Getting Started Guide for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart 7.2

Table Of Contents

Getting Started Guide for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart 7.2

Introduction

Prerequisites

Configuring the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

Configuring Network Information for ESXi

Configuring IP

Configuring DNS Servers

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar to Automatically
Power Up

Troubleshooting

Related Documentation

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

Getting Started Guide for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart 7.2

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First Published: November 11, 2011

OL-25936-01

Introduction

The Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart product is a complete solution for using the Cisco Network Registrar application to manage DHCP and DNS servers. It includes the following components:

•Cisco Network Registrar 7.2 application software

•Linux CentOS 5.4 Operating System

•VMware ESXi 4.1 Hypervisor

•Cisco UCS C200 M2 Hardware

These components are integrated together into a single flexible and easy to use appliance (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart Configuration

Figure 1 shows the three primary layers in the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart appliance. Each of these layers has its own capabilities. Each of these layers can be controlled independently as well as remotely, and each requires its own independent connection to the network. Thus, three unique IP addresses are required.

You may only need to connect to the Cisco Network Registrar Web UI to perform IP address management tasks, but you may also need to connect to one of the other layers to perform system management or troubleshooting tasks related to the appliance.

You can connect to each layer as described below:

•Connecting to Virtual Appliance (Open Virtualization Format) Layer—You can connect to the Cisco Network Registrar application layer using a web browser. Use http://vaip:8080, where vaip is the virtual appliance IP address (which is also the IP address of the Linux Operating System). For a secure connection to the Cisco Network Registrar Web UI, use https://vaip:8443.

To access the Cisco Network Registrar Command Line Interpreter (CLI), you can use an SSH connection to the virtual appliance IP address using ssh -l root vaip.

You can manage the Linux OS by connecting to it using ssh -l root vaip. There is no window system installed on the Cisco Network Registrar virtual appliance, but the standard Linux commands necessary to manage a networking application are all present on the Linux OS.

•Connecting to ESXi Hypervisor Layer—Connect to the ESXi hypervisor layer, identified by the IP address esxip, using the VMware vSphere client. esxip is the IP address designated to the ESXi layer.

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Note The VMware vSphere client is supported only on systems running MS Windows.

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For an SSH connection to ESXi layer, enter ssh -l root esxip.

•Connecting to Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) UCS Management Console—This allows you to configure and manage the ESXi layer. You can connect to the CIMC by using a browser using http://ucsip/. ucsip is the IP address assigned to the Jumpstart. After you login to CIMC, you can start virtual KVM console to get access to the ESXi configuration screen and manage hardware (power, temperature, fan RPM).

This guide contains the following sections:

•Prerequisites

•Configuring the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

•Configuring Cisco Network Registrar to Automatically Power Up

•Troubleshooting

•Related Documentation

Prerequisites

You must have answers to some questions to initially configure the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart. The questions below beginning with Select require you to come up with a new value which is unique to this appliance, while the questions beginning with Determine require you to find out information that is not unique to this appliance.

You should have answers to the following questions when configuring the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart:

•Select the IP address for the CIMC port on the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart.

•Determine the netmask (subnetmask) for the CIMC port.

•Determine the gateway for the CIMC port.

You should have answers to the following questions when you are configuring network information for ESXi:

•Select the IP address for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart.

•Determine the netmask for the IP address for the ESXi installation.

•Determine the gateway address for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart.

•Determine the VLAN (if any) for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart.

You should have answers for the following questions related to configuring the Cisco Network Registrar virtual appliance:

•Select a virtual machine name for the deployed virtual appliance.

•Select a root password for the Linux operating system on the virtual appliance. You will be prompted to enter and configure the root password during your first boot.

•Select an IP address for the Cisco Network Registrar virtual appliance.

•Select a DNS name (hostname) for the virtual appliance. It should be placed into DNS using the IP address you selected for the virtual appliance.

•Select a username and password for the administrator of the Cisco Network Registrar installation.

•Determine the netmask associated with the IP address for the virtual appliance.

•Determine the gateway address appropriate to the IP address and netmask.

•Determine the IP addresses of up to two DNS servers for the virtual appliance to use.

•Determine any proxy values necessary for the virtual appliance to access the Internet.

Configuring the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart requires you to do the following configuration steps to connect it to the network:

•Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

•Configuring Network Information for ESXi

•Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart

To configure the Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart:

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Step 1 Configure the UCS CIMC Network Connection. To configure this, follow the steps in the Connecting and Powering On (Standalone Mode) chapter of the enclosed Cisco US C200 and C210 Servers Quick Start Guide or you can see the document available online at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C200M1/install/
install.html#wp1242901.

You have to configure NIC Redundancy as None in the Connecting and Powering On (Standalone Mode) procedure.

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The CIMC gives you insight into the hardware as well as support for a virtual KVM console allowing remote management of the ESXi layer. For details on CMIC, see the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller GUI Configuration Guide available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/gui/config/guide/1.3.1/
b_Cisco_UCS_C-Series_GUI_Configuration_Guide_131.html.

Configuring Network Information for ESXi

After configuring the network information for the UCS CIMC console, use the virtual KVM console that the CIMC console provides to configure the network information for the ESXi hypervisor.

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Step 1 Use a browser to connect to the IP address of the CIMC console.

Step 2 Login to the CIMC console.

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Note The default username is admin and the default password is password, but you should change the password at your earliest convenience.

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Step 3 On the Server Summary page, in the Actions pane, click Launch KVM Console. You will be asked to approve the running of the application, as this operation downloads code to run on your system. After some delay, the KVM Console window is displayed.

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Note If login fails, it may be that someone else already has a virtual KVM console already active for this UCS C200 server. In this case, log that user off and try again.

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The initial screen on the KVM console displays VMware ESXi 4.1.0.

Step 4 Press F2 to customize the system.

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Note The virtual KVM console needs to capture the mouse to accept input. It may be necessary on some systems to use the mouse to select the Single Cursor option from the Tools menu of the KVM Console window. If nothing happens when you press F2, select the Session Options from the Tools menu and click OK. Usually this causes the mouse to be captured, and then the functions keys will make it through to the console. If you want the mouse back, you can press F12.

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Step 5 Press F2 again to view the login window.

Step 6 Login to the host. The default username is root, and there is no password.

Select Configure Password option and reconfigure the root password after you login.

Step 7 Using the arrow keys, select Configure Management Network option and press Enter.

Configuring IP

Step 8 For IP configuration:

a. Use the arrow keys to select IP Configuration and press Enter.

b. Use the arrow keys to select Set Static IP address and Network Configuration.

c. Use the space bar to enable this selection.

d. Use the arrow keys to select IP Address and enter the IP address.

e. Use the arrow keys to select Subnet Mask and enter the subnet mask.

f. Use the arrow keys to select Default Gateway and enter the gateway address.

g. Press Enter to accept the IP Configuration updates.

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Note If you want to use IPv6 with Cisco Network Registrar, use the arrow keys to select IPv6 Configuration and enter the information requested on that screen.

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Configuring DNS Servers

Step 9 To configure the DNS Servers:

a. Use the arrow keys to select DNS Configuration and press Enter.

b. Use the arrow keys to select Primary DNS Server and enter the IP address of the primary DNS server.

c. Use the arrow keys to select Alternate DNS Server and enter the IP address of the alternate DNS server.

d. Use the arrow keys to select Hostname and enter the hostname.

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Note Ensure that you enter the entire hostname, including the domain name.

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e. Press Enter to accept the DNS Configuration updates.

Step 10 If you have a VLAN configured on the switch to which the ESXi is connected, use the arrow keys to select VLAN (optional) and press Enter.

Enter the VLAN for this network connection and press Enter to accept the change.

Press Esc to exit the Configure Management Network window which you are in now.

Step 11 Use the arrow keys to select Test Management Network and press Enter.

You can see the addresses to be pinged and the hostname to be resolved. Use the arrow keys and select the address to be pinged and press Enter. The test pings your default gateway and DNS servers and tests the connectivity. Press Enter when the test is complete.

At this point, ESXi listens on the IP address that you configured.

Step 12 Use a browser to connect to the IP address configured for ESXi.

A window displaying VMware ESXi 4.1 Welcome appears if you are successful.

Step 13 If you already have downloaded VMware vSphere and have it available, go to "Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance" section.

If you have not downloaded VMware vSphere, ensure that you are connecting to the Jumpstart from a system running Microsoft Windows.

If the system on which the browser is running is connected to the Internet, you can click on the link for Download vSphere Client. This downloads the VMware vSphere installable on your system which you can then install.

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Note The Jumpstart does not need access to the Internet for this to work, but the Windows system running the browser needs to have access to the Internet.

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If you are not connected to the Internet, go to system that is connected to the Internet and go to the VMware website. You have to download the vSphere client installation kit. The simplest way to get the vSphere client is to connect to the Jumpstart with a browser running on a Windows machine which also has Internet connectivity.

After you install the vSphere client on your system, proceed to "Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance" section.

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Configuring Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance

The Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance is delivered as a virtual machine installed on the ESXi hypervisor. The virtual machine name as shipped from Cisco is "NR-local-ucs".

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Note You can change the virtual machine name to something more descriptive, and you are encouraged to do so, although the underlying disk storage will remain under the name originally used to deploy the Open Virtualization Format (OVF), that is "NR-local-ucs".

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To manage the virtual machine containing Cisco Network Registrar, as well as manage any other virtual machines which you may deploy on the Jumpstart, use the VMware vSphere client. See Step 13 of the procedure "Configuring Network Information for ESXi" for instructions on how to acquire a copy of the VMware vSphere Client.

To configure the Cisco Network Registrar Virtual Appliance:

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Step 1 Select the virtual machine name in vSphere and right-click and open a console.

Step 2 Click the Power on button () on the console and click inside the window after clicking the Power on button. vSphere captures the mouse when you click inside the console window. If you want to release the mouse cursor, press CTRL + ALT.

During the initial boot of the newly deployed machine, you will be prompted to enter a root (system) password, which is not the Cisco Network Registrar password.

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Note This is the root password for the underlying Linux operating system on which the Cisco Network Registrar 7.2 application is installed. You will be asked to enter this password twice. You will need root access to the underlying Linux operating system later on, so make sure that you remember this password.

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Step 3 Read the end user license agreement and if you agree with the terms stated, accept the agreement.

Step 4 Use the Arrow Keys to highlight the Configure Network option, and press Enter. You must configure the virtual appliance to use a static address, so answer n (No) to the DHCP question and configure the following:

•IP Address of the virtual appliance

•Netmask of the virtual appliance

•Gateway of the network in which you are creating virtual appliance

•DNS Server 1

•DNS Server 2

•Hostname of the virtual appliance

•Whether or not you need a proxy set

Step 5 To save the settings, select y (Yes) when prompted, after reviewing the settings. Select n (No) if you do not want to save the settings.

Step 6 Using the arrow keys, highlight Set Timezone and press Enter. Follow the instructions to set the timezone.

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See the "Configuring Cisco Network Registrar" subsection of Installation Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2 for configuring your Cisco Network Registrar application.

Configuring Cisco Network Registrar to Automatically
Power Up

There are several layers of processing involved in running the Cisco Network Registrar application. Each layer has choices it can make about what to do when it is first powered up after power failures.

You can configure the Cisco Network Registrar to start automatically when power is restored to the Jumpstart.

The two places where you have to change the configurations to make this possible are:

•UCS Hardware—The UCS hardware has to be configured to power up the ESXi hypervisor when power is restored.

•ESXi Hypervisor—The ESXi hypervisor has to be configured to power up the Cisco Network Registrar virtual appliance when power is restored to the ESXi hypervisor layer.

To configure the UCS Hardware to automatically power up the ESXi hypervisor:

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Step 1 Connect a browser to the CIMC UCS Management Console, and login to the console.

Step 2 In the Server tab on the left pane, select the Power Policies link.

Step 3 Select Power On from the Power Restore Policy drop-down list in the Power Restore Policy area in the right pane.

If you want, you can enter a delay value in the Power Delay Value field.

Step 4 Click Save Changes to save the updates.

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To configure the ESXi hypervisor to automatically power up the Cisco Network Registrar virtual appliance when power is restored to the ESXi hypervisor layer, see the "Configuring Virtual Appliance to Automatically Power Up" section of Installation Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issue for which you are not able to find a solution, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for help.

For assistance in troubleshooting, the appliance comes with a secure FTP server and a TAC tool.

Ensure that you send the data gathered by the TAC tool to the Technical Assistance Centre (TAC) team in case of issues. For more details regarding the TAC tool, see the User Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2.

You can use the FTP server (vsftpd) to transfer files to and from the virtual appliance. You have to create a user to login to the vsftpd because the 'root' user cannot be used for logging in. The vsftpd will not be up and running when you power on the appliance, so you have to manually start it.

You can start the vsftpd using the command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd start

You can stop the vsftpd using the command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd stop

Related Documentation

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Note We sometimes update the documentation after original publication. Therefore, you should also review the documentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

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The following is a list of documentation that you can refer to:

Hardware Documents

Go to the following page to see the documentation for UCS server hardware:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/index.html

Platform-Specific Documents

The following is a list of sites with platform-specific documentation:

•For VMware ESXi specific documentation, go the following site: https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esxi41_i_vc41.html

•For CentOS specific documentation, go to the following site:
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/

Software Documents

The following documentation is available for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart:

•Recovery Guide for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart 7.2
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/jumpstart/7.2/recovery/guide/CNR72JumpstartRG.html

•Third Party and Open Source Copyright Notices for Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart 7.2
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11945/products_licensing_information_listing.html

The following documentation is available for Cisco Network Registrar:

•User Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/user/guide/cnr72book.html

•Installation Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/installation/guide/
CNR72Install.html

•Release Notes for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/release/notes/
CNR72ReleaseNotes.html

•CLI Reference Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/command/reference/
CLIReferenceGuide.pdf

•Quick Start Guide for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/quick_start/guide/
cnr72_qs_book.html

•Documentation Roadmap for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/roadmap/guide/
CNR72DocGuide.html

•Third Party and Open Source Copyright Notices for Cisco Network Registrar 7.2:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/network_registrar/7.2/third_party/open_source/
copyrights/CNR72ThirdParty.pdf

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html

Subscribe to the What's New in Cisco Product Documentation as an RSS feed and set content to be delivered directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free service. Cisco currently supports RSS Version 2.0.

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This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

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Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

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