Manage my Cisco Enviroment

HondabuffHondabuff Member Posts: 667 ■■■□□□□□□□
Need some advice on managing my environment. I have 300 Cisco 867 Routers in branch locations that I'm currently managing and will be expanding to 1000 more. Yes 1000 more, I currently built out full Solarwinds server complete with all the bells and whistles including Config manager. I have had a few other engineers recommend Cisco works to manage configs on their boxes. Part of our hardening project is to change all the enable secret passwords and VTY/Con passwords. I want something easy to use that has a short learning curve. Im curious to see what everyone else uses to manage their configs.
“The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can’t always be sure of their authenticity.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Comments

  • RouteMyPacketRouteMyPacket Member Posts: 1,104
    You can do all of that with Solarwinds NCM (Backup Configs, Push Out Changes etc, Compare Configurations). The next thing to consider is cost, are you running a demo of Solarwinds NPM/NCM or already purchased?

    Solarwinds is idiot proof really and I've done several SW projects and it's not bad, cost is the determining factor IMO. I personally prefer something like Zenoss (Linuz Based and Free) but with that you have no support, you are the support should something break.

    What I don't like is system related (MS) stuff in Solarwinds, try to keep it all network based IMO. You can play with the online demo here

    http://oriondemo.solarwinds.com/Orion/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f

    IPAM is an ok module but the Web and VoIP/Network Quality modules are really cool but fit within a particular environment based on needs.
    Modularity and Design Simplicity:

    Think of the 2:00 a.m. test—if you were awakened in the
    middle of the night because of a network problem and had to figure out the
    traffic flows in your network while you were half asleep, could you do it?
  • Dieg0MDieg0M Member Posts: 861
    We use HPNA to push configs but we also have Solarwinds for monitoring.
    Follow my CCDE journey at www.routingnull0.com
  • IristheangelIristheangel Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
    Prime Infrastructure is pretty awesome as well. I love their best practices templates. You can do monitoring, config backup, etc on it.
    BS, MS, and CCIE #50931
    Blog: www.network-node.com
  • HondabuffHondabuff Member Posts: 667 ■■■□□□□□□□
    We have the full blown Solarwinds with just about every plugin module. Our license agreement was pushing $60k. That's for 3 divisions of our company that use Solarwinds. I'm pretty much the greenhorn on Solarwinds and watching videos and training seminars as I go. I haven't even touched the Config manager yet as Im still building out my maps and nesting nodes in side of nodes. The company is even letting me kick the tires on Netbrain to see if it will add value to my job. A lot of our nodes have SNMP and CDP turned off so it has been little to no use as is Network Topology Mapper. Once I get Solarwinds humming along I can pass it over to our NOC to start using and I will be tackling the Configs. I need to change pw's and setup a VPN tunnels to our DR site.
    “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can’t always be sure of their authenticity.” ~Abraham Lincoln
  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Prime Infrastructure is pretty awesome as well. I love their best practices templates. You can do monitoring, config backup, etc on it.

    Prime is great but still needs polishing, like if I import CAD drawings in to the maps it will 50% of the time crash and need a reboot. I am hopping to go on a course for it soon.

    I also like the plug and play images and config management. I can just past the SN in Prime, link it to a Plug and play profile with a config and IOS image, plug in power, plug in network and walk away, come back 20min later after its wiped the flash, installed the correct IOS and written the right config and ......

    Not that I need it only deploying 9 or 10 switches at a time every few months, but still I can see if you are a big cisco house deploying switches across the country or in large data centers and you want to keep things constant, its really easy to set up. You can get it to phone home to, so set up a switch on prime, get it delivered to a remote site and have it plugged in there and it will go though the same process as above.

    If they can polish it off then it will just get better.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
  • TrifidwTrifidw Member Posts: 281
    I really need to spend some time with Prime and learn its features as they sound awesome. I upgraded to Prime from WCS ages ago and still only really use it for the MSE and access point locations...
  • IristheangelIristheangel Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
    @DevilWAH - I haven't had that crash issue with ISE and CAD drawings. What version are you on?
    BS, MS, and CCIE #50931
    Blog: www.network-node.com
  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    2.1 with latest patch.

    Its a know issue with complex drawings, I am trying to import laboratory floor plans to like 100+ rooms with a few 1000 objects per drawing at 1:1 scale.

    To get it to work I have to strip out layers and simple the drawing (saving in version 2010 helps to). I have found importing the CAD in to Eakhau site survey software, and then exporting from there as a Prime format file and import in to prime works though.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
  • IristheangelIristheangel Mod Posts: 4,133 Mod
    What a pain. I haven't had that issue but perhaps my CAD files are a bit less complex. Oh well. Sorry to hear you're having that issue icon_sad.gif
    BS, MS, and CCIE #50931
    Blog: www.network-node.com
  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    What a pain. I haven't had that issue but perhaps my CAD files are a bit less complex. Oh well. Sorry to hear you're having that issue icon_sad.gif

    If I am honest the planning of wireless maps in Prime is not great, and nor is the wireless survey side of things. Its great for monitoring the wireless and configs on the controllers. But as a design and deploy tool leaves a lot to be desired.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
  • HondabuffHondabuff Member Posts: 667 ■■■□□□□□□□
    What's the main difference between Cisco Prime and Cisco works for managing configs?
    “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can’t always be sure of their authenticity.” ~Abraham Lincoln
  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Hondabuff wrote: »
    What's the main difference between Cisco Prime and Cisco works for managing configs?

    Not used works for years! So don't really know sorry. All I can say is Prime does a very good job. The only thing I have yet to work out is how to sechdual exports of config from Prime.

    I can take a back up of the data base with out to much issue, but I would love to be able to export the raw text files to a secure share so in the even of a DR exercise I can get to them with out having to have prime up and running.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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