Cisco Network Assistant - Cisco Catalyst Express 500-24LC User Manual

Switch Management Options

Cisco Network Assistant

User Guide for the Catalyst Express 500 Switches
1-12
The switches support the Cisco Network Assistant network management
application. Network Assistant offers an enhanced set of features for configuring
and monitoring one or more devices, including switches, device clusters, device
stacks, routers, and access points.
Catalyst Express 500 features that are available on Network Assistant but not
available from the device manager include:
• Levels (Low, Medium, or High) of network security and switch access for
devices attached to the switch
• Smartports Diagnostics port role to optimize the connection between a switch
port and a network troubleshooting device
• Device inventory to retrieve information such as the IP address, the MAC
address, and the port role information of devices connected to the switch
Some general Network Assistant features include:
• Centralized, common services—such as software upgrades, configuration
management, inventory reports, network events, alerts, and password
synchronization—for Cisco switches, routers, and access points in the
network
Centralized network monitoring using two different views of all connected
•
devices in the network: a physical view (front panel images) and a logical
view (network topology image of different network devices, including IP
phones)
Drag-and-drop software upgrade for multiple switches, including
•
backup-and-restore through a switch configuration file
• Security configuration for all the Cisco access points in the network
Interactive tools (such as wizards) to simplify configuration of complex
•
features
For more information, see the Cisco Network Assistant Introduction at this URL:
http://www.cisco.com/go/networkassistant
Chapter 1 Introduction
OL-8122-01