Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.1 - TE Topology [Cisco IP Solution Center]

Table Of Contents

TE Topology

Overview

Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page

Using the TE Topology Interface Applet

Displaying and Saving Layouts

Using Maps

Loading a Map

Adding New Maps

Clearing Maps

Using Highlighting and Attributes

Clear Highlighting

Add/Modify Attributes

Clear Current Graph Layout

Using AntiAlias, BackingStore, DoubleBuffer

Using Algorithms

TE Topology

The TE Topology tool provides a graphical view of the network set up through the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Management (TEM) web client. It gives a graphical representation of the various network elements, including devices, links, and tunnels. It also displays devices that TEM is unable to identify but which have been discovered with the TE Discovery tool to be part of the network.

This chapter describes how to use the topology tool. A definition of fields and buttons in the topology GUI is found in TE Topology, page B-5 in Appendix B, "Traffic Engineering Management GUI".

This chapter includes the following sections:

•Overview

•Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page

•Using the TE Topology Interface Applet

–Displaying and Saving Layouts

–Using Maps

–Using Highlighting and Attributes

–Using Algorithms.

Overview

The TE Topology tool can be activated from various locations within ISC. However, in this user guide the TE Topology tool is assumed to be accessed from the Traffic Engineering Management Services page.

The TE Topology tool is used to visualize the TE network based on the data contained in the repository. To that end, it provides a number of ways of manipulating the display, for example by applying algorithms to the graph layout, importing maps, and so on.

The tool is accessed from a TE Topology Interface Applet that displays the TE topology through a Java applet within the browser.

Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page

The TE Topology tool is accessed as follows:

Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > TE Topology.

The Topology Tool window in Figure 10-1 appears.

Figure 10-1 Topology Tool

For a detailed description of the Topology Tool page, see the Cisco IP Solution Center Infrastructure Reference, 5.1.

Step 2 To start up the TE Topology tool, select ISC-TEM Topology Interface Applet.

Using the TE Topology Interface Applet

The TE Topology Interface Applet (Topology Applet) provides a means of visualizing the network and tunnels present in the network. The web-based GUI is the primary means of visualizing the network information. The Topology Applet simply augments the web-based GUI to provide you with a different presentation format.

The features offered through the Topology Applet are:

•TE Topology rendering

•Highlighting of network elements

•Tunnel overlay (unmanaged, primary, and backup)

•Topology layout persistence

•Integration with web page content.

To access the Topology Applet, use the following steps:

Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > Topology Tool.

Step 2 Click ISC-TEM Topology Interface Applet.

If the security certificate for the topology applet has not been accepted previously, you might get the following security warning window shown in Figure 10-2.

Figure 10-2 Security Warning

Step 3 Click Yes or Always to accept the authenticity of the security certificate.

The Topology Display applet window in Figure 10-3 appears.

Figure 10-3 Topology Display Applet in Unordered State

After the nodes have been arranged to your liking, you might end up with a topology display similar to the one in Figure 10-4.

Figure 10-4 Topology Display Applet with User-Arranged Topology

Icons marked with red question marks signify devices unknown to ISC, for example non-Cisco devices. When activated with the Display button from another ISC function (tunnel management window, resource modification window, etc.), any selected devices are highlighted in the display.

For an explanation of the various window elements in all the menus of the Topology Display, see Topology Display, page B-5.

Displaying and Saving Layouts

Use the two operations in the Repository menu, Layout Graph and Save Graph Layout, to display or save the current layout of the network graph.

Prior to generating the graph layout, the coordinates must be set on each of the network devices. Otherwise, the graph will have a random layout.

•Layout Graph—The graph is laid out from the repository. If a graph layout is already present, that layout is cleared once you click Yes in the Clear Graph Layout confirmation box. If the layout has not previously been saved, a random layout of the repository contents is drawn. If it has been saved previously, the saved layout is redrawn.

•Save Graph Layout—Save the current graph layout. Doing so will ensure that whenever the graph layout is cleared with Layout Graph or the topology applet is closed, the same layout will be created when the applet is restarted. If a map was used, the map is also redrawn.

Using Maps

You can associate a map with each view. Currently, the topology viewer only supports maps in the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shape format. The following sections describe how to load maps and selectively view map layers and data associated with each map.

The map features are accessed from the Map menu in the Topology window.

To access the Map menu, use the following steps:

Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > TE Topology.

Step 2 Start the ISC TM Topology Interface Applet.

If link and node data for your network is already in the repository, a Progress Report lists the various network elements as the corresponding data is loaded.

Step 3 Select the Map menu.

The menu appears.

From the Map menu, you can either load or clear (remove) maps as described in the following.

Loading a Map

You might want to set a background map showing the physical locations of the displayed devices. To load a map, use the following steps:

Step 1 In the menu bar, select Map > Load.

Providing the web map server is running, the Map Chooser window appears (see Figure 10-5).

Figure 10-5 Map Chooser

For an explanation of the various window elements, see Map, page B-8.

Step 2 Make your selections in the Map Chooser window.

The right-hand side of the window contains a small control panel, which allows you to select the projection in which a map is shown. A map projection is a projection which maps a sphere onto a plane. Typical projections are Mercator, Lambert, and Stereographic.

For more information on projections, consult the Map Projections section of Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics at:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/MapProjections.html

If desired, make changes to the settings in the Longitude Range and Latitude Range fields.

Step 3 Select a map file and click Open to load the map.

Selecting the map file and clicking the Open button starts loading it. Maps can consist of several components and thus a progress dialog is shown informing you which part of the map file is loaded.

A map similar to the one in Figure 10-6 appears.

Figure 10-6 Loaded Map

Step 4 Use the various functions in the menus of the Topology Display window to manipulate the display contents in the Topology view. Some of these are described in subsequent sections. For a more complete description of the menu functions available, see Topology Display, page B-5.

Adding New Maps

You might need to add your own maps to the selection of maps available to the Topology Tool. This is done by placing a map file in the $ISC_HOME/resources/webserver/tomcat/webapps/ipsc-maps/data directory or a subdirectory thereof within the ISC installation. To make this example more accessible, assume that you wish to add a map of Toowong, a suburb of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. The first step to do so is to obtain maps from a map vendor. All maps must be in the ESRI shape file format (see ESRI shapefile technical description). In addition, a data file can accompany each shape file. Data files contain information about objects and the corresponding shapes are contained within the shape file. Let us assume that the vendor provided four files:

•toowong_city.shp

•toowong_city.dbf

•toowong_street.shp

•toowong_street.dbf

We have to create a .map file that informs the TE Topology tool about layers of the map. In this case we have two layers: a city and a street layer. The map file, say, Toowong.map, would thus have the following contents:
toowong_city
toowong_street
It lists all layers that create a map of Toowong. The order is important, as the first file forms the background layer, with other layers placed on top of the preceding layers.

Having obtained shape and data files and having written the map file, place all five files in the $ISC_HOME/resources/webserver/tomcat/webapps/ipsc-maps/data directory. All map files must be located in this folder. After this is done, the map is automatically accessible to the topology viewer.

Clearing Maps

To clear the active map, select Map > Clear (see Figure 10-3).

Use this feature to clear (remove) the active map to leave only nodes and links in the corresponding network.

Using Highlighting and Attributes

The Graph menu, shown in Figure 10-7, provides access to a range of tools to manage and manipulate graphs.

Figure 10-7 Graph Menu

For an explanation of the various menu items, see the following sections as well as Graph, page B-9.

Use the JavaServer Pages to look at the list of nodes, links, and tunnels. From the JSP pages, select the display button at the bottom of the window to highlight elements.

The tools in the Graph menu serve to modify the appearance of the topology.

These are described in the following sections.

Clear Highlighting

Clear Highlighting serves to remove highlighting from specific elements as listed in its submenus. For a description of the individual entries, see Graph, page B-9.

Add/Modify Attributes

When you select Attributes from the Graph menu, the Graphic Attributes window in Figure 10-8 appears.

Figure 10-8 Graphic Attributes

The Add/Modify Attributes tool is used as follows:

Step 1 Select graph elements (nodes/links) in the topology display.

Use Ctrl/Shift to select multiple elements.

Step 2 Choose Graph > Attributes to open the Graphic Attributes window.

Step 3 Change the desired attributes and click Apply All.

Note Only selected links (Step 1) are affected.

Clear Current Graph Layout

Use the Clear function in the Graph menu to remove the topology graph from the current view.

Although this is also achieved with Layout Graph in the Repository menu, Layout Graph re-creates the graph last saved in the repository in addition to clearing the graph.

Using AntiAlias, BackingStore, DoubleBuffer

AntiAlias, found in the Graph menu, is used to create smoother lines and a more pleasant appearance at the expense of performance.

BackingStore allows graphics content to be automatically saved when moved to the background and regenerated when returned to the foreground. This helps avoid superfluous refreshing.

DoubleBuffer enables double buffering for dragging elements on the graph.

Using Algorithms

In the Algorithms menu, shown in Figure 10-9, various algorithms can be used to enhance and otherwise alter the graph layout.

Note The algorithms only work when the nodes are interconnected with links.

Spring is a graph layout algorithm that optimizes the graph layout based on weights.

Randomize rearranges the nodes in the current topology layout at random.

If there are overlapping links, the layout can be optimized by selecting Optimize Links.

Figure 10-9 Algorithms Menu

For further explanation of the Algorithms menu, see Algorithms, page B-11.

The spring settings are used to enhance the appearance of the topology display according to user preferences. When selecting Spring Settings, the Spring Settings window in Figure 10-10 appears.

Figure 10-10 Spring Settings

For an explanation of the various fields in the Spring Settings window, see Algorithms, page B-11.

	Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.1
	TE Topology
Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.1 Index About This Guide Getting Started TE Network Discovery TE Resource Management Basic Tunnel Management Advanced Primary Tunnel Management Protection Planning Traffic Admission Administration Task Monitoring TE Topology Sample Configlets Traffic Engineering Management GUI Managing Service Requests Warnings and Violations Document Type Definition (DTD) File Background and Concepts	Download this chapter TE Topology Download the complete book Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Engineering Management User Guide, 5.1 - Book-length PDF (PDF - 5 MB) Table Of Contents TE Topology Overview Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page Using the TE Topology Interface Applet Displaying and Saving Layouts Using Maps Loading a Map Adding New Maps Clearing Maps Using Highlighting and Attributes Clear Highlighting Add/Modify Attributes Clear Current Graph Layout Using AntiAlias, BackingStore, DoubleBuffer Using Algorithms TE Topology The TE Topology tool provides a graphical view of the network set up through the Cisco IP Solution Center Traffic Management (TEM) web client. It gives a graphical representation of the various network elements, including devices, links, and tunnels. It also displays devices that TEM is unable to identify but which have been discovered with the TE Discovery tool to be part of the network. This chapter describes how to use the topology tool. A definition of fields and buttons in the topology GUI is found in TE Topology, page B-5 in Appendix B, "Traffic Engineering Management GUI". This chapter includes the following sections: •Overview •Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page •Using the TE Topology Interface Applet –Displaying and Saving Layouts –Using Maps –Using Highlighting and Attributes –Using Algorithms. Overview The TE Topology tool can be activated from various locations within ISC. However, in this user guide the TE Topology tool is assumed to be accessed from the Traffic Engineering Management Services page. The TE Topology tool is used to visualize the TE network based on the data contained in the repository. To that end, it provides a number of ways of manipulating the display, for example by applying algorithms to the graph layout, importing maps, and so on. The tool is accessed from a TE Topology Interface Applet that displays the TE topology through a Java applet within the browser. Accessing the TE Topology Tool Page The TE Topology tool is accessed as follows: Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > TE Topology. The Topology Tool window in Figure 10-1 appears. Figure 10-1 Topology Tool For a detailed description of the Topology Tool page, see the Cisco IP Solution Center Infrastructure Reference, 5.1. Step 2 To start up the TE Topology tool, select ISC-TEM Topology Interface Applet. Using the TE Topology Interface Applet The TE Topology Interface Applet (Topology Applet) provides a means of visualizing the network and tunnels present in the network. The web-based GUI is the primary means of visualizing the network information. The Topology Applet simply augments the web-based GUI to provide you with a different presentation format. The features offered through the Topology Applet are: •TE Topology rendering •Highlighting of network elements •Tunnel overlay (unmanaged, primary, and backup) •Topology layout persistence •Integration with web page content. To access the Topology Applet, use the following steps: Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > Topology Tool. Step 2 Click ISC-TEM Topology Interface Applet. If the security certificate for the topology applet has not been accepted previously, you might get the following security warning window shown in Figure 10-2. Figure 10-2 Security Warning Step 3 Click Yes or Always to accept the authenticity of the security certificate. The Topology Display applet window in Figure 10-3 appears. Figure 10-3 Topology Display Applet in Unordered State After the nodes have been arranged to your liking, you might end up with a topology display similar to the one in Figure 10-4. Figure 10-4 Topology Display Applet with User-Arranged Topology Icons marked with red question marks signify devices unknown to ISC, for example non-Cisco devices. When activated with the Display button from another ISC function (tunnel management window, resource modification window, etc.), any selected devices are highlighted in the display. For an explanation of the various window elements in all the menus of the Topology Display, see Topology Display, page B-5. Displaying and Saving Layouts Use the two operations in the Repository menu, Layout Graph and Save Graph Layout, to display or save the current layout of the network graph. Prior to generating the graph layout, the coordinates must be set on each of the network devices. Otherwise, the graph will have a random layout. •Layout Graph—The graph is laid out from the repository. If a graph layout is already present, that layout is cleared once you click Yes in the Clear Graph Layout confirmation box. If the layout has not previously been saved, a random layout of the repository contents is drawn. If it has been saved previously, the saved layout is redrawn. •Save Graph Layout—Save the current graph layout. Doing so will ensure that whenever the graph layout is cleared with Layout Graph or the topology applet is closed, the same layout will be created when the applet is restarted. If a map was used, the map is also redrawn. Using Maps You can associate a map with each view. Currently, the topology viewer only supports maps in the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shape format. The following sections describe how to load maps and selectively view map layers and data associated with each map. The map features are accessed from the Map menu in the Topology window. To access the Map menu, use the following steps: Step 1 Choose Service Inventory > Inventory and Connection Manager > Traffic Engineering Management > TE Topology. Step 2 Start the ISC TM Topology Interface Applet. If link and node data for your network is already in the repository, a Progress Report lists the various network elements as the corresponding data is loaded. Step 3 Select the Map menu. The menu appears. From the Map menu, you can either load or clear (remove) maps as described in the following. Loading a Map You might want to set a background map showing the physical locations of the displayed devices. To load a map, use the following steps: Step 1 In the menu bar, select Map > Load. Providing the web map server is running, the Map Chooser window appears (see Figure 10-5). Figure 10-5 Map Chooser For an explanation of the various window elements, see Map, page B-8. Step 2 Make your selections in the Map Chooser window. The right-hand side of the window contains a small control panel, which allows you to select the projection in which a map is shown. A map projection is a projection which maps a sphere onto a plane. Typical projections are Mercator, Lambert, and Stereographic. For more information on projections, consult the Map Projections section of Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics at: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/MapProjections.html If desired, make changes to the settings in the Longitude Range and Latitude Range fields. Step 3 Select a map file and click Open to load the map. Selecting the map file and clicking the Open button starts loading it. Maps can consist of several components and thus a progress dialog is shown informing you which part of the map file is loaded. A map similar to the one in Figure 10-6 appears. Figure 10-6 Loaded Map Step 4 Use the various functions in the menus of the Topology Display window to manipulate the display contents in the Topology view. Some of these are described in subsequent sections. For a more complete description of the menu functions available, see Topology Display, page B-5. Adding New Maps You might need to add your own maps to the selection of maps available to the Topology Tool. This is done by placing a map file in the $ISC_HOME/resources/webserver/tomcat/webapps/ipsc-maps/data directory or a subdirectory thereof within the ISC installation. To make this example more accessible, assume that you wish to add a map of Toowong, a suburb of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. The first step to do so is to obtain maps from a map vendor. All maps must be in the ESRI shape file format (see ESRI shapefile technical description). In addition, a data file can accompany each shape file. Data files contain information about objects and the corresponding shapes are contained within the shape file. Let us assume that the vendor provided four files: •toowong_city.shp •toowong_city.dbf •toowong_street.shp •toowong_street.dbf We have to create a .map file that informs the TE Topology tool about layers of the map. In this case we have two layers: a city and a street layer. The map file, say, Toowong.map, would thus have the following contents: toowong_city toowong_street It lists all layers that create a map of Toowong. The order is important, as the first file forms the background layer, with other layers placed on top of the preceding layers. Having obtained shape and data files and having written the map file, place all five files in the $ISC_HOME/resources/webserver/tomcat/webapps/ipsc-maps/data directory. All map files must be located in this folder. After this is done, the map is automatically accessible to the topology viewer. Clearing Maps To clear the active map, select Map > Clear (see Figure 10-3). Use this feature to clear (remove) the active map to leave only nodes and links in the corresponding network. Using Highlighting and Attributes The Graph menu, shown in Figure 10-7, provides access to a range of tools to manage and manipulate graphs. Figure 10-7 Graph Menu For an explanation of the various menu items, see the following sections as well as Graph, page B-9. Use the JavaServer Pages to look at the list of nodes, links, and tunnels. From the JSP pages, select the display button at the bottom of the window to highlight elements. The tools in the Graph menu serve to modify the appearance of the topology. These are described in the following sections. Clear Highlighting Clear Highlighting serves to remove highlighting from specific elements as listed in its submenus. For a description of the individual entries, see Graph, page B-9. Add/Modify Attributes When you select Attributes from the Graph menu, the Graphic Attributes window in Figure 10-8 appears. Figure 10-8 Graphic Attributes The Add/Modify Attributes tool is used as follows: Step 1 Select graph elements (nodes/links) in the topology display. Use Ctrl/Shift to select multiple elements. Step 2 Choose Graph > Attributes to open the Graphic Attributes window. Step 3 Change the desired attributes and click Apply All. Note Only selected links (Step 1) are affected. Clear Current Graph Layout Use the Clear function in the Graph menu to remove the topology graph from the current view. Although this is also achieved with Layout Graph in the Repository menu, Layout Graph re-creates the graph last saved in the repository in addition to clearing the graph. Using AntiAlias, BackingStore, DoubleBuffer AntiAlias, found in the Graph menu, is used to create smoother lines and a more pleasant appearance at the expense of performance. BackingStore allows graphics content to be automatically saved when moved to the background and regenerated when returned to the foreground. This helps avoid superfluous refreshing. DoubleBuffer enables double buffering for dragging elements on the graph. Using Algorithms In the Algorithms menu, shown in Figure 10-9, various algorithms can be used to enhance and otherwise alter the graph layout. Note The algorithms only work when the nodes are interconnected with links. Spring is a graph layout algorithm that optimizes the graph layout based on weights. Randomize rearranges the nodes in the current topology layout at random. If there are overlapping links, the layout can be optimized by selecting Optimize Links. Figure 10-9 Algorithms Menu For further explanation of the Algorithms menu, see Algorithms, page B-11. The spring settings are used to enhance the appearance of the topology display according to user preferences. When selecting Spring Settings, the Spring Settings window in Figure 10-10 appears. Figure 10-10 Spring Settings For an explanation of the various fields in the Spring Settings window, see Algorithms, page B-11.
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