If you're studying for the CCNA Security exam, you will need to become very familiar with Cisco's Router and Security Device Manager (SDM). This lesson covers the installation and setup of SDM.
SDM is a Web-based device-management tool for Cisco routers that can improve the productivity of network managers, simplify router deployments, and help troubleshoot complex network and VPN connectivity issues.
Cisco SDM supports a wide range of Cisco IOS Software releases and is available free of charge on Cisco router models from Cisco 830 Series to Cisco 7301. It ships preinstalled on all new Cisco 850 Series, Cisco 870 Series, Cisco 1800 Series, Cisco 2800 Series, and Cisco 3800 Series integrated services routers.
Installing and running Cisco Security Device Manager is a fairly straight forward process. You will need to be aware of a few issue though:
1) You will need to configure your router to allow SDM to manage it
2) If you want to run SDM locally, you will need to make sure that your Java, firewall, and browser settings are adjusted as needed. You will also need to be running Windows.
3) If you want to run SDM from the router, you will need to make sure that you have sufficient storage on the router to install the needed SDM files.
