* Focus on Cisco's Cluster Management Suite
Today I’d like to take a closer look at a Cisco technology that can make it easier to manage its Catalyst switches.
Cisco includes its Cluster Management Suite, or CMS, software with several of its fixed-configuration LAN switches, including the Catalyst 3550, 2950, 3500 XL and 2900 XL. With the Web-based network management software, network managers can more easily enable a set of switches for different tasks.
CMS allows these actions to be applied to up to 16 switches. The switches don’t have to be stacked; CMS will still treat the switches as a cluster, regardless of their location on the network. Users can use a single IP address for the cluster.
CMS has “wizards” for certain tasks to make them easier to perform. For instance, the Data Wizard can be used to set up prioritization of one type of data traffic over another, and the user doesn’t have to know the details of quality-of-service controls, Cisco says.
The wizards are geared toward those who use the switches with Cisco IP phones. There is a Voice Wizard that can detect the presence of the phones and then give the voice traffic priority.
In addition, there is a Security Wizard for setting up access control lists and a Multicast Wizard for setting up multicast routing.
CMS is included in the LAN switches at no additional charge.
