Introduction

The Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart product is a complete solution for using the Cisco Prime IP Express application to manage DHCP, DNS, and Caching DNS servers. It includes the following components:

■Cisco Prime IP Express 9.0 application software

■Linux CentOS 7.2 Operating System

■VMware ESXi 5.5 or later Hypervisor

■Cisco UCS C220 M4 Hardware

These components are integrated together into a single flexible and easy to use appliance (see Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart Configuration).

Figure 1 Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart Configuration

Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart Configuration shows the three primary layers in the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart appliance. Each of these layers has its own capabilities. Each of these layers can be controlled independently as well as remotely, and each requires its own independent connection to the network. Thus, three unique IP addresses are required.

You may only need to connect to the Cisco Prime IP Express Web UI to perform IP address management tasks, but you may also need to connect to one of the other layers to perform system management or troubleshooting tasks related to the appliance.

You can connect to each layer as described below:

■Connecting to Virtual Appliance (Open Virtual Appliance) Layer—You can connect to the Cisco Prime IP Express application layer using a web browser. Use http:// vaip :8080 for local and http:// vaip :8090, where vaip is the virtual appliance IP address (which is also the IP address of the Linux Operating System). For a secure connection to the Cisco Prime IP Express Web UI, use https:// vaip :8443.

To access the Cisco Prime IP Express Command Line Interface (CLI), you can use an SSH connection to the virtual appliance IP address using ssh -l root vaip.

You can manage the Linux OS by connecting to it using ssh -l root vaip. There is no Windows system installed on the Cisco Prime IP Express virtual appliance, but the standard Linux commands necessary to manage a networking application are all present on the Linux OS.

■Connecting to ESXi Hypervisor Layer—Connect to the ESXi hypervisor layer, identified by the IP address esxip, using the VMware vSphere client. esxip is the IP address designated to the ESXi layer.

Note: The VMware vSphere client is supported only on systems running Microsoft Windows.

■Connecting to Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) UCS Management Console—This allows you to configure and manage the ESXi layer. You can connect to the CIMC by using a browser using https:// ucsip /. ucsip is the IP address assigned to the Jumpstart. After you log into CIMC, you can start the KVM console to get access to the ESXi configuration screen and manage hardware (power, temperature, fan RPM).

This guide contains the following sections:

■ Prerequisites

■Configuring the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

■Configuring Network Access on CentOS 7.2 using nmcli

■Configuring Cisco Prime IP Express to Automatically Power Up

■Licensing the ESXi Host

■How to Recover Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

■Troubleshooting

■Related Documentation

■Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

Prerequisites

The items concerning the networking environment are as follows. These are not unique to the virtual appliance, but are instead values that are determined by the environment in which you will deploy the virtual appliance:

■The IP address or DNS name of the ESXi installation on which you intend to deploy the virtual appliance.

■The IP address or DNS name of any vCenter server associated with the ESXi installation, above.

■Netmask associated with the IP address for the virtual appliance.

■Gateway address appropriate to the IP address and netmask.

■IP addresses of up to two DNS servers for the virtual appliance to use.

■Any proxy values necessary for the virtual appliance to access the Internet.

Note: Ensure that you have the Cisco Prime IP Express licenses from Cisco.com before you get started. For details, see the License Files section of Cisco Prime IP Express 9.0 Installation Guide.

Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

Be ready with the following information when configuring the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart:

■IP address for the CIMC port on the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart.

Note: This IP address must be unique for this appliance.

■Netmask (subnetmask) for the CIMC port address.

■Gateway for the CIMC port address.

Network information for ESXi

Be ready with the following information when configuring network information for ESXi:

■IP address for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart.

Note: This IP address must be unique for this appliance.

■Netmask for the IP address for the ESXi installation.

■Gateway address for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart.

■VLAN (if any) for the ESXi installation on the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart.

Cisco Prime IP Express Virtual Appliance

Be ready with the following information before you deploy the virtual appliance. These items are unique to the installation of this particular virtual appliance.

■A virtual machine name for the deployed virtual appliance.

■A root password for the operating system on the virtual appliance. You will be prompted to enter and configure the root password during your first boot.

■IP address for the Cisco Prime IP Express virtual appliance.

■DNS name (hostname) for the virtual appliance. It should be placed into DNS using the IP address you selected for the virtual appliance.

■Username and password for the administrator of the Cisco Prime IP Express installation.

Configuring the Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

Configuring Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart requires you to do the following configuration steps to connect it to the network:

■ Configuring Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

■ Configuring Network Information for ESXi

■ Configuring Cisco Prime IP Express Virtual Appliance

Configuring Network Access on CentOS 7.2 using nmcli

The NetworkManager command-line tool (nmcli) provides a command line way to configure networking by controlling NetworkManager. This section provides only an overview with some examples to help you learn how to use nmcli to configure network access on the virtual appliance.

In a departure from previous approaches to network interface configuration, NetworkManager deals with both connections and interfaces (also known as devices). Connections are configured with IP addresses, gateways, DNS servers, and then applied to interfaces (devices). This is a critical change from the past way of configuring network access on CentOS Linux, and includes all aspects of nmcli operations.

First, there are two nmcli commands that are of general usefulness:

■The nmcli d command lists all available network interfaces (devices).

■The nmcli c command lists all available configurations.

Use the above two commands frequently as you are learning to use nmcli.

Follow the steps below to configure a connection for an interface on your virtual appliance. Typically these commands are typed directly into the console of the virtual appliance. If you are already connected through the network (for example, by ssh), then making changes to the network interface configuration can be problematic, as you may also lose network connectivity (and thereby your ability to issue nmcli commands) at any point in the process.

To configure the UCS Hardware to automatically power up the ESXi hypervisor:

1. Make sure that the interface does not block nmcli. The nmcli d command lists the existing interfaces. If the interface you want to configure is listed as unmanaged, then NetworkManager has been explicitly blocked from configuring this interface. Until you remove this blockage, no nmcli command will have any effect on this interface. Note that you may not need to perform this procedure unless the interface is listed as unmanaged. Follow the steps below to allow it to be managed by NetworkManager:

a. Remove the line NM_CONTROLLED-no from the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<interface>, where <interface> is the interface name listed in the nmcli d command. If there is no file with this name, then you do not need to perform this procedure.

b. NetworkManager must be told to read the configuration files again. To do this, give the following command:
nmcli connection reload

Note: Manual changes to any ifcfg file will not be noticed by NetworkManager until the following command is issued: nmcli connection reload

In a brand-new OVA deployment, there is no ifcfg config file until after the networking is completed.

2. Execute the nmcli c command, which lists any existing configurations. You will see the following output:

Note: Your UUID will be different.

Execute the nmcli d command, which lists any existing devices.

Since ens160 is currently attached to the connection "Wired connection 1", delete that using the following command:

nmcli con delete "Wired connection 1"

and use the DEVICE name ens160 in the following steps for both the <config> and the <interface>.

3. Create the configuration and associate it with the interface (device) in one command. This command only creates the configuration, it does not apply it to the interface.

nmcli con add type ethernet con-name <config> ifname <interface> ip4 <ip>/<netmaskwidth> gw4 <gateway>

where <config> is the name of the configuration, <interface> is the name of the interface (device), <ip> is the IPv4 address, <netmaskwidth> is the network mask width, and <gateway> is the IPv4 gateway address.
Example (type all in one line):

nmcli con add type ethernet con-name ens160 ifname ens160 ip4 10.10.24.25/24 gw4 10.10.20.174

4. Add the DNS server to the interface (device):

nmcli con mod <config> ipv4.dns <dnsip>

where <dnsip> is the IPv4 address of the DNS server and <config> is the name of the configuration.

Example:

nmcli con mod ens160 ipv4.dns 72.63.128.140

You can add two DNS addresses as given below:

nmcli con mod ens160 ipv4.dns "72.63.128.140 72.63.111.120"

Note: This will replace any previously set DNS servers. To add to an previously set DNS entry, use the + before ipv4.dns as shown below:

nmcli con mod test-lab +ipv4.dns "72.63.128.140 72.63.111.120"

5. Bring up the interface:

nmcli con up <config>

where <config> is the name of the configuration.

6. Use the following command to examine information about a connection. You may examine information about a connection by using this command:

nmcli -p con show <config>

This will typically scroll off of the console screen, leaving the beginning unreadable. To allow you to move back and forth and examine the output easily, use this command:

nmcli -p con show <config> | less

From this, you can see the entire configuration. You can modify things in the configuration with:
nmcli con mod <config> <something>.<other> <new-value>

Example:

nmcli con mod ens160 wifi-min.key-cntl wpa-psk

7. Use the command set-hostname to set the hostname for the system:

hostnamectl set-hostname <hostname>.<domain>

where <hostname> is the hostname you want to use and <domain> is the domain name, ending with.com,.org, and so on. It is important to include the domain name (along with the.com,.org, or whatever ending is appropriate), since this is used as the default for DNS lookups.

Example:

hostnamectl set-hostname my-server.gooddomain.com

Configuring Cisco Prime IP Express to Automatically Power Up

There are several layers of processing involved in running the Cisco Prime IP Express application. Each layer has choices it can make about what to do when it is first powered up after power failures.

You can configure the Cisco Prime IP Express to start automatically when power is restored to the Jumpstart.

The two places where you have to change the configurations to make this possible are:

■UCS Hardware—The UCS hardware has to be configured to power up the ESXi hypervisor when power is restored.

■ESXi Hypervisor—The ESXi hypervisor has to be configured to power up the Cisco Prime IP Express virtual appliance when power is restored to the ESXi hypervisor layer.

To configure the UCS Hardware to automatically power up the ESXi hypervisor:

1. Connect a browser to the CIMC UCS Management Console and log into the console.

2. In the Server tab on the left pane, select the Power Policies link.

3. Select Power On from the Power Restore Policy drop-down list in the Power Restore Policy area in the right pane.

If you want, you can enter a delay value in the Power Delay Value field.

4. Click Save Changes to save the updates.

To configure the ESXi hypervisor to automatically power up the Cisco Prime IP Express virtual appliance when power is restored to the ESXi hypervisor layer, see the “Configuring the Virtual Appliance to Automatically Power Up” section of Cisco Prime IP Express 9.0 Installation Guide.

Licensing the ESXi Host

The VMWare ESXi host will run on a 60-day Evaluation Mode license once it is powered up. The host license that you receive when purchasing a Jumpstart must be applied to license the server. It will be in the following format:

NX61M-43JE6-78J4W-0VB7H-9XHJ4

To license the ESXi host:

1. Connect to the ESXi host with the VMware vSphere client*.

2. Highlight the host name in the left-hand panel and choose the Configuration tab.

3. Click the Licensed Features link under the Software section on the left, and then click the Edit link on the upper right.

Figure 2 Assign License Dialog Box - Evaluation Mode

4. Choose “Assign a new license key to this host” and the following dialog box will appear:

Figure 3 Assign a New License Key Dialog Box

5. Type or paste the license key into the “New license key:” field and click OK.

* The VMware vSphere client can be downloaded by typing the ESXi server host address in the browser’s URL field. You will be presented with several security screens which you would need to acknowledge to reach the VMware ESXi Welcome screen. On the Welcome screen, there will be a Download vSphere Client link.

How to Recover Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart

This section describes how to recover Cisco Prime IP Express Jumpstart 9.0. It includes the following sections:

■Prerequisites

■Downloading the Recovery Kit

■Recovery Procedures

■Recovering the Licenses

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issue for which you are not able to find a solution, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for help.

For assistance in troubleshooting, the appliance comes with a secure FTP server and a TAC tool.

Ensure that you send the data gathered by the TAC tool to the TAC team in case of issues. For more details regarding the TAC tool, see the Cisco Prime IP Express 9.0 Administration Guide.

You can use the FTP server (vsftpd) to transfer files to and from the virtual appliance. You have to create a user to log into the vsftpd because the 'root' user cannot be used for logging in. The vsftpd will not be up and running when you power on the appliance, so you have to manually start it.

You can start the vsftpd using the command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd start

You can stop the vsftpd using the command:

/etc/init.d/vsftpd stop

Related Documentation

Note: We sometimes update the documentation after original publication. Therefore, you should also review the documentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

The following is a list of documentation that you can refer to:

Hardware Documents

Go to the following page to see the documentation for UCS server hardware:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/
index.html

Platform-Specific Documents

The following is a list of sites with platform-specific documentation:

■For VMware ESXi specific documentation, go the VMware website.

■For CentOS specific documentation, go to the CentOS website.

Software Documents

The following document gives the list of documents available for Cisco Prime IP Express 9.0:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/ip_express/9-0/doc_overview/guide/CPIPE_9_0_Doc_
Guide.html

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, using the Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST), submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation at: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html.

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