the catalyst 2960 switches offer several management options:

    1 cisco network assistant

    network assistant is a pc-based network management gui application optimized for lans of small and medium-sized businesses. network assistant offers centralized management of cisco switches ranging from the catalyst 2950 switch to the catalyst 4506 switch. through a user-friendly gui, users can configure and manage switch clusters or standalone switches.

    network assistant is available at no cost and can be downloaded from this url:

    http://www.cisco.com/go/networkassistant

    for information on starting network assistant, see the getting started with cisco network assistant guide on cisco.com.

    2 device manager

    you can use the device manager, which is in the switch memory, to manage individual and standalone switches. device manager is an easy-to-use web interface that offers quick configuration and monitoring. you can access the device manager from anywhere in your network through a web browser. for more information, see the device manager online help.

    3 cisco ios command-line interface (cli)

    the switch cli is based on cisco ios software and is enhanced to support desktop-switching features. you can fully configure and monitor the switch and switch cluster members from the cli. you can access the cli either byconnecting your management station directly to the switch console port or by using telnet from a remote management station. see the catalyst 2960 switch command reference on cisco.com for more information.

    for setup instructions that use the cli, go to appendix c, “configuring the switch with the cli-based setup program.”

    4 ciscoview application

    the ciscoview device-management application displays the switch image that you can use to set configuration parameters and to view switch status and performance information. the ciscoview application, which you purchase separately, can be a standalone application or part of a simple network management protocol (snmp) platform. see the ciscoview documentation for more information.

    5 snmp network management

    you can manage switches from a snmp-compatible management station that is running platforms such as hp openview or sunnet manager. the switch supports a comprehensive set of management information base (mib) extensions and four remote monitoring (rmon) groups. see the switch software configuration guide on cisco.com and the documentation that came with your snmp application for more information.