Cisco Prime Optical Installation Guide, 10.5

Server Specifications

The following tables show recommended hardware specifications for installing the Prime Optical server, and the resulting maximum number of Network Elements (NEs) the server manages for each configuration.

If the Prime Optical server and Oracle database are installed on separate workstations, both workstations must meet the hardware requirements shown in the following tables. Table 2-3 lists the minimum processor requirements.

Note It is possible to use and configure disk arrays for database storage with any type of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) layout. You can do so only if the disk throughput is equal to or higher than the throughput calculated for internal disks.

Cisco tests the simulated network configurations listed in Table 2-4. Your setup and performance might vary depending on the size of your network and the usage pattern of management tasks.

The following list describes the server configuration parameters and the effect of changes in each parameter on the maximum number of NEs the server can manage:

• Network Size—If the network size increases, more resources are reserved for the higher number of NEs to be managed.
• RAM—The server can manage more NEs as the RAM increases. The server can manage fewer NEs as the RAM decreases.
• Number of Network Partitions—For each network partition, the server reserves resources for the higher number of NEs to be managed. The server can manage more NEs as the number of network partitions increases. The server can manage fewer NEs as the number of network partitions decreases.

Disk Space and Partition Specifications

The following tables show disk space and partition requirements for optical NEs based on network size and performance management (PM) data collection status.

• The minimum disk space is the total space required for /, swap, /cisco, /oracle, /db01, /db02, /db03, /db04, and /db05. (The minimum disk space does not include /ctm_backup or the optional partitions /db01_rd and /db02_rd.)
• The maximum disk space is the total space required for /, swap, /cisco, /oracle, /db01, /db02, /db03, /db04, /db05, /db01_rd, /db02_rd, and /ctm_backup.

Note ● We recommend that you use the partition sizes described in this section. Prime Optical performance degrades if you do not use the recommended partition sizes.

• To improve database performance and maximize data input/output, configure a dedicated disk array with the following setup:

– Dynamic multipathing (DMP) to parallelize the file system access.

– Raid 0 (striping) to optimize the disk input data.

• Prime Optical is a high-transaction application, which causes high I/O throughput for Oracle redo logs. We recommend that you reserve dedicated system controllers for file systems—including the optional /db01_rd and /db02_rd file systems—that manage redo logs.

Caution For large and high-end networks, if you do not follow the preceding disk striping recommendations, the I/O might create a critical bottleneck and cause an unexpected Prime Optical shutdown.

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Note the following PM assumptions for optical NEs:

• In a small network, PM data collection assumes 30 days of storage for PM data collected across 200 NEs, assuming an average of 200 interfaces per NE, up to a maximum of 40,000 interfaces (includes logical and physical interfaces).
• In a medium network, PM data collection assumes 30 days of storage for PM data collected across 500 NEs, assuming an average of 100 interfaces per NE, up to a maximum of 40,000 interfaces (includes logical and physical interfaces).
• In a large network, PM data collection assumes 30 days of storage for PM data collected across 2000 NEs, assuming an average of 100 interfaces per NE, up to a maximum of 200,000 interfaces (includes logical and physical interfaces).
• In a high-end network, PM data collection assumes 30 days of storage for PM data collected across 5000 NEs, assuming an average of 100 interfaces per NE, up to a maximum of 500,000 interfaces (includes logical and physical interfaces).

Ctm_backup Directory Size

The ctm_backup directory is a repository used by the oracle user to back up the following categories of information:

• Prime Optical database backup and export dump.
• Configuration files.
• Database ARCHIVELOG files.

The oracle user must have read/write permissions to avoid a database backup failure. The database could block if ARCHIVELOG files are not moved to the /ctm_backup directory.

We recommend that the /ctm_backup size be equivalent to the sum of the single database partitions (that is, the sum of /oracle, /db01, /db02, /db03, /db04, /db05, and—if configured—/db01_rd and /db02_rd).

Note ● The final /ctm_backup size is also related to the ARCHIVELOG files.

• The /ctm_backup directory can be a symbolic link to a user-defined directory and must have read/write permissions.

VMware Support

Prime Optical can run on a virtual machine (VM) on VMware vSphere version 5.5 or 6.0. VM RAM, disk and partitioning requirements must comply with the same requirements for a nonvirtualized setup based on system size.

Prime Optical is also delivered as a virtual appliance for medium size installation. See Installing the Prime Optical Virtual Appliance for more information.

Note VM performance can be affected if there are multiple VMs running on the same host. Consult your system administrator on the VMware configuration and requirements needed for your Prime Optical installation. Depending on the load, it may require a dedicated server or a virtualized one. See the VMware vSphere documentation for performance guidelines.

When installing Prime Optical on a virtual machine, do the following:

Step 1 Assign RAM as listed in Table 2-4 .

Step 2 Follow disk space and partition requirements as listed in Disk Space and Partition Specifications.

Step 3 Configure VM vCPU settings. Refer to VMware vSphere documentation for performance guidelines on vCPU settings.

As a general guideline, we suggest you configure two vCPUs for every 500 nodes. This is based on a UCS C210 M2 machine, with a dual-socket, multicore 2.93GHz processor in a medium network Prime Optical setup during Cisco internal validation.

Step 4 Confirm that the /etc/hosts file exists inside the guest OS of the VM and that the hostname (with and without a domain) is associated to the proper IP address and not to the loopback IP 127.0.0.0.

Example of a correct entry in the /etc/hosts file:

Example of an incorrect entry in the /etc/hosts file:

where the hostname vm-rh-01 is associated to the loopback address 127.0.0.1.

Note The file can be wrong if the VM OS was installed without network connectivity.

Ports and Protocols

Figure 2-1 illustrates the classification of communication ports and protocols used in Prime Optical.

Figure 2-1 Classification of Prime Optical Communications

See Table 2-10 for a description of each type of communication port and protocol.

Client-Server Communication Ports and Protocols

Prime Optical uses the following protocols for client-server communication (Figure 2-2):

• Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)—Object Management Group’s open, vendor-independent architecture and infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over networks.
• Java Management Object and Configuration Object (JMOCO)—Cisco-proprietary, TCP/IP-based request/response protocol.
• Telnet—A standard Internet protocol that provides terminal emulation using the TCP/IP protocols.

Figure 2-2 Client-Server Communication

Inbound ports are for operations initiated by the Prime Optical client and then directed to the Prime Optical server. Outbound ports are for operations initiated by the Prime Optical server and then directed to the Prime Optical client.

See Table 2-11 for client-server port and protocol information:

Client-Database Communication Ports and Protocols

The Prime Optical client establishes connections with the database using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), the industry standard for database-independent connectivity between Java programming languages and databases. The Prime Optical client uses JDBC to communicate directly with the Prime Optical database, independently from the Prime Optical server.

See Table 2-12 for client-database port and protocol information:

Client-NE Communication Ports and Protocols

The Prime Optical client can launch Cisco Transport Controller (CTC) and Cisco Edge Craft (CEC) as external applications. The ports and protocols used by these application are detailed in their end-user documentation.

OSS CORBA Client Communication (Northbound) Ports and Protocols

Figure 2-3 shows the port and protocol communication between the OSS CORBA Client and Prime Optical server.

Figure 2-3 Prime Optical Server-OSS CORBA Communication

Table 2-13 lists the ports and protocols used for communication between the Prime Optical server workstation and the OSS CORBA client workstation.

Server-Database Communication Ports and Protocols

The Prime Server clients establish database connections using the following protocols (Figure 2-4):

• JDBC—Enables connectivity between Java programming languages and databases.
• SSH—Enables the Prime Optical server to execute commands on the database workstation.

Figure 2-4 Prime Optical Server Client-Database Communication

Table 2-14 lists the ports and protocols used for communication between the Prime Optical server and database.

Loopback Connections (Server to Server) Ports and Protocols

The Prime Optical server establishes the internal connections listed in the following table. Although operating system commands (for example, netstat) show services listening on these ports, they do not need to be opened on a firewall because there is no incoming connection on these ports from other hosts.

The following table lists the ports and protocols used for loopback connections.

Southbound Communication Ports and Protocols

The following tables list the ports that the Prime Optical server uses to communicate with NEs (Figure 2-5).

• CTC-Based NE Ports (without ML cards)
• CTC-Based NE Ports (with ML cards)
• Cisco ONS 15216 Ports
• Cisco ONS 15305 Ports (non-CTC-Based)
• Cisco CTC-Based ONS 15305 R3.0 Ports

Figure 2-5 Server-NE Communication

Inbound ports are for operations initiated by the node and then directed to the Prime Optical server. Outbound ports are for operations initiated by the Prime Optical server and then directed to the node.

The following table lists CTC-based NE ports without Multi-Layer (ML) cards.

The following table lists CTC-based NE ports with ML cards.

Note The ports and protocols listed in Table 2-17 are used in addition to the ones listed in the previous table.

Table 2-18 lists Cisco ONS 15216 ports.

Table 2-19 lists Cisco ONS 15305 (non-CTC-based) ports.

Table 2-20 lists Cisco ONS 15305(CTC-based) ports.

TCP Ports for SOCKS Proxy Server

Table 2-21 lists the TCP ports to use in a sockets network proxy protocol (SOCKS) server configuration. This information is helpful when setting up a firewall routing table.

Remote Application Software with the Prime Optical Client

Client launch and operation are supported by the following remote application software:

• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Terminal Services.
• Citrix Presentation Server 4.0.

The hardware requirements for the remote application depend on the number of clients that the system must export, calculated with the following formula:

Target RAM = base RAM + (delta RAM x number of clients)

Target CPU = base CPU + (delta CPU x number of clients)

where:

• base RAM—Amount of RAM required by the remote application software.
• base CPU—Amount of CPU required by the remote application software.
• delta RAM—Amount of RAM required for each additional client.
• delta CPU—Amount of CPU required for each additional client.

Citrix and Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

The following figure shows the environment for a remote Citrix Presentation Server or Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server. In this example, the GUI application server and the presentation server reside on the same workstation.

Figure 2-6 Remote Citrix or Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server Environment

In this example, the hardware requirements for 10 clients are:

• CPU = base CPU + (240 MHz x 10)
• RAM = base RAM + (512 MB x 10)

Note For the base RAM and base CPU requirements, refer to the documentation for:

• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Terminal Services
• Citrix Presentation Server 4.0

Oracle Enterprise Edition

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (EE) provides improved scalability performance. The two major features in this release are:

• The Oracle partitioning option
• An increased maximum number of supported CPUs

Note Oracle EE requires a separate license.

Prime Optical with Oracle EE Calculation (Example A)

A service provider has 800 NEs and a data center with 10 Prime Optical client workstations. 100 employees in the data center are authorized to use the Prime Optical client. Some of the employees in the data center share the same Prime Optical account (username/password). Prime Optical is running on a Sun V880 with 8 processors, with only one core and 32 GB of RAM.

• Named User Plus: 1) Minimum = 8 processors x 25 users/processor = 200 or 2) Count = 800 licenses for NEs + 100 licenses for data center personnel + 1 Prime Optical server = 901

Result: 901 Named User Plus licenses are required

• Processor: 8 processor licenses

If the processors are UltraSPARC IV and IV+ (dual core), the calculation for processor licensing is:

• Processor: (8 x 2) x 0.75 = 12 processor licenses

Prime Optical with Oracle EE Calculation (Example B)

The same service provider as in the previous example decides to enable Prime Optical GateWay/CORBA and connect to a higher-layer OSS that handles inventory management. There are 20 employees in the data center authorized to access the inventory system; 5 of them are also Prime Optical users (that is, they are a subset of the 100 Prime Optical users identified in the previous example). In this case, the total number of users are:

95 Prime Optical-only users + 15 inventory system-only users + 5 Prime Optical/inventory system users or 115 users.

As a result of adding the OSS and related users, the total number of named users increases from 901 to 916.