Cisco Network Assistant User Manual
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
Version 5.4
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Text Part Number: OL-6194-07
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Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
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CONTENTS
Preface v
Audience i-v
Purpose i-v
Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request i-v
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
1 What Is Network Assistant? 1-1
2 Network Assistant Features 2-1
Front Panel View 2-2
Topology View 2-3
Menu Bar, Toolbar, and Feature Bar 2-4
Menu Bar 2-4
Toolbar 2-5
Feature Bar 2-6
Network Assistant Modes 2-8
Wizards 2-9
Smartports 2-9
Privilege Levels 2-9
Updates for Network Assistant 2-9
Online Help 2-10
3 Installing Cisco Network Assistant 3-1
CHAPTER
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Installing Network Assistant 3-1
Starting Network Assistant 3-1
Connecting to Network Assistant 3-2
Event Notification 3-3
4 Planning and Creating Communities 4-1
Planning a Community 4-1
Candidate and Member Characteristics 4-1
Community Device Limit 4-2
Automatic Discovery of Candidates and Members 4-2
Community Names 4-2
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
iii
Contents
Hostnames 4-2
Passwords 4-3
Communication Protocols 4-3
Community Information 4-3
Creating a Community 4-3
Discovering and Adding Devices 4-3
Manually Adding Members 4-4
Converting a Cluster to a Community 4-4
Verifying a Community 4-4
APPENDIX
I
NDEX
A Configuring a Catalyst 4500 Series Switch for Network Assistant Management A-1
Network Assistant-Related Features and Their Defaults A-1
Configuring Your Switch for Network Assistant A-2
Minimum Configuration to Access Catalyst 4500 from Network Assistant A-2
Additional Configuration Required to Manage a Community A-3
Additional Configuration Required to Manage a Cluster A-3
iv
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Audience
Purpose
Preface
This guide is for system administrators, network managers, and other users who want to manage standalone
network devices and device groups through a GUI. It presents Cisco Network Assistant, known as Network
Assistant, as a solution.
The purpose of this guide is to give users information to start using Network Assistant. It consists of
these chapters:
• Introduction—What Network Assistant is and what it does.
• Network Assistant Features—How to use Network Assistant to manage devices and networks.
• Installing Network Assistant—How to install Network Assistant on your workstation, start it, and
connect it to a network device.
• Planning and Creating Communities—The concepts and procedures for planning and creating
communities by using Network Assistant. The concept of clusters is supported for backward
compatibility.
Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request
For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional
information, see the monthly What’s
revised Cisco
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
Subscribe to the What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation as a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed
and set content to be delivered directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free
service and Cisco currently supports RSS
technical documentation, at:
New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and
Ve r si o n 2.0.
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Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
v
vi
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CHAPTER
1
What Is Network Assistant?
Network Assistant is an application that you can use to manage standalone devices and device
groups—communities and clusters—from anywhere in your intranet. You can perform multiple
configuration tasks without using command-line interface (CLI) commands. You can also apply actions
to multiple devices and ports at the same time for VLAN and quality of service (QoS) settings, inventory
and statistics reports, link and device monitoring, software upgrades, and many other networking
features.
Network Assistant graphical user interface (GUI) provides these views:
• Topology view—shows devices that are in a community, a cluster, or that are eligible to join the
community or cluster, link information between devices, and other connected clusters.
• Front-panel view—allows you to monitor the real-time status of the devices and perform many
configuration tasks. The devices and port LEDs in the view look like the physical devices and the
port LEDs.
A community is a device group that can contain up to 40 connected network devices. Network Assistant
uses the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) automatic discovery capability to find eligible network devices
and to add them to a community. When a network device is added to a community, it becomes a member
device. Network Assistant manages, configures, and monitors each member on an individual basis. Each
member must have an IP address assigned to it.
Most Cisco network devices that have IP addresses, such as routers, switches, and access points, can
belong to a community. For a specific list of network devices, see the release notes. For information on
community limitations, see the
“Community Device Limit” section on page 4-2.
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You can create a community to manage Cisco cluster-capable devices as well as noncluster-capable
devices in the same logical group, regardless of their physical locations and the software installed on the
devices.With Network Assistant you can create, modify, delete, and manage multiple communities.
A cluster is a device group that can contain up to 16 connected network devices, but they have to be
cluster-capable Catalyst devices. The devices belong exclusively to one cluster; they do not participate
in other clusters. You assign an IP address to a device that will become the command device. The IP
address of the command device is the single point of access that Network Assistant uses to configure,
manage, and monitor the command device and the member devices.
A community offers these benefits that a cluster does not:
• Communities can manage routers, access points, and switches. Clusters can only manage switches.
• The device limit for communities is 40, but the device limit for clusters is 16.
• Network Assistant can communicate securely with every member in a community. In a cluster,
Network Assistant communicates with member devices through the command device, but the
communication is secure only between Network Assistant and the command device. It is not secure
from the command device to member devices.
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
1-1
Chapter 1 What Is Network Assistant?
• If a community member fails, Network Assistant can continue to manage the other members. If a
cluster command device fails, Network Assistant cannot manage the other members of the cluster
unless a cluster standby device has been configured.
• Communities have fewer restrictions than clusters about where members are located and how they
are connected to each other. For more information on cluster member restrictions, see the online
help.
• If candidate devices do not have CDP enabled, you can still create a community and manually add
the devices. Clusters cannot be created unless CDP is enabled on all the candidate devices.
Network Assistant features include front panel and topology views of device groups. See Chapter 2,
“Network Assistant Features,” for more information.
For information on setting up communities, see Chapter 4, “Planning and Creating Communities.”
For information on setting up device clusters, see Chapter 4, “Planning and Creating Clusters” of the
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant document, version 1.0.
1-2
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CHAPTER
2
Network Assistant Features
Network Assistant simplifies the management of communities or clusters by offering a GUI, alternative
modes for configuring network devices, two levels of access, and comprehensive online help.
shows the main features of the GUI.
Figure 2-1
Figure 2-1 Network Assistant GUI
3
1
2
4
200761
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1 Toolbar 3 Topology view
2 Feature bar 4 Front Panel view
These sections describe the Network Assistant features:
• Front Panel View, page 2-2
• Topology View, page 2-3
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
2-1
Front Panel View
• Menu Bar, Toolbar, and Feature Bar, page 2-4
• Network Assistant Modes, page 2-8
• Wizards, page 2-9
• Smartports, page 2-9
• Privilege Levels, page 2-9
• Updates for Network Assistant, page 2-9
• Online Help, page 2-10
Front Panel View
When Network Assistant connects to a community or a cluster, you can display the Front Panel view of
your device by clicking the Front Panel on the toolbar or by choosing Monitor > View > Front Panel
on the feature bar. If the device belongs to a community, you see all of the devices that were selected the
last time that the front panel view appeared for that community. If the device is a cluster, you see the
cluster members that were selected the last time that the view was displayed.
Chapter 2 Network Assistant Features
By using the Front Panel view, you can
• Drag and re-arrange the devices that appear.
• Select and configure the devices.
• Right-click a port and configure it.
• Select multiple ports, on the same device or on different devices, and configure the ports at the same
time.
Figure 2-2 shows a community with these members: Catalyst 4948, 3750, 3560, 3550, 2960, 2955, and
2950 switches and a Catalyst Express 500 switch.
2-2
Getting Started with Cisco Network Assistant
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