Setting up
After you install Prime NCS (WAN) and launch the browser, read the following sections to learn how to get started using Prime NCS (WAN):
Discovering the Network
To view and manage the devices in your network, Prime NCS (WAN) must first discover the devices and, after obtaining access, collect information about them. Prime NCS (WAN) uses both SNMP and SSH/Telnet to connect to supported devices and collect inventory data.
The following sections describe how to discover your network:
Planning Discovery Runs
Prime NCS (WAN) uses SNMP polling to gather information about your network devices within the range of IP addresses you specify. If you have CDP enabled on your network devices, Prime NCS (WAN) uses the seed device you specify to discover the devices in your network.
Before you run discovery, you must do the following:
1. 
Configure SNMP Credentials on Devices—Prime NCS (WAN) uses SNMP polling to gather information about your network devices. You must configure SNMP credentials on all devices you want to manage using Prime NCS (WAN).
2. Set Syslog and Trap Destinations on Devices—Specify the Prime NCS (WAN) server (using the Prime NCS (WAN) server IP address and port) as the syslog and trap destination on all devices you want to manage using Prime NCS (WAN).
3. Configure Mail Server Settings—You will then receive email notification when Prime NCS (WAN) has completed discovering the devices in your network.
Configure Mail Server Settings
By configuring mail server settings, you will receive e-mail notification when Prime NCS (WAN) has completed discovering the devices in your network.
Step 1 Choose Administration > System > Mail Server Configuration.
Step 2 Enter the hostname of the primary SMTP server.
Step 3 Enter a password for logging in to the SMTP server, and confirm the password.
Step 4 Provide the same information for the secondary SMTP server (if a secondary mail server is available).
By default, the From text box is populated with NCS@<NCS server IP address>. You can change it to a different sender.
Step 5 Enter the recipient's e-mail addresses in the To text box.
The e-mail address you provide serves as the default value for other functional areas, such as alarms or reports. You can add multiple e-mail addresses separated by commas.
Note Global changes you make to the recipient e-mail addresses in Step 6 are disregarded if e-mail notifications were set.
Step 6 If you want the e-mail recipient list applied to the existing e-mail notifications, check the Apply recipient list to existing e-mail notifications check box.
Step 7 Click Test to send a test e-mail to verify that the settings you entered are correct.
Step 8 Click Save.
Running Discovery
When you run discovery, Prime NCS (WAN) discovers the devices and, after access is obtained, collects device inventory data.
It is recommended that you run discovery when first getting started with Prime NCS (WAN), as shown in the following steps:
Step 1 Choose Operate > Discovery, then click Discovery Settings.
Step 2 Click New.
Step 3 Enter the Protocol Settings as described in Table 3-1.
Step 4 Do one of the following:
•Click Save to save your discovery settings and schedule your discovery to run at a specified time.
•Click Run Now to run the discovery now.
Verifying Discovery
When discovery has completed, you can verify that the process was successful by following these steps:
Step 1 Choose Operate > Discovery.
Step 2 Choose the discovery job for which you want to view details.
Step 3 Under Discovery Job Instances, expand the arrow to view details about the devices that were discovered.
If devices are missing:
•Change your discovery settings, then rerun the discovery. See for information about discovery settings.
•Add devices manually. See Adding Devices Manually for more information.
Adding Devices Manually
You can add devices manually, as shown in the following steps. This is helpful if you want to add a single device. If you want to add all of the devices in your network, it is recommended that you run discovery. (See Verifying Discovery for more information.)
Step 1 Choose Operate > Device Work Center, then click Add.
Step 2 Enter the parameters.
Step 3 Click Add to add the device with the settings you specified.
Importing Devices in Bulk
If you have another management system into which your devices are imported or if you want to import a spreadsheet that contains all of your devices and their attributes, you can import device information in bulk into Prime NCS (WAN).
Step 1 Choose Operate > Device Work Center, then click Bulk.
Step 2 Click the link to download a sample file that contains all the fields and descriptions for the information that must be contained in your imported file.
Step 3 Click Browse to navigate to your file, then click Import.
Step 4 To view the status of the import, choose Tools > Task Manager > Jobs Dashboard.
Step 5 Click the arrow to expand the job details and view the details and history for the import job.
Setting Up Site Profiles
Site profiles help you manage large campuses by associating network elements to physical locations. Site profiles have a hierarchy that includes campuses and buildings, and allows you to segment the physical structure of your network and monitor your network based on location.
There are two areas in which you can set up and change sites:
•Operate > Site Profiles & Maps—Create a new site and change an existing site.
•Operate > Device Work Center—If a site has previously been created, you can add devices to a site by clicking Add to Site from the Device Work Center.
When you create site profiles, you need to decide how many campuses and buildings to include in your site. Table 3-2 explains how to determine which elements to include in your site profiles.
|
|
|
|---|---|
Campus |
More than one business location |
Building |
More than one location within your campus |
To control which users have access to the devices in the sites, you need to create virtual domains. See Setting Up Virtual Domains for more information.
For additional information about sites, see Keeping Sites Organized.
Creating Site Profiles
To create a campus location, add a building to the campus:
Step 1 Choose Operate > Site Profiles & Maps.
Step 2 From the command menu, choose New Campus, then click Go.
Step 3 Enter the necessary parameters, then click Next.
Step 4 Change any settings, then click OK.
Step 5 Click the campus you just created; then, from the command menu, choose New Building, and then click Go.
Step 6 Enter the necessary parameters, then click Save.
You can now add devices to the site profile as described in Adding Devices to Site Profiles.
Adding Devices to Site Profiles
After you have created site profiles, you can assign devices to those sites. By associating devices with a campus and building, you can simplify maintenance tasks. When you need to perform maintenance tasks on devices, you can choose the site that contains the devices and apply the changes to all devices in the site.
To control which users have access to the devices in the sites, you need to create virtual domains. See Setting Up Virtual Domains for more information.
Step 1 Choose Operate > Device Work Center.
Step 2 Choose the devices you want to add to a site, then click the >> icon and click Add to Site.
Step 3 Choose the campus and building to which to assign the device, then click Add.
Note The Campus and Building fields are populated with the settings you previously entered in Operate > Site Profiles & Maps. See Creating Site Profiles for more information.
Setting Up Port Monitoring
To monitor your device ports, you can create a port group and then display monitoring information on the Prime NCS (WAN) dashboard.
Port Groups
Port groups are logical groupings of interfaces that allow you to monitor device ports by the function they serve. For example, you can create a port group for the WAN ports and create another port group for the internal distribution ports on the same router.
After you create port groups, you can more efficiently configure all the devices belonging to a port group.
You need to determine which types of ports you want to monitor as a group. The following port groups are typical of most networks:
•Port Type
•User Defined
•WAN Interfaces
Monitoring Templates
Monitoring templates monitor device features, usage, health, and other factors. After you create and deploy monitoring templates, Prime NCS (WAN) collects and processes data from specified devices and displays the information in dashboards, dashlets, and reports.
Setting Up WAN Interface Monitoring
You create a WAN interface port group in order to efficiently configure settings on all the WAN interfaces in a specific port group.
The following steps show you how to create a port group for the WAN interfaces for an edge router, create and deploy a WAN interface health monitoring template on those ports, and then view the results.
Step 1 Choose Operate > Port Grouping.
Step 2 Choose the device IP address(es) to add to the WAN interfaces port group, then click Add to Group.
Step 3 From the Select Group drop-down menu, choose WAN Interfaces, then click Save.
Now that you have designated the WAN interfaces, you need to create a WAN interface health monitoring template.
Step 4 Choose Design > Monitoring.
Step 5 Choose Features > Metrics > Interface Health.
Step 6 Enter the parameters for the interface health template. It is recommended that you check all parameters to be monitored for WAN interfaces.
Step 7 Click Save as New Template.
Now that you have created a WAN interface health monitoring template, you need to activate and deploy the template.
Step 8 Choose Deploy > Monitoring Tasks.
Step 9 Choose the template you created, then click Activate. Click OK to confirm.
Step 10 Choose the template you created, then click Deploy.
Step 11 Choose Port Groups, then click WAN Interfaces, then click Submit.
Now that you have deployed the template, you can view the monitoring results.
Step 12 Choose Operate > Overview. The Top N Interfaces by WAN Utilization dashboard is populated with the parameters you specified to monitor for the WAN interfaces.
Related Topic
Setting Up Virtual Domains
Virtual domains allow you to control who has access to specific sites and devices. After you add devices to Prime NCS (WAN), you can configure virtual domains. Virtual domains are logical groupings of devices and are used to control who can administer the group. By creating virtual domains, an administrator allows users to view information relevant to them specifically and restricts their access to other areas. Virtual domain filters allow users to configure devices, view alarms, and generate reports for their assigned part of the network only.
Virtual domains can be based on physical sites, device types, user communities, or any other designation you choose.
Before you set up virtual domains, you should determine which users should have access to which sites and devices in your network.
Creating a Site-Oriented Virtual Domain
By default, there is only one virtual domain defined (root) in Prime NCS (WAN).
When you create a site-oriented virtual domain, you allows users to view information in a specific site and restrict their access to other areas.
The following steps explain how to choose a segment of all the devices at a particular location and make them part of the "Site 1 Routers" virtual domain.
Step 1 Choose Administration > Virtual Domains.
Step 2 From the left Virtual Domain Hierarchy sidebar menu, click New.
Note By default, only one virtual domain (root) is defined in Prime NCS (WAN). The selected virtual domain becomes the parent virtual domain of the newly created, subvirtual domain.
Step 3 Enter Site 1 Routers for the virtual domain name, then click Submit.
Step 4 On the Sites tab, move the sites that you want to associate with the virtual domain to the Selected Sites column, then click Submit.
Step 5 Click OK on the confirmation screens.
Assigning Users to a Virtual Domain
After you create a virtual domain, you can associate the virtual domain with specific users. This allows users to view information relevant to them specifically and restricts their access to other areas. Users assigned to a virtual domain can configure devices, view alarms, and generate reports for their assigned virtual domain only.
The following steps walk you through creating a user who is in charge of the Site 1 Routers virtual domain you previously created.
Step 1 Choose Administration > Users, Roles, & AAA.
Step 2 Click the username that you want to assign to a virtual domain.
Step 3 Click the Virtual Domains tab, then move the specific virtual domain from the Available list to the Selected list.
Step 4 Click Submit.
Note When using external AAA, be sure to add the custom attributes for virtual domains to the appropriate user or group configuration on the external AAA server.
Related Topic
Next Steps
Now that you have completed the basic setup steps, you might want to do the following tasks:
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