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Cisco Smart Update Features

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Cisco Smart Update comes with many powerful features to provide you with a unique Cisco Router configuration automation solution. The following is a list of the major features that come with the product.

100% Pure Java

The Cisco Smart Update toolkit is written entirely using Sun's popular Java programming language. This enables you to write you application program in Java and to take advantage of the language's powerful J2SE and J2EE features, not to mention the dozens of third-party class libraries that exist in the market today.

Robust Class Hierarchy

The Cisco Smart Update toolkit is built around a robust class hierarchy that mirrors the IOS configuration hierarchy. Once the IOS configuration is read from the router, a CiscoRouterConfiguration object is returned which contains all the details of the configuration in an easy-to-understand tree of components. Our configuration hierarchy uses the "Composite" design pattern which enables us to break the complex IOS configuration down into manageable pieces. Each configuration component is a node in the tree where each node is solely responsible for its own part of the configuration. All child and sibling components are independently responsible for their own parts of the configuration.

Multiple Platform Support

Given that the Cisco Smart Update toolkit is written in 100% Java, it can run on any platform where the Java Runtime Environment is supported. Whether you are running Solaris, Linux, or Windows 2000 for example, the platform choice is yours.

Cisco Router Programmable Interface

Cisco Smart Update is the industry's only true Cisco router Java programmable interface. Given that you can use the toolkit to programmatically read and update the router configuration using the Java object oriented class hierarchy and intuitive API's, you will be able to perform configuration updates using any logic you desire whether you are adding a new IP security filter or modifying a VPN Class of Service. Using the Cisco Smart Update interface, you can build truly scalable enterprise network management applications the way you see fit.

IOS Level Integration

The Cisco Smart Update toolkit communicates with the router at the IOS level in the same way a network engineer does to issue commands individually and monitor their status. Communicating with the router at this low level makes the toolkit very flexible given that any command can be executed and any result retrieved. All the commands and their individual results are returned to the caller so the application program can determine which command caused a problem and potentially why the command failed.

Intelligent Update Engine

The Cisco Smart Update toolkit comes with an extremely powerful engine which compares the originally read configuration with the updated configuration and issues only the required commands to the router to make the desired changes. If a configuration error occurs, the toolkit can be configured to stop the update after the offending line or the update can continue. An optional rollback flag can be set which will cause the configuration to be restored to its original configuration if an error is encountered.

Extendible

Cisco Smart Update comes with dozens of built in components for some of the most common configuration updates including line parameter, map class, and access list changes, just to name a few. If a component isn't currently supported by the toolkit, it can be easily extended by the network management application. In addition to the reading and updating of a complete IOS configuration, the toolkit can also be extended to issue and retrieve additional non-configuration commands such as commands to retrieve router statistics, etc.

Easy & Flexible Deployment

Cisco Smart Update is built using a simple and flexible architecture to ensure your network management application can be easily integrated and easily deployed into a target network environment. Just install your network management application along with the Cisco Smart Update JAR file on any of the multitude of platforms that support Java, ensure you have TCP/IP connectivity to the target routers, and you're all set.
"Fox Smart was created to change how Cisco routers are managed - to increase the power and flexibility of configuration management - to give control of the network back to the IT department."
-- Andrew Pach,
President and CEO, Fox Smart

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