Are there plans on supporting extensible device certification packs?

[lilah]

Hi everyone,

 

As far as I know, device certification is provided on a per-version basis and not as a file than can be uploading to an existing Spectrum deployment. If tomorrow Cisco or Juniper release a new router, I wouldn't be able to have support for this other than as a generic device or modelling it as an existing device type.

 

Is there any plan on supporting the upgrading of device certification (and support) rather than having to upgrade Spectrum for updated device support?

[Marco Russo]

I think i remember this was mentioned as planned on last years delevoper exchange. If i remember correctly, quaterly device certification packs / updates were mentioned.

But i would also be interested to read if CA is currently planning something like that. It would be a major step forward, from my point of view.

[Catalin Farcasanu]

It's not so straightforward, as if device certification could include changes to the Modeling Catalog and also OneClick server. So basically, it makes sense to have it only as an update for the entire system. Furthermore, there aren't any intermediary releases. AFAIK the certification team is altogether another entity, as now they are trying to provide certifications across the entire solutions.

 

There's a statement on the Spectrum product page related to new device certification (CA Spectrum® Release Content Strategy). It provides some timeframes for certifying new devices from either Cisco or Juniper.

[lilah]

I feel that having a company release device packs to stay up to date with new products to be monitored shouldn't require a complete system upgrade. New products are released and updated, and any NMS with a decent lifecycle should be able to take this into account.

 

I recall having to model Cisco ACS 5.8, but not being able to monitor it correctly even though it appeared under Device Certification. Through CA support I later found out that they certified a much older version of ACS, and not being able to have a fix for this other than to wait until a new version of Spectrum would be released which supports the changes made in ACS. I've had similar problems with Juniper routers (SRXes) which were already marketed by the time the latest Spectrum version came out.

 

A complete system upgrade in order to keep up with changes in my infrastructure is far from ideal, my clients have even gone so far as to express that it's unacceptable.

 

CA wouldn't be the first to create periodic device packs. Cisco UCM for example provides device packs to support new models and/or new firmwares without having to go through a complete system upgrade. The same goes for McAfee ePo and other popular solutions I've worked with.

[mwegner]

For something more complex, like adding WLC support, it makes sense that certification might require a full upgrade.  For something simpler like adding support for an Aruba 7220 when the Aruba 7210 and 7240 (same product line and firmware, one step smaller and larger) are already supported, that seems like there could be a simpler certification upgrade path.  It's especially frustrating when modules like NCM or VLAN manager refuse to work with the "unsupported" hardware.

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Folks, 

 

As I mentioned on the other thread we are soon going to make announcement on our improvement process. Stay Tuned . 

Thanks,

Nagesh