Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Nortel on Nortel

by

Nortel recently created a website, Nortel on Nortel, to host some of the best practices and experiences that Nortel’s own Information Technology department uses in day to day IT business. While the best practices and case study documents are nice additions it’s the tools section that has me excited.

The IT Tools site has a number of very useful tools that include;

– Nortel Configuration Converter
– CLI*manager
– MultiCast Hammer (MC Hammer)
– Nortel Icons Library
– Latency Manager

The Nortel Configuration Converter promises to convert any Cisco CatOS configuration file to a number of different Nortel product configurations. When I managed six Nortel Passport 6480 Switches I used CLI*manager extensively to help automated the provisioning and configuration and was extremely greatful to Brett Sinclair for his efforts. Multicast Hammer is a great tool that can be used to help map out any multicast configuration issues (although I still like using VLC). I’ve always struggled to find icon sets for both logical and physical diagrams so it’s nice to see Nortel finally stepping up to the plate with some decent icons. I have never seen the last tool, Latency Manager, but I’ll be interested to see if it’s really useful, I have considered deploying SmokePing by Tobi Oetiker in the past so I’ll definitely need to give this tool a try.

You can download each of the tools from the link provided above, the website only asks for your first name, last name and email address when you download the tool(s).

Cheers!

You might also want to read these other posts...

  1. Nortel Java Device Manager Tips
  2. Nortel ERS 8600 Software 5.1 Available
  3. UNIStim Firmware Release 3.3 for Nortel IP Phones

Comments

  1. Hi Michael,

    Thanks for your comments. When we looked at developing this website, we thought that the tools and Implementation STEPS would be the most useful for our IT peers. We would like to hear your feedback as we add content on an ongoing basis.

    Thanks.

    Ru
    Nortel IT

  2. Hi Ru,

    Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

    I think the Nortel on Nortel site is fantastic. I’m hoping you guys will expand the content as time goes on, especially with the real-world “best practices” and configuration guides. I’ve spoken to many a Nortel sales engineer, sales person, area manager, vice president, etc… Nortel needs to-do a better job of empowering it’s users. The Technical Configuration Guides that are currently being published are a great start… unfortunately they are NOT getting indexed by any of the search engines and appear to only be accessible to registered users.

    Look at Cisco, if you put almost any topic into a search engine about any Cisco gear, be it configuration or feature set you almost always get a result where Cisco’s website is in the top 5 results. Nortel needs to optimize their content for search engines so users can find the information they are looking for, be it comparing two products, of trying to figure out how to configuration something.

    This blog itself is partly successful because of the void of knowledge and information available to Nortel customers. I’ve been told that Nortel customers are extremely loyal, however, Nortel also needs to work on expanding that customer base and not just relying on it’s existing customers. As more and more folks look to VoIP, Nortel has an obvious foothold with legacy Meridian-1 phone systems. Nortel should be leveraging that position to outsell it’s competitors especially when a Nortel phone system is already in place.

    I’ll be sure to drop you a line as time goes on.

    Thanks again!

  3. Good to see Nortel making improvements when it comes to documentation, though they are still playing catch-up. The Technical Configuration Guides, the launch of Nortel Press and now Nortel on Nortel giving a view on how they use their products internally are steps in the right direction. Needless to say Cisco have been doing this for years with Cisco Press and Cisco on Cisco (previously Cisco IT@Work).

    Cheers

  4. Hello Michael

    Have you been able to successfully use/install the Nortel Latency Manager?

    • Hi Leon,

      I have not installed Nortel’s Latency Manager. There are quite a few requirements including the following;

      Java 1.6 and above
      CLI*manager 4.1.6 and above
      Microsoft Windows 2003 and above
      Microsoft SQL Server 2005
      Microsoft IIS v5
      Microsoft .NET 3.5
      X.509 Server Certificate (HTTPS)

      You can find additional information here.

      Good Luck!

  5. Hi Michael, I´m fan do Nortel and the page web has changed.

    Can you help me? How to i can find ” Nortel Icons Library”. IT tools is enabled, there are any link to downlad?

    thank

    db_nortel

  6. Hi Michael. You think you can help me i got the original Nortel Icon Library?
    thank very much.

    db_nortel

  7. You didn’t have a copy of – MultiCast Hammer (MC Hammer) did you? Been googling for about 30 min and can’t find it anywhere :/

    Cheers

Recent Posts

Categories

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL