Self-Service Campus (SSC) goal is to enable technical field staff to tke on daily tasks within campus. To complete their tasks autonomously, staff are required to access and configure network equipment, such as switches, to define port security and access rules. In a troubleshoot scenario, access to the same switches is required to take a closer look at logs. These are privileged accesses on sensitive equipment, typically using command line tools, meaning that extensive command knowledge is required. Even experienced technicians may, unwillingly, remove previous configurations, or misconfigure ports, with potential security issues or out of service situations. The SSC is an online tool for graphic based network configuration, encapsulating a subset of possible operations using an API developed on top of Cisco Prime APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), combined with role-based access controls, with fine-grained access control to features on network equipment. This paper presents the overall architecture set in place to support applications like the SSC in a sustained and generic way, with special focus on this particular implementation.
Downloads: presentation (PPTX) – poster (JPG) – paper in EJHEIT
