Cisco Prime Virtual Network Analysis Module (vNAM) Installation and Configuration Guide

Downloading Your Prime vNAM Virtual Appliance OVA File

The Prime vNAM software is distributed as an Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) file. The file contains everything in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) folder and is all you need to install Prime NAM in an ESX virtualization environment. The OVA defines the network interface requirements for Prime vNAM.

Prime vNAM on ESXi platform is distributed as an OVA file, named nam-yyy-x.x.x.ova.

Note You deploy the Prime vNAM software file directly from any of the supported hypervisors (for example, the vSphere Client); you do not need to extract the archive before performing the deployment.

Step 1 Access the Cisco Prime vNAM application image at the following location:

https://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html

Step 2 Download the file to your desktop and ensure it is accessible.

Deploying Prime vNAM on VMware ESXi

Cisco Prime vNAM virtual appliance is supported for production use on the VMware operating systems (OS).

Note Virtual management software applications that support the OS (for example, vSphere client installation) are not documented in this guide and are not shipped as part of the Prime vNAM product.

You can install Prime vNAM by deploying the OVA file using the following methods:

While the following procedures provide a general guideline for how to deploy Cisco Prime vNAM, the exact steps that you need to perform may vary depending on the characteristics of your VMware environment and setup. See VMware documentation for details specific to VMware.

Deploying the Prime vNAM on an ESXi Server Using vSphere Client

You can use a vSphere client to install an instance of Prime vNAM.

To set up the Prime vNAM virtual appliance on VMware ESXi using the OVA file:

Step 1 Download a vSphere client and connect it to the VMware ESXi server. You will need to ensure you use the same IP address as that of the management port.

Step 2 Once connected to the VMware ESXi server, choose File > Deploy OVF Template from vSphere menu bar. For details on how to download the OVA file, see Downloading Your Prime vNAM Virtual Appliance OVA File.

Press Ctrl + Alt to exit the console at any time.

Note Do not use Ctrl + Alt + Del. This results in a VMware reboot.

Step 3 To select the OVA file from hard disk, click Browse and choose the OVA file (.ova) available in the local machine where the vSphere is running, in the directory in which you unzipped the file earlier. You can also enter a URL to download and install the OVA package from the internet.

Step 4 In the Deploy OVF Template Source window, click Next.

The OVF Template Details window appears. It displays the product name, the size of the OVA file, and the amount of disk space that needs to be available for the virtual appliance.

Step 5 Verify the OVF template details and click Next

The Name and Location window appears.

Step 6 Enter the name of the new virtual appliance (Prime vNAM). If you are using the vCenter to manage the virtual machine, then you also have the option of selecting the location of the inventory.

For example, nam-vs-x.x-yyy. Select a location from the Datastore defaults that display. You can also customize a location, if desired.

Step 7 Click Next.

The Ready to Complete window appears.

Step 8 Review the setting details of your deployment and click Finish to complete the deployment.

A progress bar keeps pace with your Prime vNAM deployment, which can take from 10 to 30 minutes to finish. When the deployment is finished, the Deployment Completed Successfully dialog box opens.

Step 9 Click Close to dismiss the dialog box.

Step 10 Edit the Prime vNAM template to map the management and data interfaces network interfaces to the desired configuration before powering up the Prime vNAM.

Step 11 Continue with your post-installation tasks using a console to the Cisco Prime vNAM to perform the steps in the Establishing Network Connectivity.

Deploying the Prime vNAM on an ESXi Server Using VMware Command Line

This section describes how to deploy Prime vNAM from the command line.

As an alternative to using the vSphere Client to deploy the Prime vNAM OVA distribution, you can use the VMware OVF Tool, which is a command-line client.

To deploy an OVA with the VMware OVF Tool, use the following command syntax:

where <source locator> is the path to the OVA package and <target locator> is the path target for the virtual machine, OVA package or VI. A VI location refers to any location on a VMware product, such as vSphere, VMware Server or ESXi.

For complete documentation on the VMware OVF Tool, see the VMware vSphere or OVF Tool user documentation.