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Nways Manager for AIX-LAN Network Manager/I.H.M.P. User's Guide


User Interface

This chapter describes how to use the graphical user interface of Nways Manager-LAN to manage your network resources.


Using the Graphical Interface

The NetView for AIX graphical interface displays a logical representation of your network through dynamic topology maps that contain hierarchies of network submaps and hub views. These hierarchies include graphical representations of your network resources at several levels:

The graphical interface provides an easy way to access LAN submaps and hub views that are lower in the hierarchy by clicking on symbols that represent the lower submaps and views.

In addition, Nways Manager-LAN allows you to use separate submap hierarchies for different protocols. This means that for LAN resources, you can quickly switch from one protocol view to another (for example, from an IP to a token-ring submap), depending on the protocols running in the network resource. For hub resources, you can switch between a hub view and the LAN submap for the protocol used by the resource. (for example, from an 8260 module view to an Ethernet submap). The protocol switching function in Nways Manager-LAN allows to display different network views of the same LAN or hub resource. For more information, see Switching Between Different Protocol Views.

As part of the NetView for AIX graphical interface, Nways Manager-LAN offers extended network information in a consistent and familiar format. Working with windows, menus, and icons and navigating through submaps is similar to using NetView for AIX. For information about these topics, refer to the NetView for AIX User's Guide.
Important:When starting multiple user interfaces, you may find that you cannot start more than two NetView for AIX sessions. This limitation is caused by insufficient disk space in the file system /usr/CML/OStore/cache used to start Nways Manager-LAN daemons and processes. For information on how to resolve this problem, refer to "Problems When Running Multiple NetView Sessions" in the online book Troubleshooting 8250, 8260, and 8265 Devices.


Using the Mouse

You can perform many of the functions of the graphical interface with the mouse, such as displaying menus, selecting menu options, and executing actions for network devices.

Nways Manager-LAN accommodates either a 2-button or 3-button mouse. If you are using a 2-button mouse, you can simulate button 3 by pressing button 1 and button 2 at the same time.

Some of the main ways to use the mouse are as follows:

For more information about using the mouse, refer to the NetView for AIX User's Guide Version 2 (SC31-7024).


Executable Devices

In NetView for AIX, devices are by default executable when you double-click on their icons. This is how you navigate through network views of LAN and hub resources. For example, if you double-click on a hub icon, an expanded Hub Level graphical view is displayed showing the contents of the hub.

The Nways Manager-LAN process that manages executable devices is called the Symbols Manager. The Symbols Manager determines which devices are to be discovered according to the Nways Manager-LAN applications that are installed. When a device is discovered, its icon appears on a Nways Manager-LAN submap. For more information on the Nways Manager-LAN applications you can install and how they discover devices, see the online book, Coupling and Autodiscovery.


Dragging and Dropping Icons

In a LAN submap, you can use the mouse to drag LAN resources and reposition them. See Customizing LAN Submaps for more information.

In a Hub Level view, you can use the mouse to drag and drop hub resources to:

For more information, see "Defining a Logical LAN" and "Monitoring Hub Resources" in the online book Managing 8250, 8260, and 8265 Devices.

To drag and drop an icon:

  1. Point to the resource and hold down MB2.

    The selected resource is outlined by a white border and its icon is displayed. The Information Area at the bottom of a hub view displays information about the resource.

  2. Move the mouse until the icon is over the object on which you want to drop it.

    When you drag an icon over an object that is a possible drop site, the icon and the drop site change color. If the object is not a possible drop site, the resource icon changes to a 'Do Not Enter' icon.

    If you drop an icon on a drop site that is not permitted, no operation is performed. In hub views, the reason is displayed on the bottom line of the Information Area.

  3. Release MB2.

    In Hub Level views, the result of the drag and drop is shown on the bottom line of the Information Area. The result depends on the icon you dragged and the object on which you dropped it. If the operation that is performed takes more time, the message In Progress appears.

Note:In a Hub Level view, after you drop a resource on an object, the Information Area sometimes waits a few seconds before displaying the results of the operation. If you drag another resource while the first operation is being performed, information on the results of the operation may appear when information on the second resource is being displayed.

Menus

In Nways Manager-LAN, menus contain options relevant for the currently selected object. Options which are not available for the selected object are shown in reduced highlight.

Nways Manager-LAN uses two types of menus:


Using LAN and Hub Management Panels

When you use Nways Manager-LAN to configure and monitor network resources or troubleshoot problems, management data is displayed in a set of panels that contain information about a selected object. The panels may include tables, graphs, and data entry forms. You can also navigate from one resource management panel to another without returning to a submap.

The menu bar provides access to functions relevant for a resource, such as enabling and disabling a port or starting and stopping a diagnostic routine. Information to identify the resource, such as a MAC address or segment number, and resource name are displayed below the menu bar.

The Attributes section contains a mixture of read-only and read-write fields that display the current values of the parameters. When you click on the name of a field, context-sensitive information about the field is displayed in the Information area.

The following pushbuttons are displayed in the action line at the bottom of the panel:

Depending on the information in the panel, some of the pushbuttons may not be displayed in the action line.


Using Pushbuttons to Navigate Between Panels

To navigate between management panels containing configuration information on hub modules, ports, and trunks, use the following pushbuttons:

You can access configuration information for ports and trunks on the backplane (not visible on the faceplate of the module) as follows:

  1. Click on the Port Form or Trunk Form pushbutton on the Module Configuration panel.

  2. Click on << or >> in the << Port >> or << Trunk >> buttons until the configuration panel for the port or trunk is displayed.

Getting Help

Nways Manager-LAN help information is available at three levels:

For some Nways Manager-LAN executables, daemons, and processes, you can display online reference information (called a man page) using the AIX man command. The man command displays a man page for a specified topic.

To display a man page for a Nways Manager-LAN topic, enter the following command from an AIX operating system shell:

man <topic>

where <topic> is the AIX name (for example, cmld) of the executable, daemon, or process.

For more information on the daemons and processes used by the Nways Manager-LAN applications, 8250, 8260, and 8265 Device Manager and LAN Network Manager, see the online books Troubleshooting 8250, 8260, and 8265 Devices and Troubleshooting Token-Ring and FDDI Resources.


Legend Panel

To get help on the icons and color-coded statuses used in Nways Manager-LAN, select Help -> Legend from the menu bar in a Hub Level or Module Level view. This displays the Legend panel.

The Legend panel displays all the icons used to represent modules, daughter cards, connectors, LAN networks, devices, hub objects, and operational statuses. Use the scroll bar to view the remaining icons on the panel.


Hub Icons

Besides the icons displayed in Legend Panel, Nways Manager-LAN also uses the icons shown in this section to represent 8250 and 8260 hubs and 8265 ATM switches. Icons for the following hubs are used to configure and manage network resources:

In addition, if you have installed the corresponding PSM with Nways Manager-LAN, the icons of PSM-managed hubs and switches also appear in the user interface.

8250 Hub Model 006

The 8250 Hub Model 006 is a basic, six-slot IBM 8250 chassis represented in the IBM Hubs Topology:

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8250 Hub Model 6HC

The 8250 Hub Model 6HC is a basic, six-slot IBM 8250 chassis with a hidden controller which can be with or without redundancy. It is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8250 Hub Model 6PS

The 8250 Hub Model 6PS is a six-slot IBM 8250 chassis with an integrated IBM PS/2. It is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

8250 Hub Model 017

The 8250 Hub Model 017 is a 17-slot IBM 8250 chassis that is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8260 Hub Model 007

The 8260 Hub Model 007 is a 7-slot IBM 8260 chassis and is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8260 Hub Model 010

The 8260 Hub Model 010 is a 10-slot IBM 8260 chassis and is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8260 Hub Model 017

The 8260 Hub Model 017 is a 17-slot IBM 8260 chassis and is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the hub.

8260 Hubs Managed by an ATM Switch

If no DMM module is installed in an 8260 hub, the hub can be managed by an ATM Switch module (Version 2.3 or later) that contains a subset of the DMM MIB. This allows the ATM Switch module to act as the master management module. In this case, the hub is displayed in the IBM Hubs Topology.

8265 ATM Switch Model 17S

The 8265 ATM Switch is a 17-slot chassis with ATM backplane and is represented in the IBM Hubs Topology.

By clicking on the icon, you can open the device.

Unreachable Hubs

When a hub becomes unreachable, it is displayed with a red icon.

Hubs With Failed Critical Resources

When a hub has one or more critical resources that have failed, it is displayed with the failure icon.


Status of Hub and LAN Resources

The network resources that you manage with Nways Manager-LAN are represented graphically by icons. The NetView for AIX graphical interface displays these icons on submaps.

The status of the managed resource is indicated by the color of its icon on the submap. You can control how the icon color is set by specifying the status aggregation scheme for the object. For more information, see Defining Status Aggregation.

Also, you can customize how you want individual hub resources to be monitored. The values you set affect how the compound hub status is calculated. For more information, see "Monitoring Hub Resources" in the online book Managing 8250, 8260, and 8265 Devices.

Color-coded Status of Icons

The current status of network resources is indicated by the color of their icons. Table 2 describes what each status means and which color is, by default, associated with it.

Table 2. Color-coded Status of Hub and LAN Resources
Status (Color) Meaning
Unknown (Blue) The status of the resource cannot be determined or the resource is not being monitored either because it has not been discovered or because the connection with its managing agent has been lost.
Normal (Green) The resource is in a normal operational state.
Unmanaged (Brown) The resource has been removed from network management by an operator action.
Marginal (Yellow) The operation of a resource is impaired but still functional.
Critical (Red) The resource has lost its network connection and is not functional.
Disabled (Grey) The resource has been de-activated by an operator action or an agent request. The resource's status is not taken into account when a compound status is calculated.
User1 (default color defined by NetView for AIX) The resource is temporarily not responding to SNMP requests, but is still connected to the network and responds to a ping. To display the current color, open the Legend window by selecting Help -> Legend.

To customize the color, log on as root and follow these steps:

  1. Open the file /usr/OV/app-defaults/OVw.

  2. Scroll to the field OVw*user1StatusColor and enter a new value for the color.

  3. Restart the NetView for AIX interface to activate the change.

The default colors for Nways Manager-LAN icons are the same as for NetView for AIX.

Using NetView for AIX, you can change the color that represents each status, except for Unknown which is always shown in blue. For information about how to change the default colors, see the NetView for AIX User's Guide.

Defining Status Aggregation

The status of an icon represents an aggregation of the resources that constitute that icon. For example, the icon for an FDDI segment in a LAN Network submap displays the compound status of the workstations, concentrators, and bridges that constitute the segment. Similarly, the icon for an individual resource, such as a workstation, represents the status of the workstation's MAC, ports, and other internal components.

Through NetView for AIX, you can customize the status aggregation policy for your network environment. You can also generate compound status for icons. The following list describes the types of status you can generate when you customize the status aggregation policy:

To specify the compound status policy, use the NetView for AIX graphical interface. When you set a status aggregation policy, it applies to all submaps that are displayed by NetView for AIX, including those that are generated by Nways Manager-LAN. For information about changing the compound status policy, refer to the NetView for AIX User's Guide.

Resources that have an unknown or unmanaged status do not affect status aggregation. For example, if one workstation in a Segment submap displays a critical status and the rest of the resources on that segment are unknown or unmanaged, the segment displays a critical status.


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