Cisco Active Network Abstraction Administrator Guide, 3.6.5
Deploying Cisco ANA

Table Of Contents

Deploying Cisco ANA

System Setup Workflow

User and View Setup Workflow


Deploying Cisco ANA


The following sections describe the steps you must perform to deploy Cisco ANA:

System Setup Workflow

User and View Setup Workflow

System Setup Workflow

The workflow shown in Figure 3-1 and described in the text that follows explains how to deploy and set up a Cisco ANA system using Cisco ANA Manage.

Figure 3-1 System Setup Workflow

1. Prepare a deployment plan. You must decide:

The number of Cisco ANA unit servers to be deployed and the number of AVMs for each server.

The number and types of network elements to be managed by each AVM.

The number of protection groups there are going to be and how Cisco ANA units are going to be organized into protection groups (clusters), based on the following considerations:

- Device type

- Geographical location

- Importance of device

- Number of devices


Note The planning of protection groups in the deployment plan is only applicable when high availability is enabled. For more information, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."


The number of standby Cisco ANA units that are going to be deployed.

How Cisco ANA units, standby Cisco ANA units, and protection groups are going to be deployed and allocated.

The number of network scopes that are required and the policies they will employ.

The number of users to be defined.

2. Set up and manage Cisco ANA servers:

a. Add Cisco ANA units.

Transport links are created automatically between the unit and its associated gateway in a star topology or between two units. See Adding New Cisco ANA Units, page 5-3.

In addition, you can configure units for high availability and assign the units to protection groups. The standby units can be configured and assigned to protection groups (optional). For more information, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."

b. Create and launch AVMs.

See Creating AVMs, page 6-1.

c. Create and assign VNEs.

See Defining VNEs, page 6-9.


Note Additional units, AVMs, VNEs, scopes, and users can be added or edited at any time.


3. Concurrently with 2., change the default setup of Cisco ANA units by customizing protection groups (clusters) and then assigning units to these groups. For more information, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."


Note You must assign a Cisco ANA unit and redundant unit to a specific protection group.


4. Customize polling groups and rates. See Customizing a Polling Group, page 7-6.


Note This step can be performed at any time after 1..


5. (Optional) Define static links between two ports of two network elements in the network. See Creating a Static Link, page 8-1.

6. (Optional) Manage and run workflows in runtime using the workflow engine branch. See Chapter 9, "Managing Workflows."


User and View Setup Workflow

The flow presented in Figure 3-2 and described in the text that follows identifies the steps required to set up users and to view them using Cisco ANA Manage.

Figure 3-2 User and View Setup

1. Install and uninstall the client license. See Managing Client Licenses, page 7-1.

2. Define and manage scopes. See Creating Scopes, page 10-5.

3. Define and manage Cisco ANA user accounts. See Creating New Cisco ANA User Accounts, page 10-7.

4. Customize a message of the day to define a message (service disclaimer) that is displayed when a user logs into the client applications. See Customizing a Message of the Day, page 7-4.

For a detailed description about implementing a role-based security mechanism with scopes that are granted to users and managing users in the Cisco ANA platform, see Chapter 10, "Managing Security."