ISM provides visibility and management of the router network through the virtual telecommunications access method (VTAM). To manage routers from SOLVE:Netmaster, a VTAM connection must be established for each router and the appropriate service point must be defined in the configuration file of each router using Cisco IOS software SNA interface commands. The ISM management environment is established via the service point interface that is integrated into Cisco routers.
The router responds to the RUNCMDs in the form of network management vector transports (NMVTs) records, and ISM displays these responses to the mainframe operator in its full-screen panel interface. In addition to responses to RUNCMDs, NMVT alerts are also transported from the router to the mainframe, where they are displayed in the Network Error Warning System (NEWS), SOLVE:Netmaster's alert monitor.
For more information on configuring a VTAM connection and verifying the SNA service point of a router, see the CiscoWorks Blue Internetwork Status Monitor for SOLVE:Netmaster Installation Guide.
ISM provides a summary of the status of all the routers being monitored by ISM on the ISM : Status Summary panel and the ISM : Router List panel. These panels provide the following features:
Color-coded status
Drill-down interface to other related ISM panels
The ISM : Router List panel provides access to a list of options. This list makes some of the most commonly used router diagnostic commands easily accessible to a mainframe operator.
Added security support allows operators to be individually authorized to use either the display-only functions of ISM or to use both the display and configuration functions.
Events sent by routers through ISM are correlated with the routers being managed by ISM to enable operators to easily view those alerts that apply to a specific router.
Cisco IOS software commands that are typically used to diagnose DSPU and CMCC problems are available via a full-screen interface to make management of these devices simpler.
ISM provides a command-line interface that enables SOLVE:Netmaster operators to connect to a router and issue commands that they would normally issue in a Telnet session. This command-line interface does not require TCP/IP at the mainframe.
Performance data are periodically collected for routers and interfaces at user-defined monitoring intervals and are viewable from a variety of ISM panels.
Allows you to disable monitoring of VTAM messages for router status updates. This can reduce the amount of mainframe CPU required to continuously monitor these messages, especially for sites with large networks.
Allows you to manage the CPU usage that is necessary for monitoring routers by specifying more frequent polling on an individual router basis, such as only for certain critical network routers.
Maintains the security environment of the router when you are issuing commands from ISM. When TACACS+ is implemented on a router, ISM also requires the user ID and password to send privileged-mode commands to that router.
ISM's CMCC management features include automatic discovery of CMCCs, status and performance monitoring, channel monitoring, and a CMCC and channel connectivity diagram.
Allows you to monitor events tracked internally by ISM, including router status changes and operator audit trails that record changes to ISM management definitions.
You can monitor interfaces by type, such as ATM or Fast Ethernet, or on a per-router basis. You can also display the details about a specific interface and obtain interface history and performance data.
Note During interface monitoring, any new supported interfaces that are discovered by ISM are automatically monitored by ISM.
For more information on monitoring interfaces, see the "Monitoring Interfaces" chapter. For more information on configuring the ISM management environment, see the "Setting Up the ISM Environment" chapter.
If an authorized user logs in to a router in enabled mode, all operators can issue the authority-level commands to the router.
Without the ISM interface, there is no queue scheduling. This results in the possibility of any operator receiving data that is being sent in response to a command issued by another operator.
Caution
ISM does not preclude you from using any security features provided by your system or SOLVE:Netmaster. If there is a concern about operators issuing RUNCMDs directly, operator command authorization can be altered in SOLVE:Netmaster to keep specific operators from issuing specific RUNCMDs and ISM commands. However, the granularity to which operator command scoping can be done may vary depending on the SOLVE:Netmaster version.
