Plan files

A plan file consists of tables that describe network characteristics, including network topology, traffic, service classes, and routing protocols. In Cisco Crosswork Planning, each plan file represents one network.

Cisco Crosswork Planning discovery tools initially capture and store the network topology and routing information in plan files. These plan files are the basis of information displayed in and used by Cisco Crosswork Planning.

Plan files include this information:

• Network configurations

• Visual layouts

• IP/MPLS routes, including multicast and LSPs

• Measured traffic

• Estimated end-to-end traffic matrix

• Operational state of network objects

• Results of analyses, such as worst-case failure analysis results

There are two formats for plan files:

• The .pln format is compact and can be quickly loaded to and saved in the Cisco Crosswork Planning UI.

• The .txt format contains tab-delimited columns. You can create and edit these directly in a text editor or spreadsheet like Excel to apply bulk changes efficiently. In these plan files, each table is labeled with angle brackets, such as <Nodes> and <Sites>.

Cisco Crosswork Planning Design application uses the information from plan files to visualize underlying network models, which are then used to perform simulations.

Plan objects

An object is a representation of elements found in networks, such as nodes, sites, circuits, interfaces, LSPs, and so on. For example, a node represents a router in a network. A site is an object, and is a Cisco Crosswork Planning construct for simplifying the visualization of a network by grouping nodes within a site, or even by grouping sites within a site.

For more information, see Understand Plan Objects.

Design engines

The design engine is the core component that manages simulations and optimizations. It allows performing tasks interactively, either as synchronous or as asynchronous jobs. When you log in and open a plan file, an engine is assigned to your session, subject to engine availability. Once assigned, this engine handles all user real-time activities. You can open a maximum of three plan files simultaneously. Each plan file is maintained individually as a network model, with only one network model active at any given time. You can switch the active network model among all opened network models and all activities are applied to the active network model only.

• Engine spaces: Engines can be run in two spaces: user space and job space. Each space operates independently and uses only the resources assigned to it. Each engine runs on the same version of the image. However, depending on the space it operates in user space or job space, it operates in synchronous mode or asynchronous mode, respectively.

• Synchronous mode: When the Cisco Crosswork Planning engine operates in user space, it is in synchronous mode. It can handle user requests interactively and provide results in real-time.

• Asynchronous mode: When the Cisco Crosswork Planning engine operates in job space, it is in asynchronous mode. Depending on computation complexity, some operations may take longer time to complete. These operations are submitted as jobs and the engines running in job space process these job requests. These jobs run in the background without affecting the other user activities.

  In asynchronous mode, the engine processes every assigned task independently. After a job is complete, it saves the results as .tar files in the Job Manager. You can download and extract this .tar file, and then import the updated file into the user space.

For more information, see Design engine instances.

Patch files

A patch file is a compact way to represent the differences between plan files. These differences, or “patches”, can be applied to other plan files or deployed to the network. Patch files have a .plp format.

For information on creating and applying patches, see Create and Use Patch Files.