The Cisco Smart Net Total Care™ portal is a valuable tool that provides inventory, contract, and product alert management with in-depth actionable information that is available to you at all times.

This document presents answers to the most frequently asked questions about the portal. Refer to one of these sections in order to view the associated questions and answers:

• General
• Administration and Management
• Inventory
• Contracts
• Alerts
• Security

General

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to general portal use.

How do I obtain access to the Smart Net Total Care portal?

In order to gain access to the Cisco Smart Net Total Care portal, visit the Cisco Services Connection.

If you are new to the Cisco Smart Net Total Care portal, you must first complete the onboarding process that is described in the Cisco Smart Net Total Care Portal Onboarding Guide. If you would like Cisco to help you with the onboarding process, you can purchase the Cisco Smart Assist Service.

Is there a schedule for portal maintenance or downtime?

There are usually new portal release updates every month. Maintenance normally occurs on weekends, which begins on Fridays at the end of the business day (based on US Pacific time) in order to minimize interruptions with your workflow.

Notifications are posted in the portal and in the Smart Net Total Care community each time so that you can plan accordingly. Click Follow in the Actions menu from the main page of the community in order to ensure that you can see these notifications.

How can I determine the devices that are supported by the portal?

You can use the Product ID Checker tool in order to discover the devices that are included in the portal reports.

How do I delete reports from the portal?

A user cannot delete reports from the portal.

Note: The reports that are listed under My Reports are kept on record for at least 72 hours, and then they are removed automatically from the list.

Can I troubleshoot portal issues on my own?

Yes. Refer to the Cisco Smart Net Total Care Portal Troubleshooting Guide in order to view possible issues that you might encounter and some recommendations for resolution.

Tip: We recommend that you refer to the troubleshooting guide before you post a new discussion in the support community, as the answer to your questions might already be available.

How do I get support for the portal or the Cisco Common Services Platform Collector?

After you complete the self-service onboarding procedure for the portal, you can refer to the Smart Net Total Care Portal Community in order to get support.

If you have a support contract, such as NLS1 or the Cisco Smart Assist Service, then you can open a support case with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Note: For device-level support, you can contact the Cisco TAC.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Technical Support for Smart Assist Customers video.

Administration and Management

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to portal administration and management.

How do I control access to different types of information in the portal?

If you are a customer administrator, you can grant or deny access to the product alerts and device configuration information, as well as the service coverage management and alert management capabilities.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Customer Administrator section of the Cisco Smart Net Total Care Portal Onboarding Guide.

How do I manage user access to inventory data through segments?

If you have customer administrator privileges, you can create segments and grant individual users access to the segments.

Tip: For more information refer to the Network Segmentation video or the Portal Roles and Access section of the Cisco Smart Net Total Care Portal Onboarding Guide.

How do I check my upload status?

In order to view your upload status, log into the Smart Net Total Care portal and select Administration > Upload Processing in the left navigation pane. The statuses for all of your uploads, along with the time that each started and completed, appear in the right pane.

This information appears regardless of upload origin (CSPC, third-party collectors, or comma-separated value (CSV) file uploads).

Tip: For more information, refer to the See Upload History video.

Inventory

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to inventory.

How do I obtain a complete list that includes all of my equipment?

Navigate to Inventory > Summary in order to generate a report that provides a high-level overview of your devices, along with the counts for the devices that are in each category.

For device details, navigate to Inventory > Custom Inventory in order to generate a report that shows you all of the items in your inventory. It also includes the devices that are recognized and those that are not recognized as Cisco devices.

In order to obtain a list with a single record per device, navigate to Inventory > All Equipment and generate the report. This view contains a limited number of attributes and returns only one line per device.

How do I check the EOL dates for my devices?

Navigate to Alerts > Devices with Alerts in order to generate a report that provides an alert count for each alert type, for every device in the selected inventories. This report lists all of the devices in rows and has columns that display the count of software End-of-Life (EoL) notices and hardware EoL notices. You can drill down on the count numbers in order to reach a list of the specific devices that are affected by the alerts.

The most comprehensive source for EoL information is the predefined Alerts report. In order to reach this report, navigate to Actions > Schedule Task > Product Alerts Report.

Can I remove an inventory from the portal?

Customer Admins and CBR Admins can remove inventories from the portal using the Inventory Deletion report available under Administration.

Here are some available actions that non-admins can complete:

• If you use the collector for inventory, then you can control the information that is collected via adjustments to the collector parameters.
• If you have a valid NLS1 or Smart Assist contract, then you can also submit a Cisco TAC case to the Smart Net Total Care portal team in order to request the deletion.

How can I view the details of devices that are included in more than one inventory?

Navigate to Inventory > Inventory Duplicates in order to generate a report that lists the details for the devices that are included in more than one inventory.

Can I change the name of a current inventory?

This capability is not supported at this time.

Can I change the display name of my account?

The registered company name that displays in the portal reports cannot be changed, but you can add a name that displays in all of the reports in addition to the registered name. Your customer administrator can select the Customer Display Name tab in Application Settings, and then edit the Display Name field.

Where can I find information about Last Day of Support?

This information is available as an attribute in several reports, but the quickest way to view this information is to navigate to Alerts > Last Day of Support. This report lists all of the devices (in the selected inventories) for which the published Last Date of Support (LDoS) of the device hardware is either within the next two years or past the date.

Where can I find the contract number that is associated with a specific device?

Navigate to Contracts > All Contracts in order to generate a  report that shows the comprehensive details for all of the service contracts, devices covered, and also the status of the contracts. Click the contract number in order to view a list that includes all of the devices in the inventory that are covered under that contract.

If you want to view the contract number for a specific device, then navigate to Inventory > Custom Inventory and ensure that the Contract Number attribute is displayed. If it is not, click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the frame. This displays the list of available attributes. Ensure that the Contract Number checkbox is checked.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Contract Details video.

Contracts

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to contracts.

What is the quickest way to discover the date that my contracts expire?

Navigate to Contracts > Expiring Contracts in order to generate a report that lists all of your contracts with expiration dates for the next 24 months.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Expiring Coverage video.

How do I check the support coverage status for a device?

Navigate to Contracts > Covered in order to generate a report that lists the devices, in the selected inventories, that are covered by one or more valid Cisco service contracts. Filter for the serial number (SN) of the device in question. If it is not found, then complete the same process in the Contracts > Not Covered report.

Navigate to Actions > Schedule Task > Contracts Management Report in order to generate a more robust report that includes details for all of the contracts, covered devices, uncovered devices, and more.

Note: The Inventory > Custom Inventory report also contains contract details.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Access Service Coverage Information, Coverage Gaps, and Contract Details videos.

What is the quickest way to find a specific contract number and the associated devices?

Navigate to Contracts > All Contracts in order to generate a report that lists all of the contracts that cover your collected inventory. From this report, you can find the contract in question, and then drill down in order to locate the devices that are covered by that contract.

Navigate to Inventory > Custom Inventory in order to generate a report, and then filter for the SN. Drill down on the SN until you reach the Equipment page, and then select Contracts.

What does it mean to be covered or not covered by support contracts?

Navigate to Contracts > Covered in order to generate a report that lists the devices, in the selected inventories, that are covered by one or more active Cisco service contracts. This can include Signed, Active, or Overdue contracts. Alternatively, the Contracts > Not Covered report lists the devices, in the selected inventories, that are not presently covered under a service contract.

How can the portal help me with service coverage management?

The Service Coverage Management video describes several ways that you can use the portal information in order to improve your service coverage.

Alerts

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to alerts.

How do I determine whether there are any product alerts for a device?

Navigate to Alerts > Devices with Alerts in order to generate a report that provides an alert count for each alert type, for every device in the selected inventories. You can use this report in order to filter for specific devices by IP address, SN, or other device attributes.

Tip: For more information, refer to the Identify Relevant Alerts, Alert Administration, and Alert Prioritization videos.

Security

This section provides answers to the most frequently asked questions in regards to security.

I have security concerns. Is the portal data secure?

Yes. The portal data is secure.

Tip: Refer to the Security and Cisco Smart Net Total Care Service whitepaper for more information.

What kind of security information does the portal provide me? How does Smart Net Total Care help keep my network secure?

The portal provides product security incident response team (PSIRT) information, which provides device-level security information. This helps you decide whether your devices have software vulnerabilities that should be addressed.