External Device Management - Using SNMP - 1
External Devices A location can comprise of many external devices like Access Points, routers etc. in addition to the PSC This aids in expanding the location s coverage The PSC must be reinitialized each time any new external device is added The external devices can be configured with just the MAC address in the OSS The PSC will obtain the IP address of the external device when it goes live 2
External Devices Management using SNMP Remotely configure third party external devices (AP, routers etc.) connected to the PSC that are not accessible from the Internet APs are connected behind the PSC to the LAN interface The external devices can be managed using SNMP Protocol SNMP protocol helps in creating the templates for the management of external devices These templates are used to configure the external devices Important pre-requisite is that these external devices should support SNMP 3
Process Overview The process of managing the access point from the OSS using the SNMP AP Management tool involves these four steps: 1. Upload any of the available MIBs Management Information Base, a database of objects that can be monitored by a network management system. SNMP uses standardized MIB formats that allows any SNMP tools to monitor any device defined by a MIB. 2. Identify objects from the MIB & create a template to manipulate these objects 3. Configure AP with appropriate SNMP admin template & SNMP parameters 4. View/Modify the access point from the OSS using the template created 4
1. Upload any of the available MIBs From this module a WISP Administrator can upload any of the available standard MIBs Select Controller Management > MIBs Choose a WISP Browse to obtain the standard MIB file Click Upload MIBS to Upload it to the chosen WISP 5
Upload MIBs To upload a MIB to all the WISPs simultaneously, login in HOSTED mode and choose Default in the Select a WISP column MIB files will be stored in /u01/hns/mibs directory when it is uploaded from the OSS OSS will load all the MIBS present in this directory to the MIB Browser Before setting up the SNMP Admin Templates, the MIBs have to be uploaded 6
2. Identify Objects from the MIB & Create Template to manipulate these objects From this module a WISP Administrator can define a custom External Device Management GUI to manage & monitor different makes and models of external devices Select Controller Management > External Devices Select a WISP click Add Template to view the Setup External Device Template window 7
Setup External Device Template Enter the relevant values SNMP Enable: Mark this flag to enable this template for managing the APs through SNMP IEEE 802.11: Mark this flag to enable support to manage those APs, which are on the wireless network Click Next to view the Setup External Device Standard Parameters window 8
Standard Parameters The standard SNMP parameters with pre-defined object Ids for different system settings are displayed here Enter the relevant Instance number This value indicates the position of the object in the vector. This parameter is not used in case of scalar data If the instance is not provided for an interface, then the predefined SNMP parameters for that interface are not configured Click Next to view the Setup External Device Parameters window 9
Enter the relevant values Click Add to List SNMP parameters values gets added to the list Click Save to view the Confirmation window Setup Parameters 10
Confirmation of successful creation of External Device Template Confirmation page indicating successful creation of the SNMP Management template 11
3. Configure AP with appropriate SNMP admin template & SNMP parameters From the main menu access Controller Management > Search Select a WISP, Franchisee & a Location Click Search to view the List of Controllers From the Modify drop box of the selected WISP choose External Devices to view the externally Connected Devices window 12
Externally Connected Devices Enter the relevant fields Click Add to List Click Save 13
Alert An Alert window is displayed Click Ok to apply the changes to the controller 14
4. View/Modify the access point from the OSS using the template created From the main menu access Controller Management > Search Choose a WISP, Franchisee & Location Click Search to display the list of controllers Click SNMP Console icon to view List of Access Points Popup Window 15
List of Access Points List of IP address of the access points is displayed Settings can be either Viewed or Modified 16
SNMP Interface Click View to display the standard and custom SNMP interface window providing information pertaining to that access point Custom: This SNMP GUI will contain standard pre-defined parameters of all the different make and model of APs available Standard: This SNMP GUI will display all the custom APs that was defined manually in the SNMP Admin Template interface using standard MIBs Click Refresh, if viewing for the first time to get the current SNMP values 17
SNMP Interface Click Modify to display the standard and custom SNMP interface window SNMP parameters with write access only will be displayed Change the required parameters Click Apply to accept the changes NOTE: In situations where the AP might be removed from the network, Save & Apply is provided, which helps in storing the required AP information in the database 18
External Device Management Server(EDMS) Application developed to add, configure and manage external devices like third party access points, routers etc. residing at a location, directly from the WISP These devices CANNOT be monitored from the OSS Bypasses the PSC and provides easy & direct access to the external devices EDMS decouples the OSS from the PSC, making the OSS independently responsible for managing the external devices 19
EDMS Process Currently, to setup an external device, say, an AP, from the OSS, a hierarchical 5 step setup process is followed 1. Setup the WISP 2. Setup the Franchisee 3. Setup the Location 4. Setup the PSC & 5. Finally setup the AP under that Gateway But with the EDMS application, it is simplified to a two step process 1. Setup the EDMS Server. (The pre-requisite to configure the EDMS is that the WISP should have atleast one Franchisee and one Location previously setup.) 2. Add any number of external devices like APs, routers etc. to it 20
EDMS Implementation Install the EDMS Sever at the WISP's NOC Configure the EDMS server from the OSS Install the external device at the location & connect it to the EDMS server at the WISP s NOC using the OSS Configure & manage the external device using OSS s SNMP Console 21