Table Of Contents
Q & A
Q & A
Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager
Q. 
What is the Cisco® Info Center VPN Policy Manager?
A. The Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager is a software module that bridges Cisco Info Center with Cisco IP Solution Center to use collected fault information and correlate it to the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based VPNs that the event affects. This information is then used to manage service-level agreements (SLAs) with customers or internal business units. The Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager also generates customer network managed (CNM) views that the user can display in GUIs such as Motif or Microsoft Windows desktops, or as Web-based dashboard views.
Q. Is the core Cisco Info Center required for the Cisco VPN Policy Manager?
A. Yes. The Cisco VPN Policy Manager is a module of the Cisco Info Center suite. It requires the core Cisco Info Server to collect the events, and pass them through to the Cisco VPN Policy Manager for correlation with the Cisco IP Solution Center.
Q. How is the Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager licensed?
A. The Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager is licensed as a one-time charge per server and a one-time charge per customer edge (CE). The CE license tier follows that of the Cisco IP Solution Center to keep the two products synchronized.
Q. Can I create Customer Network Managed views using the Cisco Info Center and the Cisco VPN Policy Manager?
A. Absolutely, customer network managed (CNM) views are a basic feature of the Cisco Info Center and the Cisco VPN Policy Manager. Using the VPN Policy Manager's key fields, Customer Network Managed views are easily created. The views are displayed on Motif or Microsoft Windows desktops or as Web-based dashboards.
Q. Can I use the Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager with other provisioning applications?
A. No. The Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager works only with the Cisco IP Solution Center. Cisco Systems® introduced application programming interfaces (APIs) to the Cisco IP Solution Center and the Cisco VPN Policy Manager as a way to integrate the two network management products.
Q. What versions of the Cisco IP Solution Center and Cisco VPN Solution Center do Cisco Info Center and the Cisco VPN Policy Manager support?
A. Cisco has produced the Cisco VPN Policy Manager for a long time, so it supports several versions. These include the Cisco VPN Solution Center 2.1, 2.1., and 2.2.1, and Cisco IP Solution Center 3.0 and 3.1.
Q. How does the Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager work?
A. The Cisco Info Center suite includes the Cisco VPN Policy Manager as a module. The module uses events, summarized by the Info Server, to trigger policies. The Info Server collects events from the provider edge (PE) devices, but doesn't receive events from the customer edge devices, nor has visibility into how the provider edge faults affect different VPNs and customers. The Cisco VPN Policy Manager uses key fields from the PE event to complete a real-time query to the Cisco IP Solution Center and display 1) the CEs connected to the PE devices, 2) the VPNs operating along those CEs, 3) the customers operating along those VPNs.
Q. Does the Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager correlate IP Security (IPSec)-based VPN events?
A. No. At this time the Cisco VPN Policy Manager works with MPLS VPN events only.
Q. Does Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manager require its own server?
A. Not necessarily. The Cisco VPN Policy Manager may co-reside with the Cisco Info Server, but depending on the size or number of VPN customers, the user may want to dedicate a server for the processing efforts.
Q. What's new in the Cisco Info Center VPN Policy Manger 3.1?
A. The new features include tighter integration with the Cisco IP Solution Center through new APIs that result in faster and multiple-level correlation, including device, interface, and subinterface. The Cisco Info Center also uses MPLS troubleshooting tools in Cisco IOS® Software. The tools launch from the Info Desktop to support the network operations center in troubleshooting and diagnosis.
