General Configuration

IPNetwork Editor

A Mantychore user can configure an IP network instance and its routers from IP Network View, but the resulting information of those configurations can't be shown in that view, so it is required another graphical element which displays the information in a better way. An Editor is a graphical element where most of the information of an application are shown and can be managed (for example edited, hence its name). In our case we have a different IP Network Editor for each IP network instance. To open the editor the user must double clicking the IP network tree element in the IP Network View. The IP Network Editor takes up most of the application space, because it is where all the information about the IP network instance is shown. The picture below is an example of this editor.

The IP Network Editor is composed by 3 labels:

• IPNetwork Topology- A graphical editor where user can draw the topology of the network and configure routing protocols in each router
• General Information- A label where all the general information about the IP network is shown
• Permissions- A place where the permissions of the IP network instance can be assigned to other users

IPNetwork Editor - Draw the network topology

The first label of the IP Network Editor shows a graphical view of the IP network. It is intended to show a snapshot of the current IP network configuration in a 2D graphical way. All the routers are displayed over a background and can be moved around the 2d map. The positions of each router are saved and stored in data base using the command Ctrl+s or right clicking in the router and selecting the "save" option of the menu.

This graphical editor has a palette with 3 tools in the upper-left corner of the editor. These tools are: select, marquee, and topology tool.

• The select tool allows to select a router and move it around the map
•   It allows to select more than one resource at once.
• It allows the creation of physical links.

It is possible to draw the physical links between the routers placed in one IP network using the "Topology Tool" tool. Selecting this tool Mantychore users are able to draw physical links one by one, first selecting the origin of the connection and next selecting the destination. When the origin and destination have been selected, the PhysicalLink creation wizard appear.

The picture above shows the wizard to create a physical link. A Mantychore user must select the interface used to connect the router origin and the interface which connects the router destination. Once the interfaces involved are chosen and the Finish button has been pressed, the physical link will be drawn in the graphical editor, joining two routers by a black line with two arrows in its ends. The picture below shows an example of physical link. As we can see, the identifiers of origin and destination interfaces are shown too. The physical links don't configure anything in routers, they only helps to Mantychore user to understand how the network topology is.

If you want to remove an existing link, you must right clicking on the link, and then choose the "Delete PhysicalLink" in the menu appeared.

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Double clicking an existing link produces the appearance of a little dialog which describes the physical link. An example of this diaolog is shown in the following picture.

IPNetwork Editor - General Information

The second label of the IP Network Editor is used to show all the general information of the IP network instance. There is no much general information in fact, it are only shown the name of the IP network, all the physical links that performs the network graph, the type of those connections, and the routers belonging to this IP network. This information only has an informative purpose, so the fields cannot be edited. The following picture shows an example of this label.

IPNetwork Editor - Manage Permissions

The third label of the IP Network Editor is used to assign and unassign permissions to other users, so those users will be able to obtain the IP network instance from the Mantychore server and execute one or more actions over it depending the permissions assigned to them. The first step for one user to manage an IP network from Mantychore is get the IP network instance from the Mantychore server. If this user is not the creator, he will need the appropriate permission, the Get IPNetwork permission. The following picture shows an example of this label.

The picture shows a matrix composed by users and permissions, so the current user can assign one or more permissions to one or more user at the same time. You have to click the save button to apply the changes.

Create an IP network instance

Mantychore is able to create IP networks where routers are placed, though they are in fact Autonomous Systems (AS) where routing protocols like RIP, OSPF and BGP can be configured over all routers at the same time.

To create an IP network click the bottom in the top menu

The IP network creation wizard will appear, and you only have to fill the name field and choose a connection type. The connection type can be Manhattan or Shortest Path, Manhattan allows corners in the lines representing the links between routers, and Shortest Path eliminates the corners in the connection links allowing only straight lines.

In the same wizard you can add one or more routers to the new IP network, but this is not mandatory. The routers appeared in the Available Routers box are the ones which don't have been assigned to any IP network yet.

To confirm the operation only click the Finish button and the IP network will be created. The new IP network created will be appear in the tree of the IP network view. The following image shows the new IP network

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A new IP network Editor will be opened showing the new IP newtork created.

Modify an IP Network instance

To modify some of the IP network attributes the user needs to click on the "Modify IPNetwork" option.

At this moment there is only implemented in the wizard the option to modify the name of the IP network. 

Remove an IP Network instance

If you don't need an IP network instance anymore, you always can remove it from the system. The process is simply, you have to do a right click over the IP network instance that you want to remove and the view menu will be displayed.

Now you just only click in the "Remove IPNetwork" option, and the IP network will be disappear and all the editors and views related with this instance will be closed.

IPNetwork Editor - Change the background

When an IP network has been just created, it has a white background, but it is possible to configure a new background, for example a map to clarify where the routers are placed. To do this, you need to right clicking on the white background and choose "Change Map Image"  This option is in the menu bar too. Next, a dialog will be opened to allow you explore in your hard disk and choose an image. The formats accepted are GIF, JPG and PNG. The result obtained is showed in the picture below.