Cisco® Multicast Manager is a web-based network management application that simplifies the holistic discovery, visualization, monitoring, and troubleshooting of multicast networks to help ensure business continuity. Cisco Multicast Manager is applicable to enterprise customers that employ multicast for financial market data, to multiple system operators (MSOs) that utilize multicast to transport video over IP, and to service providers that need to manage their Multicast VPN (MVPN) environment.
Cisco Multicast Manager includes:
• Automated multicast discovery and topology generation
• Proactive multicast polling and monitoring
• Real-time multicast diagnostics
• Alerting and reporting
• Support for Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM), PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM), PIM Source Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM), and Multicast VPN (MVPN)
Applications
Figure 1 shows how Cisco Multicast Manager can be used to trace a multicast group. In this example, multicast is being used to transport video. The trace is presented in tabular and graphical format. The table can update dynamically, showing the packet per second (pps) rate, output errors, and discards for each interface along the tree. Cisco Multicast Manager also includes support for video probes that may be deployed for monitoring video quality. The embedded address management database shows which channels are affected if there is a problem with a specific multicast group.
Figure 1. Using Cisco Multicast Manager to Trace a Multicast Group
Features and Benefits
In addition to the features shown in Table 1, Cisco Multicast Manager has support for multicast VPNs and RFC 4445 video probes. The MVPN feature provides monitoring and alerting of changes detected in the multicast Virtual Route Forwarding (VRF) tables. The real-time diagnostics show VRF to multicast distribution tree (MDT) mapping details along with MDT data ranges and thresholds. Continued support for video probes allows Cisco Multicast Manager to report video quality issues for specific multicast groups while highlighting the video channels that those groups support. Integration of these probes with Cisco Multicast Manager enables real-time alerts for rapid network fault isolation of customer impacting video events. Cisco Multicast Monitor supports probes from IneoQuest, Bridge Technologies, and Mixed Signals.
Table 1. Features and Benefits
Feature
Benefit
Automated multicast discovery
Discovers complete multicast topology from a single seed device, along with the MVPN provider and provider edge devices and VRF tables they support. Discovery bridges the provide edge to the customer edge to create an end-to-end view of the multicast environment.
Proactive polling engine
Highly scalable polling engine to detect multicast anomalies before they become mission critical problems
Alerts and reports
Any exceptions detected by the polling engine are sent as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps and logged for reporting purposes. Reports are available for Rendezvous Points (RPs), Source-Group (S,G) pps rates, tree changes, interface bandwidth, Layer 2 port pps rates. Real-time alerts originating from an IneoQuest iVMS application are also actionable through the video operations solution (VOS) add-on.
Show all groups
Provides a complete list of active S,Gs
IGMP diagnostics
Displays all devices that have seen an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) join for a particular group
MSDP status
Shows the status of all Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP)-enabled devices and their peers, including Source-Active cache information
Layer 2 diagnostics
Shows which multicast groups are being forwarded on a particular Layer 2 switch port
Health check
Provides on-demand checking of forwarding trees; RPs and checking for the existence of specific S,Gs can also be scheduled to run automatically
6500/7600 troubleshooting
Provides the equivalent of a Cisco IOS® Software command-line interface "show tech" for multicast, along with Local Target Logic (LTL) checking and pps rates taken from the route processor, switch processor, or distributed forwarding card. Output can be emailed directly to the Cisco Technical Assistance Center for further analysis.
System Requirements
Table 2 lists the system requirements for Cisco Multicast Manager.
Table 2. System Requirements
Component
Description
Disk space
4 GB or more free space for Cisco Multicast Manager application and data
Hardware
Linux
• Dual AMD Opteron Processor 250 2.4-GHz for large enterprise (more than 500 devices)
• Dual 2.8-GHz Intel Pentium IV or dual 2.8-GHz Intel Xeon processor for large enterprise (more than 500 devices)
• 2.8-GHz Intel Pentium IV or 2.8-GHz Intel Xeon processor
Solaris
• Sun Fire v440: Up to four 1.593-GHz UltraSPARC IIIi processors for large enterprise (more than 500 devices)
• Sun Fire v240: One 1.34-GHz or two 1.5-GHz UltraSPARC processors
Memory
• 2 GB
• 4 GB for large enterprise (more than 500 devices)
CMM 3.0 Base Upgrade. Upgrades CMM 2.x SM to 3.0 SM Base. Linux and Solaris
CMM2.X-3.0-UGSM-K9
CMM 3.0 Base Upgrade. Upgrades CMM 2.x MD to 3.0 MD Base. Linux and Solaris
CMM2.X-3.0-UGMD-K9
CMM 3.0 Base Upgrade. Upgrades CMM 2.x SM to 3.0 Unrestricted Base. Linux and Solaris
CMM2.X-3.0-UGUR-K9
Service and Support
Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and its partners provide a broad portfolio of end-to-end services and support that can help increase your network's business value and return on investment. This approach defines the minimum set of activities needed, by technology and by network complexity, to help you successfully deploy and operate Cisco technologies and optimize their performance throughout the lifecycle of your network.
