Introduction to Cisco Prime Network Registrar Virtual Appliance

The Cisco Prime Network Registrar virtual appliance aims at reducing the installation, configuration, and maintenance costs associated with running Cisco Prime Network Registrar on a local system. It also guarantees portability and thus reduces the risk in moving Cisco Prime Network Registrar from one machine to another.

You must get a license for Cisco Prime Network Registrar and download the virtual appliance from Cisco.com. Every Cisco Prime Network Registrar local cluster must be connected to a regional cluster which contains the licenses for the DHCP or DNS services provided by the local cluster. All licenses are loaded into the regional cluster, and local clusters are registered with the regional cluster at the time of their first installation. Cisco Prime Network Registrar will then be up and running, available to be configured.

This is different from just downloading a copy of Cisco Prime Network Registrar and installing it on a server or virtual machine provided by the customer, in that the operating system on which Cisco Prime Network Registrar runs is also provided in the virtual appliance.

The Cisco Prime Network Registrar virtual appliance is supported with VMware ESXi 7.x and 8.x platforms, as well as OpenStack.

To know about the difference between vApp and a virtual appliance, see the User’s Guide to Deploying vApps and Virtual Appliances.

How the Cisco Prime Network Registrar Virtual Appliance Works

The virtual appliance consists of a virtual machine, which contains a runnable guest OS (AlmaLinux 8.6) and Cisco Prime Network Registrar installed on that OS. When the virtual appliance is installed, Cisco Prime Network Registrar is already installed and is started by the virtual machine power-up.

Invoking Cisco Prime Network Registrar on the Virtual Appliance

You can invoke the Cisco Prime Network Registrar application directly by using the URL http:// hostname:8080 . The secure https connection is also available via the URL https:// hostname:8443 .

Monitoring Disk Space Availability on VMware

To determine how much space is available to use for increasing the size of a virtual appliance's disk, do the following:

Procedure


Step 1

In the vSphere Client window, select the host/server on which the virtual Cisco Prime Network Registrar appliance resides.

Step 2

Click Storage Views to see the list of the machines hosted by the server and the details about the space currently used by each machine.

Also, you can go to the Virtual Machines tab to view both the Provisioned Space and the Used Space by machine.

Step 3

Click Summary .

The Resources area of the Summary tab, displays the capacity of the disk and the CPU and memory used.

Step 4

Select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab.

The Resources area of the Summary tab displays the disk space details for the machine.


Monitoring Disk Space Availability in Use by the Virtual Appliance

To determine how much free space is left on the disk in use by the virtual appliance, as an aid to determine if you should increase the size of the virtual appliance's disk, do the following:

Procedure


Step 1

Select the virtual machine in the vSphere Client window and either click the Console tab on the right pane or right-click the virtual machine name and choose Open Console .

Step 2

Log in as root and type df -k. The disk space details are displayed.

If the disk space on the disk mounted is not enough, then you should increase the size of the disk (see Increasing the Size of the Disk on VMware).


Increasing the Size of the Disk on VMware

If you need a bigger disk, do the following:

Procedure


Step 1

Stop the VM.

Step 2

Increase the size of the disk by changing the size in the Virtual Machine Properties window. To open the Virtual Machine Properties window, you have to select the VM using the VM name, right-click, and choose Edit Settings.

Step 3

Restart the VM.

During the boot process, the partition containing the filesystem will be extended to encompass the entire disk and the filesystem will be extended to fill the entire partition.


Troubleshooting

If you experience any issues while working with the Cisco Prime Network Registrar virtual appliance, we recommend you to do the following:

Examine the log files in /var/nwreg2/{local | regional}/logs. Look particularly for errors in the log files as these signal exceptional conditions. If you are unable to resolve the problem and you have purchased Cisco support, then submit a case to Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) regarding the problem.