
See Configuring Logging for more information.
Local User Policy Setup
Earlier, you did not have the options to start the local username with a numeral, include special characters in the local username, and control the length of username and passwords of local users.
Common Services 3.1.1 provides a user interface to select the options to start the local username with a number and include special characters in the local username. It also allows you to specify the length of username and passwords of CiscoWorks local users. You can restrict the length of local username and passwords up to 256 characters.
See Setting up Local User Policy for more information.
Enhancements to Process Management
Earlier, the Common Services Process Management user interface displayed all the processes in a single page. There were no options to filter the processes based on its state. This led to difficulty in locating the processes of a specific state.
In Common Services 3.1.1, you can select a specific process state and display only those processes in the Processes page.
The Process management through CLI is also enhanced in this release. You can view the brief status and the statistics of all processes using the enhanced
pdshowcommand.See Managing Processes for more information.
Security Related Changes
The following are the security related changes in Common Services 3.1.1:
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Earlier, authentication requests were first sent to Primary ACS Server and if the Primary and Secondary ACS Servers were not reachable, authentication succeeded using the Tertiary ACS Server.
The subsequent authorization requests from application pages were also sent to Primary ACS Server although the servers were not reachable. Sometimes, the authentication and authorization requests took nearly 10 minutes to receive the response from ACS Server.
In this release, the responses to authentication and authorization requests from ACS Server is much faster. This is because instead of sending the requests to all ACS Servers, the request is forwarded only to an Active ACS Server. The Active ACS Server is determined and maintained when the user logs into CiscoWorks Server.
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Earlier, you cannot enter the hostname of a device in IP Address field in ACS Server while configuring AAA clients. If you entered the hostname in the IP Address field in ACS, device import in DCR failed.
In this release, the option to enter the hostname in the IP Address field in ACS Server is allowed. If the AAA client (network device) added in DCR is resolvable by its DNS, the device is imported in DCR with its display name and IP Address. Otherwise, the device is imported in DCR with its display name and hostname.
See Adding CiscoWorks Server and Network Devices as AAA Clients in ACS for more information.
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Earlier, if you added any device in ACS, you needed to log out and log into CiscoWorks Server for the devices to be visible in device selector.
In this release, the device cache in CiscoWorks Server is updated at every manual refresh and synchronized with the devices in ACS. This eliminates the need to log out and log into CiscoWorks Server.
The Refresh icon provided in the Device Management page and the Devices Not Configured in ACS report helps you to manually refresh the device cache in CiscoWorks Server.
See Managing Devices for more information.
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Earlier, only one value of usersroot was allowed for Distinguished Name based authentication in
MS Active Directory login module.Common Services now supports entering multiple usersroot for Distinguished Name based authentication in MS Active Directory login module. You can enter multiple values for usersroot separated by semicolons.
See Changing Login Module to MS Active Directory for more information.
Changes to Common Services Home and LMS Setup Center
The Common Services Home and LMS Setup Center are updated with the links to Common Services device discovery user interface.
See Using Common Services Home and Using LMS Setup Center for more information.
Support for MDF 1.22
Meta Data Framework (MDF) Package defines device types in a uniform way across CiscoWorks applications. This package contains new device types, new device type definitions, new device icons, and solutions to some problems in earlier MDF packages.
Common Services 3.1.1 supports the MDF package version 1.22 that contains the following new device types:
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When you add new device types through MDF Package, it does not guarantee support for these device types in all CiscoWorks applications. Device support has to be provided by individual applications such as DFM, RME and Campus Manager. For a list of supported device types, see the relevant product documentation.
Third Party Tools and Software Changes
The following are the third party tools and software related changes in this release:
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See the following documents for more information:
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Additional Information Online
You also see the new features and enhancements in the previous releases of Common Services available in Cisco.com.
For details on new features and enhancements in Common Services 3.1, see:
Understanding Time Zone Settings
Common Services and associated CiscoWorks application suites support many time zones. However, applications that have scheduling and reporting functions, and applications that produce or use time stamps vary based on:
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For detailed information, see the Release Notes included with your CiscoWorks applications.
Learning More About Common Services
You can find detailed information on the features and functions of CiscoWorks Common Services in the following chapters:
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In addition, the Online help included with Common Services provides explanations and procedures for the related tasks.
You can launch the Online help from the CiscoWorks home page. Go to the CiscoWorks home page and click Help on the top right side of the window to launch the Online help.
For tips about accessing Online help, see Using Online Help.
You can check the version details and licensing information about Common Services by clicking the About button located at the top right of the CiscoWorks home page.