This section discusses the objectives, audience, organization, and conventions of the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series Installation and Configuration Guide.
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This publication contains the initial site preparation, installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and selected upgrade and maintenance procedures for the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series (also called "the Director" in this publication).
This publication is for the Director installer, who should be familiar with electronic circuitry and wiring practices and have experience as an electronic or electromechanical technician. The Director documentation is intended primarily for users who configure and maintain the Director, but are not necessarily familiar with tasks, the relationship between tasks, or the commands necessary to perform particular tasks. Familiarity with the concepts and functionality of Domain Name System (DNS) servers is assumed.
The major sections of this installation guide are as follows:
- Chapter 1, "Overview of the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series," contains an overview of the Director features and physical specifications.
- Chapter 2, "Preparing to Install the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series," discusses environmental requirements, and safety recommendations, and describes the various ports and how to prepare for connections between networks and ports.
- Chapter 3, "Installing the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series," includes basic installation information and discusses making connections to a network, console terminal, and modem.
- Chapter 4, "Configuring Cisco DistributedDirector Interfaces," includes instructions for booting the Director for the first time, using the enable secret and enable passwords, configuring the Director, configuring interfaces, checking the Director configuration, and saving the Director configuration.
- Chapter 5, "Configuring Cisco Routers as DRP Server Agents," describes how to configure DRP server agents.
- Chapter 6, "Configuring DNS Caching Name Server Mode," describes how to configure the Director for DNS caching name server mode.
- Chapter 7, "Configuring HTTP Session Redirector Mode," describes how to configure the Director for HTTP session redirector mode.
- Chapter 8, "Configuring Advanced Features," describes how to set metrics and the server connection parameter, specify a time-to-live (TTL) value, enable or disable the Director cache, and set up multiple subdomains and host names on the same Director.
- Chapter 9, "Command Summary and Reference," lists and describes all of the Director commands.
- Appendix A, "Maintaining the Cisco DistributedDirector 2500 Series," discusses selected maintenance procedures, including: reading the LEDs, memory upgrades, password recovery, the virtual configuration register settings, and copying a Cisco DistributedDirector System Software image to Flash memory.
- Appendix B, "Cable Specifications," provides pinouts for the various types of ports on the Director and associated cables.
- Appendix C, "System Error Messages," lists and describes system error messages for the Cisco DistributedDirector.
- Appendix D, "Translated Safety Warnings," contains translations in multiple languages of the warnings that appear in this guide.
Software and hardware documentation use the following conventions:
Command descriptions use these conventions:
- Vertical bars ( | ) separate alternative, mutually exclusive, elements.
- Square brackets ([ ]) indicate optional elements.
- Braces ({ }) indicate a required choice.
- Boldface indicates commands and keywords that are entered literally as shown.
- Italics indicate arguments for which you supply value; in contexts that do not allow italics, arguments are enclosed in angle brackets (< >).
Examples and samples use these conventions:
- Examples that contain system prompts denote interactive sessions, indicating that the user enters commands at the prompt. The system prompt indicates the current command mode. For example, the prompt
DD(config)# indicates global configuration mode.
- Terminal sessions and information the system displays are in are printed in
screen font.
- Information you enter is in
boldface screen font.
- Nonprinting characters, such as passwords, are in angle brackets (< >).
- Default responses to system prompt are in square brackets ([ ]).
- Exclamation points (!) at the beginning of a line indicate a comment line. They are also displayed by the Cisco IOS software for certain processes.
Note Means reader take note.
Notes contain helpful suggestions or references to materials not contained in this manual.
 | Time Saver Means the described actions saves time. You can save time by performing the action described in the paragraph. |
 | Caution Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might do something that could result in equipment damage or loss of data. |
 | Warning Means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on any equipment, you must be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. (To see translated versions of this warning, refer to the appendix "Translated Safety Warnings.") |
