Cisco Network Insights Base Application for Cisco APIC User Guide, Release 2.0.x
Bias-Free Language
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The Cisco Network Insights Base (Cisco NI Base) application provides TAC Assist functionalities which are useful when working with Cisco
TAC. It provides a way for Cisco Customers to collect tech support across multiple devices and
upload those tech supports to Cisco Cloud. These tech support are accessible to our TAC teams
when helping customers through a resolution of a Service Request. Additionally, it enables
capability for our TAC teams to collect tech support on demand for a particular device.
The Cisco NI Base app consists of the following components:
Devices
TAC Assist
Log Collection
Technical Support to Cloud
Enhanced TAC Assist
The Cisco NI Base app collects the CPU, device name, device pid, serial number, version, memory, device type,
and disk usage information for the nodes in the fabric.
Cisco NI Base Initial Setup
This section contains the steps required to set up the Cisco NI Base app in the Cisco APIC. This set up is required for the Cisco NI Base app to show important information and gather relevant data.
Procedure
Step 1
Once Cisco NI Base app is installed and after your first log in, a welcome dialog appears. Click
Begin Setup.
A Setup dialog appears.
Step 2
In Data Collection Setup, click
Configure.
The Data Collection Setup dialog appears. In the
Fabrics list are pods that were discovered during the Cisco NI Base application installation.
Step 3
Check only the pods you want visible to the Cisco NI Base application.
Step 4
Click Ok.
The Setup dialog appears with the selected fabrics appearing in
Data Collection Setup. You can edit the selected fabric(s) by
clicking Edit configuration. You can return to the setup utility
anytime by clicking the settings icon
and choose Rerun Setup.
Cisco NI Base Settings
Settings
Displayed across the top of the work pane is a group of icons and a list menu comprising
the Cisco NI Base app settings. The following table describes each:
Property
Description
Fabric
Choose a fabric containing the pods you want visible to the Cisco NI Base application.
Device Connector Status: Identifies the current connection
status of the Cisco NI Base application to the Cisco Intersight cloud and the device connector claim
condition. Possible connection statuses are:
Not Connected: The Cisco NI Base application is not connected to the Cisco Intersight cloud.
Connected / Not Claimed: The Cisco NI Base application is connected to the Cisco Intersight cloud but the device
connector has not been claimed by the customer.
Connected / Claimed: The Cisco NI Base application is connected to the Cisco Intersight cloud and the device
connector has been claimed by the customer.
Clicking on this icon invokes a list menu allowing you to make changes to the
following:
About Network Insights—Displays an information dialog
identifying the version number of the Cisco NI Base application. Click Update to Latest to fetch the
latest published version. This requires that the using of the Cisco Intersight
Device Connecter is connected and claimed. See Configuring the Intersight Device Connector for details.
Rerun Setup—Allows you to edit the Data Collection
Setup by adding or removing fabrics.
Displays the online help for Cisco Network Insights Base application on Cisco APIC.
Setting Up the Device Connector
This secion describes setting up the device connector for Cisco NI Base on Cisco APIC.
About Device Connector
Devices are connected to the Intersight portal through a Device Connector that is embedded in
the management controller of each system. Device Connector provides a secure way for the
connected devices to send information and receive control instructions from the Cisco
Intersight portal, using a secure Internet connection.
When an Intersight-enabled device or application starts, the Device Connector starts at boot
by default, and attempts to connect to the cloud service. If the Auto
Update option is enabled, the Device Connector is automatically updated to the
latest version through a refresh by the Intersight service when you connect to Intersight. For
more information on the Auto Update option, see Configuring the Intersight Device Connector.
Configuring the Intersight Device Connector
Procedure
Step 1
In the Cisco APIC GUI, click System > System Settings >
Intersight.
The Device Connector work pane appears:
If you see green dotted lines connecting Internet to
Intersight in the Device Connector
graphic, and the text Claimed underneath the graphic, then
your Intersight Device Connector is already configured and connected to the
Intersight service, and the device is claimed.
If you see yellow dotted lines and a caution icon connecting
Internet to Intersight in the
Device Connector graphic, and the text Not
Claimed underneath the graphic, then your Intersight Device Connector
is not yet configured and connected to the Intersight service, and the device is not
yet claimed. Follow these procedures to configure the Intersight Device Connector
and connect to the Intersight service, and claim the device.
Note
If you see red dotted lines connecting Internet to
Intersight in the Device Connector
graphic, that means that you configured the proxy incorrectly in Step 6.
Step 2
Determine if you would like to update the software at this time, if there is a new
Device Connector software version available.
If there is a new Device Connector software version available and you do not have the
Auto Update option enabled, you will see a message towards the
top of the screen, telling you that Device Connector has important updates
available.
If you do not want to update the software at this time, go to Step 3 to begin
configuring the Intersight Device Connector.
If you would like to update the software at this time, click one of the two links
in the yellow bar towards the top of the page, depending on how you would like to
update the software:
Update Now: Click this link to update the Device Connector software
immediately.
Enable Auto Update: Click this link to go to the
General page, where you can toggle the Auto
Update field to ON, which allows the system to automatically
update the Device Connector software. See Step 4c for more information.
Step 3
Locate the Settings link to the right of the Device
Connector heading and click the Settings link.
The Settings page appears, with the
General tab selected by default.
Step 4
In the General page, configure the following settings.
In the Device Connector field, determine if you want to
allow communication between the device and Cisco Intersight.
The Device Connector option (enabled by default) enables you
to claim the device and leverage the capabilities of Intersight. If it is turned
OFF, no communication will be allowed to Intersight.
In the Access Mode field, determine if you want to allow
Intersight the capability to make changes to this device.
Access Mode enables you to allow full read/write operations
from the cloud or restrict changes made to this device from Intersight.
The Allow Control option (selected by default) enables
you to perform full read/write operations from the cloud, based on the features
available in Cisco Intersight. This function is not used for changes from Cisco
Cloud to the customer network.
The Read-only option ensures that no changes are made to
this device from Intersight. For example, actions such as upgrading firmware or
a profile deployment will not be allowed in the Read-Only mode. However, the
actions depend on the features available for a particular system.
In the Auto Update field, determine if you want to allow the
system to automatically update the software.
Toggle ON to allow the system to automatically update the software.
Toggle OFF so that you manually update the software when necessary. You will be
asked to manually update the software when new releases become available in this
case.
Note
If the Auto Update option is turned OFF, that may
periodically cause the Device Connector to be out-of-date, which could affect the
ability of the Device Connector to connect to Intersight.
Step 5
When you have completed the configurations in the General page,
click Save.
The Intersight - Device Connector overview pages appears again. At
this point, you can make or verify several configure settings for the Intersight Device
Connnector:
If you want to configure the proxy that the Device Connector will use to
communicate with the Intersight cloud, go to Step 6.
If you want to manage certificates with the Device Connector, go to Step 9.
Step 6
If you want to configure the proxy that the Device Connector will use to communicate
with the Intersight cloud, click Settings, then click
Proxy Configuration.
The Proxy Configuration page appears.
Step 7
In the Proxy Configuration page, configure the following
settings.
In this page, you can configure the proxy that the Device Connector will use to
communicate with the Intersight cloud.
Note
The Device Connector does not mandate the format of the login credentials; they are
passed as-is to the configured HTTP proxy server. Whether or not the username must be
qualified with a domain name depends on the configuration of the HTTP proxy
server.
In the Enable Proxy field, toggle the option to ON to
configure the proxy settings.
In the Proxy Hostname/IP field, enter a Proxy Hostname and
IP Address.
In the Proxy Port field, enter a Proxy Port.
In the Authentication field, toggle the
Authentication option to ON to configure the proxy
authentication settings, then enter a Proxy Username and Password for
authentication.
Step 8
When you have completed the configurations in the Proxy
Configuration page, click Save.
The Intersight - Device Connector overview pages appears again.
If you want to make manage certificates with the Device Connector, go to the next
step.
Step 9
If you want to manage certificates with the Device Connector, click
Settings, then click Certificate
Manager.
The Certificate Manager page appears.
Step 10
In the Certificate Manager page, configure the following
settings.
By default, the device connector trusts only the built-in svc.ucs-connect.com
certificate. If the device connector establishes a TLS connection and a server sends a
certificate that does not match the built-in svc.ucs-connect.com certificate, the device
connector terminates TLS connections because it cannot determine if the server is a
trusted device or not.
Click Import to import a CA signed certificate. The imported
certificates must be in the *.pem (base64 encoded) format. After a certificate is
successfully imported, it is listed in the list of Trusted Certificates and if the
certificate is correct, it is shown in the In-Use column.
View these details for a list of certificates that are used to connect to
svc.ucs-connect.com (intersight.com):
Name—Common name of the CA certificate.
In Use—Whether the certificate in the trust store was used to successfully
verify the remote server.
Issued By—The issuing authority for the certificate.
Expires—The expiry date of the certificate.
Delete a certificate from the list of Trusted certificates. However, you cannot delete
bundled certificates (root+intermediate certificates) from the list. The lock icon
represents the Bundled certificates.
Step 11
When you have completed the configurations in the Certificate
Manager page, click Close.
You can claim the device using the instructions provided in Claiming a Device.
In the Cisco Intersight cloud site, under the Devices tab, click
Claim a New Device.
The Claim a New Device page appears.
Step 3
Go back to the Cisco APIC site and navigate back to the Intersight - Device Connector
page.
On the menu bar, choose System > System Settings.
In the Navigation pane, click
Intersight.
Step 4
Copy the Device ID and Claim Code from
the Cisco APIC site and paste them into the proper fields in the Claim a New
Device page in the Intersight cloud site.
Click on the clipboard next to the fields in the Cisco APIC site to copy the field information into the clipboard.
Step 5
In the Claim a New Device page in the Intersight cloud site, click
Claim.
You should see the message "Your device has been successfully claimed" in the
Claim a New Device page. Also, in the main page, you should see
your Cisco APIC system, with Connected shown in the Status column.
Step 6
Go back to the Intersight - Device Connector page in the Cisco APIC GUI and verify that the system was claimed successfully.
You should see green dotted lines connecting Internet to
Intersight in the Device Connector
graphic, and the text Claimed underneath the graphic.
Note
You may have to click Refresh in the Intersight -
Device Connector page to update the information in the page to the
current state.
If you decide to unclaim this device for some reason, locate the
Unclaim link in the Intersight - Device
Connector page and click that link.
Navigating Cisco NI Base
The Cisco NI Base application window is divided into two parts: the Navigation pane and the Work pane.
Navigation Pane
The Cisco NI Base app navigation pane divides the collected data into the following categories:
1 Devices: Sorts devices by device name, serial number, IP address, version, and
platform.
2 TAC Assist: Collects logs for specified devices that can be attached to service
requests using the Cisco Intersight Cloud.
Devices
The Devices page displays the devices by device name, serial number, IP address, version,
and platform.
TAC Assist
The TAC Assist work pane lets you collect logs for specified devices that can be attached
to service requests using the Cisco Intersight Cloud. It lets you check the device(s) for
which you can collect logs to assist TAC.
The Log Collection section displays the new job triggered for TAC
Assist. The Job Details page lists the TAC Assist logs.
All information about TAC Assist job including, status, devices, fabric, start time, job
id, device name, log location, and cloud upload appear in the work pane.
Using the Cisco Network Insights Base Application
Main Dashboard
The Cisco NI Base application main dashboard provides immediate access to a high-level view of Devices and
access to TAC Assist logs in your network.
Property
Description
Devices
Displays devices by device name, serial number, IP address, version, and platform
in your network.
TAC Assist
Displays the total number of TAC assist logs currently being collected or
finished being collected.
Devices
The Devices dashboard displays devices by serial numbers, software versions, and hardware
platforms. You can sort devices by device name, serial number, IP address, software version,
and hardware platform.
TAC Assist
The TAC Assist dashboard allows you to collect logs for devices in your network. These logs
can be attached to Service Requests (SRs) for further analysis.
Click Begin to initiate the log collection process.
To display specific devices in the list, use the filter utility:
Operators - display devices using an operator. Valid operators are:
= = - display devices with an exact match. This operator must be followed by
text and/or symbols that are the exact software version, product ID, device
name, or assigned IP address of the device.
contains - display device names or platform identifiers containing entered text
or symbols. This operator must be followed by text and/or symbols.
Version - display devices that are running a specific software version.
Platform - display devices that are a specific type defined by the platform ID.
Device Name - display devices that are specifically named.
Serial Number - display devices that are running a specific serial number.
IP Address - display devices that are assigned a specific IP address.
Place a check in the checkbox next to the device for which you want to collect logs. If
you want to choose all of the devices in the list, place a check in the checkbox next to
the Device Name column title.
Click Collect Logs.
The Collect Logs dialog appears on the TAC Assist dashboard.
Once the logs are collected, Cisco NI Base app lets you view the collected log details. The TAC Assist detailed page displays
the location where the logs are collected and lets you upload to the Cisco Intersight
Cloud.
The following table describes the status messages for TAC Assist.
Property
Description
Pending
Displays when connecting to Intersight Device Connector is pending.
Collection in Progress
Displays when collecting the logs locally to Intersight Device Connector is in
progress.
Collection Complete
Displays when collecting the logs locally to Intersight Device Connector is
complete.
Retry Upload
Displays when there is a failure to collect logs.
Upload Pending
Displays when uploading the logs from Intersight Device Connector to Cisco
Intersight Cloud is pending.
Upload in Progress
Displays when uploading the logs from Intersight Device Connector to Cisco
Intersight Cloud is in progress.
Complete
Displays when upload to Cisco Intersight Cloud is complete.
TAC Assist
This section contains the steps required for you to trigger a TAC Assist job to collect
logs for specified devices and upload the logs to cloud. The collected logs for specified
devices then can be attached to the service requests (SRs).
Click TAC Assist from the Cisco APIC navigation pane.
Step 2
Click Begin to choose the fabric device(s).
Step 3
From the Collect Logs page check the device(s) for which to
collect logs to assist TAC.
The Log Collection section displays the new job triggered for
TAC Assist.
Step 4
Click View Details from the list of logs to display the
Job Details page.
All information about TAC Assist job including, status, devices, fabric, start time,
job id, device name, log location, and cloud upload appear in the work pane.
Step 5
Click Upload to upload the collected logs to Cisco Intersight
cloud.
The Cloud status shows Complete when the
upload of collected logs to Cisco Intersight cloud is complete.
Enhanced TAC Assist
The Enhanced TAC Assist feature triggered by TAC enables collection of logs for specified
devices and uploads the logs to Cisco Intersight Cloud. Click View
Details from list of logs to display the job details page.
The View Details page shows a message that the job is triggered by TAC
and hence no subsequent actions can be invoked on this job.
and choose 
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