Before You Begin
This section explains the decisions you need to make before installing Crosswork Network Controller solution on your preferred platform.
After completing the planning in the above steps, follow the relevant installation workflow steps for your platform:
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For VMware vCenter: Install Cisco Crosswork Network Controller on VMware vCenter
-
For AWS EC2: Install Cisco Crosswork Network Controller on AWS EC2
Note |
Starting with the Crosswork Network Controller version 4.1, Crosswork deployment is no longer supported for the Cisco CSP platform. For more information, see End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Cloud Services Platform Operating System. |
Determine How Many VMs You Need
After you have finalized the Crosswork applications that meet the needs of your production environment, use the below table to determine the number of VMs you will need to deploy the Crosswork cluster, and the type of Crosswork Data Gateways you will deploy.
This is a crucial step as each Crosswork application can impact the overall resources needed.
Note |
Geo redundancy solution requires double the number of VMs. For more information, see Enable Geo Redundancy section. |
Crosswork Network Controller is available in the following packages:
Package 1 |
Contents |
Crosswork Data Gateway Deployment 2 |
Recommended number of cluster VMs 3 |
---|---|---|---|
Cisco Crosswork Network Controller Essentials |
Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine |
On-Premise Standard (default): Collectors only. |
When only Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine is installed:
When Essentials package is installed WITHOUT Element Management Functions:
When Essentials package is installed WITH Element Management Functions:
|
Cisco Crosswork Active Topology |
On-Premise Standard (default): Collectors only. |
||
Element Management Functions |
On-Premise Standard (default): Collectors only. |
||
Cisco Crosswork Network Controller Advantage |
Cisco Crosswork Service Health |
On-Premise Extended: Collectors and offload services. |
3 Hybrid nodes + 2 Worker nodes |
Add-on Package 4 |
Cisco Crosswork Change Automation |
On-Premise Extended: Collectors and offload services. |
3 Hybrid nodes + 2 Worker nodes |
Cisco Crosswork Health Insights |
On-Premise Extended: Collectors and offload services. |
||
Cisco Crosswork Zero Touch Provisioning |
On-Premise Standard (default): Collectors only. |
There are licensing implications for different packages, please consult your Cisco Account team to understand which packages and licenses are required for your use cases.
The VM resource requirements for Crosswork Data Gateway are different for each type and cannot be modified. Therefore, if your requirements change, you must re-deploy the Crosswork Data Gateway to move from one type to another. For more information, see the Redeploy a Crosswork Data Gateway VM section in the Cisco Crosswork Network Controller 6.0 Administration Guide.
The number of VMs mentioned is the recommended count. You can add more Worker nodes (maximum up to 2 worker nodes) as needed. If your requirements exceed the recommended count, please contact the Cisco Customer Experience team.
Using the add-on package with any combination of the Crosswork applications requires the 5 node cluster as indicated.
Ensure that you have sufficient worker nodes in your cluster. You can always check the load in your cluster and choose to add new worker nodes post installation. For more information, see the Deploy New Cluster Nodes section in the Crosswork Network Controller 6.0 Administration Guide.
Identify the Resource Footprint
Once you determine the Crosswork applications you want and the number of VMs you will need to deploy to host them, ensure that you have the resources needed for them. The resources required per VM such as CPU, Memory, and Storage vary based on the data center where your VMs will be hosted (VMware or AWS).
The tables in this topic explain the resource requirements per VM to deploy Crosswork Hybrid or Worker nodes, Crosswork Data Gateways, NSO, and SR-PCE (refer to the table relevant to your platform).
Note |
|
Crosswork Resource Footprint for VMware
Note |
|
Important |
As Cisco Crosswork cluster nodes place high demands on the VMs, ensure that you have not oversubscribed CPU or memory resources on the machines hosting the nodes. |
Component |
vCPU |
Clock Freq (GHz) |
Memory (RAM) |
Network Interface Controller (NIC) |
Storage (Boot disk + Data disks) |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crosswork Hybrid or Worker node |
12 Minimum clock reservation: 18 GHz |
>= 2.20 |
96 GB |
10 Gbps |
1 TB |
||
Crosswork Data Gateway On-Premise Standard |
12 |
>= 2.20 |
48 GB |
10 Gbps |
70 GB (50 GB + 20 GB) |
||
Crosswork Data Gateway On-Premise Extended |
20 |
>= 2.20 |
112 GB |
10 Gbps |
570 GB (50 GB + 520 GB) |
||
Cisco NSO |
16 |
>= 2.20 |
128 GB |
10 Gbps |
1 TB |
||
Cisco SR-PCE
|
8 |
>= 2.20 |
24 GB |
10 Gbps |
70 GB |
||
Basic SCP Server (for storing backups) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
At least 25 GB (recommended) |
Crosswork Resource Footprint for AWS EC2
Note |
In case of AWS EC2, the additional storage server may be in the AWS cloud or your local environment (must be reachable from the AWS cloud). |
Component |
vCPU |
Memory (RAM) |
Network Interface Controller (NIC) |
Storage (Boot disk + Data Disks) |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crosswork Hybrid or Worker node |
12 Minimum clock reservation: 18 GHz |
96 GB |
10 Gbps |
1 TB |
||
Crosswork Data Gateway On-Premise Standard |
12 |
64 GB |
10 Gbps |
70 GB (50 GB + 20GB) |
||
Crosswork Data Gateway On-Premise Extended |
24 |
128 GB |
10 Gbps |
570 GB (50 GB + 520 GB) |
||
Cisco NSO |
16 |
128 GB |
10 Gbps |
1 TB |
||
Cisco SR-PCE
|
8 |
24 GB |
10 Gbps |
70 GB |
||
Basic SCP Server (for storing backups) |
- |
- |
- |
At least 25 GB (recommended) |
Additional Resource Requirements:
-
Storage requirements vary based on factors such as the number of devices being supported and the type of deployment selected. However, 1 TB disk space should work for most deployments.
-
Due to their performance, solid state drives (SSD) are preferred over traditional hard disk drives (HDD).
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If you are using HDD, the minimum speed should be over 15, 000 RPM.
-
The VM data store(s) need to have disk access latency < 10 ms or > 5000 IOPS.
Special Considerations
In addition to the above instructions, there may be certain setup options that you need to consider before you begin the installation.
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Are you going to use self-signed certificates? – if yes, you need to make the certificates available. For more information on the type of certificates supported and how to manage them, see the Manage Certificates section in the Crosswork Network Controller 6.0 Administration Guide.
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Do you plan to integrate Crosswork with external authentication servers?– Integration with TACACS+ or other external authentication servers will require you to have credentials created for the Crosswork user accounts and roles.
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Do you want to use a URL of an optional Management network proxy server?– If your environment requires an HTTP or HTTPS proxy to access the URLs on the public Internet, you must configure a proxy server for Crosswork Data Gateway to connect to Cisco Crosswork.
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In Crosswork Data Gateway, do you want to configure a Syslog server to collect the syslog?– if yes, then provide the host name or IPv4 or IPv6 address of an external syslog server. Or, you have the option to configure the syslog server using the interactive console after the installation is complete.
-
In Crosswork Data Gateway, do you want to configure an Auditd server to collect the event logs?– if yes, then provide the host name or IPv4 or IPv6 address of an external auditd server. As an alternative, you have the option to configure the auditd server using the interactive console after the installation is complete.
-
Do you plan to enable the automatic execution of linked playbooks? – If yes, you must enable Playbook Job Scheduling and disable Credential Prompting for playbook execution in the Network Automation settings window. For more information, see the Enable Automatic Playbook Execution topic in the Crosswork Change Automation and Health Insights 6.0 User Guide.