Cisco Active Network Abstraction Administrator Guide, 3.6.5
Managing Cisco ANA Units
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Table Of Contents

Managing Cisco ANA Units

Cisco ANA Unit Overview

Before You Begin

Adding New Cisco ANA Units

Editing Cisco ANA Unit Properties

Deleting a Cisco ANA Unit


Managing Cisco ANA Units

This chapter describes how to manage Cisco ANA units and includes the following sections:

•Cisco ANA Unit Overview

•Adding New Cisco ANA Units

•Editing Cisco ANA Unit Properties

•Deleting a Cisco ANA Unit

Cisco ANA Unit Overview

The main purpose of Cisco ANA units is to host autonomous VNEs. The units are interconnected to form a fabric of VNEs that can intercommunicate with other VNEs regardless of the unit they are running on. Each unit can host thousands of autonomous VNE processes (depending on the server system size).

Figure 5-1 Cisco ANA Architecture

For more information about adding units, see Adding New Cisco ANA Units.

The clustered N+m high availability mechanism uses the Cisco ANA fabric to handle the failure of a unit. Unit availability is established in the gateway running a protection manager process which continuously monitors all units in the network. If the protection manager detects a unit that is malfunctioning, it automatically signals one of the standby servers in its cluster to load the configuration of the faulty unit (from the system registry), and to take over all its managed network elements. The switchover to the redundant standby unit does not result in any loss of information in the system because all information is autodiscovered from the network, and no persistent storage synchronization is required. You can designate a unit to act as an active or standby unit when you configure it.

Note The Cisco ANA system is usually configured with the high availability mechanism enabled.

For more information about high availability, standby units, and defining a redundant unit, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."

Before You Begin

Beginning with Cisco ANA 3.6.5, both Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and MAC-based topology discovery are enabled by default. However, if the device is a Cisco 6500 or Cisco 7600 series device with at least one Layer 3 interface, one of the following can occur:

•No links appear.

•Link information is incorrect.

To ensure that links on Cisco 6500 and Cisco 7600 series devices with Layer 3 interfaces are discovered and displayed properly, disable MAC-based topology discovery.

To disable MAC-based topology discovery:

Step 1 Using Telnet, log into the gateway as user sheer.

Step 2 Change to the Main directory by entering the following command: 

# cd Main

Step 3 Enter the following RegTool commands: 

# ./runRegTool.sh -gs 127.0.0.1 set 0.0.0.0 
"site/agentdefaults/da/amsi/topology/common/waitForSpecificSignature" true 

# ./runRegTool.sh -gs 127.0.0.1 set 0.0.0.0 
"site/agentdefaults/da/amsi/topology/ethernet/enabled" false

These commands update the Golden Source and are saved in site.xml as customizations. Customizations in site.xml are retained across Cisco ANA upgrades; for example, when upgrading from Cisco ANA 3.6.5 to Cisco ANA 3.6.6.

Step 4 Shut down the gateway and unit processes by entering the following commands: 

$pkill java 

$./rall.csh pkill java

Step 5 Restart the gateway by entering the following command: 

# ./mvm.csh

The gateway will automatically restart the units.

When you add units, they access the Golden Source and retrieve the updated information.

For more information about the Golden Source, see Appendix C, "Golden Source Registry."

Adding New Cisco ANA Units

Cisco ANA Manage enables you to add a unit to the Cisco ANA fabric. Cisco ANA Manage automatically registers the unit in the registry and creates a transport uplink between the unit and the gateway. The units are linked to the gateway in a star topology.

In addition, you can enable or disable high availability for a unit. These settings enable you to define to which protection group a unit is assigned, and whether it is enabled for high availability. For more information on high availability, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."

Note By default, all units in the Cisco ANA fabric belong to one cluster identified as the default-pg protection group.

To add a new unit:

Step 1 Select the ANA Servers branch in the Cisco ANA Manage window.

Step 2 Open the New ANA Unit dialog box in one of the following ways:

•Right-click the ANA Servers branch, then choose New ANA Unit.

•In the toolbar, click New Unit.

•Choose File > New ANA Unit.

The following field is displayed in the New ANA Unit dialog box:

•IP Address—The unique IP address of the unit.

Note An error message is displayed if a unit is already configured with the same IP address.

The following check boxes are displayed in the New ANA Unit dialog box:

•Enable Unit Protection—Indicates whether a unit is enabled (check box is selected) for high availability. This option is selected by default.

Note We strongly recommended that you do not disable this option. When you define the unit as a "new" standby unit, this option is automatically disabled. For more information about configuring standby units, see Appendix F, "Using High Availability."

•Standby Unit—Indicates whether a unit is defined (check box is checked) as a standby unit.

•Protection Group—Displays the currently defined list of customized protection groups.

Step 3 Enter the IP address of the new unit in the IP Address field.

Step 4 Choose the required protection group from the Protection Group list.

Step 5 Click OK. The new unit is displayed in the Cisco ANA Manage tree pane and workspace.

If the new unit is installed and reachable, it starts automatically. The unit is registered with the gateway. Specifically, the command creates the configuration registry for the new unit in the Golden Source. For more information, see Appendix C, "Golden Source Registry."

In addition, Cisco ANA Manage automatically creates the transport uplinks between the unit and the gateway.

Editing Cisco ANA Unit Properties

Users can view the properties of a Cisco ANA server, such as physical and allocated memory, and change its protection group.

To edit unit properties:

Step 1 Select the ANA Servers branch in the Cisco ANA Manage window. The ANA Servers branch is displayed.

Step 2 Select the unit or gateway in the workspace or expand the ANA Servers branch and select the required unit or gateway in the tree pane.

Step 3 Open the Properties dialog box in one of the following ways:

•Right-click to display the shortcut menu, then choose Properties.

•In the toolbar, click Properties.

•Choose File > Properties.

The following fields are displayed in the ANA Unit Properties dialog box:

•IP Address—The IP address of the unit or gateway.

•Status—The status of the unit or gateway, either Up or Down.

•Up Since—The date and time that the unit or gateway was started.

•Physical Memory—The physical memory of the unit or gateway.

•Allocated Memory—The amount of memory allocated to the unit or gateway. Allocated memory is the sum of all memory settings for all AVMs.

•Used Memory—The maximum memory used by the unit or gateway. Used memory is the total amount of memory used by all AVMs that are Up.

The Protection Group drop-down list displays the customized protection groups. The visible protection group is the one to which the selected unit belongs.

Step 4 In the Protection Group drop-down list, change the assigned unit protection group, as required, by selecting an option from the list.

The Enable Unit Protection check box defines whether a unit is enabled (the check box is checked) for high availability. This option is selected only when high availability is enabled on that unit.

Note When you change (either disable or enable) the Enable Unit Protection option for high availability, changes become effective after approximately 15 minutes.

Step 5 Click OK. The ANA Unit Properties dialog box closes.

Deleting a Cisco ANA Unit

Note•Before deleting a unit, you must first delete all VNEs and nonreserved AVMs. Reserved AVMs cannot be deleted. For more information about reserved AVMs, see Creating AVMs, page 6-1.

•The gateway cannot be deleted.

•The unit cannot be deleted if it is the gateway to which you are connected.

To remove a unit:

Step 1 In the Cisco ANA Manage window, select ANA Servers.

Step 2 Expand the ANA Servers branch, then select the unit you want to remove in the tree pane or workspace.

Step 3 Right-click the unit that you want to remove, then choose Delete. A warning message is displayed.

Step 4 Click Yes to proceed or No to cancel the operation. A confirmation message is displayed.

Step 5 Click OK. The unit is deleted and is no longer displayed in the tree pane and workspace.