So, I've always been a big fan of Cisco's output interpreter tool, which can be found here:
https://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/Support/OutputInterpreter/home.pl?locale=en
Years ago when I first found it, I would try using it for pretty much anything. Taught me a lot of insights and hints about what to do when I saw something. Since it actually examines the output it sends you, it only flags on relevant details to the problem you are having right now rather than just general info about what a command does or such. At this point I'll occasionally draw on it to jog my memory about something, or to try and help figure something out, but I still go to it on occasion for sure!
So, I was both a bit excited, plus had a bit of dread set in when I saw this notice about it being retired in "May 2016" on their site.
Excited in that a new tool, the "Cisco CLI Analyzer" might be better and more updated than the Output Interpreter. Dreading it in that they might ruin what is still a good thing.
Unfortunately I'm definitely more dreading it now than looking forward to it. After downloading the CLI analyzer and putting it through its paces a bit, I'm very disappointed in what I see. Unlike Output Interpreter where you select what text you want it to look at from your favorite tool of choice, such as SecureCRT, and paste it into the tool and hit subnet. CCA (Cisco CLI Analyzer) is its own SSH/Telnet client. Drawbacks include that it takes quite a while to bring up, and the and it doesn't adapt to what it sees and the "devices" tab, which is where it stores what sessions you have had in the past, is pretty useless if you routinely go into a large # of devices. I would consider it the equivalent of the "session manager" in SecureCRT where you store quick links to devices that you go into often, only you don't have that control over the devices tab.
The worst thing is, it doesn't adapt to what it sees, like Output Interpreter does. ie: if Output Interpreter sees a bunch of CRC's on an interface, it will give you contextual help about CRC errors and let you know what you should check. With CCA you get a quick blurb about CRC's no matter whether or not you have any: "Information about show interface CRC - Cyclic redundancy checksum (CRC) generated by the far-end device does not match the CRC calculated from the data received. On a LAN, this usually indicates noise or transmission problems on the LAN interface or the LAN bus itself. A high number of CRCs is usually the result of collisions or a station transmitting bad data. It could also indicate a layer 1 issue". Nothing about what you should do or anything...
Another example would be debug output from "show crypto isakmp" for example. With OI you get some pretty nice things to check based on the output, with CCA you get nothing.
All in all, I don't think the CCA is a good replacement for OI, and it sounds like they want to get rid of OI quickly! If your an OI fan, go check out CCA and see what you think. If you haven't used either before, I'd be interested in what you think also...
If you are like me, and you think CCA is a poor substitute for OI, be sure to complain to TAC about it!!
