IoT FND Components
This section explains the role and function of the following IoT FND core components in the FAN solution:
IoT FND Application Server
The IoT FND application server resides in the data center and performs the functions that are needed to monitor and manage the FAN and devices. It hosts the IoT FND application and interacts with many of the components in the headend, including the IoT FND database server, DHCP server, headend routers (HER), and tunnel provisioning server (TPS). This server hosts the IoT FND user interface from which you perform IoT FND operations and management procedures and view information about the network, devices, and related items, and it stores the IoT FND log files.
The IoT FND application server runs under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system and can be installed on a bare metal server or a virtual machine (VM).
IoT FND Database Server
The IoT FND database server resides in the headend and is the storage repository for the data that IoT FND generates and collects. This data includes metrics, device properties such as firmware images, configuration templates, and event notifications.
The IoT FND database server runs under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system and can run the Oracle or Postgres database. When running Oracle, the IoT FND database server can be installed on a bare metal server or a VM. When running Postgres, this server can be installed only on a VM.
The IoT FND application server is the only component that interacts directly with the IoT FND database server.
Tunnel Provisioning Server
The tunnel provisioning server (TPS) resides in the DMZ and is a proxy server for IoT FND. The TPS provides a bridge for the communication between IoT FND and FARs. It relays tunnel requests from FARs to IoT FND and provides FARs with the configuration for the tunnel to the headend.
When they first start up, routers communicate with IoT FND through the TPS. After IoT FND provisions tunnels, routers communicate with IoT FND directly.
Load Balancer
An optional load balancer provides IoT FND server high availability. You can connect multiple IoT FND servers to a load balancer.
Load balancing is configured using a third-party device and is supported only in an IoT FND bare metal server deployment.
Software Security Module
The software security module (SSM) is an optional component of IoT FND. It is used to sign CSMP messages that IoT FND sends to meters and to Cisco IR500 endpoints. The SSM is bundled with the IoT FND image.
The SSM has a limited scaling capability and does not support high availability. We recommend that a hardware security module be used instead of the SSM in production environments.