The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.
Cisco Prime IP Express provides a regional and a local web UI and a regional and local CLI to manage the CDNS, DNS, DHCP, and CCM servers:
This chapter describes the Cisco Prime IP Express user interfaces and the services that the CCM servers provide. Read this chapter before starting to configure the Cisco Prime IP Express servers so that you become familiar with each user interface capability.
Cisco Prime IP Express contains two management components:
Note | We do not recommend configuring both DNS and Caching DNS services in one server. |
License management is done from the regional cluster when Cisco Prime IP Express is installed. You must install the regional server first and load all licenses in the regional server. When you install the local cluster, it registers with regional to obtain its license.
The regional CCM server provides central management of local clusters, with an aggregated view of DHCP address space and DNS zones. It provides management of the distributed address space, zones, scopes, DHCPv6 prefixes and links, and users.
The local CCM server provides management of the local address space, zones, scopes, DHCPv6 prefixes and links, and users.
The remainder of this chapter describes the SNMP protocols. The CCM server, web UIs, and CLI are described in Cisco Prime IP Express User Interfaces. The DNS, CDNS and DHCP servers are described in their respective sections.
The web UI provides granular access to configuration data through user roles and constraints. The UI provides quick access to common functions. The web UI granularity is described in the following sections.
Waiting for Page Resolution Before Proceeding
Committing Changes in the Web UIs
Role and Attribute Visibility Settings
The web UI has been tested on Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 21 and later. Internet Explorer 8 is not supported.
At Cisco Prime IP Express installation, you can choose to configure HTTPS to support secure client access to the web UIs. You must specify the HTTPS port number and provide the keystore at that time. With HTTPS security in effect, the web UI Login page indicates that the “Page is SSL1 Secure.”
Note | Do not use a dollar sign ($) symbol as part of a keystore password. |
You can log into the Cisco Prime IP Express local or regional cluster web UIs either by HTTPS secure or HTTP nonsecure login. After installing Cisco Prime IP Express, open one of the supported web browsers and specify the login location URL in the browser address or netsite field. Login is convenient and provides some memory features to increase login speed.
You can log in using a nonsecure login in two ways:
Note | Open the regional Web UI first and add the licenses for the required services. |
This opens the New Product Installation page if no valid license is added at the time of installation. You have to browse and add the valid license. If the license key is acceptable, the Cisco Prime IP Express login page is displayed.
Note | You can add the licenses only in the regional server. The local has to be registered to the regional at the time of installation to run the desired licensed services. |
In the local server, confirm the regional server IP address and port number and also the services you want to run at the time of your first login. Click Register to confirm registration. If the regional server is configured with the required licenses, you will be displayed the login page.
Enter the superuser username and password created at the time of installation to log into the Web UI. The password is case-sensitive (See Managing Passwords). If you already added the valid license and superuser and configured a password at the time of installation, then you can log into the web UI using that username and password.
Note | There is no default username or password for login. |
Note | To prepare for an HTTPS-secured login, see Cisco Prime IP Express Installation Guide. |
Depending on how your browser is set up, you might be able to abbreviate the account name or choose it from a drop-down list while setting the username.
To log in, click Login.
The Cisco Prime IP Express user interfaces support multiple, concurrent users. If two users try to access the same object record or data, a Modified object error will occur for the second user. If you receive this error while editing user data, do the following:
Whenever you edit a password on a web UI page, it is displayed as a string of eight dots. The actual password value is never sent to the web browser. So, if you change the password, the field is automatically cleared. You must enter the new password value completely, exactly as you want it to be.
Note | The password should not be more than 255 characters long. |
For details on changing administrator passwords at the local and regional cluster, see Managing Passwords.
The web UI provides a hierarchy of pages based on the functionality you desire and the thread you are following as part of your administration tasks. The page hierarchy prevents you from getting lost easily.
Caution | Do not use the Back button of the browser. Always use the navigation bar menu, or the Cancel button on the page to return to a previous page. Using the browser Back button can cause erratic behavior or can cause failures. |
A single sign-on feature is available to connect between the regional and local cluster web UIs. The regional cluster web UI pages include the Connect button () in the List/Add Remote clusters page, which you can click to connect to the local cluster associated with the icon. If you have single sign-on privileges to the local cluster, the connection takes you to the related local server management page (or a related page for related server configurations). If you do not have these privileges, the connection takes you to the login page for the local cluster. To return to the regional cluster, local cluster pages have the Return button () on the main tollbar.
Note | Navigation bar items can vary based on if you have the role privileges for IPv4 or IPv6. For example, the Design menu bar can be DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 if you have the ipv6-management subrole of the addrblock-admin role assigned. |
Operations performed in the web UI, such as resynchronizing or replicating data from server clusters, are synchronous in that they do not return control to the browser until the operation is completed. These operations display confirmation messages in blue text. Also, both the Netscape and IE browsers display a wait cursor while the operation is in progress.
Tip | Wait for each operation in the web UI to finish before you begin a new operation. If the browser becomes impaired, close the browser, reopen it, then log in again. Some operations like zone distributions can take significant amount of time, so you may have to wait till the operation completes. |
You do not actually commit the page entries you make until you click Save on the page. You can delete items using the delete icon. To prevent unwanted deletions, a Confirm Delete dialog box appears in many cases so that you have a chance to confirm or cancel the deletion.
Click the username drop-down list on the top of the main page to modify user preferences, session settings, user permissions, or debug settings.
Many of the web UI pages, such as those for servers, zones, and scopes, include attribute settings that correspond to those you can set using the CLI. (The CLI name equivalents appear under the attribute name.) The attributes are categorized into groups by their function, with the more prominent attributes listed first and the ones less often configured nearer the bottom of the page.
On many Advanced mode web UI pages, you can toggle between showing attributes in groups and in alphabetical order. These pages generally open by default in group view so that you can see the attributes in their respective categories. However, in the case of large numbers of attributes, you might want to see the attributes alphabetized. Click Show A-Z View to change the page to show the attributes alphabetically. Click Show Group View to change the page to show the attributes in groups. You can also expand or collapse the attribute groups in group view by clicking Expand All or Collapse All. In Expert mode, the Expert mode attributes are alphabetized separately further down the page under the Visibility=3 heading and are all marked with the Warning icon.
You can modify attribute values and unset those for optional attributes. In many cases, these attributes have preset values, which are listed under the Default column on the page. The explicit value overrides the default one, but the default one is always the fallback. If there is no default value, unsetting the explicit value removes all values for that attribute.
For contextual help for an attribute, click the name of the attribute to open a separate popup window.
The Web UI also provides a navigation pane on the left of the main pages. This navigation pane provides access to objects that are added as part of the various categories. You can click the object to edit its properties in the main page.
Each object displayed under a category in the pane also has a Quick View icon associated with it, which is activated when you move the mouse pointer over the object. The Quick View icon expands to open a dialog box that displays the main details about the object, and provides links (if any) to perform the main actions associated with the object.
The web UI provides a separate window that displays help text for each page. The Help pages provide:
Log out of the web UI by clicking Log Out link. You can find the Log Out link between the username drop-down list and the About link at the top right corner of the application page above the toolbar.
Change to Basic, Advanced, or Expert mode by clicking the drop-down arrow of the Mode icon () on the toolbar at the top right of the page (see Setting Local User Preferences).
Note | If you change the IP address of your local cluster machine, see the Note in Configuring Clusters in the Local Web UI. |
The Basic tab activated on the toolbar at the top right corner of the page implies that you are in Basic user mode. Otherwise, click the drop-down arrow of the Mode icon () to view the list of modes and select Basic.
You can see the submenu items under the navigation bar item by placing the cursor on the main menu. To choose a submenu under a navigation bar item, place the cursor over the navigation bar item. For example, place the cursor on Operate to choose the Manage Servers.
Also, you can select any submenu under the required navigation bar and then navigate to the required submenu page from the left pane. For example, place the cursor on Operate, choose Schedule Tasks. You can see List/Add Scheduled Tasks page along with a left pane that has links to Manage Servers, Manage Clusters, Schedule Tasks, and View Change Log. Click the Manage Servers link to view the Manage Servers page.
The Local Basic main menu page provides functions with which you can:
To switch to Advanced user mode from the Basic user Main Menu page, click the drop-down arrow of the Mode icon () at the top right of the window to view the list of modes and select Advanced. Doing so opens another Main Menu page, except that it shows the Advanced user mode functions. To switch back to Basic mode at any time, click next to the Mode icon at the top right of the window and select Basic.
The local Advanced mode Main Menu page includes advanced Cisco Prime IP Express functions that are in addition to the ones in Basic mode:
The Advanced user mode page provides additional functions:
You can maintain a short list of web UI settings through subsequent user sessions. The only difference between the Basic and Advanced or Expert mode user preference pages is that Advanced and Expert modes have additional columns listing the data types and defaults
You can edit the user preferences by going to User Preferences under the admin menu(at the top of the main page). The user preference attributes to set are:
You can unset the page size and web UI mode values by checking the check box in the Unset? column, next to the attribute. After making the user preference settings, click Modify User Preferences.
You can define other local Cisco Prime IP Express clusters in the local web UI. The local cluster on the current machine is called the localhost cluster. To set up other clusters, choose Manage Clusters from Operate menu to open the List/Add Clusters page. Note that the localhost cluster has the IP address and SCP port of the local machine.
Click the Add Cluster icon in the left pane to open the Add Cluster page. At a minimum, you must enter the name and ipaddr of the remote local cluster. You should also enter the admin name and password, along with possibly the SCP port (if not 1234), of the remote cluster. Click Add Cluster. To edit a cluster, click the cluster name in the Clusters pane on the left to open the Edit Cluster page. If you want to use secure access mode, select use-ssl as disabled, optional, or required (optional is the preset value; you need the security library installed if you choose required). Make the changes, then click Save.
Note | If you change the IP address of your local cluster machine, you must modify the localhost cluster to change the address in the ipaddr field. Avoid setting the value to the loopback address (127.0.0.1); if you do, you must also set the actual IP addresses of main and backup servers for DHCP failover and High-Availability (HA) DNS configurations. |
The regional cluster web UI provides concurrent access to regional and central administration tasks. It provides granular administration across servers with permissions you can set on a per element or feature basis. After you log into the application, the Home page appears. Regional cluster administration is described in Managing the Central Configuration.
Using the Cisco Prime IP Express CLI (the nrcmd program), you can control your local cluster server operations. You can set all configurable options, as well as start and stop the servers.
Note | The CLI provides concurrent access, by at most 14 simultaneous users and processes per cluster. |
Tip | See the CLIContents.html file in the /docs subdirectory of your installation directory for details. |
The nrcmd program for the CLI is located on:
On a local cluster, once you are in the appropriate directory, use the following command at the prompt:
nrcmd [-C cluster[:port]] [-N user] [-P password] [-h] [-r] [-v] [-b < script | command]
The port number is optional if the cluster uses the default SCP port—1234 for local and 1244 for regional. Ensure that you include the port number if the port used is not the default one.
-b < script Process script file of nrcmd commands.
-h Print this help text.
-r Login as a read-only user.
-R Connect to regional.
-v Report the program version and exit.
Note | Cluster defaults to localhost if not specified. |
Tip | For additional command options, see the CLIGuide.html file in /docs. |
Note | If you change the IP address of your local cluster machine, you must modify the localhost cluster to change the address in the ipaddress attribute. Do not set the value to 127.0.0.1. |
You can also send the output to a file using:
nrcmd> session log filename
For example:
To send the leases on the DHCP server to a file (leases.txt), use the following commands:
nrcmd> session log leases.txt nrcmd> lease list
Note | To close a previously opened file, use session log (no filename). This stops writing the output to any file. |
To disconnect from the cluster, use exit:
nrcmd> exit
Tip | The CLI operates on a coordinated basis with multiple user logins. If you receive a cluster lock message, determine who has the lock and discuss the issue with that person. (See Multiple Users.) |
The Local and Regional Web UI in PrimeIP Express also provides a global search functionality for the IP addresses or DNS names available in the local clusters. The search interface element is available at the top right corner of the main page.
Note | To view the search interface element and run the search for IP addresses and DNS names, Cisco PrimeIP Express must be licensed with DHCP or DNS, and the DHCP or DNS services must be enabled for the local cluster (in the List/Add Remote Clusters page in Regional Web UI). |
The following table shows the typical search results under different scenarios.
You search for... |
With active licenses and services for... |
Search Results |
---|---|---|
An IPv4 address |
Only DHCP |
The closest matching scope, scope lease or scope reservation |
An IPv4 address or a DNS FQDN |
Only DNS |
The related Zone or Resource Record |
An IPv6 address |
Only DHCP |
The closest matching prefix, prefix lease or prefix reservation |
An IPv6 address or a DNS FQDN |
Only DNS |
The related Zone or Resource Record |
An IPv4 address, an IPv6 address or a DNS FQDN |
Both DHCP and DNS |
All of the above, based on the type of address |