Introduction
Cisco DCNM provides an alternative to the command-line interface (CLI) for switch configuration commands.
In addition to complete configuration and status monitoring capabilities for Cisco MDS 9000 switches, Cisco DCNM-SAN provides powerful Fiber Channel troubleshooting tools. The in-depth health and configuration analysis capabilities leverage unique MDS 9000 switch capabilities: Fiber Channel Ping and Traceroute.
Beginning with Release 11.1(1), Cisco DCNM allows you to monitor Cisco UCS Blade servers also.
Cisco DCNM includes these management applications:
Cisco DCNM Server
The Cisco DCNM-SAN Server component must be started before running Cisco DCNM-SAN. Cisco DCNM-SAN Server is installed as a service. This service can then be administered using the Windows Services in the control panel. Cisco DCNM-SAN Server is responsible for discovery of the physical and logical fabric and for listening for SNMP traps, syslog messages, and Performance Manager threshold events.
Cisco DCNM Web UI
Cisco DCNM Web UI allows operators to monitor and obtain reports for Cisco MDS and Nexus events, performance, and inventory from a remote location using a web browser. Licensing and discovery are part of the Cisco DCNM Web UI. You can configure the MDS9000 Fabric, also.
Cisco DCNM-SAN Client
The Cisco DCNM-SAN Client displays a map of your network fabrics, including Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches, third-party switches, hosts, and storage devices. The Cisco DCNM-SAN Client provides multiple menus for accessing the features of the Cisco DCNM SAN functionality.
Device Manager
The Device Manager is embedded with the Cisco DCNM Web UI. After the switches are discovered, navigate to Inventory > Switches > Device Manager to launch the Device Manager.
Cisco DCNM-SAN automatically installs the Device Manager. Device Manager provides two views of a single switch:
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Device View —displays a graphic representation of the switch configuration and provides access to statistics and configuration information.
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Summary View —displays a summary of xE ports (Inter-Switch Links), Fx ports (fabric ports), and Nx ports (attached hosts and storage) on the switch, as well as Fibre Channel and IP neighbor devices. Summary or real-time statistics can be charted, printed, or saved to a file in tab-delimited format.
Performance Manager
Performance Manager presents detailed traffic analysis by capturing data with SNMP. This data is compiled into various graphs and charts that can be viewed on the Cisco DCNM Web UI. Performance Manager stores data into Elastic search time series database. API access to Elastic search is not supported.