This discussion has been locked. The information referenced herein may be inaccurate due to age, software updates, or external references.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a similar question you can start a new discussion in this forum.

NCM EOS/EOL Dates Query - 7.2

Hi, Upgraded to 7.2

Is there a way around having to go into every device and select the corrcet model and EOS/EOL date from the suggestions?

I already have EOS, EOL dates against most node IDs in NCM from manual work - and to now have to go back through and select 1000 of them manually is a bit much...any help?

If the answer to the above is "it is a manual process only" then i will need to be able to import the attached into the nodes table, linking the appropriate fields in the EOS tables to keep consistancy. as the moment I am about a year behind where i was with my own EOL reporting.

Edited: This needs to be based on 'Inventory data' as per my reports, NCM needs to be able to support switch stacks (3750x) and VSS (Virtual Switches) which are represented as one node in NPM, and for many other purposes in NCM, but for EOL/EOS and inventory based functions like this it will maybe need to EOL/EOS data residing in the Physical Inventory table instead? so that line cards and all other modules could be reported on?

CSV of current dates attached. (Cisco_EOL_Dates_PerNode_NCM.txt)

Copy of current report and colour formatting also attached (summary version only so I dont have to redact information). I will as soon as i have all the correct data in NCM Nodes re-create the sql report and share to the community. (Audit Count by Model ALL.pdf). All data is taken from NCM, formatting is as below;

Fill:

=IIF(Fields!EoL.Value < Today(), "Red",

IIF(Fields!EoL.Value < dateadd(dateinterval.Year, 2, Today()), "Orange", IIF(Fields!EoL.Value < dateadd(dateinterval.Year, 15, Today()), "GreenYellow", "White")))

Font:

=IIF(Fields!EoL.Value < Today(), "White","Black")

Lastly I have some issues, which i will log here first then if required log a feature/bug request.

1. Device in Sale/Support

Would like it to show a 'green tick' next to devices that have not had an EOS or EOL raised against them.

"n\a" or similar in date fields. At the moment it looks like they have just not found a matching item,

and shows as 'no suggested dates' rather than 'no notice is applicable etc

2. Manual Date Boxes

Does NOT let you type in a date directly, have to scroll through months and months to get to the correct year!! not user friendly.

3. 'Best Match' Option

It may be better if NCM could match the PartNo not machinetype it seems to use (very good on Cisco EOL codes) and make a best match, rather

than manually having to go through each device and choose the one that matches.

Can SW share the matching code it uses? see if it can be tweaked by us SW users..

attachments.zip
  • Hi ,

    Generally speaking, the number of manual assignments should not be proportional to the number of nodes but to the number of different machine types. Looking at your devices: 700 nodes of about 25 different kinds; it seems that all nodes of the same Machine Type have the same EoL/EoS dates. You can simply group your nodes according to Machine Type, select all nodes of one kind, and assign the same EoL/EoS data:

    EOL-Summary-Machine-Type-Select-Assign.png

    Reagrding your further question:

    1. It's not easy to distinguis between devices that have no EoL/EoS data available at all (vendor has not published them yet) and devices that already have EoL/EoS dates, but we don't have them in our database. Example: Our data don't support certain vendors at all.
    2. Manual date boxes are intentional. Different countries use different date formats. Currently, this is the safest option.
    3. Definitely interesting idea; we're thinking of different ways to improve the matching quality.
      The matching code cannot be modified by users now. However customization of the matching process would be a valid feature request.

    Regards,

    Jiri

  • 44 by machine type Jiri... but whos counting emoticons_wink.png

  • can you share with me the matching rules you have used rather than the code? Data matching algorithms are something I have had to develop for many reasons over the years - so it would be good to help. Plus it will help me get my reports for EoL quicker to management!

    Forgot to mention too, that this functionality will be amazing! so big thank you from me for getting it in the product (if you could pass praise on to relevant peeps)

  • Hmm, looking at the CSV, I can only see about 25 different values in the Machine Type column.

  • yep just checked i am not sure if i extracted all devices, machine types are in the pdf. Just checked sql, just the one unknown, and random 'cisco' as machine type!

    Cat 45068
    Catalyst 295024 SX6
    Catalyst 29602
    Catalyst 2970242
    Catalyst 297024 TS1
    Catalyst 356024 PS103
    Catalyst 356048 PS1
    Catalyst 3560X 2413
    Catalyst 3560X 24 PoE4
    Catalyst 37xx Stack11
    Catalyst 65xx Virtual Switch2
    Cisco26
    Cisco 17202
    Cisco 1721165
    Cisco 184172
    Cisco 1921/K926
    Cisco 28114
    Cisco 374526
    Cisco 38252
    Cisco 4402 Wireless LAN Controller4
    Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controller2
    Cisco 7206 VXR2
    Cisco ASA 55055
    Cisco ASA 55102
    Cisco ASA 55201
    Cisco Catalyst2
    Cisco Catalyst 29501224
    Cisco Catalyst 295024223
    Cisco Catalyst 295024 G3
    Cisco Catalyst 295024 GDC1
    Cisco Catalyst 295048 G1
    Cisco Catalyst 2950t 249
    Cisco Catalyst 2960-24LT-L1
    Cisco Catalyst 2960-G243
    Cisco Catalyst 29xxStack10
    Cisco Catalyst 302024
    Cisco Catalyst 3550242
    Cisco Catalyst 3560-24TS1
    Cisco Catalyst 3560-G24PS15
    Cisco Catalyst 3560-G24TS10
    Cisco Catalyst 4506-E11
    Cisco Catalyst 65093
    Cisco CSS 115012
    Cisco WS-C2960-24PC-L103
    Unknown1
    WS-C3560V2-24PS2
  • I need to make an important comment on this.  While I applaud Solarwinds for adding this functionality, it simply is not useable except in very rudimentary fashion.  I'll provides some examples.  Let's take the Cisco 37xx devices as a start.  NCM lumps all of them into a single Machine type of 37xx.  In fact Cisco sells about 50 different versions of this device and there is no way in the EOL function to sub list by specific model number, description, or part number.  The unique model number is in fact available via SNMP in NCM but is not one of the filed options on the columns pull down list.  Also in almost every case the suggested date info doesn't match the EOL documents for these devices.  I have found the same thing on other Cisco Machine type Suggested Dates documents.  We have been relegated to using the EOL fields as nothing more than a custom field and manually doing the look up.

    In addition while I realize this is a first stab at life cycle management, devices that are chassis and have plug in cards need life cycle management.  We in fact have Chassis that are not EOL but most of the cards are EOL.  What I'm saying is this product needs to be assigned a lot more development cycles

  • I must agree with Jeffnorton here - while its a nice "feature", its incomplete - it does NOT take into account the actual part number - here is an example - I have 15 ASA5505 firewalls in the field that we montior.  The part number can be anything from "ASA5505-bun-k9" for the most generic, to "ASA5505-UL-BUN-K9" for a different version - however, NCM thinks this is a Cisco CATALYST.. could not be more further from the reality.

    If SW can improve on the model detection, it might be usable, but for now - I hide all those panels in the interface.

  • Hi dclick,

    In NCM 7.3, the EoL/EoS part actually uses part numbers for finding the correct dates. See here:Network Configuration Manager v7.3 is Now GA!

    You must update inventory for the feature to work.

    Regards,

    Jiri

  • So I just did a quick survey using all Cisco 37xx devices in my network for EOS/EOL suggested dates. 100% of the suggested dates were either yellow or read with 100% of those being not applicable. I have 400 37xx devices. That means your database is giving me 100 % non-useful data for every device in this category

  • jeffnorton,

    Sorry that I'm highlighting that again, but have you updated the inventory?

    Then you need to resfresh the suggested dates. This operation should take at least a few minutes. If it's very quick then the system is probably not using the part numbers for some reason.

    Regards,

    Jiri