1. User Guide for the Service Provider Edge and Core Plug-in
  2. Device Manager
  3. Manage Network Functions and Devices

Manage Network Functions and Devices

As of Oracle Communications Session Element Manager Release 9.0, the previous device nodes (used in OCSEM 7.x) that maintained the standalone or HA pair devices were replaced with the concept of a Network Function (NF). NFs are a network architecture concept used to describe entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create communication services as defined by the GS NFV-MAN 001 - ETSI. In this context, a NF can be composed of one-to-many Edge devices. For example, a SBCbased NF can be composed of two SBC instances running as a HA pair.

Oracle Communications Service Provider Edge and Core Plug-in Product Category and Network Function Types

As of Oracle Communications Session Element Manager Release 8.0, the previous device nodes (used in OCSEM 7.x) that maintained the standalone or HA pair devices were replaced with the concept of a Network Function (NF). NFs are a network architecture concept used to describe entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create communication services as defined by the GS NFV-MAN 001 - ETSI. In this context, a NF can be composed of one-to-many Edge devices. For example, a SBC-based NF can be composed of two SBC instances running as a HA pair.

The following table describes the product category and Network Function (NF) types that you can select for your Oracle Communications Service Provider Edge and Core Plug-in.

Product Category NF Type Component Devices
SP Edge & Core Device The following standalone component devices are supported:
  • Oracle Communications Session Border Controller (SBC)
  • Oracle Communications Session Router (SR)
  • Oracle Communications Session Load Balancer (SLB)
  • Oracle Communications Core Session Manager (CSM)
  • Oracle Communications Subscriber-aware Load Balancing and Route Management (SLRM)
  • Oracle Communications Mobile Security Gateway (MSG)
Device Cluster High-Availability (HA) device pair of the component devices listed above.

Add a Network Function with Devices

Use this task to add a network function (NF) with devices to the default Home group or a group that you created. Once the NF is added successfully, the Oracle Communications Session Element Manager plug-in is able to communicate with the devices in the NF.

Pre-requisite: If you are not using the default Home group to add an NF, you must specify a group for the NF.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider, and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices - Group View pane, select a group, and click Add.
  3. In the Select Network Function Type dialog box, click the element manager (EM) product plugin category from the Categories table that manages your devices.
  4. In the Network Function Type drop-down list, select from the following NF types:
    • Device—A NF that contains a single standalone device or device high-availability (HA) pair.
    • Device Cluster—An NF that contains a device cluster that shares a common, top-level offline configuration template.

      Note:

      Oracle Communications Report Manager does not currently support device clustering.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. In the Add Network Function: Device dialog box, complete the following fields:
  7. Click Apply.
    The NF and its associated device(s) or the NF with the associated device(s) appear in the Managed Devices table. The Managed Device table shows the IP address or the FQDN depending on the details added by the user in the Device Manager.

Manage Network Functions

Once you have added one or more NFs with a group hierarchy, you can manage them as described in the following sections.

Launch a Managed Device Login Page

You can use Oracle Communications Session Element Manager as a single source from which to access and manage multiple products. When you select a device and click Launch, the system communicates to the device and displays the login page.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider, and click Devices.
  2. On the Managed Devices - Group View page, select the device that you want to login to.
  3. Click Launch.
    The system displays the login page for the selected device. You can access the web GUI using the IP address or FQDN. When you launch a managed device using FQDN, the FQDN to IP mapping is looked up in the DNS. If the FQDN to IP mapping is present in the DNS, the web GUI can be accessed using FQDN. The web GUI access using IP address searches either the /etc/hosts or the DNS.

Edit a Network Function with Devices

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, expand the appropriate group folder hierarchy, select the NF folder and click Edit.
  3. In the Edit device group dialog box, change the appropriate parameters:

    Note:

    You cannot edit the NF name or its device(s) IP address(es).

    The table in the following procedure displays all possible configuration attributes, but the system displays only the set that corresponds to the selections that you make in this configuration.

  4. Click Apply.
    A success dialog box displays that the NF was changed.

Move a Network Function to Another Group

You cannot move the NF if it is locked unless you are the owner of the lock or an administrator overrides the lock. An error message appears in both situations. See Override a Locked Network Function section for more information about unlocking an NF.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices page, expand the appropriate group folder hierarchy, select the NF folder and click Admin, Move.
  3. In the Move Device dialog box, click the device group folder to which you want to move the NF and click OK.
  4. In the Success dialog box, click OK.
    The NF moves to the new folder location that you specified.

Remove a Network Function

When you remove an NF, all references to the NF in Configuration Manager, Device Manager, Fault Manager, Report Manager, Route Manager, Security Manager and Performance Manager are removed.

Note:

You cannot remove an NF during a configuration update or if the NF is locked unless you are the owner of the lock or an administrator overrides the lock. An error message appears in both situations. See Override a Locked Network Function section for more information about unlocking an NF.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices page, click the NF folder you want.
  3. Click Remove.
  4. In the Remove device dialog box, click Yes.
    The NF (folder) and its device(s) are removed from the group hierarchy.

Lock or Unlock a Network Function

You can lock or unlock an NF and its device(s) with the appropriate administrator permissions.

Note:

Other users are prevented from rebooting, updating or modifying the configuration or route sets for an NF when you lock it. Only users with granted override lock permissions can override your lock or the NF must be unlocked by you.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click the NF you want to lock and click Admin, Lock if it is unlocked or Admin, Unlock if it is locked.
  3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
    A padlock icon appears next to the IP address of the NF folder and its device(s). This padlock is removed if the NF is unlocked.

Override a Locked Network Function

Note:

You must have the appropriate privileges assigned by your administrator to override a lock set on an NF by another user.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click the NF folder icon you want to override lock and click Admin.
  3. From the Admin pop-up menu, select Override lock.
  4. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.
  5. In the Managed Devices pane, click Refresh.
    The padlock icon no longer appears next to the NF folder and IP address(es) of the device(s).

Override a Locked Device

Note:

You must have the appropriate privileges assigned by your administrator to override a lock set on a device by another user.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, expand the NF folder and select the device that you want to override lock and click Admin.
  3. From the Admin pop-up menu, select Override lock on device.
  4. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.
  5. In the Managed Devices pane, click Refresh.
    The padlock icon no longer appears next to the device.

Reboot a Device

Note:

You must have the appropriate administrator permissions assigned to reboot a device.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, select the device you want to reboot, and click Admin, Reboot.
  3. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.

    Note:

    The targeted device is rebooted.
  4. Once you see the reboot process finish in the Progress dialog box, click Close.
  5. In the Reboot Device dialog box, click OK.

    Note:

    This dialog box confirms that the reboot process has completed successfully.

Synchronize System Alarms with a Device

If the NF has an HA device pair, when you synchronize one device the other device in the pair is also synchronized.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click the device you want to synchronize with system alarms and click Admin, Synchronize alarms.
  3. In the Synchronize alarms dialog box, click Yes.
  4. In the Information dialog box that displays, click OK.

Manage a Device Configuration in a Network Function Device Cluster

When new device variables are added to an offline configuration (in Configuration Manager) that NF device cluster devices use, you must configure each device in a device cluster with its needed device parameters.

  1. Expand the Configuration Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, navigate to an NF device cluster device and click Configure.
  3. In the Configure data variable for.... dialog box, enter the required parameter(s) for the data variables for which you are prompted.
  4. Click Finish.

View Network Function Information

Use the following sections to view and manage Oracle session delivery product NF information, which includes its devices and the way detailed and summary NF information is displayed for its device node(s).

View Device States and Columns

You can monitor a variety of information for devices by viewing the state of their colored, round icons, and by using the column information presented for each device.

Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices. The system displays a device group hierarchy showing the group, subgroup, and the network function (NF) that contains the devices.

The following states of a device in the Managed Devices table indicate if it can be reached by Oracle Communications Session Element Manager:

  • Green—The Oracle Communications Session Element Manager can reach the device and retrieve information about the device through SNMP.
  • Red—The Oracle Communications Session Element Manager cannot currently reach the device (or cannot contact both devices in an HA device pair).

The following columns appear in the Managed Devices table:

Manage How Groups for Network Functions are Displayed

Use the buttons at the top of the Managed Devices pane to affect the display of hierarchical groups, NFs and their associated devices.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, you can use the following buttons to manage how devices are displayed:

View Hardware Details for a Network Function Device

You can find the following component inventory data for a NF device, such as chassis, CPU, memory, and so on.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click to select the device for which you want to show details and click Get Information, and then Show details.
  3. In the Hardware tab, the following columns display for NF standalone devices, or an NF HA pair of devices:

View Software Details for a Network Function Device

The following boot parameters are displayed for Oracle Communications session delivery product devices:

  • The software image and where the image is booted for this NF device (on an external device or internal flash memory).
  • The type of software entity being booted.
  • Status of that software entity.
  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click to select the device for which you want to show details and click Get Information, and then Show details.
  3. In the Device details pane, click the Software tab. The boot table and Backup table columns display for NF standalone devices, or an NF HA pair of devices:

View License Details for a Network Function Device

Use this task to show product devices that have an applied license key.

  1. Expand the Device Manager slider and click Devices.
  2. In the Managed Devices pane, click to select the device for which you want to show details and click Get Information, and then Show details.
  3. In the Device details pane, click the License tab. The following field and table columns display: