Chapter 14: Web Management

In Depth

Imagine having to manage all the com closets throughout your enterprise without the use of a remote management tool. It’s a scary thought. What if you were in San Francisco and you needed to reconfigure a switch in Atlanta? Yes, Telnet would work, but Cisco also has a Web−based client management tool that is second to none: Cisco Visual Switch Manager (CVSM). The GUI interface helps make remote network management easier and less time consuming.

Standard and Enterprise Edition CVSM

Cisco Catalyst 1900 and 2820 series Ethernet switches both include the CVSM. However, if you are using the Standard Edition and you upgrade to the Enterprise Edition IOS, you will see a difference in the CVSM. The Standard Edition is designed to work out of the box; it simply connects desktops to its switch and then to high−speed network backbones. The Enterprise Edition, however, adds scalability. For example, when you’re using the Standard Edition IOS, you can only join an existing switch cluster. If you’re using an Enterprise Edition IOS, you can join and manage a clustered switch environment. This is just one example of the many differences between the two editions. The upgrade kits to the Enterprise Edition for the Catalyst 1900/2820 series switches are as follows:

∙Enterprise Edition Upgrade Kit—WS−C19/28EEUG

∙Enterprise Edition Upgrade Kit, 10−pack—WS−C19/28UG10

All Catalyst 1900 and 2820 series switches offer an intuitive and comprehensive Web−based management interface. The subtle differences between the two versions are that the Enterprise Edition software enables these switches to manage more complex networks when using the CVSM. It does this by integrating advanced features and more comprehensive switch management tools, such as options to manage Network Time Protocol, port spanning, and port grouping to ease enterprise switch management. The Enterprise Edition IOS is always pre−installed on Enterprise Edition switches, so no upgrade is needed.

CVSM Client Requirements

Let’s look at the characteristics and functionality that are available using CVSM, how to perform these functions, what you need to get started, and various tips to better secure your CVSM environment.

The CVSM supports four OS platforms: Windows 95 (with Service Pack 1 update), Windows 98 (Second Edition), Windows NT 4 (with Service Pack 3 update), and Solaris 2.5.1 or higher (Cisco also recommends applying the Motif library patch 103461−24 found at http://www.sun.com/). Cisco suggests the following hardware minimums for optimal system and Web site performance:

∙Windows−based system—Pentium 166MHz, 64MB RAM, small fonts

∙SunOS 5.6 system—SunUltra 1, 64MB RAM, small fonts

Cisco recommends using either Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape Communicator as your browser. The following versions are supported:

∙IE 4.01a, 5.0 (40− and 128−bit versions)

∙Netscape Communicator 4.5, 4.51, and 4.611

272