Install Crosswork Applications

This chapter contains the following topics:

Install Crosswork Applications

This section explains how to install a Cisco Crosswork application from the Cisco Crosswork UI.

Every crosswork application is packaged in a particular format unique to Crosswork known as CAPP (Crosswork APPlication). The application CAPP files (*.tar.gz) are downloaded from cisco.com to a machine reachable from the Cisco Crosswork server, and added to the Crosswork UI where it can be installed. You need to have the credentials that will allow you to copy the CAPP files from that machine.

The Crosswork Network Controller applications are packaged as Essentials and Advantage bundles (*.bin) in cisco.com.

Table 1. Crosswork Network Controller Packages

Crosswork Network Controller Essentials package

Crosswork Network Controller Advantage package

Crosswork Optimization Engine

Crosswork Active Topology

Crosswork Optimization Engine

Crosswork Active Topology

Cisco Crosswork Service Health

Cisco Crosswork Health Insights

Cisco Crosswork Change Automation

Crosswork Zero Touch Provisioning

Cisco Element Management System (EMS) Services

Before you begin

Ensure that all requirements of your application are met. For more information, see Installation Dependencies for Cisco Crosswork Products.

Important

If you intend to use the Crosswork Network Controller solution and have downloaded and added the solution package (Essential or Advantage), please follow the installation sequence below:

  • Crosswork Optimization Engine must be installed before installing Crosswork Active Topology.

  • Crosswork Active Topology must be installed before installing Crosswork Service Health or Common EMS Service.

Crosswork Change Automation, Crosswork Health Insights, and Crosswork Zero Touch Provisioning can be installed independently, in any order, with or without Crosswork Optimization Engine and/or Crosswork Active Topology.

Procedure

Step 1

Download and validate the CAPP files:

  1. Navigate to cisco.com and locate the application CAPP files that you require.

  2. If you are planning to use Crosswork Network Controller, download the relevant package (*.bin). For the purpose of these instructions, we will use the file name as "cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.signed.bin".

    To validate the downloaded bundle file, use the following command from a Linux-based machine with access to Cisco network:

    $ sh <image.signed.bin>

    Example: 

    [test@cw-build sample]$ sh  cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.signed.bin
Unpacking...
Verifying signature...
Retrieving CA certificate from http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/certs/crcam2.cer ...
Successfully retrieved and verified crcam2.cer.
Retrieving SubCA certificate from http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/certs/innerspace.cer ...
Successfully retrieved and verified innerspace.cer.
Successfully verified root, subca and end-entity certificate chain.
Successfully fetched a public key from CW-CCO_RELEASE.cer.
Successfully verified the signature of cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.tar.gz using CW-CCO_RELEASE.cer

    If the sh command fails due to any network connectivity issues, you can use the following command to skip verification and extract the bundle. 

    $ sh <image.signed.bin> --skip-verification

    This new directory will contain the installer image (e.g. cw-na-platform-installer-4.3.0-88-release-220809.tar.gz) and files necessary to validate the image.

    Example:

    [test@cw-build sample]$ sh cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.signed.bin --skip-verification
Unpacking...
[test@cw-build sample]$ ls
CW-CCO_RELEASE.cer            cisco_x509_verify_release.py3                          cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.tar.gz            README
cisco_x509_verify_release.py  cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.signed.bin  cw-na-cncadvantage-4.0.0-51-release-220809.tar.gz.signature

    Use the following command to manually verify the signature of the installer image:

    Note 

    Use python --version to find out the version of Python on your machine.

    If you are using Python 2.x, use the following command to validate the file:

    python cisco_x509_verify_release.py -e <.cer file> -i <.tar.gz file> -s <.tar.gz.signature file> -v dgst -sha512

    If you are using Python 3.x, use the following command to validate the file:

    python cisco_x509_verify_release.py3 -e <.cer file> -i <.tar.gz file> -s <.tar.gz.signature file> -v dgst -sha512
    Note 

    If you do not get a successful verification message, please contact the Cisco Customer Experience team.

  3. If you are planning to use individual CAPP files, hover over the relevant file and copy the MD5 or SHA512 checksum to your clip board.

    Download the CAPP files to a server that can be reached from the Crosswork server. Run a tool of your choice to calculate the checksum, and the compare the checksum value in your dowloaded file with the value you copied in the clip board.

    For example, on a MAC you can use the md5 command to calculate the MD5 sum on a file: 

    md5 cw-na-ztp-3.0.3-3-release-220614.tar.gz

ff47a72ed7dc4fc4be388db3a43fa13f

    Verify that the result value matches with the posted value on cisco.com.

Step 2

Add the downloaded CAPP file to Crosswork:

  1. Log into Cisco Crosswork and in the homepage, click on Administration > Crosswork Manager. The Crosswork Summary page is displayed with Crosswork Cluster and Crosswork Platform Infrastructure tiles.

    You can click on the tiles to get more information.

  2. To install an application or application bundle, click on Applications button. Alternately, click on the Application Management tab.

  3. In the Application Management screen, select the Applications tab, and click on the Add File (.tar.gz) option to add the CAPP file.

  4. In the Add File dialog box, enter the relevant information and click Add.

    The add operation progress is displayed on the Applications screen. You can also view the installation progress in the Job History tab.

    Note 

    When loading an application bundle (Essentials or Advantage), the loading process may stop at 50% for a while depending on the resources your host platform has available.

    The newly added application file (or application files, if you added a bundle) is displayed as a tile on the Applications screen.

Step 3

Install the Application CAPP file:

  1. Click on the Install prompt on the application tile. You can also click on the tile, and select the Install option from the drop down list.

    The application is now installed. You can observe the change in the application tile icon. Once an application is installed, all the related-resources, UI screens and menu options are dynamically loaded in the Crosswork UI.

    Note 

    Once an application is installed, the 90-day evaluation period will automatically start. You can register the application with your Cisco Smart Account in the the Smart License tab.

  2. After an application is installed, it must be activated to become functional. The first-time installation also activates a CAPP file. However, if the activation fails after a successful installation, you can manually activate the application. To manually activate an application, click the on the application tile, and select Activate.

Step 4

Repeat step 3 for installing any remaining applications.

Step 5

(Optional) Click on the application tile, and select the View Details option to view details of the installed application.

Step 6

Once an application (or all applications) have been installed, check the health of the environment to make sure all the applications are healthy. It can take up to an hour for all the processes that make launch and for the applications to report as healthy. If after an hour a newly installed application is not healthy after an hour, contact the Cisco Customer Experience team.