Chapter 1. Overview and System Requirements

Table Of Contents

Overview and System Requirements

Cisco BACBA Overview

Installation Overview

Complete Provisioning Installation Architecture

Distributed Installation Architecture

Broadband Access Center System Requirements

BACBA Server Requirements

Programming Environment Requirements

Oracle Database Requirements

Optional Components

Overview and System Requirements

This chapter provides an overview of the Cisco Broadband Access Center for Broadband Aggregation for Broadband Aggregation (BACBA) product and provides information about the system requirements that must be met prior to installing the BACBA software.

BACBA is a provisioning system that works in conjunction with CPEs and associated network elements (such as, aggregation devices, RADIUS server, ATM switches) to automate the provisioning of multi-service packages.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• "Cisco BACBA Overview" section

• "Installation Overview" section

– Complete Provisioning Installation Architecture

– Distributed Installation Architecture

• "Broadband Access Center System Requirements" section

Cisco BACBA Overview

This section describes the functions of the BACBA software.

The BACBA software:

•Enables network service providers to meet the provisioning challenges of deploying broadband voice and data services.

•Enables service providers to replace current labor-intensive and error-prone manual provisioning processes, thus supporting the mass-market deployment of broadband services.

•Automates the configuration of customer premises equipment (CPE), integrated access devices, aggregation and routing devices, and network resources such as IP address management.

•Ensures that network administrators follow the required sequence of operation and configuration to synchronize the network.

The base BACBA product can comprise the following components:

•BACBA server (requires an Oracle database):

Note The Oracle software is not included with the BACBA server. You must purchase the Oracle software and license separately. For performance reasons, the Oracle database must be installed on a separate machine from BACBA.

•Cisco CNS Access Registrar, Release 3.5.1 (optional and currently not supported)

•Cisco CNS Network Registrar, Release 6.1.0.1 (optional and currently not supported)

•Cisco Configuration Engine, Release 1.3.2.9 with SUN patch 112438

Installation Overview

You have the option of installing the BACBA product on:

•Single machine (referred to as the complete provisioning installation option)

•Multiple Configuration Engines

•Web servers

Complete Provisioning Installation Architecture

A complete provisioning BACBA installation architecture consists of two machines. You install all of the BACBA components on one machine, and, for performance reasons, install the Oracle Database server on a separate machine.

Distributed Installation Architecture

The distributed installation architectures allows you to install the Cisco Configuration Engine and Web server on the same or different machines. This option helps increase the performance of the BACBA servers. The following samples show distributed BACBA installation architectures.

Note The labels in the following diagrams display Config Engine (Configuration Engine).

Distributed BACBA Installation with Cisco Configuration Engine

When you select BACBA installation option 3, you install the Cisco Configuration Engine on one machine and the BACBA product on another.

Note A distributed installation assumes that you previously installed Oracle on a separate machine.

The Configuration Engine communicates with the BACBA machine and the Oracle server communicates with BACBA as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 Distributed BACBA Installation with Cisco Configuration Engine

Distributed BACBA Installation with BACBA Web Server and Cisco Configuration Engine

When you select BACBA installation option 3 and option 4, you install the BACBA Web server on one machine, the Configuration Engine on another and the BACBA product on another machine.

Note A distributed installation assumes that you previously installed Oracle on a separate machine.

The Configuration Engine and the BACBA Web server communicate with BACBA and the Oracle server communicates with BACBA servers as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2 Distributed BACBA Installation with the BACBA Web Server
and Cisco Configuration Engine

Distributed BACBA Installation with BACBA Web Server

When you select BACBA installation option 3 and option 4, you install the either Configuration Engine (3) or the BACBA Web server (4) on one machine.

The Configuration Engine and the BACBA Web server communicate with BACBA and the Oracle server communicates with BACBA servers as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 Distributed BACBA Installation with BACBA Web Server

Broadband Access Center System Requirements

To successfully install and subsequently use the BACBA software, you must ensure that the systems on which you plan on installing BACBA components meet the minimal system requirements as described in the following sections:

• "BACBA Server Requirements" section

• "Programming Environment Requirements" section

• "Oracle Database Requirements" section

• "Optional Components" section.

BACBA Server Requirements

You must meet the minimum configuration requirements described in this section if you plan on installing the complete BACBA server:

Up to 10,000 PVCs

In a small deployment with up to 10,000 permanent virtual connections (PVCs)

•Sun Fire 280R or equivalent running Solaris 8

Note For the required Solaris 8 patches, see "Solaris 8 Operating System Patches" section.

•CD-ROM drive

•2x900 MHz CPUs

•3 GB RAM

•30 GB disk space

•4 GB swap space

Up to 1,000,000 PVCs

For larger deployments with up to 1,000,000 PVCs:

•Sun Fire 280R or equivalent running Solaris 8

Note For the required Solaris 8 patches, see "Solaris 8 Operating System Patches" section.

•Separate Sun Fire 280R with 73 GB disk space for Oracle installation

•CD-ROM drive

•2x900 MHz CPUs

•8 GB RAM

•73 GBdisk space for BACBA server

Up to 3,000,000 PVCs

For very large deployments with up to 3,000,000 PVCs

•Sun Fire V880 or equivalent running Solaris 8

Note For the required Solaris 8 patches, see "Solaris 8 Operating System Patches" section.

•Sun Fire 280R Oracle server with 2 x 73 GB disk space for

•Sun Fire 280 to support up to 30 operators

Note You should install two additional Web UI servers on two separate machines. CDROM drive 1 per BAC server

•8 GB or more RAM

•73 GB disk space for BACBA server

•16 GB swap sapce for BACBA server

Solaris 8 Operating System Patches

To run BAC BA requires:

–Patch 112438, revision 01 or later

–Patch 108827, revision 12 or later

–Patch 108434, revision 08 or later

–Patch 108435, revision 08 or later

You may also apply any later patches that supersede those listed.

Programming Environment Requirements

•CORBA 2.1 compliant

•Integrated with IONA ASP 6.0 Service Pack 3 (Solaris 8, JDK 1.4 is recommended) and Orbix 2000

•TIBCO 6.4.8 for event notification

Oracle Database Requirements

The Oracle software is not included with the BACBA server. You must purchase the Oracle software and license separately. For performance reasons, the Oracle database must be installed on a separate machine from BACBA and the Cisco CNS Network Registrar server. The Oracle server and client database is integral to provisioning devices using the BACBA software. If the Oracle server is installed on a separate machine from the BACBA server, then the Oracle client must be installed on the BACBA server. However, setting up the Oracle database is outside the scope of this documentation.

In large or very large deployments, you must install the Oracle 8.1.7 server on a separate machine:

•For large deployments with up to 1,000,000 PVCs install Oracle on Sun Fire 280R or better running Solaris 8 with 73 GB disk space

•For very large deployments with up to 3,000,000 install Oracle on Sun Fire 280R or better running Solaris 8 with 2x73 GB disk space

Installing Oracle Before BACBA Installation

If you do not have Oracle installed, you must purchase the Oracle software and license separately, and during the Oracle installation process you must set up tablespace for the BACBA subscriber.

Step 1 Follow the Oracle 8i Installation Guide and then, while installing Oracle, select the Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition 8.1.7 and Typical (999 MB) installation options.

Step 2 Set up a database instance with an Oracle SID so that an Oracle client can access the Oracle server. In this case, the SID is BAC.

Step 3 To test your Oracle connection enter:

> sqlplus ccnsc/ccnsc@BAC

Step 4 Create a tablespace for the BACBA servers to use. See "Creating the Oracle Tablespace" section on page 2-3 and follow the steps.

For setting up the Oracle Server before BACBA installation, see "Setting Up the Oracle Server" section on page 2-2.

Note Before you install the BACBA software, the Oracle database must be installed and running.

Optional Components

The Broadband Access Center (BACBA) product integrates with external severs and applications. The distributed nature of this software allows you to make choices of services and technologies that you make available to subscribers. BACBA can contain the following components:

•Cisco Networking Services (CNS) Network Registrar 6.1.0.1—The Cisco Systems carrier-class DNS and DHCP application. BACBA currently does not support Cisco CNS Network Registrar.

•Cisco CNS Access Registrar 3.5.1—The Cisco RADIUS server (optional, provides CPE authentication functions). BACBA BACBA currently does not support Cisco CNS Access Registrar.

•Interlink Merit RADIUS server Release 5.1.3—The Subscriber Access Manager (SAM) is a CORBA server that supports an interface with RADIUS servers.

•Cisco CNS Configuration Engine Release 1.3.2.9—BACBA uses this product as a method for downloading configuration files. The Cisco Configuration Engine provides configuration file management and delivery functions. BACBA supports both the Linux and Solaris versions.

Note The Cisco Configuration Engine that BACBA is using supports SSH (Secure Shell protocol) 1.5/2.0. Secure Shell (SSH) is a server feature that provides a secure, encrypted remote connection to a router.

Note For more information about component installation, see "Cisco Networking Services Components"and component configuration, see Chapter 4, "Configuring the Cisco BACBA Software" in this guide.