Cisco OMD Director Overview

Cisco OMD Director is the primary user interface for Cisco Media Broadcaster and Cisco Media Streamer. It provides a unified interface to seamlessly manage the different components of the Cisco OMD deployment. OMD Director enables the administrator to rapidly provision new CDNs and caches, and integrates monitoring, alerts, and real-time analytics into a single management tool.

This chapter walks through the features of Cisco OMD Director to provide a high-level overview of the product and describes the menu options that will be used to manage Media Streamer. Each feature will be explored in more detail in later chapters.


Note

Some of the OMD Director menus apply only to Media Broadcaster functions. This guide will not cover those menus. For more information on managing a Media Broadcaster deployment, see the Cisco Media Broadcaster User Guide.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Logging into Cisco OMD Director

The following sections describe how to access the OMD Director GUI. To access the OMD Director GUI, you must be using one of the following supported browsers:

  • Firefox version 59 or later

  • Chrome version 66 or later

OMD Director HA

OMD Director supports an Active/Standby High Availability (HA) configuration and supports inter-site redundancy. OMD Director HA provides the following:

  • Prevents the loss of any configuration data due to a hardware, software, or network failure

  • Minimizes the loss of monitoring data such as time series metrics, alarms, and notifications due to a hardware, software, or network failure

  • Makes sure alarm emails continue to be sent

  • Continues to support streaming capabilities

In an OMD Director HA configuration, your OMD Director instance can be running in either primary or backup mode. If either the OMD Director primary or backup instance loses connection or fails, the remaining OMD Director instances will transition into a detached state.

The following describes the actions you can perform depending on the mode of the OMD Director instance that you are logged into:

  • Primary: You can only make configuration changes from the primary OMD Director instance. The primary instance is the authoritative instance for all data. Changes to all configurations made from the primary OMD Director instance are replicated to the backup instance.

  • Backup: While logged into the OMD Director instance that is running in backup mode, you can only view the configuration, you cannot make any changes to the configuration. Any buttons or links that would allow configuration changes will be disabled on the backup OMD Director instance. If you are logged into the backup OMD Director instance, the title bar will show “This OMD Director is currently running in backup mode”.

  • Detached: While an OMD Director instance is running in a detached state, you can view the configuration and you can acknowledge, clear, and comment on alarms. The buttons or links for any actions that are not allowed will be disabled. If you are logged into an OMD Director instance that is running in the detached state, the title bar will show “This OMD Director is currently running in detached mode”.

If the primary OMD Director instance fails, you must manually configure the backup OMD Director instance as the new primary OMD Director instance. For information on this procedure, see the Cisco Media Streamer and Cisco Media Broadcaster Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information on this procedure.

Log in to OMD Director

Perform the following steps to log in to OMD Director:


Note

If you are running OMD Director in an HA configuration, make sure you are logging into the OMD Director Primary instance if you want to make changes to the CDN configuration.

Procedure

Step 1

From a web browser, use HTTPS and enter the hostname or IP address of the OMD Director and port number 8099. For example:

https://<omd_director_worker_hostname_or_ip_address>:8099

The OMD Director login page is displayed.
Step 2

Log in with your username and passphrase. If this is the first time you are logging in, enter the username and passphrase that was emailed to you by the system. You will be prompted to change your passphrase as part of your first login.

Step 3

After you log in, the OMD Director home page appears. The home page is the CDN Edge KPI metrics page. If you are logged into either an OMD Director node running in standalone mode or the primary OMD Director node in an HA installation, the title bar of the window should be solid and there will be no message showing the state, as shown below.

Note 

If you are missing the Media Streamer user interface options that you expect, your OMD Director is configured in Media Broadcaster only mode, which shows Media Broadcaster, Monitor, Administration, and Support menus. For details on configuring your OMD Director user interface to show the Media Streamer menus, see the Cisco Media Streamer and Cisco Media Broadcaster Installation and Upgrade Guide.

If you are logged into the Backup OMD Director instance, the title bar of the window will show “This OMD Director is currently running in backup mode”, as shown below.

If you are logged into an OMD Director instance that is running in the detached state, the title bar of the window will show “This OMD Director is currently running in detached mode”.

Note 

Each user can only have one active login at a time. If a user logs in with the same username from another system or browser, they will be prompted to either force the login, which will log off the current user session, or cancel the log in and log in as another user.

Logging out of OMD Director

To logout of OMD Director, click your username in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Logout.

OMD Director Portal

An OMD Director portal is intended for customers with downstream Resellers or Content Providers who require access to CDN analytics. An OMD Director portal instance is a separate setup from the primary OMD Director installation, with its own user database. It provides a Director GUI that is limited to working with the CDN analytics dashboards provided by Insights. You cannot manage or view the CDN configuration from an OMD Director portal instance. An OMD Director portal is optional and does not replace the primary OMD Director Master Controller and Worker nodes.

You access the OMD Director portal GUI the same way you access the OMD Director primary GUI. However, when you are logged in to the OMD Director portal GUI, you will only be able to access the Insights, Administration, and Support menus, and the Administration menu will only be available to users with the Administrator role.

OMD Director User Interface Elements

The following diagram documents the different elements of the OMD Director user interface:

  • (A) Product Name: Displays the name of the product (OMD Director).

  • (B) User: Displays the user name of the currently logged in user. From this element you can logout and you can change profile settings of the current user, including the passphrase.

  • (C) About: Clicking the about link displays the current versions of the OMD Director components. This can be helpful when reporting issues or troubleshooting problems with OMD Director.

  • (D) Current Page: Displays the path of the current page.

  • (E) Navigation Panel: Provides the menus to navigate to the different functions of OMD Director. The navigation panel contains the following choices:

    • KPI Metrics

    • Monitor

    • Provisioning

    • Insights

    • Administration

    • Support

    • Media Broadcaster


    Note

    You will only see the Media Broadcaster option if you have the Media Broadcaster installed. Also, if you are logged in to an OMD Director portal instance, you will only see the Insights, Administration (for Administrator users only), and Support menus.

  • (F) Expand Menu: Click this icon to expand the navigation panel and display it in a menu structure. To minimize the navigation panel back to icons only, click the right arrow icon that appears.

  • (G) Main Area: The information that is displayed in this area depends on what menu you choose.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: KPI Metrics Overview

From the KPI Metrics menu you can see the key performance indicators (KPIs) for utilization of the CDN Edge caches and Mid caches. This section will provide an overview of the options available from this menu. For more detailed information on each option, see KPI Metrics.

KPI Metrics > CDN Edge

By default, the KPI Metrics > CDN Edge page provides a topology of the CDN Edge cache groups and provides statistical information across all of the Edge cache groups in the CDN. The Edge KPI Metrics window provides information about content that is delivered from Edge Caches to Clients, such as set-top boxes (STB), smartphones, and tablets.

You can also filter this output by Edge Cache Group or Edge Cache. For detailed information on the information provided by the CDN Edge page and how to filter the data, see KPI Metrics.

KPI Metrics > CDN Mid

By default, the KPI Metrics > CDN Mid page provides a topology of the CDN Mid cache groups and displays statistical information across all of the Mid cache groups in the CDN. The CDN Mid window provides KPIs about content cache-fill into Edge Caches, and content ingest from the Origin Servers. It provides data that you can use to understand the volume of core network traffic utilization to fill edge caches.

You can also filter this output by Mid Cache Group or Mid Cache. For detailed information on the information provided by the CDN Mid page and how to filter the data, see KPI Metrics.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Monitor Overview

From the Monitor menu you can see the system-level statistics for the cache servers and the generatated and available CDN alarms. This section will provide an overview of the options available from this menu. For more detailed information on each option, see CDN Monitoring.

Monitor > Server Metrics

Monitor > Server Metrics launches a page that enables you to see a list of all of the physical and virtual servers used by OMD. From this list you can choose a server that will then display detailed historical server metrics about this server such as CPU utilization, Memory Utilization, Disk I/O, and other lower level server data.

Monitor > Alarms

Monitor > Alarms displays the OMD system alarms that have been raised in the CDN environment, based on thresholds that are set. From the Monitor > Alarms page you can view alarms, configure thresholds for the alarms, and mute alarms.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Provisioning Overview

From the Provisioning menu, you can run the CDN wizard to provision the CDN, and view and manage the elements of the CDN. The Provisioning menu provides the following options:

  • CDN Wizard: The CDN Wizard is used for the initial provisioning of the delivery services, Cache servers, Traffic Router, and Traffic Monitor of the CDN. For detailed information see Using the CDN Wizard.

  • CDN Overview: After you have completed the CDN Wizard, CDN Overview provides a single page that displays the entire CDN, including the delivery services, cache groups, and individual servers in the CDN. For detailed information see Validating the CDN Configuration.

  • Edit CDN: From this menu you can do the following:

    • Add and configure existing servers, cache groups, and delivery services.

    • Edit the Proximity Routing settings and Anonymous Blocking settings for the Traffic Router profiles. For more information on Proximity Routing, see Proximity Routing. For more information on Anonymous Blocking, see Anonymous Blocking.

    • Manage the CZF, NGB whitelist, and ISP Database files assigned to the Traffic Router profiles. For more information on the CZF, see Coverage Zone File. For more information on the NGB whitelist, see NGB Whitelist. For more information on the ISP Database file, see ASN Blocking.

    • Edit the Multi Site Origin (MSO) settings for the Delivery Service and Origin Server profiles. For more information on this feature, see Multi Site Origin.

    • Edit the URL Signing settings for the Delivery Service profile. For more information on this feature, see URL Signing.

    • Enable and configure the Edge Geo Blocking feature. For more information on this feature, see Edge Geo Blocking.

    • Create and manage content invalidation tasks. For more information on content invalidation policies, see Manage Content Invalidation Policies.

    • Specify Regex parameters and settings to modify the behavior of what regular expressions will match. For more information on how to configure these parameters and settings, see Regex Remap Settings.

      Specify parameters and settings that you can use to modify the behavior of what regular expressions will match.

  • General Settings: From this window you can do the following:

    • Upload an Anonymous IP database. You can use an Anonymous IP database to block client requests from Anonymous VPNs, hosting providers, public proxies, and Tor Exit nodes. For more information on using the Anonymous IP database, see Anonymous Blocking.


      Note

      A license is required to the MaxMind Anonymous IP database. For more information on obtaining this license, please contact your Cisco Account team.

    • Perform basic management of profiles, including creating new profiles, changing the description of a profile, and assigning the profile to a different Media Streamer CDN.

    • View Coverage Zone File (CZF) assignments and upload new CZF files. For more information on CZF, see Manage Client Routing.

    • Manage Device Groups. For more information on managing Device Groups, see Device Groups.

    • Upload an ISP database. You can use an ISP database to block client requests based on the AS number to which the client IP address belongs. For more information on using the ISP database, see ASN Blocking.

    • Open a new window to the Traffic Ops user interface. Traffic Ops is an open source Traffic Server management application.


      Caution

      Do not make changes to servers, cache groups, or Delivery Services using Traffic Ops.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Insights Overview

Choosing Insights from the navigation panel will launch the Media Streamer CDN Analytics powered by Splunk for big data analysis.

This page provides deep CDN insights based on mining transaction log data from the HTTP cache of each Traffic Server. The analytics information includes traffic volume, geo-distribution, content popularity, and content protocol distribution.


Note

For more detailed information on the OMD Director Insights page, see OMD Insights.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Administration

The Administration menu enables you to see and manage the users who have access to OMD Director, including their privileges in the system. From the Administration menu you can also manage the backups of the OMD databases, including adding remote backup destination. The Administration menu also enables you to display an activity log that shows both user authentication and authorization activity, and CDN configuration activity.


Note

For more information on managing the OMD Director users, see OMD Administration.

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Support

The Support menu provides the following information:

  • OMD Well Known Ports: Provides information for the security personnel of an organization about the ports and protocols that need to be open between devices in the environment and other systems.

  • Contact: Provides contact information for Cisco support.

  • System Status: Displays information about the connection to the Salt Master server and the Traffic Ops server, and a historical count of the different HTTP response codes that have been received by the servers since the CDN Manager microservice was started.

    When you choose Support > System Status, the Components Health tab is displayed. This tab displays the following information for both the Salt Master and Traffic Ops servers:

    • State: The State will be either Healthy or Unhealthy. This state is based on an overall summary of the connection to the server based on a combination of the authentication status, last response code, and recent response history.

    • Authenticated: This field is True if the username and passphrase that was configured can connect to server. Otherwise this field will display False.

    • Address: Displays the Hostname or IP address, and port number that was configured for the server.

    • Last Failure: Displays the HTTP Status Response code and timestamp of the last error on the server.

    • Show Advanced: When you click Show Advanced, the contents of the JSON file is displayed. This JSON file is used to determine the values of the information that is displayed for the servers on the Components Health tab.

    • Response Code Table and Pie Chart: Display a historical count of the different HTTP response codes that the server has received since the CDN Manager microservice was started.

To see information about the connection to the Traffics Ops server, click the Traffic Ops Health tab. This tab displays the following information:

  • General Status: This shows whether the server is Up or Down.

  • State: The State will be either Healthy or Unhealthy. This state is based on an overall summary of the connection to the Traffic Ops server based on a combination of the authentication status, last response code, and recent response history.

  • Authenticated: This field is True if the username and passphrase that was configured can connect to the Traffic Ops server. Otherwise this field will display False.

  • Address: Displays the Hostname or IP address, and port number that was configured for the Traffic Ops server.

  • External URL: Displays the address that cache servers can use to connect to the Traffic Ops server. This address is often the public IP address of a NAT configuration or an Openstack Floating IP address.

  • Last Failure: Displays the HTTP Status Response code and timestamp of the last error on the Traffic Ops server.

  • Show Advanced: When you click Show Advanced, the contents of the JSON file is displayed. This JSON file is used to determine the values of the information that is displayed on the Traffic Ops Health tab.

  • Response Code Table and Pie Chart: Display a historical count of the different HTTP response codes that the Traffic Ops server has received since the CDN Manager microservice was started.

To refresh the information on the Components Health tab, click the Refresh button in the upper-right corner of the page.

If you are running OMD Director in an HA configuration, the Components Health window will also show the overall health of the Primary and Backup OMD Director instances.

To check the status of the individual services that run on either the Primary or the Backup, click the Show Details link. The following is an example:

OMD Director Navigation Panel: Broadcasting Groups


Note

You will only see the Broadcasting Groups option if you have Cisco Media Broadcaster installed.

The Cisco Media Broadcaster solution transforms unicast video into multicast data that is distributed across network routers to achieve broadcast-efficient video distribution, which provides service providers a cost-effective scalable solution for streaming HTTP Live adaptive bit rate (ABR) video to in-home primary screens. Cisco Media Broadcaster integrates with an existing ABR delivery system without the need to modify the ABR clients or the video headend components, such as the encoder, packager, and content delivery network (CDN).

For more information on using OMD Director to configure broadcasting groups for Cisco Media Broadcaster, see the Cisco Media Broadcaster User Guide.