Deploying the Cisco Application Services Engine in VMware vCenter (OVA) (Fabric External Mode)

Prerequisites

Complete the following one time pre-requisites before you start:

  • Ensure that the NTP server is configured and reachable from the Orchestrator VMs and the VMware Tools periodic time synchronization is disabled.

  • Ensure that you have the required system requirements for each VM service node:

    • vCPU: 16

    • RAM : 48GB

    • Disk space: 600 GB

    • ESX version 5.5 and above

Deploying the Cisco Application Services Engine in VMware vCenter (OVA)

This section describes how to deploy the Cisco Application Services Engine using an OVA in the VMware vCenter.

Procedure

Step 1

Download the Cisco Application Services Engine image.

  1. Navigate to the Software Download page.

  2. Choose the Cisco Application Services Engine OVA image (apic-sn-dk9-1.1.2h.ova).
Step 2

Deploy OVA using the VMware vCenter GUI or the VMware vSphere Client.

  1. Right-click and select Deploy OVF Template.

  2. The Deploy OVF Template wizard appears.

Step 3

On the Select an OVF Template page, specify the location of the source OVF or OVA template and click Next

  1. Choose the local file tab.

  2. Click choose file and select the OVA file already downloaded in Step 1. If you do not select the required files, a warning message displays.

Step 4

For Cisco Application Services Engine, we must deploy three nodes to form a cluster. On the Select a name and folder page, enter a unique name for the first node. Select a deployment location, and click Next.

Step 5

On the Select a compute resource page, select a resource where to run the deployed VM template, and click Next.

Step 6

On the Review details page, verify the OVF or OVA template details and click Next.

Step 7

On the Select storage page, define where and how to store the files for the deployed OVF or OVA template.

  1. Select the disk format for the virtual machine virtual disks. Choose Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed.

  2. Select the local datastore which has enough capacity to deploy the OVA.

    The configuration file and virtual disk files are stored on the datastore. Select a datastore large enough to accommodate the virtual machine and all associated virtual disk files.

    Note 

    Unique datastore should be assigned to each node.
Step 8

On the Select networks page, select a source network and map it to a destination network and click Next.

Choose Source Network and Destination Network. All the network communications occur through this portal.

Step 9

In the Customize Template page configure the OVA properties.

In the Node Configuration dialog box, enter the appropriate information for each node:

  1. In the Node ID field, enter the node number. 

    Node ID   1

  2. In the Node Serial Number field, enter the serial number which is unique across the cluster. 

    CiscoSN01

  3. In the Hostname field, enter the hostnames for each node. Use any valid Linux hostname. 

    CiscoSN01

  4. In the Rescue User Password field, select a password. Re-enter the password to confirm.

  5. In the Domain Name field, enter the domain name of the node. 

    sn.cisco.com
    Note 

    User must configure the same domain name for all the nodes in the cluster.

In the Network Configuration dialog box, enter the appropriate information for each node:

  1. In the Management Address and Subnet (network address) field, enter the Out-of-Band Management network address and enter the IP address and subnet. 

    10.197.145.244/24
    Note 

    This field is not validated prior to installation. Providing an invalid value for this field will cause the deployment to fail.

  2. In the Gateway IP (network gateway) field, enter the Out-of-Band Management network gateway IP address. 

    10.197.145.1

  3. In the Application overlay Network IP Subnet field, enter the IP/subnet to be used for Docker internal bridge networks. 

    2.2.0.0/16

    Application overlay and the service network must be a /16 network. Both the networks must not overlap with management or external networks.

    Note 

    This field is not validated prior to installation. Providing an invalid value for this field will cause the deployment to fail.

  4. In the Service Network IP subnet field, enter the IP/subnet. 

    1.1.0.0/16

  5. In the NTP-servers field, enter the Network Time Protocol servers separated by space. 

    10.197.145.2

  6. In the Name Server IP list, enter the IP address of the name server 

    10.197.145.3

  7. In the Domain Search List field, enter the list of domains to search separated by space. 

    cisco.com

In the Cluster Configuration dialog box, enter the appropriate information for each node:

  1. In the First Master field, check the First Master check-box if it is the first node to be configured. 

    Is this node the first master node? Y

  2. In the Number of cluster masters for Cisco Application Services Engine, enter 3. 

    Number of masters in the cluster 3

  3. In the List of IP serial numbers field, enter the list of IP address of peer nodes in the cluster separated by a comma. 

    10.197.145.245,CiscoSN02 10.197.145.246,CiscoSN03

  4. In the Enter the latest dgbtoken from the master node in the cluster field, enter any string of at least length 11 characters for the master node. For the peer nodes, enter the latest dgb token from the master node. 

    aaabbbcccdd

  5. Click Next.

  6. Reboot the VM, log-in as a rescue userlog in to the first node, execute the acidiag dbgtoken command to obtain the dgbtoken.

Step 10

The second node in the cluster needs to be configured in a similar manner.

In the Cluster Configuration dialog box, enter the appropriate information for each node:

  • In the First Master field, check the check-box only if it is the first node to be configured. 

    Is this node the first master node? N

  • The Number of cluster masters for Cisco Application Services Engine is always 3. 

    Number of masters in the cluster 3

  • In the List of IP serial numbers field, enter the list of IP serial numer of peer nodes in the cluster separated by a comma. 

    10.197.145.245,CiscoSN01 10.197.145.246,CiscoSN03

  • For the Enter the latest dgbtoken from the master node in the cluster,enter the value for node 2 as acquired in step 9(f). 

    0HSQETJXWDHC

  • Click Next.

Step 11

The third node in the cluster needs to be configured in a similar manner.

In the Cluster Configuration dialog box, enter the appropriate information for each node.

  • In the First Master field, check the box only if it is the first node to be configured. 

    Is this node the first master node? N

  • The Number of cluster masters for Cisco Application Services Engine is always 3. 

    Number of masters in the cluster 3

  • In the List of IP, serial numbers field, enter the list of IP and serial number of peer nodes in the cluster separated by a comma. 

    10.197.145.244,CiscoSN01 10.197.145.245,CiscoSN02

  • For the Enter the latest dgbtoken from the master node in the cluster, enter the value for node 3 as acquired in step 9(f). 

    0HSQETJXWDHC

  • Click Next.

Step 12

On the Ready to complete page, review the settings and click Finish.

Step 13

Re-boot all the VMs to form the cluster.
Step 14

After all three nodes are bootstrapped, wait for 15-30 mins, log in to SSH and execute the following command:

Server # acidiag health
cluster is healthy

Verify that a “healthy” status is displayed to indicate that the installation was performed successfully.
Step 15

Cisco Application Services Engine is available to deploy the apps that can be hosted on the Cisco Application Services Engine.

Note 

Cisco Application Services Engine, Release 1.1.2 supports the deployment of only the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator application (starting with Release 2.2(3)). Refer to the ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator Installation and Upgrade Guide for more information