NMS300 Software Release 1.4.0.17

This release notes contains features and known issues for NETGEAR ProSAFE NMS300 Network Management Software release 1.4.0.17.

NMS300 issues fixed on 1.4.0.17

• NSM300 didn't identify the same switch stack when the switch master rebooted and backup master took over the management.
• The my.NETGEAR.com Account Profile function does not work.
• NMS300 only indentifies one unit of 2xReadyDATA when ReadyDATA connected to the network with teaming(LACP).
• Add 'Gateway' and 'Subnet' parameters into the tag list in 'promte configuration'
• NMS300 Network Dashboard doesn't work with unsupported switch
• NMS300 doesn’t allow to enter hyphens (-) in community name.

Key features available in this 1.4 release of NMS300 software are the following:

• Support for additional switch, wireless access point & firewall devices. See table below.
• Basic support for sFlow: NMS300 can be configured as a receiver of flow samples from NETGEAR Managed switches which support sFlow.

The below list provides the specific device models which are now supported in NMS300 starting from this 1.4 release:

M6100 series
S3300-28X, S3300-28X-PoE+,S3300-52X, S3300-52X-PoE+
WC7600, WN370
FVS336Gv3

NMS300 Known issues and limitations

• Occasionally we have seen navigation between the locations in Map view takes more than 20 seconds to load the page completely
• The Common STP data is not available for some switch models such as GS724TPS, GS48TPS, GS724TS, GS748TS, GS724TP, GS748TP, GS728TP, GS728TPP and GS752TP.
• Launching direct access to device web UI via HTTP/HTTPS from NMS300 fails for these device models - GS724Tv3, GS748Tv4, FS752TP, FS728TPv2, GS716Tv2, GS724TP, GS748TP, FS728TP, GS724TS, GS748TS, GS724TPS, & GS748TPS. The work around is to launch the device web UI directly via a web browser.
• Some older managed switches do not support all features available in NMS300
• SMS functionality is only working in P.R China, all of other countries or regions don’t support it on 1.4.0.

Browsers supported by this Beta release of NMS300 are:

• Internet Explorer 9 and above
• Firefox
• Chrome

Operating Systems supported by this Beta release of NMS300 are:

• Microsoft Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate) 32-bit & 64-bit
• Microsoft Windows XP (Professional) 32-bit & 64-bit with SP3 or later
• Windows Server 2008 (Enterprise) 32-bit & 64-bit
• Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Enterprise and Web), 32-bit & 64-bit
• Windows Server 2012 (Standard) 64-bit
• Windows 8 Enterprise 64-bit

System requirements for this release of NMS300 are:

• 2.8 GHz Dual Core CPU
• 4G RAM (32 Bit OS) or 8G RAM (64 Bit OS)
• 20G storage

Steps to get NMS300 up and running:

• There are 2 installers. One for 32bit Windows OS and another for 64bit Windows OS. Download the appropriate zip file, which corresponds to either 32bit or 64bit Windows, from the published web site.
• Using the Download Link below, download and extract the new firmware to a convenient place such as your desktop.
  
  Download Link:

  Win32 bit: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/NMS300/NMS300_V1.4.0.17(Win32).zip

  Win64 bit: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/NMS300/NMS300_V1.4.0.17(Win64).zip

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• Make sure to choose a machine that has static IP address assigned in order for running NMS300 on it. The NMS300 is a server application and it binds itself to the static IP address of the machine
• Unzip the file to obtain the executable installer file.
• Double click on this executable in order to launch the installer wizard.
• The wizard of the installer will guide you through the default settings and allows the user to customize them. For instance, if another application is already using port number 8080 on the Windows machine, then the user can modify this default setting to a different port number. Similarly, there are a few other settings which can be customized as well.
  Also, if you have multiple NICs (Network Interface Cards) on your machine, then make sure to choose the appropriate NIC in the NIC selection page in the wizard.
• Once the installer finishes executing, it will prompt you whether or not you want to reboot the system now. It is strongly recommended that you reboot the system at this point.
• Once rebooted, the NMS300 application should be up and running as a service.
• There is no need to enter a license key in order to get the NMS300 to start managing devices.
• In order to launch the NMS300 web GUI from the same machine as where you installed NMS300, enter the URL http://localhost:8080 . In case you had entered a different port number for the web server during the NMS300 installation, then make sure to replace 8080 in this URL with the port number you provided during installation.
• In case you are trying to access the NMS300 web GUI from a remote machine, then you can access it by replacing “localhost” with the IP address of the NMS300 machine.
• Make sure to clear your web browser’s cache prior to using the web GUI of NMS300. This will prevent you from encountering issues while using the web GUI of NMS300.
• Once you access the URL in a supported web browser, you will see the login page for NMS300 web GUI. The default user name is admin and the default password is admin

Notes:

• You will need to run the latest released firmware version for the devices in order to be able to manage the devices from NMS300. You will need to upgrade the device to the latest version by using the device’s web GUI since the device needs to be running the latest firmware before it can be discovered and become manageable by NMS300. However, once this one-time upgrade from device’s web GUI is done, future upgrade of the device’s firmware can be done centrally from NMS300 without having to use the device web GUI.
• NMS300 uses a combination of SNMP, HTTP and Telnet protocols to interact with the devices. Hence, it is crucial that NMS300 is configured with the correct port number and credentials in order to be able to communicate with the device and authenticate successfully with the device over these protocols. The way this can be achieved in NMS300 is by configuring the appropriate Device Credential. The Device Credential used during discovery of a device will remain associated with that device for subsequent interactions from NMS300 to the device.
  If the device is listening on a non-default port number for any of the above mentioned protocols, then make sure to reflect the correct port number in the Device Credential.
  If the devices have been reconfigured such that the default password for the admin user has been changed, then make sure to create a Device Credential in NMS300 that is set with the matching password for the admin user. Similarly, if the default SNMP community strings have been changed then make sure to create a Device Credential that is set with the matching community strings.
• NMS300 listens for SNMP Traps and it is crucial that the devices are configured to send SNMP traps to the NMS300 server’s IP address. Both SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 traps are supported.
• As already mentioned above, install the NMS300 on a machine with static IP address. The NMS300 is a server application and it binds itself to the static IP address of the machine
• As already mentioned previously, make sure to clear your web browser’s cache prior to using the web GUI of NMS300. This will prevent you from encountering issues while using the web GUI of NMS300.
• NMS300 by default allows you to manage up to 200 devices. The customer will be able to purchase a license if they need to manage higher device counts.
• Netgear ProSafe Firewall FVS318G uses port number 8080 when HTTPS is enabled. Hence, ensure that the Device Credential configured in NMS300 has this port number configured within it.

Steps to get devices discovered in NMS300 to then start managing them:

• In the web GUI, click on the first-level tab ‘RESOURCES’ and then click on ‘DISCOVERY’ in the second-level tab.
• Launch the quick discovery wizard by clicking on ‘Quick Discovery’ button.
• In the first page for network, you can choose one of several options for entering the IP addresses. You can choose ‘IP Range’ in the drop down list and then enter the start and end IP addresses of the devices in your network.
• In case your devices are not using the default password for ‘admin’ user for web GUI access and telnet access on the device or if the SNMP community strings are not the default on the device or if you are not using the default HTTP port, then you will need to create new Credentials and then associate them into this Quick Discovery wizard. On the other hand, if you are using the default settings for these protocols (i.e., SNMP community strings and password for admin user), then you can skip to step#5 below.
  If you are not using the default password for ‘admin’ user on the device, then you will need to create two Credentials – one Credential that has ‘Telnet’ selected for the protocol field and another Credential that has ‘HTTP’ selected for the protocol field. Make sure to choose the appropriate port number as well.
  If you are not using the default community strings for SNMP on the device, then you will need to create yet another Credential that has the appropriate SNMP version selected for the protocol field.
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  Below are the steps to create new Credential and then associating it to the Quick Discovery wizard:

  1. Navigate to ‘RESOURCES’ and then ‘DEVICE CREDENTIALS’ in the top level tabs.
  2. Launch the Add Credential wizard by clicking on ‘Add’ button. Give this Credential a name. For instance, if you are creating this Credential for SNMP protocol, then you may name it ‘my-SNMP’.
  3. Select the protocol and then the protocol specific fields will appear. Enter appropriate values for these fields such that they match the ones you have configured on the device. For instance, if you have a non-default password set for the device for the ‘admin’ user then make sure you specify it for the ‘Telnet’ protocol and for the ‘HTTP’ protocol. Similarly, if you have changed the default community strings for SNMP operations on the device, then make sure that you specify the community strings in this dialog for SNMP protocol and choose the matching version of SNMP that you have chosen on the device.
  4. Make sure to choose the appropriate port number as well by navigating to the ‘Management Interface’ tab of the dialog.
  5. To associate the newly created Credential(s) into the Quick Discovery wizard, click on ‘Add’ button in ‘Select Credentials’. This will launch a dialog where you can choose one or more credentials. You will need to make sure to choose exactly one credential for each of these protocols – SNMP, Telnet and HTTP.
• Click on ‘Execute’ button. You will then see the progress of device discovery in the Result page of the wizard. The final status of the discovery will be shown in this page after it progresses through all IP addresses provided.
• Close the wizard. Navigate to ‘DEVICES’ tab in the second-level tab at the top. In the ‘DEVICES’ tab you will see all the successfully discovered devices listed in the Devices table.

Steps for commonly used features in NMS300:

• For creating backup of device configuration, navigate to ‘CONFIGURATION’ and then ‘BACKUP’ in the top level tabs. Click on ‘Add Profile’ to create a backup profile by providing a profile name and select the devices that you need to backup. Click on Execute button to kick-off the retrieval of configuration from the devices.
• For restoring a previously taken configuration backup for a device, navigate to ‘CONFIGURATION’ and then ‘RESTORE’ in the top level tabs. Select the correct backup file from the ‘Restore’ table. Then click on ‘Restore Configuration’ button, which will launch a wizard that guides you through to restore the selected configuration file on to the devices that you select within this wizard.
• For upgrading firmware on device, navigate to ‘CONFIGURATION’ and then ‘IMAGE MANAGEMENT’ in the top level tabs. Start by first loading the appropriate firmware from your local hard disk into NMS300. This can be achieved by following the steps in the wizard that gets launched on clicking ‘Load Image’ button. After that, the uploaded firmware image will appear in the images table. Choose the appropriate image from this table and then click on ‘Upgrade Firmware’ button to launch the wizard that will guide you through to upgrade the firmware on the devices selected within this wizard.
• For populating the Map view and creating logical views, navigate to ‘TOPOLOGY’ and then ‘MAP VIEWS’ in the top level tabs. In here click on the ‘Devices’ button at the top toolbar that is shown within the main content area of the map view. A dialog gets launched wherein you can choose the devices that you need to be part of the map. You can also create maps under the default ‘World’ map. Ensure to click on the ‘Save’ button to see the changes you have made.
• For populating the Topology view in order to view LLDP links between switches, navigate to ‘TOPOLOGY’ and then ‘NETWORK TOPOLOGY’ in the top level tabs. In here click on the ‘+’ plus icon next to ‘View List’ shown within the left panel. This will launch a dialog to add a topology view. In this dialog enter a view name, select ‘Topology Tree’ for display layout and optionally enter your filter constraints that selects which devices show up in this view. Hit on ‘OK’ button. You should now see the switches and their physical links between each other in the newly created topology view.