Cisco Performance Visibility Manager

A. Cisco PVM is management software that gathers application and network performance information and integrates the information into a series of comprehensive reports to provide visibility into your network and applications. It automatically establishes a baseline of normal network conditions and proactively monitors the network against the baseline. It provides a centralized view of the application response times and identifies whether response-time problems are caused by the network or the application.

A. Cisco PVM 1.0 delivers a centralized application to aggregate and correlate data from multiple installations of Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM).

A. Cisco PVM 1.0 supports aggregation of NetFlow-based traffic flow data collected by Cisco NAMs. Cisco PVM supports NAM versions 3.4 and 3.5.

A. CiscoWorks IPM uses the Cisco IOS® IP Service Level Agreement (IPSLA) feature to generate synthetic traffic in your network to measure response times. Cisco PVM works in conjunction with Cisco NAMs to passively measure response time of your TCP traffic. Cisco PVM also provides detailed traffic analysis, which is not available in CiscoWorks IPM.

A. Both Cisco AAS and Cisco PVM are part of the Cisco Network Application Performance Analysis (NAPA) Solution. Cisco AAS is a microlevel tool that performs offline detailed analysis to troubleshoot application performance problems. Cisco PVM is a macrolevel tool that baselines and proactively monitors your applications and your network. In an operational workflow, Cisco PVM will monitor and analyze network behavior, trigger alarms relative to baseline and user-defined metrics, localize issues, and troubleshoot network problems. Cisco AAS can then be used for detailed application analysis.

A. Cisco PVM supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 4 (inclusive) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 3 (with update 8 or higher), both with 32-bit architecture.

A. Table 1 lists the system requirements for Cisco PVM 1.0.

A. Cisco PVM is available for purchase through normal Cisco sales and distribution channels worldwide. The Cisco PVM product requires the purchase of a software base kit that includes the DVD and documentation for installing the software plus a minimum of one right-to-use (RTU) license for either Cisco NAM for the Catalyst® 6500/7600 Series (NAM-1/NAM-2) or the Cisco NAM for branch routers (NM-NAM) running 3.4 or 3.5 NAM software.

A. Cisco PVM licensing is based on the type and number of Cisco NAMs instrumented in the customer's environment. The Cisco NAM models supported are NAM-1, NAM-2, and NM-NAM. The RTU licenses are available in 10, 25, and 50 packs corresponding to the number of Cisco NAMs installed.

A. Yes. Licensing is additive. For example, you can initially purchase the software base kit plus one license to support 50 Cisco NM-NAMs. At a later date, you can purchase and deploy an additional license pack to support 10 additional Cisco NAM-1/NAM-2s without having to reinstall the software.

A. Yes. You can purchase a one-year Software Application Support (SAS) contract that provides Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support, access to software maintenance patches on Cisco.com software center, as well as minor update releases (such as 1.1, 1.2, and so on) when they become available.

A. No. Only SAS contracts are available for Cisco PVM at this time.