CiscoWorks Blue Maps and SNA View Features

This chapter introduces the functions and capabilities of CiscoWorks Blue Maps and SNA View. CiscoWorks Blue Maps and CiscoWorks Blue SNA View provide a set of Motif and Web-based applications for diagnosing problems in, and managing, integrated networks based on Systems Network Architecture (SNA) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) environments.

SNA Network Configurations

The world of SNA networking is divided into the following three fundamental environments:

Traditional SNA networks, in which the mainframe computer, the network, and the network nodes are all running native SNA networking protocols.
Integrated SNA/IP networks, in which the mainframe computer and the network nodes are running SNA protocols, which are being communicated over a TCP/IP network usually containing routers running remote source-route bridging (RSRB), data-link switching (DLSw), or Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking with SNA Switching Services (APPN/SNASw) over IP.
TN3270 networks, in which the mainframe computer is running SNA protocols while the network nodes and the network itself are running TCP/IP.

In these SNA networks, the mix of protocols run by the mainframe computer, the network, and the end-user devices varies, as shown in Figure 1-2.

These various SNA networks run a variety of protocols to transport data between the mainframe computer and the network nodes over the network. The SNA network protocols are shown in Figure 1-3.

Network management programs, which are tools that you use to manage these SNA networks, also vary depending on the protocols used, as shown in Figure 1-4.

There is one tool that lets you identify and isolate outages in all SNA networks. SNA View, as shown in Figure 1-5, lets you see network connectivity views for the three types of SNA networks.

Network Management and Problem Diagnosis

When managing SNA networks, diagnosing problems, the distinctions between diagnosis and management must be clear:

When you diagnose an SNA network problem, you are reacting to a specific, often reported, network problem. The usual scenario develops when a network outage occurs and a network user is stranded without a connection, and your help line or technical response telephone begins to ring. The end result of problem diagnosis is to detect where the problem is and diagnose the cause.
When you manage an SNA network, you are looking at a broader view of the network, and you might be trying to manipulate the status of one or more network devices to repair an outage or to improve performance. You might be called as a result of problem diagnosis, when a help-line responder detects an inactive device and asks you to activate it. But your job might also require you to take broader views of network maps to see where bottlenecks occur and to reroute network traffic.

Cisco offers a set of SNA network management and problem diagnosis tools to help you perform these tasks.

CiscoWorks Blue SNA View is a tool for problem solving in all SNA networks. Its purpose is to collect as much information about the outage as possible, and then to show you a picture of all the network devices between the inactive network node and the mainframe computer.
CiscoWorks Blue Maps is a tool for network management for those networks in which SNA is routed over IP networks using DLSw, RSRB, or APPN/SNASw. Its purpose is to give you an overview of your integrated SNA/IP networks and to let you manage the IP routers that make up the network.
When you use the CiscoWorks Blue SNA View application, you can start with a few bits of information about a network outage, perhaps the logical unit (LU) name or the MAC address, and view the entire path from a network terminal back through the network of routers or communication controllers to the SNA mainframe computer. When you use the CiscoWorks Blue Maps applications, you can manage the Cisco routers that control communication in networks that are enabled for RSRB, DLSw, or APPN/SNASw.

SNA Resource Management

There is a trend in network management to reduce the need for separate network resource managers by providing direct management of heterogeneous multi-vendor networks from a single, integrated network management system (NMS). In keeping with this strategy, CiscoWorks Blue uses information from Virtual Telecommunications Access Method (VTAM) and the Multiple Virtual Storage system (MVS) to enable network administrators to monitor and manage SNA resources. To further simplify and enhance network management, use CiscoWorks Blue Maps to display your SNA resources on graphical network maps.

The CiscoWorks Blue workstation program collects SNA network information provided by the Maps and SNA View mainframe program. It provides the SNA control and correlation needed to manage SNA devices from a UNIX workstation, allowing the network administrator to see beyond the routers to the SNA physical unit (PU) and LU resources.

CiscoWorks Blue gets PU and LU resource information from VTAM at a mainframe computer and correlates that information with the Cisco routers that are associated with the PUs and LUs. By interacting with the mainframe, CiscoWorks Blue adds vital PU and LU information to the graphical maps. Because CiscoWorks Blue correlates PU and LU names with the routers in the network, you can more easily isolate problems to the IP network or to the SNA network.

Resource information is dynamically updated to provide a snapshot of the network as it appears at any given time. This information allows the administrator to display a graphical map that depicts details from the PU back toward the VTAM host, providing information, such as the PU and LU status and the PU and LU dependency relationships.

Introducing CiscoWorks Blue SNA View

This section presents a brief overview of the functions provided by CiscoWorks Blue SNA View. SNA View is a web-based application. The SNA View web server gathers information about routers and SNA LUs and PUs from the SNA View and Maps database. When you link to the SNA View web page, you can display SNA session paths. The web page then displays a session connectivity view, as shown in Figure 1-6.

What SNA View Provides

The CiscoWorks Blue SNA View product is a tool for problem diagnosis in all SNA networks.

CiscoWorks Blue SNA View offers web-based client and server applications. These applications start with as much information about a failing node as you can provide and then display the network devices between that node and the mainframe computer.

Introducing CiscoWorks Blue Maps

CiscoWorks Blue Maps is a set of applications that let you manage Cisco routers in an IBM SNA network. Each Maps application focuses on a particular protocol: DLSw, RSRB, or APPN/SNASw. Maps displays graphical views of SNA networks connected with Cisco routers. These views are dynamically updated to provide snapshots of the network as it appears at any time.

Maps also lets you see beyond the routers to the SNA PUs and LUs that use the DLSw, RSRB, or APPN/SNASw protocols. The Maps mainframe component discovers the PUs and LUs from VTAM information at the mainframe, monitors those PUs and LUs, and reports their changing status to the Maps workstation applications to update the Maps database and the graphical maps.

What Maps Provides

The CiscoWorks Blue Maps product provides the following Motif and web-based applications that show, in a graphical or tabular format, the routers that make up your integrated SNA and TCP/IP network:

DLSw Motif-based application—Displays graphic maps of DLSw devices and includes dependency views back to an SNA mainframe computer from SNA LUs and PUs that use DLSw.
RSRB Motif-based application—Displays graphic maps of RSRB devices and includes dependency views back to an SNA mainframe computer from SNA LUs and PUs that use RSRB.
APPN/SNASw Motif-based application—Displays graphic maps of APPN/SNASw devices and includes dependency views back to an SNA mainframe computer from SNA LUs and PUs that use APPN/SNASw over IP.
HTML interface to Maps—Provides DLSw, RSRB, and APPN/SNASw network information in tabular format, but does not include dependency views from SNA LUs and PUs (SNA View provides these views).

Maps Features

Graphical Map Layout

CiscoWorks Blue Maps applications get network data from the MIBs to provide detailed logical maps of the SNA-related protocols. These maps are automatically drawn to depict specific protocols in the network. For example, the DLSw key devices map provides a view of the key DLSw routers with their peer routers and the rings and peer connections between them. Topology is drawn based on the DLSw protocol, and you can focus on different components of the DLSw network such as individual routers and links. Figure 1-7 is a sample DLSw key devices view. It shows you a small set of routers that you designate as "key devices" based on their networking attributes. This map also shows you the peer routers to those key routers, and it shows you the peer connections that connect the key routers to their peers.

Network Management Tools

CiscoWorks Blue Maps provides the network administrator with the tools needed to manage growing integrated SNA and TCP/IP networks. This set of Maps applications (RSRB, DLSw, and APPN/SNASw) can be integrated with popular Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management platforms such as IBM NetView for AIX, HP OpenView, or SunNet Manager. From the graphical maps, you can display path information or go directly to a device view using CiscoView.

Problem Determination

You can use the graphical maps to efficiently identify and diagnose problems related to the specific protocol under observation (RSRB, DLSw, and APPN/SNASw). Having identified the problem area, you can easily access additional information by invoking other menus in the application. For instance, in a DLSw network, you can use a key routers view to display a selected set of routers and their peer connections. From this view, you can then display information about peer routers, peer connections, and DLSw circuits. You can also view new nodes as they are added, and view the changing status of the devices and links dynamically.

Maps Applications

CiscoWorks Blue Maps offers both Motif-based and web-based network management applications for UNIX workstations.

Motif-Based Network Management Applications

CiscoWorks Blue Maps offers a set of network management applications that use the X Window System and Motif graphical interfaces to display graphical maps of the nodes and links in your network. Each application focuses on a particular protocol: DLSw, RSRB, or APPN/SNASw.

Web-Based Applications

CiscoWorks Blue Maps offers a set of web-based client/server applications that let you use web browsers to display information about RSRB, DLSw, and APPN/SNASw networks. The network information is presented in a tabular format. The web server runs on your Maps workstation and collects information from the Cisco routers in the network. You can use a web browser from any workstation in the network to connect to the web server to view the network.

Functions Common to Maps and SNA View

When you install the CiscoWorks Blue products, you always install all the code, whether you license maps, SNA View, or both. Maps and SNA View use many common functions:

Share router database and SNA information
Maintain the information in the database with the same set of processes, daemons, and commands:

Discovery processes
Polling processes
Host discovery processes
Web daemon for access to the CiscoWorks Blue database

Monitor and control the common processes with the Process Manager
Collect, log, and display error messages with the Message Logger
Provide a graphical interface to discovery, creating key devices, and launching some of the main processes using the administration
Allow access to the database information from the web using the same web server and web daemon
Collect VTAM information at the mainframe and send it to the workstation

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