Cisoworks LMS 3.1 vs Whats Up Gold

bill.farrell · ‎07-20-2009

Can I use Ciscoworks to monitor our network and send notifications like WUG does?

Marvin Rhoads · ‎07-20-2009

Perhaps.

The Device Fault Manager (DFM) component of CiscoWorks can be configured to send notifications.

However, if your network is comprised of multi-vendor equipment, CiscoWorks and its component applications does not generally provide any of that sort of rich functionality.

CiscoWorks is designed and intended to manage all-Cisco networks. It depends on a tight integration with the software of the managed devices and expects data in specific well-established formats and exploits protocols such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to provide a comprehensive view of your network.

CiscoWorks overview: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/netmgtsw/ps6504/ps6528/ps2425/data_sheet_c78-534877.html

DFM details: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/cscowork/ps2421/tsd_products_support_series_home.html

See specifically Chapter 5 of the DFM User Guide: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ciscoworks_device_fault_manager/3.2/user/guide/useNotif.html

Hope this helps. Please rate helpful posts.

bill.farrell · ‎07-20-2009

So I would be able to use DFM as an Unresponsive device notification system? Would it be advisable to change the polling time down to 30 seconds for this, would it affect the performance of works?

Marvin Rhoads · ‎07-20-2009

Yes. DFM's default polling interval is 4 minutes and it could be scaled down to 30 seconds.

As with all settings, I'm sure you could impact either the CiscoWorks server or the network devices with excessive polling. For instance, polling every device in a 2,000 device network every 30 seconds is probably too much :)

Start with the defaults, establish a performance baseline, and go from there.

You could also use alternative tools such as the Embedded Event Manager (EEM) in IOS to fire off alerts or log messages when certain thresholds or conditions occur.