User's Guide

Managing Software Inventory

IBM provides updates for the operational code for network devices. These load images can be new base releases, program temporary fixes (PTFs), or emergency program temporary fixes (EPTFs). In addition, IBM updates the Boot and Diagnostic Code (PROM images) for devices such as the 2210.

You can use Deployment Manager to maintain these different images. In fact, Deployment Manager needs access to these images to upgrade and update device configurations.

Two steps are required to update the software inventory in the NwDM database:

1. Edit software inventory properties to specify where the load images and PROM images are located.
2. Launch the inventory update process to actually update the NwDM database. Deployment Manager uses the software inventory properties to obtain the inventory file and update the database.

The process of updating software inventory loads information about load images and PROM images into the Deployment Manager database, but it does not actually put the load images and PROM images into the database. Before using these images to update configurations in network devices, you must first import them into the database.

Updating Software Inventory Properties

Follow these steps to update the software inventory properties:

1. From the navigation tree, click Edit software inventory properties to display the Edit Software Inventory Properties panel.
2. Click the down arrow in the Inventory file source field to choose the appropriate download site. Click IBM-North America. Notice that the other fields are automatically updated to reflect your choice.
3. In the Products pane, make sure the appropriate devices are selected. You can update the properties for 2210, 2212, 2216, and 8275 Model 416 (8275-416).
4. Click Apply to save these properties.
5. A Save confirmation dialog is displayed. Click OK to close the dialog.

When you invoke Update Software Inventory, Deployment Manager uses these properties to obtain the inventory file.

Updating the Software Inventory

Follow these steps to update the software inventory in the NwDM database:

1. From the navigation tree, click Update software inventory to display the Inventory Update panel.
2. Enter a valid user ID and password to access the site you specified as the Inventory file source in the Edit Software Inventory Properties task panel. In this case, a user ID of anonymous is valid for the IBM-North America site. Enter your e-mail address as the password.
3. Click Apply to begin the update process.
4. The Update software inventory task starts immediately. The Progress window displays messages reflecting the current status.

   The process may take a while, especially if this is the first time you have updated software inventory. When the task is completes successfully, the Progress window displays:

   Updates for all requested products complete

Viewing the List of Load Images

After the Update Software Inventory task completes, you can view a list of all load images found by Deployment Manager for each device. Follow these steps to see the list of load images available for the 2210:

1. From the navigation tree, click Load Images from the 2210 folder to display the Load Images task panel for the device. You may need to expand the 2210 folder first.
2. Use the Filter task pane to define the criteria used to search for load images. In this case, simply leave each of the fields in the Filter task pane blank and click Apply Filter.

   Clicking Apply Filter without refining the search criteria will return all load images defined in the NwDM database for that product. Keep in mind that this list can be extremely large. Therefore you typically want to refine your search criteria.

3. The results of the search are displayed in the Filtered List task pane. In addition to the load image name, the Filtered List task pane displays the software version and release to which the load image applies, the PTF to which the load image applies, and the length of the load image.

   Notice that the length of all load images is 0. This means that the load image is defined to Deployment Manager, but it is not actually loaded in the NwDM database. You will need to import the load image (or upload it during the Learn 2210 task) before it can be used to update a network device.