Cisco OnPlus Technical FAQ

jiyeung · ‎12-05-2011

Questions

Account Set Up

How can I add other users to my Cisco OnPlus account?

Record Creation

No questions have been added yet.

Activation and Installation

Will I need one Cisco ON100 Network Agent for each customer site?
What are the differences between the PLG1000 and ON100?
How can I restore the factory defaults on the PLG1000 and ON100?
What outbound ports do I need to open for the OnPlus service to communicate?
What inbound ports need to be opened for the OnPlus service to communicate?

Device Support, Discovery & Credentials

Why can’t I see details about all the devices on my network?
Does OnPlus support multiple VLANs and Subnets at a site?
What if my device does not appear on the list of support devices for Cisco OnPlus?
Can devices be manually entered into OnPlus if they were not found during the discovery process?
Can I manually manipulate the topology view once devices have been discovered?
What do you see if there is an unmanaged switch in the network and/or data path? A customer may have a desktop switch to split out a couple ports for a local net printer and his PC.
Will OnPlus discover devices through tunnels? Can devices that are connected via a VPN connection be discovered when connected to network?
Can OnPlus use Windows Management Instrumentation to gather additional data on Microsoft Windows based servers and workstations?
I have entered the correct credentials for my ASA55XX in OnPlus, but it is still not being recognized.

Remote Connectivity

No questions have been added yet.

Enhanced Features (Firmware, Back Ups)

No questions have been added yet.

Monitors

How often is my host checked when I setup the host up/down monitor?

Notifications

I have entered my SMS email address within the notification delivery contacts in the OnPlus portal but I have not received any notifications to my phone. Is there an issue?

Reports

In my event history report, I have noticed a high number of informational events. Is OnPlus alerting me to a network issue?

Mobile

I'm getting an error with the Cisco OnPlus mobile application indicating that my username and password could not be verified. I can however login to the OnPlus portal (www.cisco-onplus.com).

Third Party Integration

What is NTOP?
Will Cisco OnPlus integrate with any professional service automation (PSA) tools?

Account Setup

How can I add other users to my Cisco OnPlus account?

You can invite other agents (users) with CCO IDs through the 'Agent' tab on the OnPlus portal. You can get more information on adding agents in the OnPlus Portal User guide under the 'Adding & Managing Authorized Agents' section.

Activation and Installation

Will I need one Cisco ON100 Network Agent for each customer site?

Yes. One Cisco ON100 Network Agent will be needed per customer site. In the event that the customer site no longer needs the Cisco OnPlus Service, the respective Cisco ON100 can be repurposed for a different customer.

What are the differences between the PLG1000 and ON100?

The PLG1000 was used for the Cisco OnPlus beta and has since been replaced with the Cisco ON100 Network Agent as the OnPlus service went to production. The PLG1000 operates similarly to the ON100 as far as activating and logging into the device.

In addition to a different form factor, the Cisco ON100 Network also has a higher performance CPU, an additional monitoring port, and supports power from PoE sources.

How can I restore the factory defaults on the PLG1000 and ON100?

To restore the factory defaults on the ON100, hold the physical reset button for 15 seconds (watch for the dual flashing red LEDs) or more to remove all customer-specific data from the device. Upon performing a factory reset, you can re-activate the OnPlus Network Agent.

If you've lost the customer information for the PLG1000, or need to factory reset the device in order to associate it to a customer on the beta portal (onplusbeta.com), you will need to format a USB key (any size key, MSDOS FAT-16 or 32) and place a file on the key called RESTORE.TXT (case and contents of the file do not matter).

With the network cable plugged in, power up the PLG1000 with the key already inserted. Once the PLG1000 obtains an IP address via dhcp, it will run through a process and stop with the Blue LED flashing (2seconds flashing, 3 seconds off). When the Blue LED is flashing, the device can be power cycled to pull the latest activation load (Failsafe) or it can be powered off to leave it ready for the next deployment.

What outbound ports do I need to open for the OnPlus service to communicate?

The OnPlus service will need for the following outbound ports to be open:

Port 53 UDP (DNS)
Port 80 TCP (HTTP)
Port 123 UDP (NTP)
Port 443 TCP (HTTPS)
Port 11300 TCP (OnPlus heartbeat)

For enhanced OnPlus functionality, the following outbound ports will also need to be opened:

Port 14931 UDP (WAN Network Performance monitoring via the OnPlus Network Agent)
11400 TCP (Remote device connections)

What inbound ports need to be opened for the OnPlus service to communicate?

No inbound ports to the ON100 will need to be opened. All connectivity will be sourced from the ON100 to the OnPlus service.

Device Support, Discovery, and Credentials

Why can’t I see details about all the devices on my network?

Cisco OnPlus uses several discovery protocols to find devices on the network. In some instances, the networking device has not provided any form of service announcement and OnPlus can only identify a minimal amount of information (such as IP Address, NIC OUI Vendor, etc.). In such cases where devices are not discovered, the user can manually add and describe the device in the topology.

It is also important for the user to input login credentials and manually select the correct device driver if it was not automatically selected. The OnPlus service will use this information to also discover additional details and devices on the topology.

Does OnPlus support multiple VLANs and Subnets at a site?

OnPlus ON100 Network Agent can discover devices that are on the same VLAN/subnet as itself and also devices on other VLAN/subnets if the ON100 Network Agent has access to a supported platform that has visibility into the other VLAN/subnets. More specifically, OnPlus relies on the IP-MAC association, such as the one provided by an ARP table in a router or a layer-3 switch, to build out the topology.

Before a device can be recognized, OnPlus must have a MAC address to uniquely identify the device. The IP address, as provided by CDP for example, is also essential, but it is the IP-MAC association, as provided by an ARP table for example in a router or a layer-3 switch, that is key to the discovery process. OnPlus automatically gathers the ARP information for all the devices that are on the same VLAN or subnet as itself. However, for other VLANs and subnets, OnPlus must have access to a device that can report ARP information for those subnets and enable inter-VLAN routing. Switches generally do not operate at Layer 3 and so do not keep IP/MAC associations and so typically the device that can provide the necessary information is a router.

For a listing of currently supported Cisco routers and switches, please see the link below:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-17501

Also, additional information on best practices for device discovery can be found on the support community page linked below:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-17579

What if my device does not appear on the list of support devices for Cisco OnPlus?

If you have a network device that is not on the list for supported devices, but supports SNMP, you can also try to manually assign the 'Generic Managed Switch, SNMP v2/3' or the ‘Generic Managed Router, SNMP v2/3’ device driver. Please make sure to populate the SNMP settings in the 'SNMP Access' tab once you have selected this driver.

Can devices be manually entered into OnPlus if they were not found during the discovery process?

Yes, you can manually add devices on the OnPlus portal for any device that the Cisco ON100 Network Agent did not discover. These devices can be represented on the topology through this capability. Additional data (MAC, IP addressing, device drivers, etc.) may be needed for monitoring and management of the device.

For additional data on manually adding devices, please review the “Viewing Customer Networks” section of the Cisco OnPlus Portal User Guide.

Can I manually manipulate the topology view once devices have been discovered?

Yes, you can manually assign the parent and child relationships in the tree view of the topology. Devices can be reassigned as the root or moved under the tree of another device.

For additional information on manually manipulating the topology, please review the “Using the Network Toplogy View” section under the “Viewing Customer Networks” chapter of the Cisco OnPLus Portal User Guide.

What do you see if there is an unmanaged switch in the network and/or data path? A customer may have a desktop switch to split out a couple ports for a local net printer and his PC.

Cisco OnPlus would not discover the switch as it is not a routable element on the network. Unless the switch is manually added, you would not see the switch represented in the topology within the OnPlus portal.

Will OnPlus discover devices through tunnels? Can devices that are connected via a VPN connection be discovered when connected to network?

The ON100 Agent will discover any device in the same IP address space. It has the ability to discover additional devices on other subnets with supported Cisco platforms or through using SNMP. Device credentials and SNMP information will be required for proper discovery. Discovery across VPN subnets are not currently supported.

Can OnPlus use Windows Management Instrumentation to gather additional data on Microsoft Windows based servers and workstations?

The Cisco OnPlus service can read and monitor certain WMI variables on a WMI-enabled Windows PC. The service does not handle OS upgrades or patch management, but the Cisco OnPlus team is looking at additional integration with remote monitoring and management tools in the future.

For additional details on the enabling and monitoring of WMI variables within OnPlus, please browse through the following documentation:

Creating a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Monitor

I have entered the correct credentials for my ASA55XX in OnPlus, but it is still not being recognized.

Some users have encountered issues with the credentials they use to login to their ASA55xx. Because of the way we perform authentication, if you have any special characters (outside normal letters and digits) in your username or password, the ASA authentication fails currently. This has been addressed in a new release that should be pushed out to the main portal in a few weeks. If this is the case and would like to test with a simpler password, you can follow the directions below to change/correct the credentials for the device.

On the device driver page, disable the selected device driver by opening the drop-down and navigating all the way to the top of the list
Go to the Login Access page, and check the "Delete Existing Credentials" checkbox.
Apply the changes, and wait one minute.
Now go back, enter your correct (new) login credentials, select the correct device driver, then click Apply.

Also, the network agent accesses the ASA5505 through https, so you do have to also make sure you have that enabled and it should be accessible through the network segment that the ON100 is connected into.

Monitors

How often is my host checked when I setup the host up/down monitor?

The Cisco ON100 Network Agent will using a series of pings (5 packets, spaced 80ms apart) to determine the state of the host. This test is routinely performed every 5 minutes, but will be rechecked every 1 minute upon any failure state.

Notifications

I have entered my SMS email address within the notification delivery contacts in the OnPlus portal but I have not received any notifications to my phone. Is there an issue?

In order to get SMS messages about events happening on your network, Notfication rules need to be created or OnPlus to send SMS messages to your mobile device. To do this, go to the 'Notifications > Delivery Rules' menu on your main page, and create a notification rule, under which you'd put in the information you'd like to get notified about - customer, event type, contact method etc.

Reports

In my event history report, I have noticed a high number of informational events. Is OnPlus alerting me to a network issue?

Informational events are classified as the lowest severity (severity 6) event. These events are strictly informational and do not signify issues with the network in most cases. Events such as network topology discovery events can trigger these informational notices.

Mobile

I'm getting an error with the Cisco OnPlus mobile application indicating that my username and password could not be verified. I can however login to the OnPlus portal (www.cisco-onplus.com).

The IOS and Android mobile applications are currently in beta and are currently only available to users of the beta portal (https://www.onplusbeta.com). The mobile application will be accessible to users of the main portal in the near future when it is released.

Third Party Integration

What is NTOP?

NTOP is a network traffic probe that shows network usage. Cisco OnPlus allows for the ON100 to collect network data to use with NTOP for further analysis. Trending, traffic analysis, and usage data can be gathered from NTOP.

For further information, please reference the link below:

NTOP Packeting Monitoring via the OnPlus Portal

Will Cisco OnPlus integrate with any professional service automation (PSA) tools?

Cisco OnPlus will provide connectors to two Professional Service Automation tools (PSAs): Connectwise and Autotask. The Cisco OnPlus team is continually working towards enhanced integration with both of the aforementioned PSA tools. In the future additional third party services may be accessible and activated through Cisco OnPlus.

For further information, please reference the link below:

Integrating OnPlus with ConnectWise or Autotask Service Desk Ticketing

suretec06 · ‎03-26-2012

Hi,

Can you manage SPAXXX IP phones with these?

Thanks.

http://www.surevoip.co.uk