Cisco DCNM Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 4.2

Devices

The Devices and Credentials feature allows you to administer the management state of devices. If the managed physical device supports virtual device contexts (VDCs), Cisco DCNM represents each VDC as a device. If you need to retrieve the running configuration and status information of a single VDC on a physical device with multiple VDCs, rather than performing device discovery for all the VDCs on the physical device, you can use the Devices and Credentials feature to rediscover the single device that represents the changed VDC.

Credentials

Devices and Credentials supports the ability to secure each managed device with different credentials. Cisco DCNM allows you to configure unique credentials for each discovered device or the use of default credentials when you do not configure unique credentials for a device. If some managed devices share the same credentials but others do not, you can configure unique credentials for some devices and configure the default credentials with the credentials that are shared by some of the managed devices.

Devices and Credentials associates a unique set of device credentials with each Cisco DCNM server user. This means that the accounting logs on managed devices reflect the actions of each Cisco DCNM server user. If you log into the Cisco DCNM client as a user who does not have device credentials configured, the Cisco DCNM client prompts you to configure device credentials for the user account.

If support for accounting is not important to your organization, you must still configure each Cisco DCNM server user with device credentials, even if the credentials specified for each user are the same.

Device Status

The Devices and Credentials feature shows the status each device. The possible status are as follows:

• Managed—Cisco DCNM can connect to the device using SSH, configure the running configuration of the device, and retrieve logs and other data from it. This status is possible only for devices that run a supported release of Cisco NX-OS and that are configured properly to support discovery by Cisco DCNM. For more information, see the “Cisco NX-OS Device Preparation” section.
• Unmanaged—Cisco DCNM does not manage the device or monitor the status of the device.
• Unreachable—Cisco DCNM cannot connect to the device, which was a managed device prior to becoming unreachable. Common causes for this status are as follows:

– A network issue is preventing the Cisco DCNM server from contacting the device.

– SSH is disabled on the device.

– All terminal lines on the device are in use.

Virtualization Support

For devices that support VDCs, Cisco DCNM treats each VDC on a physical device as a separate device; therefore, Cisco DCNM can maintain unique credentials for each VDC on a device. Cisco DCNM tracks the status of each VDC separately, as well.

Adding a Device

You can add a device. After you add a device, you can discover it. For more information, see the “Discovering a Device” section.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Determine the IPv4 address for the device.

Determine whether Cisco DCNM can communicate with the device using the default device credentials or whether you need to add unique device credentials when you add the device to Cisco DCNM.

DETAILED STEPS

To add a device, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 From the menu bar, choose Actions > New Device .

A blank row appears in the Devices area on the Contents pane.

Step 3 In the IP Address column for the new device, enter the IPv4 address that Cisco DCNM must use to connect to the device.

Step 4 Press Enter .

Step 5 (Optional) If you need to add unique device credentials, in the User Credentials column, double-click the entry for the device that you added, click the down-arrow button, and configure the unique device credentials.

Step 6 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the Cisco DCNM server.

The status of the new device is Unmanaged.

Discovering a Device

You can discover a device.

Discovering an unmanaged device changes its status to Managed. During the discovery, Cisco DCNM retrieves the running configuration of the device.

If you are rediscovering a device, the configuration data that Cisco DCNM retrieves replaces any existing configuration data for the device. Whenever the configuration data that Cisco DCNM has for the device is not accurate, such as when a device administrator has used the command-line interface to change the running configuration, you can use this procedure to update the configuration data that Cisco DCNM has for the device.

Note Discovering a device does not affect the running configuration of the device.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Ensure that you have either configured the device entry with unique device credentials or that Cisco DCNM can use the default device credentials to connect to the device. For more information, see the “Configuring Default Device Credentials” section.

DETAILED STEPS

To discover a device, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 Click the device that you want to discover.

Step 3 From the menu bar, choose Actions > Discover .

The device discovery begins. The status of the device changes to Discovering.

Step 4 Wait for the status to change to Managed.

Typically, the device discovery occurs in less than 5 minutes. After the status changes to Managed, you can use Cisco DCNM to configure the device.

You do not need to save your changes.

Unmanaging a Device

You can change the status of a device to unmanaged.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Ensure that you are changing the status of the correct device. Cisco DCNM cannot control the running configuration of an unmanaged device.

DETAILED STEPS

To change the status of a device to unmanaged, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 Click the device whose status you want to change to unmanaged.

Step 3 From the menu bar, choose Actions > Unmanage .

After a short delay, the status of the device changes to Unmanaged.

You do not need to save your changes.

Deleting a Device

You can delete a device. When you delete a device, you delete all configuration data about the device from Cisco DCNM.

You should consider deleting devices that you do not intend to manage with Cisco DCNM. Additionally, if a network administrator of a device that supports VDCs uses the command-line interface of the device to delete a VDC, you should delete from Cisco DCNM the device that represented the VDC.

Note Deleting a device does not affect the running configuration of the device.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Ensure that you are deleting the correct device.

DETAILED STEPS

To delete a device, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 Click the device that you want to delete.

Step 3 From the menu bar, choose Actions > Delete .

The device disappears from the Devices area.

You do not need to save your changes.

Configuring Default Device Credentials

You can configure the default credentials, which Cisco DCNM uses to authenticate itself when it connects to discovered Cisco NX-OS devices. Cisco DCNM uses the default device credentials to communicate with each discovered device that you have not configured with unique device credentials.

Note Device credentials are unique for each Cisco DCNM server user.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Determine what the default device credentials should be. All Cisco NX-OS devices that Cisco DCNM uses the default credentials to communicate with must have a network administrator account configured with a username and password that are identical to the default credentials that you configure in Cisco DCNM.

Note We recommend that you use a strong password. Common guidelines for strong passwords include a minimum password length of eight characters and at least one letter, one number, and one symbol. For example, the password Re1Ax@h0m3 has ten characters and contains uppercase and lowercase letters in addition to one symbol and three numbers.

DETAILED STEPS

To configure default device credentials, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The Default Credentials area appears in the Contents pane, above the Devices area, which lists the discovered devices.

Step 2 In the User Name field, enter the username for the default credentials. A valid username can be 1 to 32 characters. Valid characters are numbers, symbols, and case-sensitive letters.

Note Cisco NX-OS supports usernames that are a maximum of 28 characters.

Step 3 To the right of the Password field, click the down-arrow button.

Step 4 In the Password field and the Confirm Password field, enter the password for the default credentials. Valid passwords are numbers, symbols, and case-sensitive letters.

Note Cisco NX-OS supports passwords that are a maximum of 64 characters.

Step 5 Click OK .

Step 6 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the Cisco DCNM server.

Clearing Default Device Credentials

You can clear the default device credentials.

Note If you clear the default device credentials, Cisco DCNM can connect to discovered devices only if you have configured unique credentials for each managed device.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

If you intend to use Cisco DCNM without default device credentials, you should ensure that Cisco DCNM is configured with unique device credentials for each discovered device before you perform this procedure. For more information, see the “Configuring Unique Credentials for a Device” section.

DETAILED STEPS

To configure default device credentials, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The Default Credentials area appears in the Contents pane, above the Devices area, which lists the discovered devices.

Step 2 In the Default Credentials area, click Clear .

The User Name field and the Password field clear.

Step 3 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the Cisco DCNM server.

Configuring Unique Credentials for a Device

You can configure credentials that are unique to a discovered device. When unique credentials exist for a discovered device, Cisco DCNM uses them when it connects to the device rather than using the default device credentials.

Note Device credentials are unique for each Cisco DCNM server user.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Determine the username and password for a network administrator user account on the discovered device.

Note We recommend that you use a strong password. Common guidelines for strong passwords include a minimum password length of eight characters and at least one letter, one number, and one symbol. For example, the password Re1Ax@h0m3 has ten characters and contains uppercase and lowercase letters in addition to one symbol and three numbers.

DETAILED STEPS

To configure unique credentials for a discovered device, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

The discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 In the User Credentials column for the device, double-click the entry and then click the down-arrow button.

Step 3 In the User Name field, enter the username. Valid usernames are between 1 and 32 characters. Valid characters are numbers, symbols, and case-sensitive letters.

Note Cisco NX-OS supports usernames that are a maximum of 28 characters.

Step 4 In the Password field and the Confirm Password field, enter the password. Valid passwords are numbers, symbols, and case-sensitive letters.

Note Cisco NX-OS supports passwords that are a maximum of 64 characters.

Step 5 Click OK .

Step 6 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the Cisco DCNM server.

Clearing Unique Credentials for a Device

You can clear unique credentials for a discovered device.

Note If you clear the unique credentials for a discovered device, Cisco DCNM uses the default credentials to connect to the device.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

If you intend to operate Cisco DCNM without unique credentials for the device, you should ensure that Cisco DCNM is configured with default device credentials before you perform this procedure. For more information, see the “Configuring Default Device Credentials” section.

DETAILED STEPS

To clear unique credentials from a discovered device, follow these steps:

Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials .

Discovered devices appear in the Devices area of the Contents pane.

Step 2 In the User Credentials column for the device, double-click the entry and then click the down-arrow button.

Step 3 In the User Name field, delete all text.

Step 4 In the Password field, delete all text.

Step 5 In the Confirm Password field, delete all text.

Step 6 Click OK .

Step 7 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the Cisco DCNM server.

Device and Credentials Content Pane

Related Documents

Standards