Simple Inventory Management; The Alarm System; The Configuration Manager; The Grouping Manager - Extreme Networks EPICenter Software Installation Manual

Summary of Features

Simple Inventory Management

EPICenter's Inventory Manager applet keeps a database of all the devices managed by the EPICenter
software. Any EPICenter user can view status information about the switches currently known to the
EPICenter database.
The EPICenter Inventory Management applet provides an automatic discovery function. Users with the
appropriate access can use this feature to discover Extreme and other MIB-2 devices by specific IP
address or within a range of IP addresses.
Network devices can also be added to the EPICenter database manually, using the Inventory Manager
Add function. Once a network device is known to the EPICenter database, you can assign it to a specific
device group, and configure it using the VLAN Manager, the Configuration Manager, or the
ExtremeView tool.
EPICenter also provides a command-line utility that lets you create device groups and import large
numbers of devices into the inventory database through scripts, to streamline the process of adding and
organizing devices for management purposes.

The Alarm System

The EPICenter Alarm System provides fault detection and alarm handling for the network devices
monitored by the EPICenter software. This includes Extreme devices and some third-party
devices—those that the EPICenter software can include in its Inventory database. The Alarm System
also lets you define your own alarms that will report errors under conditions you specify, such as
repeated occurrences or exceeding threshold values. You can specify the actions that should be taken
when an alarm occurs, and you can enable and disable individual alarms.
Fault detection is based on SNMP traps, RMON traps, Syslog messages, and some limited polling. The
Alarm System supports SNMP MIB-2 and the Extreme Networks private MIB. You can also configure
alarms based on certain event thresholds, or on the content of Syslog messages. When an alarm occurs
you can specify actions such as sending e-mail, forwarding a trap, running a program, running a script,
or sounding an audible alert.

The Configuration Manager

The EPICenter Configuration Manager applet provides a mechanism and a graphical interface for
uploading and downloading configuration files to and from managed devices. It can also download
ExtremeWare software images and BootROM images to Extreme Networks devices, or to Extreme
modules that include software.
The Configuration Manager provides a framework for storing the configuration files, to allow tracking
of multiple versions. Configuration file uploads can be performed on demand, or can be scheduled to
occur at regular times—once a day, once a week, or at whatever interval is appropriate.

The Grouping Manager

One of the powerful features of the EPICenter software is its ability to take actions on multiple devices
or resources with a single user action. The Grouping Manager facilitates this by letting you organize
various resources into hierarchical groups, which can then be referenced in other applets. You can then
take actions on a group, rather than having to specify the individual devices or ports that you want to
affect.
EPICenter Software Installation and User Guide 23