GUI Overview

Overview

The Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (NDO) GUI is a browser-based graphical interface for configuring and monitoring your Cisco APIC, Cloud APIC, and DCNM deployments.

The GUI is arranged according to function. For example, the Dashboard page contains an overview of your fabrics and their health, the Sites page provides information on each site and allows you to add sites, the Schemas page allows you to create and configure schemas, and so on. The functionality of each NDO GUI page is described in the following sections.

The top of each page shows the controller status indicating how many controllers are operational, the Get Started menu icon, the Settings icon, and the User icon.

The Get Started menu provides easy access to a number of common tasks you may want to perform, such as adding sites or schemas, configuring specific policies, or performing administrative tasks.

The Settings icon allows you to access overview information about your Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator, such as the currently running version, what's new in the current release, API documentation, and system status:

  • The About NDO link displays information about the version of the Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator currently installed.

  • The What's New in This Release link displays a short summary of the new features in your release, as well as links to the rest of the Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator documentation.

  • The API Docs link gives you access to the set of Swagger API object and method references. Using the Swagger API is described in more detail in the Cisco Multi-Site REST API Configuration Guide.

  • The System Status link provides you with the status and health of all running services that are used by the NDO.

The User icon allows you to view information about the currently logged in user, preferences and bookmarks. It also allows you to log out of the Orchestrator GUI.


Note

Starting with Release 3.2(1), user management has moved to the common user and authentication management in the Nexus Dashboard where your NDO service is running.

  • The Preferences link allows you to change a few GUI options.

  • The Bookmarks link opens the list of all the bookmarked schemas you save while using the Orchestrator. You can bookmark a schema by clicking the bookmark icon in the top right corner of the screen while viewing or editing the schema.

When working with fabric objects, a Display Name field is used throughout the Orchestrator's GUI whenever the objects are shown. You can specify a display name when creating the objects, however due to object naming requirements on the site controllers, any invalid characters are removed and the resulting Internal Name is used when pushing the objects to sites. The Internal Name that will be used when creating the tenant is typically displayed below the Display Name text box.

Dashboard

The Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator dashboard displays the list of all sites in addition to their current functionality and health.

The Dashboard has the following functional areas:

  • Site Name: Displays the name, type, and release version for each site.

  • Fault Severity: The fault status columns list the number of faults per site according to their severity:

    • Critical (red)

    • Major (orange)

    • Minor (yellow)

    • Warning (green)

Application Management > Tenants Page

The Multi-Site Tenants page lists all of the tenants that comprise your implementation.

The table on the Tenants page displays the following:

  • Tenant Name

  • Assigned to Sites

  • Assigned to Users

  • Assigned to Schemas

  • Actions

The features and functionality on this page include the following:

  • Name: click a tenant name to access the Tenant Details settings page. On the Tenant Details page you can edit or update the following sections:

    • General Settings: change the Display Name and Description as required.

    • Associated Sites: view the sites associated with the subject tenant.

    • Associated Users: view the users associated with the subject tenant - you can associate a user with the subject tenant by checking the empty box next to the user name.

  • Associated Schemas: click the Associated Schema listing to view the schemas associated with the subject tenant.

  • Actions: click the Actions listing to edit the subject tenant's details sites or to create a new network mapping.


    Note
    You can delete the Tenant object by selecting Delete on the Actions drop down menu.

  • Add Tenant: click Add Tenant button to add an existing tenant to your implementation. On the proceeding Tenant Details page, you can add the tenant name, description, security domain, and associated users.

Audit Logs

Click the Audit Log icon next to the Add Schema tab to list the log details for the Schemas page. The Audit Logs: Tenant List page is displayed.

The table on the page displays the following details:

  • Date

  • Action

  • Details

  • User

Click the Most Recent tab to select the audit logs during a particular time period. For example, when you select the range from November 10, 2019 to February 14, 2020 and click Apply, the audit log details for this time period are displayed on the Audit Logs page.

Click the Filter icon next to the Most Recent tab to filter the log details using the following criteria:

  • User: Select one username or all users and click Apply to filter the log details using the username.

  • Action: Select the action, for example, created, updated, or deleted, and click Apply to filter the log details according to the action.

Application Management > Schemas Page

The Schemas page lists all schemas that are associated with your deployment.

Use the magnifying glass and associated field to search for a specific schema. Use schemas to configure or import tenant policies, such as VRFs and networks.

The Schemas table shows the following information:

  • Name: click the schema name to view or update the settings for the subject schema.

  • Templates: displays the name of the template that is used for the schema. A template is a set of configuration objects and their properties that you deploy all at once to one or more sites

  • Tenants: displays the name of the tenant that is used for the subject schema.

  • Actions: click the Action field with the associated schema to either edit or delete the subject schema.

You can use the Add Schema button to add a new schema, which is described in more details in later sections of this document.

Audit Logs

Click the Audit Log icon next to the Add Schema tab to list the log details for the Schemas page. The Audit Logs: Schemas List page is displayed.

The table on the page displays the following details:

  • Date

  • Action

  • Details

  • User

Click the Most Recent tab to select the audit logs during a particular time period. For example, when you select the range from November 10, 2019 to December 14, 2020 and click Apply, the audit log details for this time period are displayed on the Audit Logs page.

Click the Filter icon next to the Most Recent tab to filter the log details using the following criteria:

  • User: Select one username or all users and click Apply to filter the log details using the username.

  • Action: Select the action, for example, created, updated, or deleted, and click Apply to filter the log details according to the action.

Infrastructure > Sites Page

The NDO Infrastructure > Sites page displays all of the sites in your implementation, for example:

Figure 1. Multi-Site Sites Page

The Sites page includes the following:

  • Site Health indicates the status of the site's overall health according to the following color coded identifiers:

    • Critical (red)

    • Major (orange)

    • Minor (yellow)

    • Warning (green)

  • Site Name shows the display name of the site as you defined it when adding the site.

  • Site Type displays the fabric type, for example ACI or DCNM.

  • The Templates column indicates the number of templates associated with the site.

  • The State column indicates whether or not this particular fabric is managed by NDO.

    You add and manage sites and their properties in the Nexus Dashboard GUI. The NDO Sites page displays all the sites available in the Nexus Dashboard GUI and allows you to define which specific sites you want to be managed by the NDO.

  • The Controller URL column displays the in-band IP address of the site's controller.

  • The actions menu (...) allows you to import the site's tenants (ACI fabrics only) or open the site's controller UI.

If you click a specific site, a right Properties sidebar opens and you can view additional information about the site.