Friday, October 31, 2008

Netpro Package Sharing

For those, that have not yet upgraded to the latest V6 code of MARS, (and i know thats quite a few!), here are some screenshots of the new Parser Sharing Forum.

With V4/5 and below, there was the concept of the Custom Parser. Beginning with MARS 6.0, these new custom parsing features are referred to as the Device Support Framework (DSF).

With DSF you can quickly add support for new device types, improve support for existing device types, and replicate accomplished work from one CS-MARS appliance to another. (not only device types, but Rules and Reports also)


Device support packages are posted to and downloaded from the Package Sharing page of the MARS forum at the Networking Professionals Connection (NetPro) forum on Cisco.com

These packages can also be protected with an import and unlock password, to prevent you giving the crown jewels away.

As can be seen above, i seem to be the only person to upload so far! :-), but the plan would be to have much more content.

Another cool feature, is that you can also subscribe to the forum, and get updated, when new content is added.

I have created a test Microsoft IIS 6.0 FTP Parser DSF File, which i will upload next week. You can test this out, then start adding your own content, and get the community going.

There are a few other parsers also in development, but more on these soon.