- Preface
- Broadband Access Center Overview
- Broadband Access Center Architecture
- Configuration Workflows
- CPE Provisioning Overview
- Configuration Templates Management
- DOCSIS Configuration
- PacketCable Voice Configuration
- CableHome Configuration
- Managing Broadband Access Center
- Monitoring Broadband Access Center
- Understanding the Administrator User Interface
- Using the Administrator User Interface
- Configuring Broadband Access Center
- Support Tools and Advanced Concepts
- Database Management
- Troubleshooting Broadband Access Center
- Alert and Error Messages
- Option Support
- PacketCable DHCP Options to BAC Properties Mapping
- Provisioning API Use Cases
- FAQs on Provisioning Broadband Access Center
- Glossary
- Index
Managing Broadband Access Center
This chapter describes the various subcomponents within Broadband Access Center (BAC) that you can use to manage the system. These include:
BAC Process Watchdog
The BAC process watchdog is an administrative agent that monitors the runtime health of all BAC processes. This process watchdog ensures that if a process stops unexpectedly, it is automatically restarted. One instance of the BAC process watchdog runs on every system that runs BAC components.
You can use the BAC process watchdog as a command-line tool to start, stop, restart, and determine the status of any monitored processes.
If a monitored application fails, it is restarted automatically. If, for any reason, the restart process also fails, the BAC process watchdog server waits a prescribed length of time before trying to restart.
Note 
You do not have to use the BAC process watchdog and the SNMP agent to monitor the extensions that are installed on Cisco Network Registrar.
The period between restart attempts starts at 1 second and increases exponentially with every subsequent attempt until it reaches a length of 5 minutes. After that, the process restart is attempted at 5-minute intervals until successful. Five minutes after a successful restart, the period is automatically reset to 1 second again.
For example:
1. Process A fails.
2. The BAC process watchdog server attempts to restart it and the first restart fails.
3. The BAC process watchdog server waits 2 seconds and attempts to restart the process and the second restart fails.
4. The BAC process watchdog server waits 4 seconds and attempts to restart the process and the third restart fails.
5. The BAC process watchdog server waits 16 seconds and attempts to restart the process.
Using the BAC Process Watchdog from the Command Line
The BAC process watchdog automatically starts whenever the system boots up. Consequently, this watchdog also starts those BAC system components installed on the same system. You can control the BAC watchdog through a simple command-line utility by running the /etc/init.d/bprAgent command.
Table 9-1 describes the command-line interface (CLI) commands available for use with the BAC process watchdog.
Note When the Solaris operating system is rebooted, the BAC process watchdog is first stopped, allowing BAC servers to shut down properly. To shut down or reboot the operating system, use the Solaris shutdown command. Remember, the Solaris reboot command does not execute application shutdown hooks and kills BAC processes rather than shutting them down. While this action is not harmful to BAC, it may delay server startup and skew certain statistics and performance counters.
The events that trigger an action in the BAC watchdog daemon, including process crashes and restarts, are logged in a log file, BPR_HOME/agent/logs/agent.log. The watchdog daemon also logs important events to syslog under the standard local6 facility.
Administrator User Interface
The BAC administrator user interface is a web-based application for central management of the BAC system. You can use this system to:
•Configure global defaults
•Define custom properties
•Add, modify, and delete Class of Service
•Add, modify, and delete DHCP Criteria
•Add, modify, and delete devices
•Add and edit device information
•Group devices
•View server status and server logs
•Manage users
Refer to these chapters for specific instructions on how to use this interface:
•Chapter 11, "Understanding the Administrator User Interface," describes how to access and configure the BAC administrator user interface.
•Chapter 12, "Using the Administrator User Interface," provides instructions for performing administrative activities involving the monitoring of various BAC components.
•Chapter 13, "Configuring Broadband Access Center," describes tasks that you perform to configure BAC.
Command-Line Interface
The BAC CLI is an IOS-like command-line interface that you use to configure and view the status of the DPE by using Telnet or SSH. The CLI supports built-in command help and command autocompletion.
You can enable authentication of the CLI through a locally configured login and privileged passwords, or through a remote username and password for a TACACS+ service.
To access the DPE CLI, open a Telnet session to port 2323 from a local or remote host.
Accessing the DPE CLI from a Local Host
To access the CLI from a local host, you can use:
# telnet local_hostname 2323
or
# telnet 0 2323
Accessing the DPE CLI from a Remote Host
To access the CLI from a remote host, enter:
# telnet remote-hostname 2323
Note If you cannot establish a Telnet connection to the CLI, the CLI server might not be running. You may need to start the server; enter:
# /etc/init.d/bprAgent start cli
After you access the CLI, you must enter the DPE password to continue. The default login and privileged passwords are changeme.
See the Cisco Broadband Access Center DPE CLI Reference 4.0 for specific information on the CLI commands that a DPE supports.
SNMP Agent
BAC provides basic SNMP v2-based monitoring of the RDU and DPE servers. The BAC SNMP agents support SNMP informs and traps, collectively called notifications. You can configure the SNMP agent on the DPE using snmp-server CLI commands, and on the RDU using the SNMP configuration command-line tool.
For additional information on the SNMP configuration command-line tool, see Using the snmpAgentCfgUtil.sh Tool, page 10-10. For additional information on the DPE CLI, refer to the Cisco Broadband Access Center DPE CLI Reference 4.0.
BAC Tools
BAC provides automated tools that you use to perform certain functions more efficiently.
Table 9-2 lists the various tools that this BAC release supports.
Feedback