Cisco Catalyst SmartOperations is a set of technologies and
features to simplify network planning, deployment, monitoring, and
troubleshooting.
SmartOperations brings together Cisco Catalyst technologies and
Cisco IOS Software features that help improve productivity, cut costs,
reduce downtime, and enhance the user experience. Most of these
technologies are included in the base Cisco IOS Software feature set.
The SmartOperations toolkit includes the following:
Planning:
Flexible NetFlow provides detailed network traffic statistics to enable intelligent capacity management and upgrade planning.
IP Service-Level Agreements (IP SLAs) assess readiness to deploy new services such as voice, video, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
Deployment:
Smart Install is a zero-touch deployment
solution that allows new or replacement switches to be automatically
imaged and configured over the network.
Auto Smartports automatically configures switch ports based on the device type.
AutoQoS simplifies the process of generating and applying quality of service (QoS) configurations.
Monitoring:
Flexible NetFlow provides detailed statistics to identify top talkers and diagnose anomalous patterns.
IP Service-Level Agreements (IP SLAs) monitor
network performance metrics such as jitter and latency to help ensure
quality for voice, video, and real-time applications.
Embedded Event Manager is a scripting system
that can detect network events and automatically take action, such as
executing commands or sending an email.
Troubleshooting:
Smart Call Home communicates network status to the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to enable proactive service interventions.
Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD) runs
diagnostic tests to detect preliminary warnings of hardware failure,
allowing network administrators to prevent potential outages.
Mediatrace monitors voice, video, and other
real-time traffic as it traverses the network, helping administrators to
pinpoint bottlenecks that degrade performance.
Encapsulated Remote SPAN (ERSPAN) captures traffic on switch ports or VLANs and sends it across a Layer 3 routed network for remote analysis and diagnostics.
Protocol Analyzer uses the Wireshark
open-source packet capture platform to collect and interpret traffic on
an interface, enabling sophisticated protocol analysis and debugging.
Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) uses switch
hardware to test the integrity, length, and connectivity of Ethernet
cables to enable rapid debugging of wiring issues.
Benefits
Catalyst SmartOperations helps:
Avoid over-provisioning through accurate planning
Save time by automating provisioning and deployment
Provide effective network monitoring with superior diagnostics and deeper application visibility
Enable fast troubleshooting and resolution of network problems
Lets see what this gentleman has to say about SmartOperations -
For more info, Please see this - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/C07-697706-00_SmartOperations_Guide_v5a.pdf