Cisco MGX 8200 Series Edge Concentrators

This document answers common questions about the Cisco MGX 8240 Release 1.X and SentientView Network Management System (NMS) products.

A. The SentientView NMS processes could need to be stopped and re-started in order to restore functionality. Follow these steps in order to determine whether SentientView is functional and whether the processes need to be re-started:

1. Issue the ps -ef | grep snvm command and verify there are two processes in addition to the process just started. The target processes are the servers and are highlighted in bold text here:

   centauri:/export/home/ultimate{201} ps -ef | grep snvm 
   ultimate   575   573  0   May 12 pts/3   
   0:58 /opt/SentientView/bin/snvm /opt/m 
   ultimate   577   576  0   May 12 pts/3 
   0:36 /opt/SentientView/bin/snvm /opt/m 
   ultimate 15342 15328  0 14:13:01 pts/4    0:00 grep snvm 

2. Issue the ps -ef | grep ultimate command and verify that there are two watchdog processes among the items. The target processes are highlighted in bold text here:

   centauri:/export/home/ultimate{202} ps -ef | grep ultimate 
   ultimate   573     1  0   May 12 pts/3    0:00 ../bin/snWatchDog
   ultimate   575   573  0   May 12 pts/3 
   0:58 /opt/SentientView/bin/snvm /opt/m 
   ultimate   576     1  0   May 12 pts/3    0:00 ../bin/snWatchDog 
   

3. Issue the the kills <pid#1><pid#2> command for both the watchdog process numbers. This stops SentientView.

If you try to reconnect to the SentientView login from the Netscape browser, you could receive an Environment Dump: error message. This message means that SentientView is not running.

In order to restore SentientView, issue the nms command at an xterm or console window on the station running SentientView.

You can also start SentientView with the nms command from a remote display, if the display is exported to a local station.

A. The SentientView windows system runs on a Sun workstation and only provides for terminal sessions from the main menu. In order to view the main menu, right-click on the desktop background. Terminal sessions are used to connect to the target Cisco MGX 8240 in order to perform various tasks. If you press the F1 key while the cursor is in the terminal window, you can immediately close terminal sessions. If the F1 key is pressed while the cursor is in the terminal window, the session is immediately closed and all work lost. This is critical when you perform First Day of Service (FDOS) initialization of a Cisco MGX 8240 with the Craft interface/console Management Diagnostic Resource (CMDR) menu mode. The CMDR uses the F1 key as a function key to save configuration changes.

This conflict between terminal and CMDR use of the F1 key can be resolved. You must start CMDR mode from an xterm window if you do not want to use the F1 key to save changes generated in CMDR mode, and immediately close the terminal window and lose those changes. In order to initiate an xterm session, open a terminal window and issue the xterm command. The F1 key can then safely be used for CMDR configuration saves.

A. The SentientView NMS and the Cisco MGX 8240 do not synchronize configuration information. All configuration changes made from the NMS are displayed on the Cisco MGX 8240. All configuration changes not made from the NMS, with Virtual Command Line Interface (VCLI) , Craft interface/console Management Diagnostic Resource (CMDR), or VxWorks for example are not reflected in the NMS. So, the SentientView NMS and the Cisco MGX 8240 configuration files can get drastically out-of-sync.

In order to correct this in a lab or non-production environment, you need to drop the Oracle database and restart it, and load the Circuit Emulation Services (CES) database for each card with a blank configuration file. Once the Oracle database and CES cards are re-initialized, the Cisco MGX 8240 can then be configured as normal with the SentientView NMS.

Note:  This procedure erases the configuration of the switch from both the NMS and the switch, and therefore impacts traffic. This procedure is not recommended for a production Cisco MGX 8240.

These are examples of how to re-initialize the Oracle database. Note that all commands are case sensitive, all punctuation marks must be included, and that text in parentheses is for information.

Login to the SentientView workstation:

cd /opt/oracle7/bin 
     svrmgrl 
     connect internal (password: sys_stnt) 
     drop user ultimate cascade; 
     create user ultimate identified by ultimate; 
     grant connect, resource to ultimate; 
     ALTER USER ultimate 
     DEFAULT TABLESPACE USER_DATA 
     TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMPORARY_DATA 
     QUOTA unlimited on USER_DATA 
     QUOTA unlimited on TEMPORARY_DATA 
     <CTRL> D (to exit svrmgrl) 

or

Login to the SentientView workstation:

svrmgrl 
     connect internal 
     drop user ultimate cascade; 
     create user ultimate identified by ultimate; 
     grant connect, resource to ultimate; 
     ALTER USER ultimate 
     DEFAULT TABLESPACE USER_DATA 
     TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMPORARY_DATA 
     QUOTA unlimited on USER_DATA 
     QUOTA unlimited on TEMPORARY_DATA 
     <CTRL> D (to exit svrmgrl)   

A. Follow these instructions:

1. Power down the Common Interface Module (CIM). You do not have to power the Cisco MGX 8240 down to do this, but you could lose Telnet connectivity to the Cisco MGX 8240.
2. Remove the top cover from the CIM.
3. Attach a rollover cable between the Xyplex Route Runner and a Sun workstation CPU. This requires an RJ45-to-DB9 converter.
4. Issue the tip -9600 /dev/ttyb command in order to initiate a terminal session with the Xyplex Route Runner. You can also use these steps in order to connect to the Xyplex Terminal Server.