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FAQs
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FAQ Index
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Toolbox
and access information |
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These tools are included
in
Facilities accessible
via autoPinger tree branch |
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Video
Tutorial information |
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These Tutorials can
be used to answer questions:-
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How to use IP
Pinger tool
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Reports Manager -
Overview and Applications
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How to use Reports
Manager
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How to use Codima
Toolbox Alarm System
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How to deploy
Codima Toolbox
Click here to access Tutorial Sign up access point
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Deployment Information |
Remote
Manager |
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Connect to a Hub or a free
Switch Port
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The
Remote Manager tool is included
in all the Codima Toolboxes, it is used to view and in some cases control
Remote systems. These remote systems can be other toolboxes.
The autoPinger tree branch is available
for remote viewing. |
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FAQs covering Tools |
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autoPinger
tree branch
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Provides access to IP
Pinging
tool : Automatically
provides notification when key network devices stop working
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Area / Question
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| Tutorials :- |
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Applications/Scope/Operations :- |
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Applications
:-
Scope/Operations
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Failure patterns
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Applications :-
Scope/Operations :-
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Can I control the alarm conditions? - , i.e.,
ensure that the Toolbox does not generate an alarm report
for very short lived events and to stop the same alarm condition being
logged too many times.
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Applications
Scope - Statistics Reports :-
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Tutorials
Are there any
tutorials to help me get started?
Yes - there is a tutorial to assist you in
learning how to use the facilities available via the autoPinger tree branch.
It is accessible from the Help facility and from the Codima Website.
Click here to access the sign in page for the
Tutorials:-
The tutorial is titled :-
- How to use IP Pinger tool
Installation
Can I install Toolbox on
a Virtual Machine?
Yes, a supported
operating system would need to
be run inside the Virtual Machine. You also need to ensure that you have
allocated sufficient disk space and memory to run the toolbox application.
Failure to do this can cause operational problems.
Click here for details
covering supported operating system, disk space and memory requirements.
Can I run the Toolbox as
a Windows Service?
No, the Codima Toolbox won't
run as service. If you do this you can't see the interface to interact with so
you have to be logged in. Users can make the Toolbox start at windows startup by
putting the shortcut to it in the startup programs folder.
If users are running Codima tools that need
24/7 operation, then you must run the application continuously and not log out.
The IP Pinger tool is for 24/7 operation.
Can I use a Host Platform with a 64bit Operating System?
What Operating Systems can I use on
the Host Platform?
The Codima Toolbox will operate on
platforms running the following Operating Systems
- Microsoft® Windows Vista, XP, Server
2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 with 2GHz CPU (minimum)
Toolbox includes WinPCap
drivers (used for frame capture) that support 64bit Operating systems.
Do I need third party
components?
What are the Prerequisites?
The following third-party
components are required:-
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Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007
(Professional ) and 2010 (Professional or Premium) - This is
an essential requirement to display the result of
the Codima Discovery Engine process. The Visio Views are then used to highlight
pinger status on the network.
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Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) V1.4.1
or later - Installed automatically as part of the Toolbox Installation
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Microsoft® Access®
driver - Configured during the Toolbox Installation.
What
are the Host Platform requirements for Toolbox?
- How much memory do I need to install?
- How much disk space do I need?
Click here to access information on the
Host Platform requirements for the Codima Toolboxes.
Licensing
How do I
find the MAC Address of the Platform I wish to install on?
- used to machine lock license
The license
files used by the Codima Toolbox are linked to the MAC Address of the Platform you install the software on. To obtain
the MAC Address of a Platform you should type ipconfig/all from a DOS window.
The MAC
Address is a 12 digit hex number, e.g., 00-07-E9-5A-77-DB
To get to a
DOS window, click Start, then Run, then type cmd in the
text box.
If Host
Platform has
multiple MAC Addresses, you need only to supply one for the license link.
DOS
Window example:-
Alternatively if you are using
a demonstration system, you can make use of the automated facility to request a
license upgrade, this facility automatically finds your MAC address.
Display showing interface
used to request license upgrades:-
Deployment
Applications, Scope and Operations
What are the
Benefits of using the IP Pinging tool?
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Can identify
when and why devices stop working.
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Automatically provides visual notification when key network devices stop
working.
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Shows
failure patterns and root causes (failed path components).
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Can identify
the scale of the problem – Establish if it is new or long standing.
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Evidence at
your finger tips.
For more information review the
Features and Benefits Video Tutorial for the
IT Engineer Toolbox:-
Click here to access the sign in page for the
Tutorials:-
or
click here to obtain a copy
of the Codima Toolbox Features and Benefits list.
What
functions are accessible via the autoPinger tree branch - what are they used for?
The Toolbox provides a central point to check the operation of key
devices on your network using ICMP Pings. It displays Pinger Status results in its Pinger Manager
display and makes use of a Global Alarm
System to log and report echo failures/threshold breaches and an Audio Report System for troubleshooting.
The Toolbox measures Pinger Service
Levels in terms of Ping fail % and Ping response time, providing this
information for the last 15 seconds, last 10 minutes and last 10 hours. This
information is also provided Historically. The Pinger target IP addresses can be provided manually or they can be
taken automatically from the currently loaded discovery database. You also have the capability of seeing the real time pinger status visually
in Visio View drawings. This enables you to easily spot failure patterns and
root causes (failed path components).
For information on applications
see the Features and Benefits section of the Video Tutorials.
Click here to access the sign in page for the
Tutorials:-
-
Global Alarm
System
What are the
Benefits of using the Global Alarm System?
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You can be proactive :
Automatic notification of threshold breaches and device failures.
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You have multiple alarm
reporting methods.
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Ensuring that you can integrate
the tool with your operating practices, for example if you have an SNMP
Management system, the alarms can be reported to it as SNMP Traps or if your
engineers prefer email notifications or SMS text messages, then alarms can be
reported that way.
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You have controlled Alarm
Reporting
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Flood control ensures you are
not overloaded with alarm reports - can avoid generating an alarm report for
very short lived events and stop the same alarm condition being logged too many
times.
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Email and SMS Alarm report
frequency is controlled - multiple alarms reports are included in single Emails/SMS
Messages.
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You have predefined alarm
thresholds on key events - ensuring system works out of the box.
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You have an embedded email
client – independent of the Networks own email facilities, so will be able to
report on any failures associated with the platform hosting the Networks email
client.
For more information review the
Features and Benefits Video Tutorial for the IT Engineer Toolbox:-
Click here to access the sign in page for the
Tutorials:-
or
click here to obtain a copy
of the Codima Toolbox Features and Benefits list.
Can I have alarm
reports automatically emailed to me?
Can I set SNMP Traps?
Can I set threshold alarms?
Yes. This tool
uses the Global Alarm
System to log and report:-
- Devices failures
- Thresholds alarms - i.e., when a predefined
statistical value breaches a Threshold
(goes above threshold setting) or when a predefined statistical value drops
(goes below threshold setting), for example you can set a thresholds based on
the average ping response time.
The
Global Alarm
System can be set up to apply one or more of the following actions
- Log the alarm report
- Send out an SNMP Trap
- Send a notification email and SMS text
messages
For detailed
information on this facility, see Help entries titled
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How to
email alarm reports
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How to set
SNMP Traps
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How to set
alarm thresholds
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How to
configure Email Client
Can I control the alarm conditions?
- i.e., ensure that the
Toolbox does not generate an alarm report for very short lived events
and to stop the same alarm condition being logged too many times.
Yes. The Global Alarm
System has a flood control mechanism.
What is the Global Alarm
System used for?
The Global Alarm
System is used to automatically notify Network Managers of :-
- Devices failures
- Thresholds alarms - i.e., when a predefined
statistical value breaches a Threshold
(goes above threshold setting) or when a predefined statistical value drops
(goes below threshold setting), for example you can set a thresholds based on
the average ping response time.
The
Global Alarm System is used to configure the
Toolbox
to do the following when a Pinger fails or when a threshold alarm occurs:-
- Log the alarm report
- Send out an SNMP Trap
- Send a notification email or SMS text
message.
User input is required to supply the target address for SNMP Traps and
configure the Email client.
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Audio Report System
The user can select specific sounds for good and
failed ping response, so they can hear when an IP address stops responding.
Normally this would be used to check out a single IP address at a time, but
you can potentially allocate up to four different sound patterns for good
response and four different sound patterns for fail which means
you could listen to the sound patterns for up to four addresses at a time.
What is the Audio Report
System used for?
The Audio Report
system is used to troubleshoot device operation
- The Echo sound
patterns can be used by engineers to debug a network without having to keep
watching a pinger.
- The Alarm sound
patterns can be used to obtain an instant Alarm on any unit type, this is a
useful facility for engineers and small networks, it also provides a means of
checking the operation of critical network components.
- Reports
What are the
benefits of using the Reports Manager?
- when using the IP Pinging tool
The key benefit is it that this
tool provides you with evidence at
your finger tips. Producing a wide range of Reports that can be used to show
both network trends and isolate problems. The IP
Pinging tool includes:-
Which devices are failing to
respond to Pingers?
When are they failing to respond?
Which devices have bad response times?
For more on the Reports Manager
tool - see FAQs - Reports Manager
For more information on
features and benefits, click
here to obtain a copy of the Codima Toolbox Features and Benefits list.
What kind of Statistics Reports are available?
There are a number of
different types of Statistic Reports, they include :-
-
HTML Reports created using information
in History Charts.
-
Pre defined Statistical
Reports - accessible via the Reports Manager tree branch, these reports can be
produced as HTML Reports or scheduled as daily, weekly, monthly Word reports.
- Failure Patterns:-
What Pinger Status information is provided in the Visio Views accessible via the
autoMap tree branch
tool? /
Can I use IP Pinger to see the failure pattern and root causes (failed
path components)?
The Pinger
status is shown directly on the Visio drawing, so
failure patterns and root causes (failed path components) can be seen
immediately.
Software Updates
How do I get the latest
software version?
You should set up your Host Platform so that it is able to access to the Web. Then you can use the Automatic
Installation Update facility. This will automatically tell you if there is an
update to the system available. You will also need to be authorized to receive
updates.
You can also use the Help Menu, where the option Check for Updates will open a
Web page listing the available updates, which you can select to download.
For more information see Help
entry titled:-
Microsoft®
Patch level
What is the latest
Microsoft® Patch level that the
Codima Toolbox software been tested with?
The process of testing
with Microsoft®
patches
is an ongoing one, latest level tested is as
follows :-
-
Windows XP Service Pack 3
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Windows 2003 Server SP 2
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Windows Vista SP1
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Window Server 2008 SP1
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Windows 7
Copyright/Disclaimer
Copyright ©2011 Codima Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
No part of this document may be copied or
reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior consent of Codima
Inc.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not
represent a commitment on the part of Codima Inc. Codima Inc. reserves the
right to revise or change this document without obligation of Codima Inc. to
notify any person of the revision or changes. Information in this document is
believed to be accurate at the time of publication but no liability whatsoever
can be accepted by Codima Inc. arising out of the use of this information.
Also, this document could include typographical errors or technical
inaccuracies.
Any trademarks or trade names owned or registered by any other company and
used in this document are the property of their respective companies
