NetBrain Workstation Professional Edition 2.3 Release notes

Transcription

1 NetBrain Workstation Professional Edition 2.3 Release notes Major Features...1 Known Issues*...5 NetBrain Workstation Support Site...7 Recommended System Requirements...7 Installation Notes...7 Major Features L2 Topology 1. Discover L2 topology via CDP, MAC table and ARP table, then you can view the connectivity between switch port and router interface or host. You can browse the L2 topology of each LAN segment. The discovered results are shown in new L2 Topology Pane, One IP Table Pane and Switch Connectivity Pane. 2. The CDP table can be retrieved via SNMP or telnet specified by global option. 3. Add L2 topology map, by which you can extend switch to switch; browse detail information of switch ports, e.g. VLAN, mode, trunk VLAN, STP block status, etc. You can create a L2 map by drag Switch Group or LAN segment from L2 pane. 4. Improved the auto-layout algorithm of L2 map to avoid the overlapping of switch and switch links, layout many hosts connected to one switch port better. 5. The current discovered One IP table entry or switch connectivity entry can be compared with those saved in workspace before. 6. User can add or edit switch port connectivity or One IP Table entries manually. 7. From L3 Q-map, click to select a LAN segment, and zoom in by mouse wheel, the LAN segment will be replaced with connected switches if the L2 topology of this LAN has been discovered successfully. You can expand all LAN segments in L3 map by main menu L2 Topology > View L2 Details. 8. From L3 Q-map, right click a LAN segment or path Bezier, select View L2 Topology option in the context menu, a new L2 map will be created from the LAN or path. 9. Highlight ports of each LAN. 10. Drag device (router/host) and its connectivity with switch port from switch connectivity pane or one IP table pane to map. Whatever the host was defined in workstation, you can operate on the dragged host in map, e.g. ping, traceroute, extend neighbor, etc. 11. More information of IOS switch and catalyst switch was parsed from configuration file. For example, port mode, trunk, VLAN, port channel, etc. 12. Define switch port attributes in Device Setting Dialog, for example, STP block status, speed, duplex, etc. 13. Capture MAC address of known devices in workspace from any other process. 14. User can clear all discovered results of LAN via its context menu Clean LAN and rediscover its L2 topology again.

2 15. By the menu under L2 Topology or right click Switch Group icon in L2 Pane, you can do Rebuild Switch Group to recreate all switch groups via saved switch connectivity. 16. Improve the performance that too slow to delete hundreds of One IP Table entries. Access to Live Network 1. Provide NetBrain Proxy Server, which is used to act as the proxy of SNMP / Ping / Traceroute access to live network. 2. Define show command and show command template, do batch execution of show commands. The show command support a lot of important variable, e.g. $interface, $visible_interface, etc 3. Manage all show command result in DataFolder, support comparing between various version and export. 4. Support the rich formatting of Show Command Result. 5. Support IP SLA definition and management. 6. Live network discovery via Seed Router and/or scanning the IP range has been improved to support better for jump-box, input or import multiple IP addresses as the source. 7. Add several option for Live Network Discovery: Only Via Local, Use CDP to Discover Neighbor Devices, Use Route Table to Discover Next hops, etc 8. Support multiple prompts of telnet/ssh in Live Network Discovery and Tune Live Access. 9. Add more intelligence in live access so that user needn t set the Put live hostname before prompt option in Device Settings. 10. Try to retrieve route/arp/mac table in non-privilege mode firstly, if failed, go to privilege mode to retrieve automatically. The Enter privilege mode while retrieving live route/arp/mac/cdp table option in Device Settings has been removed. 11. Add CDP table option in Retrieve Live Data function and device context menu. 12. Improved all live access related features to support Login Script defined in Device Settings, include Retrieve Live Data, Discover L2 Topology, IP Accounting, Smart Telnet, etc 13. Support generating simple configuration of catalyst switch via SNMP in live discovery. 14. Retrieving interface MIB if-index more quickly while monitoring. 15. Save MAC address of Ethernet interface into device setting after retrieving live data. 16. Add Export Results context menu in Live Network Discovery and Tune Live Access, by which user can save the detail progress of these long time task and review or redo them later. 17. No SSH from Router operation for safety reason. 18. The detail log of live access, e.g. Discover, Tune, Retrieve, was improved much better for diagnosis. And you can send them to NetBrain for help by main menu Help > Create Tech Support Log. 19. The IP SLA function has been improved to show result chart of the device IP SLA which was not configured by NetBrain Workstation. In the new IP SLA definition UI, all configured IP SLA RTR numbers and their detail information are listed for choosing.

3 20. Allow user to test the Jump-box after define it immediately. Create 2-point Map 1. Integrate Traceroute path calculation function into Create Map Pane. Traceroute from Local Host, Proxy Appliance and Device is available here. 2. Discovering traffic path from live route table (via telnet/ssh) is added here too. 3. Only one path calculation method can be specified at same time. 4. With the new View L2 Path in Create Map Pane, user can expand the L3 traffic path into L2 traffic path after doing Discover L2 Topology on relevant network segments, and the L2 path will be drawn to L2 map automatically. The L2 path is calculated by the MAC table cached in current DataFolder. Select a L2 path Bezier in Q-map, user can see each hop in Create Map Pane too. 5. All the improvement in Create Map Pane was done in IP Detector too. 6. Show detail progress log of Path Discovery in new Path Log Pane, you can open this pane in main menu View > Result Pane > Path Log Pane manually, if any error occurs during path discovery, this pane will be displayed automatically. 7. Discover live path in asynchronous mode while do this via IP Detector. 8. Handle some network cases better, e.g. VRF in MPLS network. Q-map 1. Save all map data into one Q-map file only, include Map DataFolder, Sub-map, Embedded device configuration file and device setting, which were saved in a folder along the Q-map file. All the modification of Q-map, include the DataFolder content and embedded configuration files, will be saved into the Q-map immediately after user do Save on the Q-map. 2. Allow open the Q-map file and view all map data in Inside Map Pane without any workspace. 3. Manage the embedded device configuration files and device settings in Inside Map Pane, double the device can browse its configuration file. 4. Import/export live result data between different Map Data Folder without Workspace opened is supported now. 5. User can Create Workspace with the device configuration files and device setting in current Q-map if no workspace is opened. 6. User can rename sub-map via the context menu of sub-map in Inside Map Pane. 7. Improve the Export to Visio function for L2 map, all the hosts linked to switch port can be moved with the switch while dragging. 8. In the Extend Neighbor Dialog, all no-ip interfaces and no-neighbor interfaces are listed too, for example, loop back interfaces. Double click that interface, you can display it in the Q-map. Monitoring is available for those no-neighbor physical interfaces. Manual Diagram

4 1. Besides diagram based on network topology parsed from configuration files, NetBrain Workstation allow you draw network diagram freely. 2. Drag device icon from Diagram Stencil Pane to Q-map, then a virtual device with default hostname is added the Q-map. 3. Select two devices in the Q-map, either actual devices or virtual devices, you can add link between then via context menu or map toolbar button. Click the link to input any information, which can be displayed in Q-map, in the Properties Pane. 4. All the virtual devices without configuration file in workspace but drawn in Q-map, is colored as grey style by default. You can change this by the Tag Invalid Device & Interface menu. Workspace Data Model 1. Allow user define MPLS cloud to supply the network topology and simulate traffic path accurately. 2. Support check point firewall and F5 load-balance definition. They can be shown in map and monitoring. Live path discovery also supports them. 3. Get device generic information via SNMP when you want to define non-cisco router or switch in NetBrain workstation. Device Group 1. User can open an auto-created topology map for each device group, and then optimize layout, add some notes, etc. When you open attached topology map of the device group again, all saved changes are there. 2. User can do Retrieve live data and Discover L2 Topology via the context menu of device group directly. 3. User can do Batch import/export device groups from/to one CSV file easily. Misc 1. Drag device configuration file or folder including configuration files to workstation, you can diagram the devices quickly. If now workspace created, a new workspace a Q-map will be created for those devices, otherwise, the new configuration file will overwrite or insert into current workspace, and devices will be diagram into Q-map automatically. 2. User can lock/unlock current DataFolder in DataFolder bar easily and manage all DataFolders via new DataFolder Pane more friendly. For example, you can see the statistic info in DataFolder browsing view, drag live data from between different DataFolder. 3. Support F5 load-balance and Checkpoint Firewall well, including monitoring, SNMP discovery in Add Generic Device and Live Network Discovery, topology map, etc. However the SNMP port of Checkpoint must be configured to 161 for now. 4. The live retrieved data, e.g. live configuration, live route table, etc, can be compared more easily.

5 5. Support MAC address searching by Search Bar, the MAC-device relationship is built in Discover L2 Topology and Retrieve Live Data(interface information option). 6. The Q-map layout arithmetic of traffic path was improved to avoid overlapping. 7. You can use menu Q-map > Refresh Map Data to refresh not only L3 Q-map information but also L2 Q-map information, e.g. port duplex, STP status, etc. 8. Add Connected switch port attribute for each network card in Host. 9. Show Alarm Sign in the left-top corner of device icon in monitoring Q-map if the device or its interface has alarm events. You can close this in Q-map properties. 10. You can export/import more data between workstation and outside folder, e.g. the L2 topology data, defined MPLS cloud, defined generic device, etc. 11. Add Backup Config File & Device Setting and Restore Config File & Device Setting function under the Workspace main menu. 12. Design Filters can be exported or imported in batch mode easily. 13. Add Compare Config & Routing function in Startup Page and Workspace menu, which can be executed only in Q-map individually before. Known Issues* This document contains all known issues you may encounter while using NetBrain Workstation Professional Edition 2.3. Live Discover 1. For L2/L3 Discover, the data of the device may not be retrieved completely if SNMP and CDP are not enabled on it. 2. L2/L3 discovery can discover only Cisco s devices. The devices from other vendors are treated as generic devices. 3. Inputting IP range and subnet IP simultaneously is not allowed when you input the device list in batch for L2/L3 discover. 4. Workstation can access live device via SNMP by 161 port only, but the default port of some Checkpoint Firewall is 260. We will support customization of SNMP port in next release. L2 Topology 1. Manual input rather than dynamic updating is supported for STP. 2. When L2 path is displayed in Create Map panel, the result cannot be matched if the concerned interface is either IN or OUT. To put it another way, a switch port can only be used for one time. MPLS 1. When the MPLS Cloud calculates routes, it does not consider any routing policies like filter and route map temporarily. 2. The MPLS Cloud does not support specifying VRF at present. Simulation The interface will still participate in route simulation when it is not shut down and no physical link exists. Generic Device 1. To get the CPU and memory information of the generic devices via SNMP, you need to fill the OID into the Device Spec global setting.

6 Vista License Compatibility of Proxy Appliance Others 2. Simulation only takes care of the static routes for Generic Device. 1. You must install and activate the Workstation as administrator, even the account in default administrator group can t do this well. 2. After installation, if you failed to run the workstation, please get into the installation folder, set the file properties of NetBrain_ME.exe in the bin subfolder: compatibility > Windows XP Professional with SP2. 3. If login windows OS with another account, the compatibility attribute of NetBrain.exe must be set as previous again. Do not modify system time to prolong the service life of a license. Otherwise, this may make your license expire or shorter according to the modified time. If you need to prolong the service life of your license, connect NetBrain. 1. The New PE2.3( )can't work together with the old Proxy Appliance( ). 2. The PE2.3 ( )can work together with the new Proxy Appliance( ). So, if you upgrade PE 2.3 ( )to PE2.3( ) with last Proxy Appliance, please upgrade the Proxy Appliance too. 1. You can only select up to characters in NetBrain live CLI to copy them, but a new copy all option was added into the context menu. 2. IP Detector cannot capture the IP/MAC address after explorer or Workstation crashed, restart windows will be fine. 3. After export to CSV file, some separate interface names will be displayed as data format in a few tables when you use Excel to view it, but the actual content is right, you can set the Excel cell to text format to view rightly. 4. The VRF routing table of EIGRP cannot be displayed in config let panel. 5. If the number of static route configured in Host is more than the net card number, when you export the host, only the some static routes less than net card will be exported. 6. When the added Q-note is not combined with device, the context will not be searched, either normal search or advanced search. 7. Create map panel displayed the Traceroute path result, but the BGP protocol cannot be matched accurately. 8. PIX, MPLS cloud, NAT are not supported when calculating path. 9. For the interface that has secondary IP address, the routing protocol shown on its link line in Q-map is the routing protocol belongs to the interface. * As of March 5, 2009

7 NetBrain Workstation Support Site For the most reliable and up to date information about NetBrain Workstation Professional Edition 2.3, covering all aspects of the program, please visit the NetBrain support site: Recommended System Requirements The following hardware and software are recommended to use NetBrain Workstation Professional Edition 2.3: Operating system Windows 2000 SP4 with Internet Explorer 6 or above. Windows XP SP2 Windows 2003 SP1 Window Vista Processor 1.1 GHz or higher Free hard disk space 1 Gigabyte Memory 512 MB or above Installation Notes To install and set up NetBrain Workstation, you must have the administration access to the computer that you want to install the software. 1. Close any opened program. 2. Insert the NetBrain Workstation CD into your CD-ROM drive (If you download the software from NetBrain website, please double click the.exe file). 3. The system will auto detect and give you some detail information. Click on the Next button to continue. 4. Choose the item of Accept, otherwise you can t continue. 5. Input username and your company name. Also you can specify the application can be used by anyone who uses this computer or by yourself only. Click on the Next button to continue. 6. Click on the Browse button, you can set the installation path. Click on the Next button to continue. 7. At this step, you can view current settings. Click on the Install button to continue. 8. Click on the Finish button to finish.