How to Collect an Admin-Tech in an SD-WAN Environment and Upload it to a TAC Case

Introduction

This document describes how to initiate an admin-tech from vManage GUI in an SD-WAN environment. Primarily, this is intended for customers to help to capture this for Technical Assistance Center (TAC), so TAC can use it in order to troubleshoot a given issue. It helps capture the admin-tech in the problem state as it captures the issue (in most cases), so it can be analyzed by the TAC Team. It talks about the usage of vManage GUI, CLI and also the upload directly into Cisco TAC Case with the use of token mechanism.

Generate Admin-Tech

Scenario 1. From vManage for Devices that are Online

Step 1. Log in to vManage.

Step 2. Navigate to Tools > Operational Commands.

Note: Admin Tech can be generated by a user having admin or netadmin rights or with the help of write access to Tools.

Step 3. Click on the ... (three dots) for the device for which admin-tech needs to be generated (Step A). 

Step 4. Click on Admin-Tech (Step B) as shown in the image.

Step 5. Check relevant boxes. Take a look at this screenshot. If the device has crashed, ensure to select the Core option as shown. The core files once collected via Admin-Tech will be removed from the device in question. If it is not a crash, Logs and Tech are the minimum that need to be selected in order to generate an Admin-Tech.

Step 6. Click on Generate.

Note: Close the pop up since it might take a while to generate an Admin-Tech. Duration depends upon the log size of each device.

Step 7. Click on Show Admin Tech List as shown in the image.

Step 8. Click on the Download Icon. Admin-Tech will be downloaded to the local system. Upload it to Service Request.

Scenario 2. From CLI  for Device(s) which are Unreachable from vManage

Step 1. Login to vEdge via Secure Shell (SSH).

Syntax.  ssh -l <username> <IP-Address>

Note: Admin-Tech can be generated by a user having admin rights. Use, show users CLI, which shows the group the user belongs to. 

Step 2. Use request admin-tech as shown.

Step 3. Copy the Admin tech from /home/admin/<dated-time-admin-tech.tar.gz> directory.

If, for example, the local user is johndoe, Admin-Tech will be placed in /home/johndoe/ directory. If netadmin group user is authenticated against RADIUS or TACACS central authentication server, Admin-Tech can be found at /home/basic/ directory by default.

Note:  1.  Windows user can use the WINSCP application in order to copy to the local system. 
2.  Linux user can use the SCP command in order to copy the admin-tech to a reachable system. Syntax - scp  /home/admin/<dated-time-admin-tech.tar.gz> <user>@<IP-Address-of-Remote-Server>

Scenario 3. From CLI for cEdge(s)

Step 1. Log in to cEdge via SSH.

Syntax. ssh -l <username> <IP-Address>

Note: Admin-Tech can be generated by a user having admin rights. Use, show users CLI, which shows the group the user belongs to. 

Step 2. Use request platform software sdwan admin-tech. 

Step 3. Copy the Admin-Tech to TFTP, FTP, SCP to the external server. Here is an example of SCP from the local system.  

Additional Notes

Starting with 20.1.x and after, you have the option to exclude specific files from the admin-tech when you do it from CLI. Here are sample screenshots.

From vEdge:

From cEdge:

Transfer Admin-Tech Directly into Cisco Service Request

Specific to vManage only, to troubleshoot SDWAN related issues involving vManage, customers can upload the admin-tech directly from vManage to Cisco SR. Customers can find it hard to download the rather bulky file to their own workstation when they are remote from the controller. After the slow download, they then need to upload the file to the SR, again a slow process. This procedure describes how this can be done via CLI on vManage.

Prerequisites

For the upload to work, the vManage requires connectivity to the public internet. Cisco cloud-hosted vManage controllers have such capability. The user needs to have netadmin group privileges to be able to request admin-tech. You can only transfer one vManage admin-tech at this time. For the upload to the SR, you need the SR number and an upload token. More information on different ways of uploads is explainedhere. The Customer eXperience Drive (CXD) procedure is used.

Retrieve the Upload Token for an SR

Use SCM to Get Token

When an SR is opened, CXD will automatically generate an upload token and insert a note in the SR which contains the token and some details on how to use the service.

In order to retrieve the upload token, complete these steps:

Step 1. Log in toSCM.

Step 2. Open the case you would like to get the upload token for.

Step 3. Click the Attachmentstab.

Step 4. Click the Generate Token. Once the token is generated, it will be displayed next to the Generate Token button.

Note: 1. The Username is always the SR number. The term "password" and "token" refer to the upload token, which will be used as a password when prompted by CXD.  2. The note is attached automatically within a few minutes of creating the SR. If the user can not find the note, they can contact the SR Owner and the token can be generated manually.

Upload Admin-Tech to SR

Once request admin-tech is used via CLI in order to generate the admin-tech and it is completed, you can use the request upload command from CLI. Use this syntax. Once prompted for the password, enter the token you retrieved earlier.

Verify Case Attachment(s)

The customer can verify with the use of SCM whether the file was uploaded.