IMC Essentials for Network Administrators

Prerequisites

Learners should have networking experience to get the most from this training course.

Audience

• Network engineers and administrators
• Network architects and consultants

Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction to IMC

• Know the available documentationUnderstand IMC’s design
• Know the Deployment Monitoring Agent’s function
• Know IMC’s available Views
• Know IMC’s Configuration Management options
• Understand how network events become IMC alarms
• Know how to configure and view VLANs through IMC

Module 2: Installation and Initial Access

• Know how to login to IMC
• Understand the difference between an operator and user
• Know how to add a user and group
• Know where to look for IMC documentation
• Know how to install an IMC module
• Know how to configure Display Tiling

Module 3: Adding Devices

• Know howto add both an “Access Parameter Template” and a “Configuration Template”
• Know how to use “Auto Discovery” to add devices to IMC
• Know how to use “Add Device” to add devices to IMC
• Know how to use “Check Access Settings” and interpret the output
• Know how to install and use DBman

Module 4: MIB Management

• Browse trapsImport private MIBs into IMC
• Escalate a trap (event) to an alarm

Module 5: View Management

• Acess and manage the Network Topology
• Access the IP Topology View
• Appreciate the difference between the IP View and IP Topology View
• Create a Custom View
• Create a Port Group view
• Create a Custom View
• Create a Data Center Topology

Module 6: Configuration Management

• Recognize the network device management tasks
• Use the device detail screens to troubleshoot single device connectivity issues
• Describe and perform a batch operation typical to a common customer use model
• Demonstrate management of device configurations using IMC Configuration Center (CC), including backing up configuration files, creating and comparing baselines for configuration files, and creating and deploying configuration templates
• Demonstrate management of device software using IMC CC, including managing the software library, defining and auditing baselines for software, and updating software on devices Describe Live Update capabilities, limitations, and common problems that might occur during updating software on managed devices

Module 7: Alarms & Events

• Browse and manage alarms in IMC
• Recognize when to use SNMP traps and when to use syslog
• Recognize the use and limitations of the IMC syslog solution
• Use IMC’s alarm features to troubleshoot network problems
• Manage SNMP traps
• Track the status of devices over time using syslogInterpret alarms using IMC’s home window gadgets
• Correlate events on one device with trigger events on another
• Describe the use of alarm notifications

Module 8: VLAN Management

• Be familiar with VLAN terms used by different vendors
• Compare and contrast different methods to implement VLANs using IMC
• Implement VLANs across network infrastructures
• Manage VLANs on individual devicesImplement a VLAN component on one or more devices
• Analyze VLAN topology maps using IMC

Module 9: Compliance and Intelligent Policy Center

• Create a policy and have IMC check for a policy violation on managed devices
• Have IMC perform an additional action based on a generated alert.

Module 10: ACL Management

• ACL assistant feature
• Managing ACL templates
• Managing ACL resources
• Managing device ACL configurations
• Deploying ACLs using IMC’s ACL deployment wizard

Module 11: Virtualization Management

• An introduction to virtualization
• Adding virtual hosts to IMC
• Using Virtual Resource Manager (VRM)
• An introduction to managing virtual devices in VRM

Module 12: Performance Management

• Describe the types of performance metrics that a network administrator can monitor using IMC
• Analyze the performance characteristics being tracked by IMC
• View, interpret, and configure performance widgets in the IMC home window
• Describe the difference between global index settings and individual device monitoring settings
• Configure individual device monitoring settings
• Use topology maps to access device performance metrics
• Configure topology maps to display specific performance metrics
• Describe the difference between global index data and real-time monitoring data
• Configure real-time performance data

Module 13: Network Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

• Understanding traffic monitoring and NTA’s capabilities
• Configuring networking devices for NTA
• Configuring NTA for traffic analysis and auditing
• Using host session monitoring
• Setting up and using interface monitoring
• Setting up NTA widgets on the home window
• Performing traffic log audits

Module 14: Zero Touch Provisioning

• Create configuration template for the device final configuration
• Create configuration template for the device ZTP initial configuration
• IMC will automatically add the new device.

Lab outline

Module 1 Lab: Accessing HPE vLabs

• Task 1: Connect to Your Labgroup
• Task 2: Verify SQL Readiness
• Task 3: Launch IMC

Module 2 Lab: Installation and Initial Access

• Task 1: Log In to IMC and add an account
• Task 2: Manage operator accounts
• Task 3: Install a module
• Task 4: Configure Display Tiling

Module 3 Lab: Adding Devices

• Task 1: Using auto discovery to add the switches
• Task 2: Using “Add Device” to add the two Windows servers
• Task 3: Adding Arista, pfSense and AOS-CX
• Task 4: Adding the ESXi server and the two Linux VMs
• Task 5: Convert devices to communicate using SNMPv3 and SSH
  • AOS
  • Comware
  • Cisco
  • Arista
• Task 6: Observe success
• Task 7: DBman backup

Module 4 Lab: MIB Management

• Task 1: View how IMC processes unknown private MIB traps
• Task 2: Import private MIBs and view how IMC processes private MIB traps
• Task 3: Escalate a trap to an alarm

Module 5 Lab: View Management

• Task 1: Access and Manage the Network Topology
• Task 2: IP Topology View
• Task 3: IP View
• Task 4: Custom View
• Task 5: Port Group
• Task 6: Data Center Topology

Module 6 Lab: Configuration Management

• Task 1: Firmware Backup
• Task 2: Firmware Baseline
• Task 3: Configuration Backup
• Task 4: Configuration Baseline and Compare
• Task 5: Schedule device backup

Module 7 Lab: Alarms & Events

• Task 1: Understand the Alarm window information
• Task 2: Home Screen Alarm and Performance Viewing
• Task 3: Creating, Seeing and Alerting Alarms
• Task 4: Alarm Ack, Recovering
• Task 5: Event to Alarm

Module 8 Lab: VLAN Management

• Task 1: Manage Global & Device VLAN information
• Task 2: VLAN Deployment Task

Module 9 Lab: Compliance and Intelligent Policy Center

• Task 1: Connect to Your Labgroup
• Task 2: Launch and connect to IMC
• Task 3: Use “Compliance Center” for auditing

Module 10 Lab: ACL Management

• Create, deploy, and apply an Access Control List

Module 11 Lab: Virtualization Management

• Access and view IMC’s virtualization representation

Module 12 Lab: Performance Management

• Task 1: Examine and Tune Device Performance values
• Task 2: Access and Observe “Global Index Settings”
• Task 3: Use “Performance View” to monitor interface utilization
• Task 4: Access and Observe “Performance Option”
• Task 5: Utilize “Real-Time Monitoring” under “Performance Management”
• Task 6: Utilize “Real-Time Monitoring” under “Device Details”
• Task 7: Observe Real-Time data on topology maps
• Task 8: “Application Performance Manager” introduction

Module 13 Lab: Network Traffic Analyzer

• Task 1: Add Comware to NTA
• Task 2: Create a “Traffic Analysis Task”
• Task 3: Perform host session monitoring
• Task 4: Perform interface monitoring

Module 14 Lab: Zero Touch Provisioning

• Task 1: Prepare lab system for device zero touch configuration
• Task 2: Configure an Auto Deployment Plan for device zero configuration
• Task 3: Observe a successful ZTP-ADP operation