First Published: November 9, 2020

Introduction

These release notes describe the recommended practices and known issues that apply to software version 2.2.1 of Cisco Business Dashboard.

What's New in Cisco Business Dashboard Release 2.2.1

Cisco Business Dashboard release 2.2.1 introduces the following new features and changes:

  • Support has been added to authenticate against Microsoft Azure Active Directory when providing user access to Cisco Business Dashboard.

  • Support has been added to automatically apply a TLS certificate to the dashboard server using the Let’s Encrypt certificate authority (https://letsencrypt.org/)

  • The administrative state of ethernet ports may be set through the web GUI

  • Dashboard application logs may be sent to syslog

  • Additional APIs have been added to the northbound API to perform the following operations

    • Manage network configuration profiles

    • Enable/disable ethernet port

    • Configure ethernet port speed & duplex

    • Manage VLAN assignment to ethernet port

    • Manage PoE settings on ethernet port

    See https://cisco.com/go/cbd-api for more details.

System Requirements for Cisco Business Dashboard

Cisco Business Dashboard is distributed as a virtual machine image, as an installer for use with the Ubuntu Linux distribution, and is available for Amazon Web Services (AWS) through the AWS Marketplace (https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace).

When running Cisco Business Dashboard on a virtual machine, your hypervisor must be one of the following:

  • Microsoft Hyper-V version 10.0 or above

  • Oracle VirtualBox version 6.1 or above

  • VMWare—It can be one of the following:

    • ESXi version 6.0 or above

    • Fusion version 11.5 or above

    • Workstation version 15.1 or above

To run Cisco Business Dashboard under Ubuntu Linux, your environment must be running Ubuntu version 16.04.x (Xenial Xerus) on a 64-bit Intel architecture platform. Cisco recommends using the Ubuntu server distribution and only installing packages required by Cisco Business Dashboard.

Table 1 lists the compute resources required for Cisco Business Dashboard based on the number of devices under management.

Table 1. Cisco Business Dashboard Compute Resource Requirements

#Device Supported

# vCPU

RAM

Disk Space

Up to 300

2

4GB

60GB

Up to 2500

12

24GB

60GB

To run Cisco Business Dashboard in AWS, you will need an AWS account. The following AWS instances types are supported:

  • c5.large—up to 300 devices under management

  • c5.4xlarge—up to 2500 devices under management

Cisco Business Dashboard is administered through a web user interface. To use this interface, your browser must be one of the following:

  • Apple Safari (macOS only)—2 most recent major versions

  • Google Chrome version—Latest version

  • Microsoft Edge version—2 most recent major versions

  • Mozilla Firefox version—Latest version


Note

When using Safari, check that the certificate from Cisco Business Dashboard is set to Always Trust. Otherwise, certain functions that depend on the use of secure websockets are expected to fail. This is a limitation of the Safari web browser.

Your network must allow all instances of Cisco Business Dashboard Probe and directly managed network devices to establish TCP connectivity with Cisco Business Dashboard. For more details on the ports and protocols used, see Frequently Asked Questions, in the Cisco Business Dashboard Quick Start Guide.

System Requirements for Cisco Business Dashboard Probe

Cisco Business Dashboard Probe is distributed as a virtual machine image, and as installers for use with the following operating systems:

  • Ubuntu Linux distribution running on a PC

  • Raspbian Linux distribution running on a Raspberry Pi

The Cisco Business Dashboard Probe is also available as an embedded feature of select Cisco Business products.

To run the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe as a virtual machine, your environment must meet the following requirements:

  • Hypervisor:

    • Microsoft Hyper-V version 10.0 or above

    • Oracle VirtualBox version 6.1 or above

    • VMWare—It can be one of the following:

      • ESXi version 6.0 or above

      • Fusion version 11.5 or above

      • Workstation version 15.1 or above

    • Virtual machine resource requirements:

      • CPU: 1x 64-bit Intel architecture

      • Memory: 512MB

      • Disk space: 5GB

To run Cisco Business Dashboard Probe under Ubuntu Linux operating system, your environment must meet the following requirements:

  • Ubuntu version 16.04.x (Xenial Xerus)

  • CPU: 1x 64-bit Intel architecture

  • Memory: 512MB

  • Disk space: 5GB

To run the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe on a Raspberry Pi operating system, your environment must meet the following requirements:

  • Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B/B+ or Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

  • Disk space: 5GB

  • OS: Raspbian Buster

To run the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe as an embedded application on a Cisco Business product, you must have a supported product running a firmware version that supports the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe feature. Consult the Cisco Business Dashboard – Device Support List for details of hardware and version requirements. Also consult the administration guide for the product to determine any additional platform-specific requirements.

Cisco Business Dashboard Probe is administered through a web user interface. To use this interface, your browser must be one of the following:

  • Apple Safari (macOS only)—2 most recent major versions

  • Google Chrome—Latest version

  • Microsoft Edge—2 most recent major versions

  • Mozilla Firefox—Latest version

Cisco Business Dashboard Probe monitors and accesses the network devices that meet the following requirements:

  • Must be in the same subnet as the PC that is running the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe, or be directly attached to a managed device and reachable via TCP/IP

  • Must be a Cisco Business or Cisco Small Business 100 to 500 series device

Cisco Supported Devices

Cisco Business Dashboard supports Cisco Business and the Cisco Small Business 100 to 500 series products. For a detailed list of devices and features supported, please refer to the Cisco Business Dashboard - Device Support List.

License Requirements

Cisco Business Dashboard is a licensed application. Device licenses are required for each Cisco Business and Cisco Small Business product being managed. For more information, please refer to the Cisco Business Dashboard Datasheet.

Cisco Business Dashboard and Cisco FindIT Network Manager

Cisco Business Dashboard is derived from, upgrades, and replaces FindIT Network Manager. Cisco Business Dashboard provides all the functionality offered by FindIT Network Manager and more. FindIT Network Manager can be directly upgraded to Cisco Business Dashboard.

Difference between Cisco Business Dashboard and FindIT Network Manager

There are a number of differences between Cisco Business Dashboard and FindIT Network Manager. Cisco Business Dashboard adds support for the Cisco Business portfolio of products, and presents a new theme on the user interface. In addition, Cisco Business Dashboard includes the following functionality:

  • Each installation of Cisco Business Dashboard includes 25 device licenses free of charge.

  • Selected devices may be managed directly by Cisco Business Dashboard without requiring a probe to be present on the network.

  • User configurable monitoring profiles that allow the monitoring of devices to be customized

  • Access to the Cisco Business Dashboard application may be restricted based on IP Address ranges.

  • Select PnP system variables may be manually set to accommodate complex deployments

  • Sample PnP configuration templates have been provided

  • PnP images and configuration files that have not yet been applied to a device will be applied to the device without waiting for a PnP connection if the device is active and reachable via a probe or direct management

  • An Application Programming Interface (API) has been provided allowing the integration of third party applications with Cisco Business Dashboard. See https://cisco.com/go/cbd-api for details.

Upgrading to Cisco Business Dashboard from FindIT Network Manager

To upgrade from FindIT Network Manager or Probe version 2.1.x to Cisco Business Dashboard, do the following:

  1. On the Manager, click About FindIT

  2. Select the radio button next to the Manager update and click Upgrade. The Manager will download and apply the Cisco Business Dashboard upgrade package and then restart

  3. Log on to the newly upgraded Dashboard, click the About icon

  4. Select the radio button next to the Probe update and click Upgrade. Each Probe will download and apply the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe upgrade package and then restart


Note

Upgrading to Cisco Business Dashboard from FindIT Network Manager version 2.0.x or 1.x is not supported. To upgrade FindIT Network Manager version 2.0.x or 1.x to Cisco Business Dashboard, first upgrade to FindIT Network Manager 2.1.1.

For more details on each step of this process, refer to the corresponding sections of the Cisco FindIT Network Management Administration Guide and the Cisco Business Dashboard Administration Guide.

Limitations and Restrictions

The Cisco Business Dashboard limitations and restrictions are described in the following sections:

General Limitations

  • The web interface on Cisco Business Dashboard takes a few minutes to become operational after the application is started

  • Depending on the size of the network, it may take the Probe several minutes to discover all devices and calculate the network topology

  • Up to 50 network devices can be managed by single virtual machine or Raspberry Pi Probe instance. Refer the documentation for the product in question to identify the maxiumun number of devices supported by an embedded probe running on a Cisco Business network device.

  • Up to 2500 devices can be managed by a single Dashboard instance

  • SNMPv3 authentication keys and privacy keys must be at least 8 characters in length

  • When using Safari, ensure that the certificate presented by the Cisco Business Dashboard Probe is set to Always Trust

System Backup and Restore

  • When performing a system backup or restore, Cisco Business Dashboard will prevent you from doing any further configuration actions

  • Prior to beginning a system backup or restore, the idle timeout value in Administration > Users > User Settings should be set to at least 30 minutes (default is 60 minutes)

Caveats

Open Caveats

The following table lists the open caveats for Cisco Business Dashboard version 2.2.1

Table 2. Open Caveats

Caveat ID Number

Headline

CSCvc02341

Roaming devices connect to multiple APs on topology.

Workaround

There is no workaround at this time.

CSCvc04204

Getting the duplicated entry in the credentials table for switch stack after power off the master.

Workaround

When the stack is stable, reboot Probe.

CSCvf49309

FindIT displays outside WAN IP instead of device IP on Network Plug and Play - Unclaimed Devices page.

Workaround

None

CSCvf49332

FindIT responses are slow when display is over 300 hosts on topology page.

Workaround

Don't try displaying hosts when there are many.

CSCvq25771

System does not sync time from the host on VirtualBox.

Workaround

Install VirtualBox Guest additions in the virtual machine with the command 'sudo apt-get install -y virtualbox-guest-utils' and reboot the virtual machine.

Note 
The presence of VirtualBox Guest Additions in the virtual machine will prevent timesyncd from running and NTP will not function.

CSCvq25807

Stack switch unit configuration is missing after master recovery from offline.

Workaround

Manually read and accept current config or wait for the daily schedule job.

CSCvq25817

It doesn't show real VLAN setting info on a LAG port.

Workaround

Review the VLAN configuration for the LAG on the device administration GUI.

CSCvu45355

Fail to online upgrade SMB WAP devices by Tesla probe.

Workaround

Upgrade the WAP using Network Plug and Play or manually through the Administration GUI.

CSCvv18280

CBD doesn't support "same SSID name" case for CBW.

Workaround

Change the SSID names on the CBW access point to keep it unique.

CSCvw40007

Port VLAN Settings show wrong Trunk VLAN status after apply trunk VLAN config.

Workaround

Refresh the webpage in the browser after applying the change.

Resolved Caveats

No new caveats have been resolved in Cisco Business Dashboard 2.2.1

Where to Find Support

For current support information, visit the following URLs:

Table 3. Where to Find Support

Support

Cisco Business Dashboard Support Forums

http://www.cisco.com/go/cbd-support

Cisco Business Phone Support

http://www.cisco.com/go/cbphone

Product Documentation

Cisco Business Dashboard Support and Documentation Resources

https://cisco.com/go/cbd-docs

Cisco Business

Cisco Business Home

http://www.cisco.com/go/ciscobusiness

Cisco Business Support Community

http://www.cisco.com/go/cbcommunity