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Locating Users in the Network with User Tracking

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Table Of Contents

Locating Users in the Network with User Tracking

Starting and Navigating in User Tracking

Using User Tracking

User Tracking Concepts

Troubleshooting User Tracking

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the User Tracking discovery process differ from that of the ANI Server?

How does the ANI Server's user and host acquisition process work?

Why isn't User Tracking performing ping sweeps on some subnets?

Why are outdated entries showing up in my User Tracking table?

Why doesn't the IP phone display act like the User Tracking table?

How long does User Tracking maintain data?

Does User Tracking discover users and hosts connected to non-Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) discovered/managed devices?

How does User Tracking log errors?

Troubleshooting Suggestions


Locating Users in the Network with User Tracking


User Tracking allows you to locate end-user hosts and IP phones in the network. It uses information gathered from network devices to display data about users, hosts, and IP phones in the network.

Use User Tracking to:

Discover and display information about users, hosts, and IP phones in your network

Query for users, hosts, and IP phones

Modify, add, and delete username and notes in the main User Tracking table

Highlight devices on the Layer 2 view in Topology Services

View reports about duplicate IP addresses, duplicate MAC addresses, and duplicate MAC addresses and VLAN names

The following topics provide you with information about:

Starting and Navigating in User Tracking

Using User Tracking

User Tracking Concepts

Troubleshooting User Tracking

Starting and Navigating in User Tracking

From the CiscoWorks2000 desktop, select Campus Manager > User Tracking. The main User Tracking window appears (see Figure 3-1).

When you start User Tracking, the Startup dialog box appears. From this dialog box, you can choose to:

Show all users and hosts currently in the ANI database—this is the default choice.

Display a simple query dialog box.

Display a User Tracking table with no entries.

To change the default startup mode, select Edit > Preferences...

The User Tracking table displays discovery results and data about workstations, users, and hosts in the network. Refer to Table 3-1 for a description of the elements in the User Tracking window.

The User Tracking IP Phone table displays discovery results and provides data about IP phones registered with discovered Media Convergence Servers. The IP Phone table appears in a window separate from the main User Tracking window.

Figure 3-1 Main User Tracking Window

Table 3-1 User Tracking Window Elements 

Item
Description

Menu Bar

Contains User Tracking Commands

Tool Bar

Provides quick access to frequently used menu options

Main User Tracking Table

Contains fields providing details about end-user stations

Status Bar

Displays the number of entries in the User Tracking table or the status of the last action that was performed.

Double-clicking on the status light displays the Discovery Information dialog box, which tells you your ANI Server and User Tracking login status and the completion time of the last ANI Server and User Tracking discoveries.


Using User Tracking

Table 3-2 lists the main tasks that you can perform using User Tracking. All actions begin from the User Tracking main window, unless otherwise specified. For more information about each task, refer to the User Tracking online help.

Table 3-2 User Tracking Tasks 

Task
Purpose
Action

Enable or disable the Ping Sweep option.

Obtains the latest Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) information in routers and bridge table information in switches.

By default, the Ping Sweep option is enabled.

1. Select Edit > Preferences....

2. Select the Discovery tab.

3. Select the check box next to the Ping Sweep option to enable it. Deselect the check box to disable Ping Sweep.

Note Pinging large networks can be time-consuming.

Discover all users and hosts.

Discovers all users and hosts on the network and to update the ANI Server database.

1. Enable the Ping Sweep option to ensure that the most recent network information is discovered.

2. Select Actions > Discover All.

Discover IP phones.

Discovers IP phones registered with discovered Media Convergence Servers.

1. Enable the Ping Sweep option to ensure that the most recent network information is discovered.

2. Select Actions > Discover IP Phones.

Discover hosts in a subnet.

Initiates the User Tracking discovery process for a specific subnet. This is less time-consuming than rediscovering all users and hosts.

1. Enable the Ping Sweep option to ensure that the most recent network information is discovered.

2. Select Actions > Discover Subnet....

3. Enter the IP address or host name in the Hostname or IP Address field.

4. Enter the subnet mask in the Subnet Mask field.

5. Click Discover.

Discover hosts on a specific device.

Initiates the User Tracking discovery process for a specific device. This is less time-consuming than rediscovering all users and hosts.

1. Enable the Ping Sweep option to ensure that the most recent network information is discovered.

2. Select Actions > Discover Device....

3. Enter the IP address or device name in the Device Name or IP Address field.

4. Click Discover.

Display all users and hosts.

Displays all discovered users and hosts in the User Tracking database.

Select Query > Main Table Query > all.

Display IP phones in your network.

Displays IP phones in your network.

Select Query > IP Phone Table Query > all.

Display selected users and hosts with a simple query.

Displays only those entries that match your specified criteria.

1. Select Query > Simple Query....

2. Select the Main Table or Phone Table tab.

3. Specify up to three search criteria.

4. Choose either:

Match all of the following—to display only the entries that match all of the criteria.

Match any of the following—to display all entries that match at least one of the criteria.

5. To make your query case-sensitive, click the Match case check box.

6. Click Apply.

Create and save an advanced query.

Creates queries with complex search criteria and saves them.

You can also view, edit, and delete saved queries.

1. Select Query > Advanced Query....

2. Select the Main Table or Phone Table tab.

3. To create subqueries:

a. Click the Conditions tab.

b. Click Add.

c. Enter conditions as you would for a simple query.

4. To run the query, click Apply.

5. To save the query, enter a name in the Save Query as field and click Save.

To use a saved query, select Query and then the name of the query you want to run.

Customize the table format.

Customizes the User Tracking table or IP Phone Table to include only specific columns in a preferred order.

You can also view, rename, modify, and delete saved layouts.

1. Select Layout > Add Layout....

2. Select:

Main Table tab—to create a layout for the User Tracking main table.

IP Phone Table tab—to create a layout for the IP phone table.

3. To specify a column that you want to include, select the check box next to that column's name.

4. To alter the positions of a column relative to others, highlight a column name and use the blue arrows.

5. Save the layout by entering a name in the Save Layout as field and clicking Save.

To use a saved layout, select Layout, then Main Table Layout or IP Phone Table Layout, and then the name of your saved layout.

Find entries.

Searches for a specific entry or range of entries in the displayed User Tracking table or IP phone table.

1. Select Edit > Find in Table....

2. In the Find field, enter the string for the entry you want to locate.

3. Select the Main Table or IP Phone Table radio button.

4. Enter the appropriate settings in the From, Ignore Case, Match Cell, and By Row fields.

5. Click Next for the next match below the selected row or Previous for a match above the selected row.

Delete a selected entry.

Deletes a selected entry from the main User Tracking table.

1. Highlight the cells you want to clear by clicking and dragging the cursor over them, or by clicking the first and last consecutive cells while pressing Shift.

2. Select Edit > Clear.

To delete entire rows, select Edit > Delete Selected Rows. You can choose to delete selected entries from the main table, the IP phone table, or both.

3. To reverse the deletion, select Undo.

Delete old entries from the User Tracking table.

Delete entries for hosts that are not rediscovered in a major acquisition.

You can configure it to delete them once manually or automatically after every major acquisition.

1. Select Edit > Preferences.

2. Select the Delete tab. You can choose to delete entries from the main table, the IP phone table, or both.

3. Enter the number of days, hours, and minutes for entries you would like deleted in the Delete entries older than field.

4. If you would like to delete:

Immediately—select Delete Now.

After every major acquisition—select the Delete after every discovery check box.

Save User Tracking table changes to the ANI Server database.

Save changes to the ANI Server database.

When you make changes to the User Tracking table, the changes remain local to the session in which you are running User Tracking until you send the information to the ANI Server database.

Select FileSave Changes to Server.

Add Notes and Usenames to entries.

Allows you to add notes and usernames to entries in the main User Tracking table.

1. Click the table cell you want to modify.

2. Enter the text and press Enter.

Note The next time the ANI Server performs a discovery, the cells will be overwritten if the ANI Server discovers different information.

Export user data to a text file.

Saves information added to the UserName and Notes fields to a text file.

You can import this information if the data are overwritten.

1. Select File > Export.

2. Choose Main Table or IP Phone Table.

3. Select the directory that you want to export and enter a file name.

4. Click Save to close the Export dialog box and save the file.

Import data from a previously saved file.

Imports lost or deleted UserName and Notes fields from a previously exported file.

1. Select File > Import > Main Table.

2. Select the text file you want to import and click OK.

Note If the next discovery discovers different values, it overwrites the data.

Collect username information.

Configures the ANI Server to automatically acquire username information from UNIX, Windows NT, and Novell systems.

You can also add usernames and notes manually, but if the ANI Server discovers conflicting username information, it overwrites the database.

You must configure the ANI Server to acquire the information:

UNIX hosts—enable rusersd on the host.

Windows NT hosts—install the UTLite script on the NT Primary Domain Controllers.

Novell hosts—install the UTLite script on the Novell Server.

Refer to the ANI Server online help for information on these steps.

Start an application server.

Starts an application server. Please refer to the application server's manual for more information.

1. Select the workflow host in the User Tracking display.

2. Select Actions > Display Service Attributes.

Highlight a device on the Layer 2 view.

Highlights a selected device from User Tracking on the Layer 2 view in Topology Services.

1. Open the Layer 2 view in Topology Services. Refer to the Topology Services online help for more information.

2. Select an entry from the Device column in the User Tracking table.

Note If you select multiple entries, User Tracking uses the entry you selected first.

3. Select ActionsHighlight Devices on Map.

Display detail on a device with CiscoView.

Starts CiscoView to display details about a particular device.

1. Select the device in the User Tracking table.

Note If you attempt to start CiscoView for multiple devices by selecting more than one device, User Tracking uses the last selected device.

2. Select ActionsLaunch CiscoView.

Start a telnet session.

Starts a remote terminal connection on a device.

1. Select a device in the main User Tracking table by clicking anywhere in that row.

2. Select Actions > Telnet Device.

Display discovery statistics.

Displays statistics about the most recent discovery.

Statistics reported include the start time, end time, total number of hosts, total number of Media Convergence Servers, total number of IP phones, and number of duplicate MAC or IP addresses found.

Select Reports  > Discovery Statistics.

Find duplicate IP addresses.

Finds duplicate IP addresses.

Typically, each host should have its own, unique IP address. If two hosts have the same IP address, your network might not function correctly.

Select ReportsDuplicate IP.

Find duplicate MAC addresses.

Finds duplicate MAC addresses.

Typically, each host has its own, unique MAC address. If two hosts have the same MAC address in the same VTP domain and VLAN, you have a misconfiguration.

Select ReportsDuplicate MAC.

Find duplicate MAC addresses and VLAN names.

Finds duplicate MAC addresses and VLAN names.

Typically, each host has a unique MAC/VTP/VLAN combination. Multiple hosts with the same MAC address and VLAN name indicate a network problem.

Select ReportsDuplicate MAC & VLAN.

Find ports with multiple MAC addresses.

Finds ports with multiple MAC addresses (hubs).

Ports being shared by multiple hosts may not yield the best performance.

Select ReportsPorts with Multiple MAC.


User Tracking Concepts

User Tracking uses the user and host acquisition service module in the ANI Server to discover end-user nodes. IP phones are discovered by querying the Media Convergence Servers. Refer to the Getting Started with the CiscoWorks2000 Server guide or the ANI Server online help for more information about the ANI Server and user and host acquisition.

Troubleshooting User Tracking

Use the information in the following topics to help you troubleshoot User Tracking:

Frequently Asked Questions

Troubleshooting Suggestions

Frequently Asked Questions

Use the information in these sections to answer some of your common questions:

How does the User Tracking discovery process differ from that of the ANI Server?

How does the ANI Server's user and host acquisition process work?

Why isn't User Tracking performing ping sweeps on some subnets?

Why are outdated entries showing up in my User Tracking table?

How long does User Tracking maintain data?

Does User Tracking discover users and hosts connected to non-Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) discovered/managed devices?

How does User Tracking log errors?

How does the User Tracking discovery process differ from that of the ANI Server?

User Tracking is an ANI client application. The ANI Server provides several types of global discoveries, including:

Device and physical topology discovery, resulting in baseline network information such as device identity, module and port information, and physical topology. This type of discovery is required for logical, user, and path discovery.

User discovery, resulting in information about users and hosts on the network.

The ANI Server stores this information in the ANI database. User Tracking discovers the host and user information in the ANI database, correlates this information, and displays it in the User Tracking table.

Refer to the ANI Server online help for more information about the ANI discovery process.

How does the ANI Server's user and host acquisition process work?

Before collecting user and host information, the ANI Server first must complete a global discovery. During global discovery, the ANI Server generates a device list to determine which switches and routers it should look at to obtain MAC and IP address information.

With these device lists in place, the User Tracking service module of the ANI Server performs the following steps.

Process
Description

Performs Ping Sweeps

Pings every IP address on all known subnets, as long as you have ping sweeps enabled (the default). This process updates the switch and router tables before User Tracking reads those tables, ensuring that User Tracking displays the most recent information about users and hosts.

Obtains MAC addresses from switches

Reads the switch's bridge forwarding table. The bridge forwarding table provides the MAC addresses of end stations, and maps these MAC addresses to the switch port on which each workstation resides.

Obtains IP and MAC addresses from routers

Reads the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table in routers to obtain the IP and corresponding MAC addresses.

Obtains hostnames

Performs a Domain Name System (DNS) lookup to obtain the hostname for every IP address.

Obtains usernames

Attempts to locate the users currently logged in to the hosts and tries to obtain their username or login ID.

Records discovered information

Records the discovered information in the ANI database.


Refer to the ANI Server online help for further information about ANI Server discovery.

Why isn't User Tracking performing ping sweeps on some subnets?

The criterion for whether or not User Tracking performs ping sweeps on a subnet is the number of hosts in the subnet:

If a subnet has 256 or fewer hosts, User Tracking performs ping sweeps on that subnet.

If a subnet has more than 256 hosts, User Tracking does not perform ping sweeps on that subnet.

If ping sweeps are not performed, User Tracking still obtains information from the router and switch mapping tables during a discovery. Refer to the User Tracking online help for more information on ping sweep.

Why are outdated entries showing up in my User Tracking table?

Outdated entries result when:

A user or host is assigned to new VLAN/port/VTP domain.

A power failure occurred.

A workstation has been switched off or removed from the network.

User Tracking does not automatically delete outdated end-user host entries. To delete these entries:

Manually delete selected entries.

Schedule User Tracking to remove old entries.

Why doesn't the IP phone display act like the User Tracking table?

The IP phone table appears in a separate window from the window that displays the main User Tracking table. You cannot run any commands from this window. You can only run commands from the main User Tracking table. Refer to the User Tracking command reference for more information.

Also, the IP phone table and the main User Tracking table display different kinds of information. Refer to the User Tracking table and the User Tracking table for IP Phone data to see what kinds of information each table displays.

How long does User Tracking maintain data?

Indefinitely, until you delete the information.

Does User Tracking discover users and hosts connected to non-Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) discovered/managed devices?

User Tracking discovers all users and hosts in the network from the list of devices known to the ANI Server. Refer to Getting Started with the CiscoWorks2000 Server or the ANI Server online help for more information about ANI discovery.

How does User Tracking log errors?

User Tracking errors are logged in the ANI Server error log. Refer to Getting Started with the CiscoWorks2000 Server or the ANI Server online help for more information.

Troubleshooting Suggestions

Use the information in Table 3-3 to troubleshoot the User Tracking application.

Table 3-3 Troubleshooting User Tracking 

Symptom
Probable Cause
Possible Solution

User Tracking cannot discover any users or hosts, or

User Tracking cannot display any IP phones.

There may be no information in the ANI database. You must have valid ANI seed device(s) and run an ANI discovery prior to running a User Tracking discovery.

See the ANI Server online help for further information.

User Tracking cannot discover certain users or hosts.

The ANI Server might not have discovered one or more devices to which users and hosts are connected.

Check the CiscoWorks2000 topology for the missing devices, make sure that CDP and SNMP are enabled on the devices, rediscover these devices, and verify that they appear on the topology view.

User Tracking cannot discover certain IP phones.

The ANI Server might not have discovered the specific Media Convergence Server (MCS) that runs the instance of Cisco CallManager to which the IP phones are registered.

Check the CiscoWorks2000 topology for the missing MCS that runs the instance of Cisco CallManager to which the phones are registered. Make sure that Cisco CallManager is shown as a service running on the MCS shown in the topology view if it is discovered by the ANI Server.

Rediscover all IP phones.

User Tracking table is missing hostname, IP address, and subnet information for some hosts.

User Tracking is not finding the most recent network information. Network changes are not currently reflected in ARP information (routers) or bridge tables (switches).

Enable ping sweeps when User Tracking performs discovery. ping sweeps are enabled by default.

You made changes to the network and then ran User Tracking discovery, but the changes are not showing in the User Tracking display.

A complete ANI discovery has not finished since you added your changes.

Try running a complete ANI Server discovery.

Reload data from the ANI Server by selecting Query > Reload Data.

User Tracking discovery is not a full network discovery; it only discovers the user and host data in your network.

Changes that you make to your network might not appear after a User Tracking discovery.



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