Troubleshoot Catalyst Center Using Data Platform

About Data Platform

Data Platform provides tools that can help you monitor and troubleshoot Catalyst Center applications. Data Platform displays synthesized data from various inputs to help you identify patterns, trends, and problem areas in your network. For example, if something goes wrong in your network, you can quickly get answers to questions such as whether a pipeline is in an error state and what is the real-time traffic flow in a particular area. The main areas of Data Platform include:

  • Collectors: Collects a variety of network telemetry and contextual data in real time. As data is ingested, Catalyst Center correlates and analyzes the data. You can view the status of collectors and quickly identify any problem areas. See View or update Collector configuration information.

  • Store Settings: Indicates how long data is stored for an application. See View data retention settings.

  • Pipelines: Allows Catalyst Center applications to process streaming data. A data pipeline encapsulates an entire series of computations. These computations accept input data from external sources, transform the data to provide useful intelligence, and produce output data. You can view the status of pipelines and quickly identify any problem areas. See View pipeline status.

  • Task Managers: You can view the list of Task Managers with details such as Last Heart Beat, All Slots, and Free Slots. You can export the details as a CSV file.

View or update Collector configuration information

Collectors collect a variety of network telemetry and contextual data in real time. As data is ingested, Catalyst Center correlates and analyzes the data. You can view the status of collectors and quickly identify any problem areas.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose System > Data Platform.

Step 2

Click Collectors. The dot next to each collector indicates its overall status.

Step 3

To view additional details, click a collector name.

The appropriate Collector page appears. By default, Catalyst Center displays the Configurations tab, which displays the list of current configurations.

Step 4

To view, update, or delete a configuration, click a specific configuration name.

Step 5

To add a new configuration, click + Add in the Configurations tab.

Step 6

Enter the required information for the configuration in the slide-in pane.

Step 7

(Optional) For some collectors, such as the wireless collector, you can check the Anonymize check box to scramble the hostname and user ID in the Client Health window with a one-way hash that cannot be decrypted.

Important

 

If you want to anonymize your data, make sure that you check the Anonymize check box before you discover devices with the Discovery tool. If you anonymize the data after you discover devices, the new data coming into the system is anonymized, but the existing data is not anonymized.

Step 8

Click Save Configuration.

Step 9

To view configured instances, click the Instances tab.

Step 10

To view summary information and metrics, select an instance from the list.

Step 11

(Optional) If Catalyst Center integrates with Connected Mobile Experience (CMX), you have the option of anonymizing data on the CMX side. Do these steps:

  1. Using an SSH client, log in to CMX as the cmxadmin CLI user.

  2. Change to the root user.

  3. Go to /opt/cmx/etc/node.conf and under [location], add user_options. For example: 

    [location]
…
user_options=-Dhideusername=true

  4. On the CMX CLI, enter these commands:

    cmxctl agent restart 
cmxctl location restart

View data retention settings

You can view how long data is stored for an application.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose System > Data Platform.

Step 2

Click Store Settings.

Step 3

To view a list of historical purge jobs that have completed, click Data Purge Schedule.

The HISTORY table lists the name of the purge job, the result, the time, and other data. You can sort, filter, and export data in the table.

Step 4

To view the current data retention and purge settings, click Data Retention & Purge Configuration.

The Metric Graph Store option appears. It displays settings for all time-based graphical data, such as the maximum size and the low and high watermark threshold.

View pipeline status

Data pipelines allow Catalyst Center applications to process streaming data. A data pipeline encapsulates a series of computations. It accepts input data from external sources, transforms that data to provide useful intelligence, and produces output data. You can view the status of pipelines and quickly identify any problem areas.

Procedure

Step 1

From the main menu, choose System > Data Platform.

Step 2

Click Pipelines.

Step 3

To view whether the application is receiving data from the underlying pipelines, click a pipeline name.

The appropriate Pipeline page displays with these tabs:

Note

 

Make sure to click the Exceptions tab to determine if any exceptions have occurred in the pipeline. Under normal working conditions, this tab displays null.

  • Metrics: Displays metrics that update every 30 minutes.

  • Summary: Displays summary information, such as statistics, runtime, and manifest.

  • Exceptions: Displays any exceptions that have occurred on the pipeline.

  • Stages: Displays the pipeline stages.