Using the APPN Application

However, the APPN application needs IP addresses or device names so that it can manage the APPN routers using SNMP. APPN uses its discovery process to correlate the APPN names with the IP addresses or device names.

Starting APPN

You can start the APPN application from the workstation system prompt, from a remote workstation, or from a network management system, such as NetView for AIX.

Note Before you can display APPN resources, you must have access to a network topology agent that collects and stores the information. A network topology agent is an APPN network node that provides information about the backbone APPN network. If a network topology agent is not provided, see your network administrator.

You can start APPN in one of the following ways:

Use the cwb start appn command from the system prompt, as described in the section "Starting APPN from the System Prompt."
Use the cwb start appn command from a remote workstation, as described in the section "Starting APPN from a Remote Workstation."
Start APPN from a network management system, as described in the section "Starting the APPN Application from a Network Management System."

Starting APPN from the System Prompt

You can start APPN from any valid user account. The installation process establishes a sample default user account named cwblue. The user cwblue does not have a starting password. The user cwblue does not have a starting password. You can either assign a password to cwblue or log in as root and change to cwblue.

To start the APPN Maps application from a workstation system prompt, enter these commands:

cd /opt/CSCOcb/bin

./cwb start appn [-f devicename [-r read_community_string]] [-v] [-h]

Where:

-f devicename specifies the host name or IP address of an APPN node to be used as the network topology agent.

-r read_community_string specifies the read community string for the router specified by devicename. APPN uses the read_community_string value when communicating with an APPN node. If you do not enter a read community string, the APPN application uses the default read community string specified in the cwbinit file or, if there is not one there, the default string "public."

-v displays version information.

-h displays online help.

Starting APPN from a Remote Workstation

You can log in to a remote UNIX host from your own local UNIX workstation, export the remote host display to your local workstation, and then run the application from the remote host. To start the remote host's APPN application from your local workstation, use the following procedure:

Step 1 At your local UNIX workstation, enter the following command:

xhost +

Step 2 Log in to the remote UNIX host.

Step 3 Set your DISPLAY environment variable to export the display from the remote host to your local workstation. Depending on which shell you are using, use one of these commands:

From the K shell (ksh):

setenv DISPLAY

export DISPLAY=IP_address:0.0

From the C shell (csh) or TC shell (tcsh):

setenv DISPLAY IP_address:0.0

Step 4 To start APPN, enter the following commands:

cd /opt/CSCOcb/bin
./

cwb start appn [-f devicename [-r read_community_string]] [-v]

Where:

-f devicename specifies the host name or IP address of an APPN node to be used as the network topology agent. APPN displays a global view at startup. For the name of a network topology agent, see your network administrator.

-r read_community_string specifies the read community string for the router specified by devicename. APPN uses the read_community_string value when communicating with APPN nodes. If you do not enter this value, the program uses the default read community string "public," unless another default string is specified in the cwbinit file.

-v displays version information.

Starting the APPN Application from a Network Management System

To start APPN from a network management system:

On SunNet Manager select Tools>CWB-APPN from the menu bar.
On HP-OV and NetView for AIX select CWBlue>APPN from the menu bar.

Starting APPN with No Options

If you start APPN from NetView, or if you do not enter any options with the cwb start appn command, the APPN application looks in its preferences file, $CWBROOT/etc/cwbinit, for the control point (CP) name, or for an IP address or device name (and read community string) of a network topology agent. If a network topology agent is not specified in the cwbinit file, APPN displays the APPN Startup Query window, shown in Figure 6-1, which prompts you to identify a network topology agent.

Figure 6-1: APPN Startup Query Window

Use the APPN Startup Query window to select a network node to be the APPN topology agent. For the name of a network topology agent, see your network administrator.

Locating Nodes on the APPN Map

This section describes how to locate and select nodes on the APPN map.

Locating a Node

There are two methods for locating a node on the APPN map:

If you know the CP name, the IP address, or the host name of the node, you can select View>Locate from the menu bar.
If you do not know the CP name, the IP address, or the host name of the node, you can use the Locator window.

Locating a Node Using the View Menu

To locate a node from the View menu you must know the node's CP name, IP address, or host name. Then use the following procedure:

Step 1 Select View>Locate from the APPN menu bar.

Step 2 Select either By CP Name or By IP Address or Device Name.

Step 3 Enter the CP name, IP address, or host name of an APPN node.

If you enter a CP name, specify the APPN control point name in NETID.CPNAME format.
If you enter a device name, you must have first correlated the device name with the CP name. If you want to locate a device by its device name, that name must be in either the seed file or the network management database. There is no domain-name lookup provided.
If you enter an IP address, it can be any IP address configured on the device.

Step 4 Click Locate.

APPN displays the portion of the map that contains the selected device and highlights the device.

Displaying the APPN Popup Menu Items

Each icon on the APPN map has an associated popup menu. To activate the menu, click the icon with the right mouse button. Table 6-1 lists the popup menus associated with the APPN map icons.

**Table 6-1: Popup Menus on the APPN Map**
Icon	Popup Menu Items
Network Node, End node, Host node, or LEN node	Information---Displays information about the selected node, including the device type, the node type, and the node's capability information. List LUs---Lists the LUs associated with the selected node. For network nodes, lists LUs in this domain. For end nodes and LEN nodes, lists the LUs associated with this node. Get Directory---Queries the selected node to compile a directory of LUs. Get Local Topology---Gets the connection and port information, the DLUR information (including PUs), and adjacent node information from the selected network node. Show Adjacent Nodes---Displays the nodes adjacent to the selected node. Ports and Links---Displays the ports on the selected node and shows the links from the ports to adjacent nodes. Telnet---Starts a Telnet client.
Port	Port Info---Displays information about the selected port, including the port name and status, the data-link control type, and the MAC and SAP addresses.
Link	Link Info---Displays information about the selected link, including the link name, CP names at either end of the link, link addresses, and link capacities.
Virtual routing node	Information---Displays information about the selected node, including the device and node types, and capability information. Show Adjacent Nodes---Displays the nodes adjacent to the selected node. Telnet---Starts a Telnet client.

Viewing the Network Devices

The APPN map presents a global (high-level) view of the applicable network devices and an up-to-date view of the APPN-enabled network nodes and their status and the transmission groups that connect them. From the APPN menu bar, select View to display the available views of the network map. You can display the following views:

Global view---Described in the section "Displaying the Global View of the Network."
Adjacent nodes view---Described in the section "Viewing Adjacent Nodes."
Ports and links view---Described in the section "Viewing Ports and Links."

Displaying the Global View of the Network

The global view is displayed when you start the APPN application. To display the global view at another time, select View>Global from the APPN menu bar. The global view is displayed, as shown in Figure 6-2.

The global view displays devices and connections from the APPN network topology database as viewed from the network topology agent. The global view shows the network nodes and virtual routing nodes and the transmission groups (TGs) between them. The TGs are aggregated so that one line between two nodes represents one or more TGs between the nodes.

If a node has unknown status, APPN has determined that the network topology agent is not getting updates about that node. This problem may be caused by inactive TGs or no CP-CP sessions to carry the updates.

The global view is updated as new information is available from the network topology agent, subject to the polling interval (defined by the nettopopoll parameter in the cwbinit file).

Figure 6-2: Global View of an APPN Network with Locator Window

Viewing a Connection

To view information about the connections between the nodes, use the following procedure from the global view (Figure 6-2):

Step 1 From the APPN global view, point to a TG (the line that connects the two nodes).

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select one of the following items from the popup menu:

Aggregate TG Info displays information about the aggregated TG.
List TGs and Links displays a list of the individual TGs and links that are represented by the aggregated TG. The list of links in the lower part of the window is associated with the TG that is highlighted in the upper part of the window.

Step 4 Select Info from the popup menu to display details about the TG or link that you selected.

Viewing Network Node Information

To view network node information, use the following procedure:

Step 1 Point to a node.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Information.

APPN displays information about that node, including its CP name, device type, and node type, as shown in Figure 6-3.

Figure 6-3: Network Node Information Window

Viewing Supported LUs

To view the supported LUs, you must first collect directory information from the network. Use the following procedure to collect directory information and display LUs.

Step 1 Select a network node.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Get Directory from the popup menu.

Step 4 Press the right mouse button again.

Step 5 Select List LUs from the popup menu. The List LUs window displays a list of LU names that are supported by the selected network node. For each LU in the list, APPN displays the control point where the LU resides, the network node server, and the LU's directory type.

Viewing Adjacent Nodes

To view adjacent nodes, use the following procedure:

Step 1 From the APPN global view, point to a node.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Show Adjacent Nodes.

The adjacent nodes view shows a subset of the APPN network that includes the following nodes:

Those network nodes that are one hop away from the selected node
APPN end nodes and LEN nodes, connected to the selected node, if the selected node's IP address is known and if local topology is collected

Note If the APPN application does not know the IP address and read community string of the APPN node that you selected, it will prompt you to enter this information.

Viewing Ports and Links

To view the ports and links information, use the following procedure:

Step 1 Point to a node.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Ports and Links.

The ports and links view, shown in Figure 6-4, is a view of all the logical ports on the selected node and the links from those ports to adjacent nodes. Each adjacent node is displayed with its network ID (NETID) and control point name (CPNAME) in the format NETID.CPNAME.

Figure 6-4: Ports and Links View

If there is an inactive link and the node does not have the adjacent CP name defined, APPN displays the node with the text "link=linkname" in place of the node's APPN name, as shown in Figure 6-5.

Figure 6-5: Unknown Node

This label indicates that the link is inactive and the destination node of the link is not known to the selected APPN node.

The quotation mark (?) indicates that the node's name is also not known. The text "link=linkname" indicates the link between the known APPN node and the unknown node.

The ports and links view can depict the following port types:

Ethernet
Token Ring
Synchronous Data-Link Control (SDLC)
Other ports, including DLSw, Frame Relay, and RSRB

Viewing Port Information

To display detailed information about a port on a network node, use the following procedure:

Step 1 From the ports and links view, select a port icon.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Port Info.

The APPN application displays the port information window, shown in Figure 6-6, which includes the port name, port state, data-link control (DLC) type, and line type.

Figure 6-6: Port Information Window

Viewing Link Information

To display detailed information about link, use the following procedure:

Step 1 From the ports and links view, select a link icon.

Step 2 Press the right mouse button.

Step 3 Select Link Info.

The APPN application displays the Link Information window, as shown in Figure 6-7.

Figure 6-7: Link Information Window

Viewing PUs and LUs

This section describes how to use the Tools menu to view PUs and LUs in the APPN network. APPN collects the PU information from the DLUR MIB on the router, and it collects LU information from the directory table in the APPN MIB.

Viewing PUs from the Tools Menu

You can select Tools>PU from the menu bar to configure filtering criteria for use in searching the database for PUs. To locate PUs from the Tools menu, use the following procedure:

Step 1 From the Map application's menu bar, select Tools>PU. The PU Filter window is displayed (Figure 6-8).

Figure 6-8: PU Filter Window

Step 2 In the PU Filter window, select one of the following methods for filtering the PU names:

By Selected Info filters the list based on the PU name, Dependent LU Requester (DLUR) name, Dependent LU Server (DLUS) name, PU state, and DLUR------DLUS session state. For more information about filtering PUs, see the section "Filtering the PU List."
Get all PUs creates a list of all PUs in the domain.

Step 3 Click Apply. The PU List window is displayed, showing the PU names, filtered as you requested. The PU List window (Figure 6-9).

Figure 6-9: PU List Window

The PU List window displays the DLUR name, the DLUS name, and the DLUR-DLUS session state for each PU.

Filtering the PU List

When you select Tools>PU from the menu bar, the APPN application displays the PU Filter window to let you configure a filter for use in selecting the PUs to display. You can get all PUs, or you can configure the filter to select PUs based on applied criteria. You can filter the names in the PU List based on the PU name, DLUR name, DLUS name, PU state, and DLUR-DLUS session state.

Getting all PUs

To display all PUs, select Get All PUs to display a PU List that contains all PU names in the network.

Filtering PUs by PU Name

To display PUs based on their PU names, enter all or part of a PU name in the form NAME. You can use a wildcard, such as PU*, to display a list of PU names that all begin with the same characters. The PU List will contain PUs whose PU names match the filter criteria.

Filtering PUs by DLUR Name

To display PUs based on the DLUR name, enter all or part of a DLUR name. You can also use wildcards in this name. The PU List will contain PUs whose DLUR names satisfy the filter criteria.

Filtering PUs by DLUS Name

To display PUs based on the DLUS name, enter all or part of a DLUS name. You can also use wildcards in this name. The PU List will contain PUs whose DLUS names satisfy the filter criteria.

Filtering PUs by PU State

To display PUs based on their PU state, select one or more PU states. The PU List window will contain the names of PUs that match one of the selected PU states. The possible PU states are Inactive, Active, Pending Active, and Pending Inactive.

Filtering PUs by DLUR-DLUS Session State

To display all PUs based on the DLUR-DLUS session state, select one or more DLUS session states. The DLUS session state indicates the status of the CPSVRMGR control session between the DLUR node and the DLUS node. The PU List window will contain the names of PUs that match one of the selected DLUR-DLUS session states. The possible DLUR-DLUS session states are Inactive, Active, Pending Active, and Pending Inactive.

Viewing LUs from the Tools Menu

To display a list of all LUs, select Tools>LU from the menu bar. The LU List window is displayed (Figure 6-10).

Figure 6-10: LU List Window

The LU List window displays a row of information for each independent or dependent LU. Each row contains the following items:

LU name
Name of the owning CP
Name of the network node server
LU type:
- Home---LU is local to the queried node
- Registered---LU is at a served end node or LEN node
- Cache---LU is learned by a network search and is not necessarily current

Interpreting Colors and Symbols on the APPN Map

The colors and symbols on the APPN map have the following meanings:

Green---A node or connection is up and running.

Red---A node or connection is down.

Yellow

A node is quiescing or congested or has DLUR defined but no active DLUR-DLUS session. A connection is a mix of active and inactive TGs.
A link or a port is in pending-active or pending-inactive state.

Blue or Purple---The status of a node or connection is unknown.

Solid line ---CP-CP connection , CP-CP TG, or CP-CP link.
Dashed line---Non-CP-CP connection, non-CP-CP TG, or non-CP-CP link.

Using APPN Icons

Table 6-2 identifies the icons displayed on an APPN map.

**Table 6-2: APPN Icons**
Icon	Description
	Known APPN network node.
	Managed APPN network node; the check mark above the icon shows that the NN is managed by CiscoWorks Blue Maps.
	APPN network topology agent in a global view. Focus node in an adjacent node or ports and links view.
	APPN end node.
	APPN LEN node.
	Port on an APPN network node. The letter in the circle indicates the port type: T---Token Ring E---Ethernet S---SDLC ?---Other
	Unknown or unmanaged node.
	Host node (VTAM mainframe).
	Virtual routing node (connection network).

Table of Contents

Using the APPN Application