You can discover the devices using the auto discovery option, and import the details into Cisco VTS. You can also manually create a CSV file with device details, in a prescribed format, and import it into Cisco VTS.
You can create authorization groups and assign devices you import into Cisco VTS, to these groups. Authorization groups are used to group devices with the same credentials (i.e. usernames and passphrases). Once the authorization groups are created, all the devices under these groups may be accessed without specifying the credentials every time they are accessed.
If the same credential are used for accessing all devices, one authorization group can be used. If the credentials are different for different devices, multiple authorization-groups (as many as username/passphrase pairs used by devices) need to be created.
When you do a manual import of devices, the CSV file that is used to import inventory details links the authorization group with a specific device. The applicable authorization group should be used for corresponding device entry in the CSV file.
This chapter has the following sections:
Authorization Group is used by Cisco VTS to authenticate or to log in to the device.
To create an authorization group:
In the auto discovery option, Cisco VTS automatically discovers the network topology in the data center . You can modify the device details after discovery is complete and add details to the inventory.
The auto discovery option has the following prerequisites:
Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) has to be enabled on leafs, spine, DCI, and computes. See documentation for the respective devices for details about how to enable LLDP on these devices.
![]() Note | As part of Topology discovery, once the compute hosts have been discovered using LLDP, you need to add the username and passphrase to each host entry. This update is required for installation of the host-agent (in case of OpenStack) and any subsequent passphrase change via VTS GUI to go through. |
A seed device has to be identified, and the IP should be provided. The seed IP is that of one of the leaf or spine devices.
All devices must have a common set of credentials. These credentials will be used during the discovery process. See Managing Inventory for more information. The credentials must be of the appropriate privilege level on the devices.
To perform auto discovery:
The device inventory details need to be uploaded using a CSV file, in the prescribed format. The inventory file is used to define device mappings. If the format is incorrect, Cisco VTS displays an error and provides the details of the error. After a successful import, the topology gets displayed based on the mapping specified in the file.
When adding device to inventory, in the list of devices connected to a switch, the interface field should contain the interface name for network devices and the MAC address for servers.
![]() Note | You should be an admin user to download or upload the CSV file. Also, if you are uploading a CSV file for the first time and there are issues uploading the file, then only the partial information is uploaded. You need to delete all the devices from network inventory and re-upload the file after fixing the issues. Or else, you may encounter problems due to the partial upload. |
To download a sample inventory file, click Download Template.
![]() Note | In a VMware environment, each time you add a leaf, you must create a corresponding VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS). See the Important Notes Regarding VMware vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) section for details. |
Step 1 | Go to . The Inventory / Discovery window appears. |
Step 2 | Click
Import
CSV
The Import Devices popup window appears. |
Step 3 | Click
Browse to choose the CSV file.
Click Download Template to download a sample CSV file.
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Step 4 | Browse for the CSV file, and click Import. |
Step 5 | After the import
operation complete, the details are displayed in the table.
You can use the Bulk Edit option to modify the device details for more than one devices, before you add the devices to inventory, using the Add to Inventory button. To avoid errors, make sure you review the details in the table before you add the devices to Inventory. Click the device name to open the connected devices popup window, which gives details about connected devices for a device. |
To view the network topology:
Step 1 | Go to . The Inventory / Topology window appears. | ||
Step 2 | Select the
tenant for which you need to view the topology, from the
Select
Tenant drop down list.
The topology is displayed in the Topology window. You can use the following buttons to control the display: Hover the mouse cursor over the Topology Setting icon to view Topology Setting popup, where you can change the display icon appearance, and display color.
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The network inventory table displays details about the devices which have been added to the inventory.
To view the network topology:
The following details are displayed:
You can add network devices via the Network Inventory table. To do this, click the Add (+) icon, and provide the details. You can use this option to add devices to the inventory. To edit network device, select the device you want to edit and click the Edit icon. To delete network devices from the Network Inventory table, select the device you want to delete and click the Delete (X) icon. If there is problem in deleting device, you need make sure that fabric link is cleaned up manually. For example, when Device 1 is connected to Device 2, Inventory has two devices and two fabric links (this can be seen in Fabric Connection tab in Network Inventory)—one from Device 1 to Device 2, and the other from Device 2 to Device 1. While deleting Device 1 from network inventory, cleanup is done for Fabric link Device 1 to Device 2 and for the device from the inventory. The link Device 2 to Device 1 has to be cleaned up manually before you delete. It is important that you remove the resource pool before deleting a device. You need to discover the devices and add them to the inventory before you bring up the IoS XRv. If you do these tasks simultaneously, you might encounter errors. To recalculate the inventory topology for a particular device, click the redeploy button. See Redeploying Device Inventory for more details. |
To add fabric connection:
You can check if the device state is in sync with VTS configuration database.
To check whether the configuration is in sync:
![]() Note | This operation can be done only on a device that has the Admin State as Unlocked. If Admin state is Locked, you must change the Admin State to Unlocked, and then do the check-sync operation. Also, the out-of-sync-commit behavior in System Settings must be set to Reject for this feature to be enabled. |
Step 1 | Go to . The Inventory / Network Inventory page displays the Network Inventory table . | ||
Step 2 | Click the
Config
Sync link under the Sync column, for the device.
If the configuration is in sync with the VTS database, the green In Sync icon is displayed.
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You can view the details of the hosts connected to the switches.
The Host Inventory has the Install Capabilities button. You can select the host from the list, and click Install Capabilities. If the host is connected to a physical VTEP (ToR), it installs the host agent in case of an OpenStack environment. If the capability is Virtual, clicking the Install Capabilities button installs the VTF VM on that host. See Installing OpenStack Host Agent and VTF using GUI.
To view host inventory details:
Step 1 | Go to . The Inventory / Host Inventory window appears | ||
Step 2 | Select the
device from the Select Device drop-down list. The following details are
displayed:
To add a host from the table, select the Host Name check box corresponding to the device and click the Add (+) icon. Then provide the necessary details. To edit a host from the table, select the Host Name check box corresponding to the device and click the Edit icon. To delete a host from the table, select the Host Name check box corresponding to the device and click the click the Delete (X) icon. |
You can use the Install Capabilities button to install the Host Agent and VTF on a host based on whether it is a virtual or physical server.
Step 1 | Go to Inventory > Host Inventory. The Inventory / Host Inventory window appears | ||
Step 2 | Click +
to add a host. You may also edit a host and modify the
parameters to enable installation of physical or virtual capabilities.
Ensure that you review the tooltips for important information about the entries. Click on the info icon adjacent to the Host Name. Host Summary table popup appears. If Virtual Capability is virtual-switch, both Additional Host Details and VTF Details can be viewed in the Host Summary table. If Virtual Capability is no-virtual-switch, only Additional Host Details can be viewed in the Host Summary table. | ||
Step 3 | Click Install
Capabilities. Based on the host type, it installs the host agent /
VTF on the host.
See the Status column for the installation status. The VMM type is also shown once the capabilities get installed.
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The canvas displays the number of VTFs that are attached to the IOS XRvs . The table on the right hand side shows the VTFs. |
This section provides details about the generic procedure to migrate from Virtual Port Channel (vPC) to Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI).
![]() Note | Before you begin, ensure that the following TCAM regions are carved on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switch: |
hardware access-list tcam region vpc-convergence 256 hardware access-list tcam region arp-ether 256
To migrate from vPC to ESI:
Step 1 | In case of IOS XRv HA, bring down the IOS XRv. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 2 | Upgrade VTS to a version which supports ESI. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 3 | Perform a port-detach operation to remove the relevant service configurations provisioned on the TORs. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 4 | Remove the TORs from Admin Domain in VTS GUI. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 5 | If the TCAM
regions, as mentioned above, are not already carved on Cisco Nexus 9000 series
switch, add the lines and save as running config.
hardware access-list tcam region vpc-convergence 256 hardware access-list tcam region arp-ether 256
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Step 6 | Upgrade TORs
to a new Cisco Nexus 9000 image, which has ESI feature. This will automatically
cause device to reboot.
copy run start install all nxos bootflash:/nxos.7.0.3.ITC5.0.100.bin (or newer n9k image) | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 7 | Upgrade Cisco ASR 9000 series DCIs to an ESI supporting image. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 8 | Once the setup
is up then remove feature VPC and configure ESI on the required TORs that you
are planning to convert to ESI.
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Step 9 | On Cisco VTS, perform a sync-from operation for the TORs that have ESI enabled. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 10 | Redeploy inventory from Cisco VTS only for devices that have new ESI configuration. This is to make sure that Cisco VTS recognizes ESI configuration on Cisco Nexus 9000 series devices. See Redeploying Device Inventory for details. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 11 | Remove the peer links between previous VPC peer TORs (Inventory > Network Inventory > Fabric Connection). | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 12 | Create a device group (Resource Pools > VLAN Pool), and add the group of ESI enabled devices to the group. Make sure a corresponding VLAN pool/range is also created for the device group. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 13 | Add the ESI device group to appropriate functional groups in Admin Domain, and also disable ARP suppression in Admin Domain. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 14 | Upgrade IOS XRv to the latest image. | ||||||||||||||||||
Step 15 | Perform a port-attach from VTS. |
You can use the Redeploy feature to recalculate the inventory topology for a particular device. This is important in the context of VPC and ESI.
Redeploy triggers the inventory for a device again. Since inventory reads the data from the device model in the database it is important to perform sync-from before doing a Redeploy.
![]() Note | Redeploy function is different from the sync-from function. Sync-from gets the configurations from the device and updates it in the device model in the database. However, it does not recalculate the topology. That is, the topology would still show old information/configuration. Redeploy recalculates the inventory topology. After you perform a Redeploy, the topology will be updated with the modified configuration. |
To redeploy device inventory:
Step 1 | Go to Inventory > Network Inventory, perform a sync-from for the device for which the configuration has changed. See Synchronizing Configuration for more details. | ||
Step 2 | Select the device, click Redeploy.
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