Has anyone every installed and deployed CiscoWorks from the ground up? We are looking into installing it to manage around 20+ switches (all cisco of course) and I wanted to get some feedback from those who have used it. I have never installed CiscoWorks or played around with it before but it seems straightforward. I am having a hard time finding an easy and in depth how to install and configure guide on the net. Any help/suggestions would be awesome!
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Installing CiscoWorks
- Thread starter kwmarc
- Start date
How does this help the OP? It doesn't and it's not constructive to the conversation.
Shadowspawn
[H]ard|Gawd
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We installed it on both the low and high sides of our network to manage approximately 250 switches on each side.
We don't use it. At all.
It isn't that we don't want to use it. The idea is nice and it would be fantastic to pull up the various reports it promises and make mass configuration changes with it; however, it is just a PITA to use.
I am not convinced the install was completed correctly and we keep running into various issues when we try to use it. None of the guys on my team wants to screw with it and I cannot blame them. I hope to dig into it when things quiet down later this year but until I have real time to dedicate it isn't going to happen.
My office has CCNA/CCNP techs with many years of experience and we don't like screwing with it.
We don't use it. At all.
It isn't that we don't want to use it. The idea is nice and it would be fantastic to pull up the various reports it promises and make mass configuration changes with it; however, it is just a PITA to use.
I am not convinced the install was completed correctly and we keep running into various issues when we try to use it. None of the guys on my team wants to screw with it and I cannot blame them. I hope to dig into it when things quiet down later this year but until I have real time to dedicate it isn't going to happen.
My office has CCNA/CCNP techs with many years of experience and we don't like screwing with it.
Yes it is. The point is to not install it unless a gun is pointed to your head. The OP said he was considering it, not that it was bought & paid for.
My opinion and criticism couldn't be any more succinct. It's a POS.
The purpose of installing this is really only for 2 reasons.
1) The site in which we are working with has 100 some Cisco switches all on different versions of IOS for their respected models. We want to build a local copy of the IOS and once it has been fully tested, push it out to all of the relevant model switches.
2) Propagate VLAN information across the switches and be able to monitor the switches from 1 location. Yes, I know you can configure them manually and use VTP but that is not how this customer wishes to implement this situation.
CiscoWorks seems like it will accomplish both of the aforementioned and I simply want to know how to install it and see if anyone has experience with. What version they are using, etc.
1) The site in which we are working with has 100 some Cisco switches all on different versions of IOS for their respected models. We want to build a local copy of the IOS and once it has been fully tested, push it out to all of the relevant model switches.
2) Propagate VLAN information across the switches and be able to monitor the switches from 1 location. Yes, I know you can configure them manually and use VTP but that is not how this customer wishes to implement this situation.
CiscoWorks seems like it will accomplish both of the aforementioned and I simply want to know how to install it and see if anyone has experience with. What version they are using, etc.
Your comment adds even less value -- have you even used it? Quite honestly, he was saving him time. It's likely the biggest POS Cisco has ever written, and plenty of top network engineers in the world I've worked with agree.
For a scalable net management solution, HP Opsware absolutely destroys it -- I introduced one large bank that used CiscoWorks in the past to Opsware and they couldn't believe how much more intuitive it was.
For small homogeneous deployments, carefully designed linux scripts/expect statements would suffice. I'd go down that route if I were you. That's what I do now in my [Juniper
] network.