Cable Management Utility

This appendix describes the cable management uility in CTC that helps you with the cabling process between the fabric cards of the LCC and FCC in a multi-chassis configuration.

Cable Management Utility

The cable management wizard can be used to make CXP connections between the fabric cards of the FCCs and LCCs. The CXP connections are color coded.

  • Green: The ports are green when they are connected properly.

  • Red: The ports are red when the plane is shut down or the ports are incorrectly connected.

The following pre-requisites must be completed before the cable management process can start:

  • Cabling of the ethernet control connections between the RP cards of the LCC and the RPMC cards of the FCC must be completed. For more information, see the Cisco Network Convergence System 4000 Fabric Card Chassis Hardware Installation Guide.

  • When the system is up, the instance configuration must be completed. For more information, see the Cisco Network Convergence System 4000 Fabric Card Chassis Hardware Installation Guide.

  • The plane must be shut before starting the cabling process. To shut the plane, perform the following steps:

    1. Go to the CTC multi-shelf view > Fabric Plane tab.

    2. Click Fabric Plane Maintenance.

      The Fabric Plane Maintenance window opens.

    3. Select the plane from the Plane ID drop-down list and choose the OOS, DSBLD option from the Admin State drop-down list.

    4. Click Apply.

The cable management wizard can be started by either clicking the Cable Management button in the CTC multi-shelf view > Provisioning > General >Rack Management tab or by clicking the Cable Management icon in the toolbar.

The wizard has two configuration views:

  • LCC connections:This view displays one LCC at a time. You can select the LCC to view from the drop-down list.

  • Plane connections: This view displays the fabric cards that are configured in a specific plane. You can select the plane to view from the drop-down list.

The Cable Management window consists of:

  • Graphical View: This pane allows you to view all the cable management related information in the LCC or Plane Connections view. The cable management process can also be started by either selecting any unconnected port or by clicking the Start button in this view. The ports to be connected start blinking after the cable management process has begun.

  • Actions tab: This tab displays context aware actions and information. When the cable management process is started, this tab displays a table that consists of a group of port pairs that need to be connected. Textual information on which ports need to be connected is displayed on the right. When the user connects the cable and clicks on Next, the connection is validated. If the connection is correct, then the blinking moves onto the next port that is to be connected. A warning message is displayed if the connection is down. Click Yes to skip this row and move to the next.

  • Connections Table tab: This tab displays all the ports that need to be connected and their connection status in a tabular format. This information can be exported to a file in HTML, CSV, or TSV format or printed for offline access.

After all the ports have been connected, you need to unshut the plane. To unshut the plane, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the CTC multi-shelf view > Fabric Plane tab.

  2. Click Fabric Plane Maintenance.

    The Fabric Plane Maintenance window opens.

  3. Select the plane from the Plane ID drop-down list and choose the IS option from the Admin State drop-down list.

  4. Click Apply.

The connection status in the Connection Table displays connected.

For information about troubleshooting the fabric cable connections, see the Single Chassis to Multi-Chassis MOP.