CHAPTER 2

Installing Cisco DCNM OVA Management

Software

This chapter describes how to install Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) Open Virtual
Appliance (OVA) components and includes the following sections:
• Information About the Cisco DCNM OVA section, page 2-1
• Cisco DCNM OVA and Cisco Dynamic Fabric Automation section, page 2-1
• Installing the Cisco DCNM OVA section, page 2-2
• Configuring the Oracle Database for DCNM section, page 2-8
• Upgrading Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) to Version 7.0(2) section, page 2-9

Information About the Cisco DCNM OVA

An Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) is a prebuilt software solution that comprises one or more virtual
machines (VMs) that are packaged, maintained, updated, and managed as a single unit. The Cisco
DCNM OVA has a preinstalled operating system (CentOS 6.3) and includes application functionality
that is necessary for Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) functionality. DCNM as an OVA can be
deployed on a VMWare Vsphere infrastructure.

Cisco DCNM OVA and Cisco Dynamic Fabric Automation

To bring up Cisco DFA, you can use the Cisco DCNM OVA to link the following two subnets:
• Management access (the outside subnet) to access and administer the DFA network
• Enhanced fabric management network (the inside network) which is connected to the devices
through the mgmt0 interface of each device.
When installing Cisco DCNM OVA, you can choose to enable Cisco DFA functionality that simplifies
fabric management.
Cisco DCNM provides a management system that offers the following benefits:
• Ease of deployment and use
• Standards-based control protocols and components
• Unlimited level of customization and integration with an operations support systems (OSS) network

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Note For more information about Cisco Dynamic Fabric Automation, see to the Cisco Dynamic Fabric
Automation Solutions Guide.

Cisco DCNM OVA includes the following application functionality:

• Network management
– Cisco DCNM
• Network services
– Network Service Controller (NSC) Adapter
• Orchestration
– RabbitMQ AMQP Message Broker
– Python integration script
– OpenLDAP
• Device Power-on Auto Provisioning (POAP)
– DHCP server
– TFTP Repository for boot scripts
– SCP repository for storing images and configurations
• Group provisioning of switches
– XCP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) server (Cisco Jabber)

Note For detailed information about each of the applications that provide the Cisco DFA CPOM functions in
Cisco DCNM, see Chapter 3, “Managing Applications After the DCNM OVA Deployment .’.

Installing the Cisco DCNM OVA

Three steps are required to install the OVA:
1. Verify Prerequisites. You must install various VMware components before you install the OVA.
2. Download the OVA file. You can access the required dcnm.ova file from www.cisco.com.
3. Deploy the OVA as an OVF template. A step-by-step template in the vSphere Client guides you
through this process. After you have completed the step-by-step template, you can review all of the
information that you provided, make any corrections, and then deploy the OVA.

Note If you are using a high-availability (HA) environment for applications that are bundled within the DCNM
OVA, you must download the OVA and deploy twice, once for Active and once for Host-Standby. For
more information, see Chapter 4, “Managing Applications in a High-Availability Environment .’.

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Verifying Prerequisites
Before you install the Cisco DCNM OVA, you will need to meet following software and database
requirements:
• VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0 that is running on a Windows server (or alternatively, running as a
virtual appliance)
• VMware ESXi 5.1.0 host imported into vCenter
• Two port groups on the ESXi host: one for the dcnm-mgmt-network and one for the
enhanced-fabric-mgmt network.
• VMware vSphere client application installed on your desktop

Note The OVA cannot be deployed by connecting the vSphere client directly to the ESXi server.

• Determine the number of switches in your Cisco DFA fabric that will be managed by the Cisco
DCNM OVA.
– If you will be managing more than 50 switches or you expect the number of switches to grow
over time, use an Oracle database.
See “Configuring the Oracle Database for DCNM” section on page 2-8 for information on
configuring the Oracle database.

Note Once you start using the PostgreSQL database that is built in to the Cisco DCNM OVA, you
cannot migrate the data to an Oracle database.

Note For a complete list of prerequisites that are associated with Cisco DCNM, see the Cisco DCNM
Installation and Licensing Guide, Release 7.x.

Note To accommodate for HA application functions, additional prerequisites are required. See the
Prerequisites for Cisco DCNM OVA HA section, page 4-2.

Downloading the OVA File

The first step to installing the OVA is to download the dcnm.ova file. You will point to that dcnm.ova
file on your computer when deploying the OVF template.

Note If you plan to use HA application functions, you must deploy the dcnm.ova file twice.

DETAILED STEPS

Step 1 Go to the following site: http://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html

Step 2 In the Product/Technology Support section, choose Download Software.

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Step 3 In the Select a Product section, navigate to the DCNM software by choosing Products > Switches >
Data Center Switches > Data Center Network Management > Cisco Prime Data Center Network
Manager.
A list of the latest release software for Cisco DCNM is available for download.
Step 4 In the Latest Releases list, choose 7.0.(x)
Step 5 Locate the DCNM OVA Installer and click the Download button.
Step 6 Save the dcnm.ova file to your computer in a place that will be easy to find when you start to deploy the
OVF template.

Deploying the OVA as an OVF Template

After you download the OVA file, you will deploy the OVF template from the vSphere Client application.

DETAILED STEPS

Step 1 Log in to your vSphere Client:

a. Open the VMWare vSphere client application on your desktop.
b. Connect to the vCenter Server with your vCenter user credentials.

Note You cannot deploy the OVA by connecting the vSphere Client directly to the ESXi server.

Step 2 Use the vSphere Client to access the OVF template:

a. Choose Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.
b. Choose the host on which the OVF template will be deployed.
c. Choose File > Deploy OVF Template to open the Deploy OVF Template window.
Step 3 Choose the Source location:
a. Click the Browse button.
b. Locate the dcnm.ova file that you downloaded to your computer and click Next.
Step 4 Review the OVF Template Details and click Next.

Some of the details about the Cisco DCNM virtual appliance include:
• Version number
• Download size
• Size on disk:
– Thin provision for the amount of disk space consumed by the virtual appliance immediately
after deployment. It is the minimum amount of disk space needed to deploy the virtual
appliance.
– Thick provision for the maximum amount of disk space the virtual appliance can consume.

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Note For more information on thick and thin provision, see "Step 11 - Choose the disk format."
task on page 2-5

Step 5 Read and accept the End User License Agreement and click Next.
Step 6 Specify the name and location of the Cisco DCNM OVA.
a. In the Name box, enter a name for the virtual appliance. This name is not the hostname, but the name
of the virtual appliance hardware and is specific to the vSphere infrastructure.
The name can contain up to 80 alphanumeric characters and must be unique within the Inventory
folder.
b. In the Inventory Location tree, choose the folder location for the virtual appliance.
c. Click Next.
Step 7 Choose the deployment configuration:
• Choose Small to configure the virtual machine with two vCPUs and 8G RAM.
• Choose Large to configure the virtual machine with four vCPUs and 12G RAM.

Note We recommend that you use a Large deployment configuration when you are managing more
than 50 devices (and up to the upper limit of the Cisco DFA fabric) to leverage better RAM, heap
memory, and CPUs.

For setups that could grow, you should choose Large.

Choose Small for proof-of-concept and other small-scale environments with fewer than 50
switches that are not expected to grow with time.

Step 8 Click Next.

Step 9 Specify the host and click Next.

Note A host will not be available if you already selected a host in the vSphere Client before you deploy
the OVA.

Note The OVA should not be deployed under a vApp.

Step 10 Choose the a destination storage for the virtual machine files and click Next.
Step 11 Choose the disk format.
• Choose one of the thick provision types if you have enough storage capacity as required by the
virtual appliance and want to set a specific allocation of space for the virtual disks:
– Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed: The space that is required for the virtual disk is allocated when
the virtual disk is created. The data that remains on the physical device is not erased when the
virtual disk is created but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from the virtual
disk.
– Thick Provision Eager Zeroed: The space that is required for the virtual disk is allocated when
the virtual disk is created. Unlike the Lazy Zeroed option, the data that remains on the physical
device is erased when the virtual disk is created.

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• Choose Thin Provision if you have less than 100 GB of disk space available. The initial disk
consumption will be 2.8 GB and will increase as the size of the database increases with the number
of devices being managed.
Step 12 Click Next.
Step 13 Choose your network mapping.
a. The dcnm-mgmt network provides connectivity (ssh, scp, http, https) to the Cisco DCNM OVA. In
the Destination Network column, associate the network mapping with the port group that
corresponds to the subnet that is associated with the Cisco DCNM management network.
b. Map the enhanced-fabric-mgmt network to the port group that connects to the management network
of switches.

Note If you are deploying more than one OVA for HA functionality, you must meet the following criteria:
• Both OVAs should have their management access (eth0) and enhanced fabric management (eth1)
interfaces in the same subnet.
• Both OVAs should be deployed with the same administrative password. This is to ensure that both
OVAs are duplicates of each other for application access.
Step 14 Click Next.
Step 15 Choose the Cisco DCNM OVA Properties.
a. The Application Management check box is selected by default to install applications related to
DFA.
DFA includes implementations for the following protocols:
– XMPP
– LDAP
– DHCP
– AMQP
DFA includes implementations for the following repositories:
– TFTP
– SCP/SFTP
b. In the Management Properties section, enter a password in the Enter Password and Confirm
Password boxes to establish the password that will be used to connect all applications in the DCNM
OVA.

Note The password must be at least eight characters long and must contain at least one alphabetic
and one numeric character. It can contain the only the following special characters: .(dot), +
(plus), _ (underscore), and - (hyphen).

If you do not comply with these password requirements, you can continue with the OVA
deployment; however, you subsequently may not be able to log in to other applications like
DCNM.

c. In the DCNM Network section, complete each of the required fields:

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– Hostname (should be a fully qualified domain name, otherwise you may encounter issues when
using the XMPP application after deployment)
– IP Address (for the outside management address for DCNM)
– Subnet Mask
– Default Gateway
– DNS IP
d. In the Enhanced Fabric Management section, complete each of the required fields:
– IP Address (for the inside fabric management address or OOB Management Network)
– Subnet mask
– DNS IP
Step 16 Click Next
Step 17 Review each of the deployment settings that you have established. Press the Back button to go to any
settings if you want to change them.

After you have reviewed each of the deployment settings in the OVF template, perform the following
procedure to deploy the virtual machine.

Deploying Virtual Machines

Step 1 Check the Power on after deployment check box.
Step 2 Click the Finish button.
A Deploying DNCM_OVA window appears and the OVA deployment starts and requires some time to
complete.

Note The time for the OVA deployment could take 5 to 6 minutes (or more) depending on the network
latency.

After the OVA is deployed, a Deployment Completed Successfully message appears.

Step 3 On the Summary tab in the vSphere Client, review the information about the VM and make note of the
IP address.
Step 4 Check the console of the VM in the vSphere Client for the login prompt. Once the login prompt appears,
log in with root credentials and use the appmgr status all command to check the status of the
applications. After all applications are up and running, go to the next step.

Note For more information about verifying application status see the Verifying the Application Status
after Deployment section, page 3-8.

Step 5 Log in to the Cisco DCNM web UI:

a. Put the IP address in your browser.

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The Cisco Prime Data Center Network Manager window is displayed.

b. In the User Name field, enter admin.
c. In the Password field, enter the administrative password given to you during the OVA deployment.

Note If you are deploying multiple OVAs for HA functions, you should deploy both the OVAs with
the same administrative password. This action ensures that both OVAs are duplicates of each
other for application access.

You are ready to begin POAP configuration and Device Discovery.

Note See the DCNM 7.0 Fundamentals Guide for configuration information.

Configuring the Oracle Database for DCNM

We recommend that you use an external Oracle database for Cisco DCNM for DFA for better
performance, rather than the PostgreSQL database that is built in to the Cisco DCNM OVA.

Note Once you start using the PostgreSQL database that is built in to the Cisco DCNM OVA, you cannot
migrate the data to an Oracle database.

Note If you configure a remote Oracle database for both DCNM and XMPP in an appliance (OVA/ISO), create
two separate database users—one for the DCNM and the other for XMPP.

Step 1 Prepare the Oracle database as described in the Cisco DCNM Installation and Licensing Guide, Release
7.x.

Note If you are configuring the Oracle database for an HA environment, only Step 1 is required. If
you are configuring the Oracle database for a standalone DCNM, continue with the following
steps in the procedure.

Step 2 Get the JDBC database URL, database username, and database password.
Step 3 Stop the Cisco DCNM application in the OVA.
Step 4 Open the Secure Shell (SSH) terminal and enter the following CLI command:
appmgr update dcnm -u <DB_URL> -n <DB_USER> -p <DB_PASSWORD>
Step 5 Enter the root password of the Cisco DCNM OVA. This password is used to access AMQP/LDAP by
default. You can change this password later in Cisco DCNM by using the following path: Admin -> DFA
Settings.
[root@DCNM ~]# appmgr update dcnm -u jdbc:oracle:thin:@10.77.247.11:1521:XE -n extuser -p
extuserpwd

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The external DCNM DB will be configured so that all DFA applications can be accessed using
the root password of this server. You can later change them in the DCNM Web UI: Admin >
DFA Settings

Root password :
Enter it again for verification:
Please wait...this could take a few minutes

done.
Step 6 Start the Cisco DCNM application in the OVA.
Step 7 Update the DFA setting in Cisco DCNM, if necessary.

Upgrading Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) to Version 7.0(2)

This section includes instructions for upgrading your Cisco DCNM OVA installation from version 7.0(1)
to 7.0(2). You can migrate both Cisco DCNM with a local PostgreSQL database and an external Oracle
database and Cisco DCNM in a High Availability (HA) environment.

Migrating Cisco DCNM with a Local PostgreSQL Database and an

External Oracle Database
Before you begin, make sure that Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) is up and running.

Step 1 Use the appmgr backup all command to backup all applications associated with the installation of
Cisco DCNM 7.0(1).
Step 2 Back up Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) license files.
a. Backup the license files saved in the following directory: /usr/local/cisco/dcm/licenses/.
b. On Cisco Prime DCNM 7.0(2), ensure that the MAC address along with all network settings such
as the IP address, default gateway, hostname, etc., are identical to the Cisco DCNM 7.0(1)
installation.
c. Copy the contents of the Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) files you backed up from the
/usr/local/cisco/dcm/licenses/ directory into the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) /usr/local/cisco/dcm/licenses/
directory.
Step 3 If you are using customized scripts like vCDclient.py, CPNR.py, move these files manually.
a. Backup the following files and put these files in the same location by changing the name.
(For example - /root/utils/vCDclient_backup.py).
/root/utils/vCDclient.py
root/utils/vCDclient-ini.conf
root/utils/CPNRclient.py
root/utils/CPNRclient-ini.conf

Note If you are using a customized poap_dcnm.py script in Cisco DCNM 7.0.(1), after migration the
script will be saved as /var/lib/dcnm/poap_dcnm_backup.py in Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) and the new
poap_dcnm.py will be there.

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Step 4 Transfer the backup file to an external file system.

Step 5 Power off Cisco DCNM 7.0(1).
Step 6 Deploy the Cisco DCNM OVA file for version 7.0(2).
a. Use the same network parameters (IP/subnet/gateway/DNS).
b. Use the same administrative password.
c. Use the same vCenter port groups for both network interfaces.
d. Disable auto-power-on. (The Power on OVA after deployment check-box should not be selected).
Step 7 After Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) is deployed, right-click on VM -> Edit Settings -> Hardware.
a. For both Network Adapters, update the MAC address to be the same as Cisco DCNM 7.0(1). This
will cause the same MAC address to be used for the new Virtual Machine (VM); licenses on Cisco
DCNM will not need to be regenerated in the event of an upgrade.
Step 8 Power on DCNM 7.0(2) VM.
Step 9 Copy the Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) backup file from the external repository to Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) and other
files (for example, License etc.) to corresponding places.
Step 10 Use the appmgr status all command to make sure that all applications are up and running.
Step 11 Use the appmgr stop all command to shut down all applications on Cisco DCNM 7.0(2).
Step 12 Use the appmgr upgrade <backup filename> command to run the upgrade script on Cisco Prime
DCNM 7.0(2).
a. Select option [1] Standalone DCNM with Local PostgreSQL database or [2] Standalone DCNM
with External Oracle database when prompted, based on your Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) setup:
Choose [1] Standalone DCNM with Local PostgreSQL database
[2] Standalone DCNM with External Oracle database
[3] High Availability

Note If you choose option [2] Standalone DCNM with External Oracle database, make sure that
the external database is up and running.

Migrating Cisco DCNM in a High Availability Environment

Before you begin, make sure that Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) Active and Standby peers are both up and running.

Note For more information on Active and Standby peers in a High Availability environment, see “Managing
Applications in a High-Availability Environment”.

Step 1 Make sure that Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Active and Standby peers are both deployed but not powered on.

Note Make sure that the MAC address and all network settings, such as the IP address, default
gateway, hostname, etc., are identical to the Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) installation.

Step 2 Verify that the appmgr backup all command was run on both the Active and Standby peers and that
separate tar archives were stored in an external file system (for example, as active.tar.gz and
standby.tar.gz)

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Step 3 Follow the same steps for the license files and other script files (vCDclient.py, CPNRclient.py etc) as
instructed in “Migrating Cisco DCNM with a Local PostgreSQL Database and an External Oracle
Database” section on page 2-9.
Step 4 Power off the Cisco DCNM 7.0(1) Active peer.
Step 5 Wait 4 to 5 minutes and then stop the DCNM application on the Cisco DCNM 7.0.(1) Standby peer.
This is to ensure that write operations to LDAP are prevented (which could lead to LDAP getting into
an inconsistent state).
Step 6 Power-on the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Active peer.
Step 7 Stop all of the applications on the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Active peer.
Step 8 Use the appmgr upgrade <active.tar.gz> command to run the upgrade script.
a. Choose option [3] High Availability when prompted.
Choose option [1] Standalone DCNM with Local PostgreSQL database
[2] Standalone DCNM with External Oracle database
[3] High Availability

b. Select option [1] Active when prompted.

Choose [1] Active [2] Standby

Step 9 All applications are running on the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Active peer; power-off the Cisco Prime DCNM
7.0(1) Standby peer.
Step 10 Power on the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Standby peer.
Step 11 Stop all applications on the Cisco DCNM 7.0(2) Standby peer. (After waiting for all applications to start
during OS boot up).
Step 12 Use the appmgr upgrade <standby.tar.gz> command to run the upgrade script.
a. Choose option [3] High Availability when prompted.
Choose option[1] Standalone DCNM with Local PostgreSQL database
[2] Standalone DCNM with External Oracle database
[3] High Availability

b. Select option [2] Standby when prompted.

Choose [1] Active [2] Standby

Step 13 Invoke the following on the Active peer to establish SSH trust to the Standby peer:
sh /root/sshAutoLogin.sh <STANDBY_PEER_IP>

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