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Frequently Asked Questions for the |
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General Questions
1. What is the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool? The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool is a tool that reports on the year 2000 compliance of Cisco IOSŪ, CatalystŪ, or WAN switching software in a network, makes upgrade recommendations when appropriate, but does not take corrective actions. If a Cisco device is reported as needing a Cisco IOS, Catalyst, or WAN switching software update to become compliant, you should proceed to upgrade the device using the tools and procedures authorized by your organization. Please consult with your Cisco account manager to develop a migration plan, if necessary. The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool should be used in conjunction with your other year 2000 auditing efforts, including compliance assessment of applications, tools, servers, operating systems, and others. 2. How does the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool work? The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool allows you to automate both the task of collecting detailed inventory information from devices in your network and the process of reconciling that information with the Cisco online year 2000-compliance database. The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool uses an SNMP-based discovery engine to locate the Cisco devices in your network. It then determines the Cisco IOS, Catalyst, and WAN switching software running in each device. This information is automatically compared to the Cisco online compliance database on Cisco Connection Online (CCO). This requires a Web connection to CCO. You will have an up-to-date snapshot of your Cisco device year 2000 compliance status. Based on this reconciliation, the tool provides an easy-to-read report and provides upgrade recommendations. 3. How can I obtain the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool? Are CDs available to order? If so, what is the manufacturing part number?
CDs will not be available. The software can be found on CCO at:
4. I do not have a support contract so how can I get help?
A customer can choose several methods to contact Cisco for help. A customer can send e-mail to year2000@cisco.com. A customer who contacts Cisco by e-mail is then added to a Y2K information list. Customers wishing to contact Cisco by telephone can do so by calling +1-877-NETS-Y2K, or for international calls, +1-408-525-6270.
These new telephone numbers provide callers with three options:
1) Access Y2K Web information
2) Request fax of Y2K information
3) Voicemail for call dispatch to Y2K trained engineers around the world
Additionally, all existing Technical Assistance Center (TAC) numbers +1-800-553-2447 will have a special option for Y2K related questions.
5. How can I get notification that Cisco has provided an updated version of the CiscoY2K Compliance Assessment Tool?
Customers should periodically check the Cisco Year 2000 Compliance Web page to see if a newer version of the software exists.
6. Is there an upgrade path to CiscoWorks2000?
No, customers will need to order CW2000 separately.
7. Which devices does this tool support?
Check the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool release notes at:
8. How long will this product be supported?
No new features or enhancements will be added to this product. Ongoing bug fixes will be done until March 15, 2000. At that time, the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool will no longer be supported.
9. Which hardware platforms does this product run on?
The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool can be installed on a Solaris machine running 2.5.1 or 2.6 operating system as well as Windows NT 4.0 Server/Workstation.
10. What is the difference between the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool and the Y2K Router Checking Utility?
Both are listed on the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool page:
The Y2K Router Checking Utility is a Windows 95/NT application, which reports individual Cisco 1000 - 4700 series routers for Year 2000 Compliance. You will need your router's IP address and remote password and enter it manually in to the application. The Y2K Router Checking Utility is intended for use on small networks.
The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool is a Unix Solaris 2.5.1 or 2.6 and Windows NT 4.0 Server/Workstation application. The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool automatically discovers and reports on the Y2K status of Cisco IOS, Catalyst and WAN switching device software. The tool then determines the Cisco IOS, Catalyst and WAN switching software running in each device. This information is automatically compared via the Web connection with Cisco's online compliance database. You will have an up-to-date snapshot of your Cisco device year 2000 compliance status. Based on the reconciliation, the tool provides an easy-to-read report and provides upgrade recommendations. The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool is designed to scale and can be used on small to large networks.
Discovery questions
1. What causes a log in prompt to reappear even after I have successfully logged in already?
Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)--CDP is a proprietary protocol used by Cisco to find devices on a local segment. Each device running CDP periodically sends out CDP hello messages. Devices pick up each other's CDP hello messages and formulate a table of connected devices.
Ping Sweep with an IP Address Range--In this method the user provides the discovery engine with specific IP address ranges to discover (for example, 171.68.100.0 255.255.255.0). An additional feature provides the user the ability to discover the unique IP address ranges from a single device and then do a discovery on each of these address ranges.
Recursive Ping Sweep with a Starting IP Address--Using this method the user provides a single point for the start of discovery. The discovery engine finds all devices connected to the present device. This process is repeated recursively until the end of the network is reached.
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3. Why should I choose one discovery method over the other?
| Method | Bandwidth Used | Time To Complete | Comprehensiveness | Access Needed | Caveats |
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| 1. CDP | Least | Shortest time to completion | Least comprehensive | CDP and SNMP | CDP is in Cisco IOS 10.3 and above.
WAN switches do not support CDP. |
| 2. Ping Sweep with an IP Address Range Moderate | Moderate | Mid-point between methods 1 and 3 | As comprehensive as the user input | Ping and SNMP | Useful if the user knows the unique IP subnets in the network |
| 3. Recursive Ping Sweep with a Starting IP Address | Most | Longest of the three methods | Most comprehensive and complete solution | Ping and SNMP | Should be used for most complete results. May take a long time to complete |
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4. What are the boundary conditions to stop discovery?
Every discovery method has to be limited to run on devices in a specified domain on the network. Firewall access lists and incorrect SNMP strings are implicit boundary mechanisms to limit a discovery run. The software contains some explicit mechanisms to limit a discovery run. Input Filter Condition--This is a list of IP address global patterns (for example, 1.*.*.* or 10.12.1.*). First, the discovery engine starts a thread for every path in the network. If the input filter list is then specified for each path, every device on the path should contain an IP address in this input list in order for the discovery engine to go forward on that path. If the engine comes across a device that has none of its IP addresses in the input filter list, then discovery of further devices in that path stops. Exclude Filter Condition--This is the opposite of the input filter condition. In this case, the discovery engine does not move forward in the path if there is a device in the path which has an IP address that matches the addresses defined in the exclude filter list. Hop Count Boundary--This is the most utilized boundary condition. The discovery engine goes hop by hop only as far as the hop count limit. 5. Does discovery continue to run periodically or is it a one-time process? The discovery engine is a one-time start engine and is not periodic in nature. The user has a choice to start the engine at the desired discovery moment or schedule it to start in the future. The user can stop the discovery engine at any time. 6. What may cause the auto-discovery tool to miss devices, even after several attempts at running the auto-discovery?
The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool has a default setting that can be changed by the user depending on the link in the network with the lowest bandwidth capacity. The default setting is that discovery process will use 1-Mb per second maximum bit rate at any point in time in the discovery process. This way the user can make the discovery engine run as fast or as slow as desired. 8. What is the impact of having multiple community strings on the speed of discovery? Discovery uses community strings to determine whether or not the device supports SNMP. For each community string, discovery waits for the SNMP timeout to determine if the device supports that community. It then tries with another community string name. If you have specified three communities string names and the SNMP timeout is set for 5000 milliseconds, it is going to take 15000 milliseconds to ascertain that this device does not support SNMP. If you have one community string and the SNMP timeout is 5000 milliseconds, it will take 5000 milliseconds to ascertain that the device does not support SNMP. The more community strings you have configured in the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool, the longer it may take discovery to finish its process. 9. What happens if a device has been previously discovered? Will it be added to the inventory database again? The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool database features an additive collection algorithm so if the discovery process is run subsequent times, new devices will be added as they are detected. Cisco devices previously detected, but not redetected in subsequent discoveries will remain in the inventory database. 10. How do I know when discovery is complete?
11. If discovery has not found any devices, what can I check?
12. How many read community strings are supported in the Admin > Device Discovery > Community field? Five different read community strings can be entered. 13. Why is discovery taking so long when I use the Ping Sweep Starting IP Address method? In this method the user provides a single point for the start of discovery. The discovery engine finds all devices connected to the present device. This process is repeated recursively until the end of the network is reached as defined by the boundary conditions. 14. Can discovery cause some routers to crash?
On some routers, SNMP GetNext requests performed on the CISCO-CDP-MIB can cause the device to pause for an extended length of time. During this time, packets may not be forwarded by the router. This problem may only be seen with RSP4 images in Cisco IOS 11.1, 11.1CA, 11.2 and 11.2F (CSCdi69892). 16. Can discovery cause spurious access messages? Walking the CDP MIB may cause routers with many CDP neighbors to log spurious access messages. These messages do not indicate a serious problem. (CSCdj83870) 17. Why isn't discovery finding any WAN switching devices? A bug was found and it has been fixed in the 1.0.1 release. Please check Home > About Y2K Kit > Copyright and Versions from the tool to see what version of software you are running. You should be running version 1.0.1 or higher.
Inventory and Y2K Report Questions 1. Once discovery has completed, how do I run a year-2000 compliance report? Tasks > Inventory > Year 2000 report from the Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool. 2. What do I do if I run the Y2K report and I find I have noncompliant devices in my network? If a Cisco device is reported as needing a Cisco IOS, Catalyst, or WAN switching software update to become compliant, you should proceed to upgrade the device using the tools and procedures authorized by your organization. The Y2K Compliance Assessment Tool should be used in conjunction with your other year 2000 auditing efforts, such as compliance assessments of applications, tools, servers, operating systems, and others. 3. What inventory reports can I run to get more information about a particular Cisco device? Several reports are available in the Tasks > Inventory drawer
If the Year 2000 report does not display expected information, manually investigate the device and check for software versions. Compare this information to the Year 2000 web page for current compliance information. |