Cisco Prime LMS improves the overall user experience, providing new workflows that are built on functional partitioning and that align the product with the way network operators do their jobs. Once installed, prepackaged monitoring and troubleshooting dashboards provide actionable information to quickly isolate and fix network problems before they affect services. Configuring and deploying updates to the network has never been easier with the Template Center, which now incorporates Cisco Smart Business Architecture (SBA) templates that are based upon Cisco Validated Designs, simplifying platform and technology rollout and reducing the chance for errors. Work Centers provide a single area where guided workflows give step-by-step instructions to help operators quickly provision, monitor, and manage new Cisco value-added technologies and solutions, such as medianet, EnergyWise, TrustSec/Identity, Auto Smartports, and Smart Install  

 

The Cisco Prime portfolio of enterprise and service provider management offerings supports integrated lifecycle management of Cisco architectures and technologies based on a network services management foundation. Built on an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience, Cisco Prime products help increase IT productivity and reduce operations costs through innovative management solutions for the network services, infrastructure, and endpoints. For more information about Cisco Prime, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/prime.

 

 Cisco Prime LMS has evolved from a collection of individual products into a seamless set of integrated management functions based upon the way network managers do their work. Organizing the product based on management function simplifies the overall user experience by reducing the need to cross application boundaries to complete a specific management task. Workflows are self-contained and all required functionality is maintained within a functional area. Table 1 lists the major functional areas.

 

 Table 1. Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution Major Functional Areas

 

 The ability to manage any Cisco platform, anytime, anywhere, to deploy new Cisco technologies and services, and to integrate with third-party management platforms is key to lowering overall operating expenses (OpEx) while improving network availability. Cisco Prime LMS  will help simplify managing borderless networks in the following ways:

 

Reduces operating expenses: Network management has traditionally been burdened with being too complex and expensive to maintain. Required tasks such as installing management software, configuring and setting up the platform, and discovering the network, coupled with the need for multiple disparate applications with high maintenance costs, made manageability a time-consuming and expensive proposition for most enterprise customers. As a result, many customers gave up, walked away frustrated, and failed to use the features available or to realize any reduction in their overall OpEx. Cisco Prime LMS provides a getting started guided workflow to simplify the initial setup, reducing the time required to operationalize the product. Automonitoring features help enable immediate value right out of the box, providing real-time dashboards for quickly isolating and troubleshooting network- and device-related problems immediately after the product is installed.

 

Simplifies deployment of new technologies: Cisco provides unparalleled value in the features and capabilities of its hardware platforms that further differentiate Cisco from the competition. Difficulties with deploying and managing differentiated features have made it challenging for some customers to take full advantage of the value. With the delivery of new Cisco switching and routing platforms, new capabilities are being introduced, such as medianet, EnergyWise, TrustSec/Identity, Smart Install, and Auto Smartports. These capabilities further differentiate Cisco from its competitors. Cisco Prime LMS simplifies deployment of these new technologies through a new concept known as Work Centers. Work Centers provide a single consolidated user experience for the deployment and complete lifecycle management of new Cisco technologies.

 

Provides comprehensive device coverage: To manage a borderless network effectively, device coverage is essential, no matter where the device is located. Cisco Prime LMS provides support for more than 600 different Cisco hardware platforms, from an 800 Series Router to Cisco Nexus® switches, a CRS-1, and everything in between. No other product in the industry provides the breadth and depth of support for Cisco platforms. The Cisco Prime Day-one device support program helps to ensure that when a new platform ships from Cisco, manageability support in Cisco Prime LMS is available at the same time.

 

Complete lifecycle management: Maintaining and managing the many services associated with a borderless network require a good foundation for dealing with the core network infrastructure and day-to-day tasks associated with lifecycle management. Cisco Prime LMS provides the functionality required to perform the day-to-day tasks, including discovery, monitoring and troubleshooting, configuration and change management, autoremediation, and inventory and compliance reporting.

 

Table 2 lists the features, functions, and benefits of Cisco Prime LMS.

Table 2.  Cisco Prime LMS Features, Functions, and Benefits

  

 Cisco Prime LMS allows customers to integrate with other third party applications as a way to improve overall manageability and reduce overall Operating Expenditures (OPEX) by:

• Reducing redundant data collection and polling
• Leveraging the rich data model maintained within  Cisco Prime LMS data store
• Providing an “integrated” user experience for management
• Utilizing Cisco value-added functionality
• Consolidating redundant device management capabilities

 

Integration with Cisco Prime LMS can be developed and delivered using one or more of the following methods:

1. Lightweight web-based launch level integration
2. Access to Cisco Prime data as a provider to other applications
3. Northbound notifications
4. Data integration and remediation based upon an end-to-end workflow

 

The following types of access methods are available to integrate and extract data:

¿ Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) – provides a method for extracting data (read only access)  directly from the underlying CiscoWorks embedded database tables through a special administrative user account
¿ Command Line Interface (CLI) – allows commands to be executed directly on the CiscoWorks server to perform a certain function
¿ Servlet APIs – web-based http programmatic interfaces to perform actions and or retrieve data from CiscoWorks application functionality (available on approved basis only)
¿ Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) – standard SOAP access with Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) support requires authentication (available on approved basis only)
¿ Web Portal – Iframe portlet in LMS allows customers to integrate other application web pages into LMS dashboards
¿ Notifications –syslog, trap and email notifications to alert 3rd party applications on the faults and threshold violations detected by LMS
 

 

 Table 3. Integration Methods Summary Table

 

 

For the latest information on Cisco Prime LMS refer to www.cisco.com/go/lms