Q & A

Cisco Info Center 3.0

Q. Is Cisco Info Center (CIC) based on Netcool technology?

A. Yes. CIC is an OEM product based on Micromuse's Netcool technology Version 3.4. It includes preautomation and customization specific to Cisco device and Operations Support System (OSS) solutions.

Q. Does CIC help me consolidate important alarms and events from other vendors?

A. Yes. CIC facilitates the integration of other vendor equipment via readily available Info Mediators (or probes) developed by OEM provider Micromuse. These Mediators are all operational in both CIC and Netcool Omnibus. They can plug into CIC for consolidation. Mediators perform the role of event normalization, thus allowing other vendor events and alarms to be displayed through the same screens as those used to collect Cisco alarms and events. Cisco resells the entire library of Info Mediators on a single CD. These Mediators are supported by Cisco with a back-end support by Micromuse. A list of probes is available at http://www.micromuse.com.

Q. Does CIC store all alarms and events in persistent storage?

A. CIC can store alarms and events in persistent storage (either a flat file or relational database) via the use of an unidirectional Info Gateway. But the Info Server itself is an in-memory-resident database streamlined to provide fast and efficient filtering and automation. The purpose of this in-memory database is to de-duplicate events, filter noise from the network, and provide focus on what requires attention, not to provide a historical log of what has happened. Unimportant alarms and alarms that have been fixed are not ones of interest to the Info Server, and should be deleted via CIC's customizable automation engine. For logging purposes, all alarms can be stored in persistence using an Info Gateway.

Q. Is CIC the same as Micromuse Netcool/Omnibus?

A. CIC is a Cisco product, which is an OEM product from Micromuse. The focus of CIC is on service-level monitoring and assurance. CIC includes enhancements of the Info Server component, as well as, Cisco developed and tested correlation rules and tools to make it an out-of-the-box productivity tool with Cisco support. Future enhancements that are made to the overall solution will leverage internally developed products as well as technology or products from other partner products.

Q. Does CIC include performance reporting and monitoring applications?

A. CIC is an alarm and event management engine. It provides CNM support through Java applets that can be used to provide end subscribers with an up-to-date view of alarms and events affecting their services and underlying network resources. Cisco Services Management infrastructure includes partnerships with other third-party vendors such as Concord to provide performance monitoring and reporting. These management applications can be integrated into CIC as extensions of its management tool set if desired.

Q. Does CIC allow me to integrate with other external systems?

A. CIC is not only an aggregator of event information from multiple sources, but also provides links to other applications and support systems. Information from within CIC can be shared with other help desk systems via an Info Gateway. Information can also be passed to external UNIX scripts and applications; this completely configurable environment allows you to link any management applications into this event-management environment to provide real-time proactive troubleshooting and problem solving in the network. One common area of applications that customers link into the maps and menus includes element-management systems for various network elements. Future releases of CIC will have a northbound interface based on Cisco Networking Services (CNS) active directories (AD) to export and import shared data to and from other management systems. CIC is prepackaged with some integrated diagnostic tools.

Q. Which platforms support CIC?

A. CIC is a distributed client/server system targeted for Sun systems running Solaris. The primary server, gateways, and desktops are supported on Solaris 2.7. The Mediators, which run on the underlying element management systems, may have to run on earlier versions of Solaris

Q. Which platforms are supported in CIC?

A. CIC is supported only on Solaris. There are no plans to support HPUX or Windows NT at this time.

Q. Can the CIC be used to trigger activation of e-mail and pagers?

A. Yes. CIC contains a sophisticated event-triggered system. Based on observed events and alarms in the real-time database, actions can be triggered. These actions include internal alarm/event management actions (for example, modify an existing event or delete an alarm based on a simple correlation rule) and execution of external scripts (for example, send e-mail to an operator if a high-priority unacknowledged event condition is observed). Any authorized operator can configure triggers and events through a simple GUI. This configuration tool is part of Cisco Info Server, and no special components are required.