Logging in and Managing Cisco Nexus Data Broker

This chapter contains the following sections:

Configuring Cisco Nexus Data Broker

Configuring High Availability Clusters

Cisco Nexus Data Broker supports high availability clustering in active/active mode with up to five controllers. To use high availability clustering with Cisco Nexus Data Broker, you must edit the config.ini file for each instance of Cisco Nexus Data Broker.


Note

IPv6 is supported in centralized NDB mode only, it is not supported in Embedded mode.


Note

Cisco NDB supports only 2 node configuration or odd number node configuration. If you configure even number of nodes, the last node is not included in the cluster formation, ensuring odd number of nodes in a setup.

Table 1. Cluster Operation Status

Cluster Indicator

Cluster Status

Recommendation

Green

Operational

Yellow

Some of the cluster nodes are not available

Do not make any changes or add to the existing NDB configuration.

Red

The node is isolated from the cluster.

Do not make any changes or add to the existing NDB configuration.

Note: For two node cluster, you need to override in any one of the cluster node only, to ensure regular operation.

Before you begin

  • All IP addresses must be reachable and capable of communicating with each other.

  • All switches in the cluster must connect to all of the controllers.

  • All controllers must have the same HA clustering configuration information in the config.ini files.

  • All controllers must have the same information in the xnc/configuration/startup directory.

  • If using cluster passwords, all controllers must have the same password configured in the xncjgroups.xml file. See Password Protecting the High Availability Clusters.

Procedure

Step 1

Open a command window on one of the instances in the cluster.

Step 2

Navigate to the xnc/configuration directory that was created when you installed the software.

Step 3

Use any text editor to open the config.ini file.

Step 4

Locate the following text: 

# HA Clustering configuration (semi-colon-separated IP addresses of all controllers that are part of the cluster.)
# supernodes=<ip1>;<ip2>;<ip3>;<ipn>

Step 5

Example:

IPv4 example. 

# HA Clustering configuration (semi-colon-separated IP addresses of all controllers that are part of the cluster.)
supernodes=10.1.1.1;10.2.1.1;10.3.1.1;10.4.1.1;10.5.1.1

Example:

IPv6 example. 

# HA Clustering configuration (semi-colon-separated IP addresses of all controllers that are part of the cluster.)
supernodes=2001:22:11::1;2001:33::44::1;2001:55:66::1

Step 6

Save the file and exit the editor.

What to do next

(Optional) Use this procedure to configure the delay time for a node and the number of retries.

  1. Ensure that Cisco Nexus Data Broker is not running on any of the instances in the cluster.

  2. Open a command window on one of the instances in the cluster.

  3. Navigate to the xnc/configuration directory that was created when you installed the software.

  4. Use any text editor to open the xncjgroups.xmlfile.

  5. Locate the following text: 

    FD timeout="3000" max_tries="3"/

  6. Modify the Latency Time value and maximum_tries value.

  7. Save the file and exit the editor.

  8. Repeat the above steps for all the instances of the cluster and restart NDB.

Password Protecting the High Availability Clusters

Procedure

Step 1

Open a command window on one of the instances in the cluster.

Step 2

Navigate to the xnc/configuration directory.

Step 3

Use any text editor to open the xncjgroups.xml file.

Step 4

Locate the following text: 

<!-- <AUTH auth_class="org.jgroups.auth.MD5Token" auth_value="ciscoXNC" token_hash="MD5"></AUTH> -->

Step 5

Remove the comments from the AUTH line.

Example:

<AUTH auth_class="org.jgroups.auth.MD5Token" auth_value="ciscoXNC" token_hash="MD5"></AUTH>

Step 6

(Optional) Change the password in the auth_value attribute.

By default, the cluster is protected with the password "ciscoXNC". You can change this password to whatever value you want, you need make the similar changes on all machines in the cluster.

Step 7

Save the file and exit the editor.

Editing Cisco Nexus Switch Configuration

Cisco Nexus Data Broker periodically verifies the Cisco Nexus Switch inventory and the topology so that the topology and inventory is in sync. Cisco Nexus data broker periodically rediscovers the switch inventory and the topology interconnection and status. This information is updated in the GUI depending on the status. You can configure the rediscovery interval and the default value is 60 seconds.

Procedure

Step 1

Navigate to the xnc/configuration directory that was created when you installed the software.

Step 2

Use any text editor to open the config.ini file.

Step 3

Update the following parameters:

Name

Predefined Value in Seconds

Minimum Value in Seconds

Recommended Value in Seconds

of.messageResponseTimer

60

2

60

of.switchLivenessTimeout

120.5

60.5

120.5

of.flowStatsPollInterval

240

10

240

of.portStatsPollInterval

240

5

240

of.descStatsPollInterval

240

60

240

of.barrierMessagePriorCount

50

100

50

of.discoveryInterval

300

30

300

of.discoveryTimeoutMultiple

2

2

2

NX-API related system parameters

nx.connectionDelayTimer

300

—

300

nx.flowStatsPollInterval

120

—

120

nx.tableStatsPollInterval

120

—

120

nx.portStatsPollInterval

120

—

120

nx.descStatsPollInterval

120

—

120

nx.lldpPollingTimer

10

—

10

nx.portPollingTimer

20

—

20

Note

 

Predefined values are the values that Cisco includes in the config.ini file that is shipped with Cisco Nexus Data Broker. An em dash ("—") in this column of the table means that unless you explicitly update the value, the minimum value will be used.

Step 4

Save the file and exit the editor.

Step 5

Restart Cisco Nexus Data Broker.

Configuring Inactivity Timeout

By default, a user is logged out if the session is inactive for more than 10 minutes. You need to re-log in to the NDB to apply the new interval.

Procedure

Step 1

Log into NDB UI.

Step 2

Navigate to Administration > System > Session Timeout.

Step 3

Enter inactivity timeout value in the Session Timeout text field and click Submit.

Step 4

Log out and log into NDB to apply the changes.

Configuring User Roles for Edge Ports

    To enable RBAC for the App-User role, follow these steps:

    Procedure

    Step 1

    Open the config.ini file for editing.

    Step 2

    Locate the line # Enforce restriction on edge/tap ports user can capture (default false).

    Step 3

    Remove the comment character from the following line:

    monitor.strictAuthorization=true

    Step 4

    Save your work and close the file.

    Logging in to the Cisco Nexus Data Broker GUI

    You can log into the Cisco Nexus Data Broker using HTTPS. The default HTTPS web link for the Cisco Nexus Data Broker GUI is https://Nexus_Data_Broker_IP:8443/monitor.


    Note

    You must manually specify the https:// protocol in your web browser. The controller must also be configured for HTTPS.

    Procedure

    Step 1

    In your web browser, enter the Cisco Nexus Data Broker web link.

    Step 2

    On the launch page, do the following:

    1. Enter your username and password.

      The default username and password is admin/admin.

    2. Click Log In.

    Changing the Controller Access to HTTP

    Starting with Cisco Nexus Data Broker Release 2.1, an unencrypted (HTTP) access to the GUI and the API to the controller access is disabled by default. You cannot access the controller with the URL http://<host>:8080.

    If you want to change the controller access to HTTP, complete the following steps:

    Procedure

    Step 1

    Remove the comment character from the connector for port 8080 in the tomcat-server.xml file in the configuration directory as displayed in the following example:

    Example:

     <Service name="Catalina">
  <!--
    <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
               redirectPort="8443" server="Cisco XNC" enableLookups="false" />
  -->
    <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
               scheme="https" secure="true"
               clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS"
               keystoreFile="configuration/keystore"
               keystorePass="ciscoxnc" server="Cisco XNC"
               connectionTimeout="60000" enableLookups="false" />

    Example:

    Remove the comment character as displayed in the following example: 
    <Service name="Catalina">
    <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
               redirectPort="8443" server="Cisco XNC" enableLookups="false" />
 
    <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
               scheme="https" secure="true"
               clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS"
               keystoreFile="configuration/keystore"
               keystorePass="ciscoxnc" server="Cisco XNC"
               connectionTimeout="60000" enableLookups="false" />

    Step 2

    Restart the controller.

    Cisco Nexus Data Broker GUI Overview

    The Cisco Nexus Data Broker Release GUI contains the following tabs:

    • Cisco Nexus Data Broker, Release Version

    • Configuration tab at the top of the screen

    • Administration tab at the top of the screen

    • Default tab displaying the switches in use

    • Save button—Enables you to save any additions or changes you make in Cisco Nexus Data Broker.

    • The Online help button—Provides access to the online help for the current page.

    • Bookmarks

    • Administrator Details

    The Configuration tab contains the following items:

    • Topology

    • Port Definitions

    • Port Groups

    • Monitoring Devices

    • Service Nodes

    • Filters

    • Connections

    • Redirections

    • Statistics

    • SPAN Sessions

    The Administration tab contains the following items:

    • Device Management

    • Devices

    • Flows

    • Troubleshoot

    • Consistency Check

    • System Management

    • User Management

    • System

    Topology Tools

    The left side of the topology pane contains a zoom slider that allows you increase or decrease the size of the topology diagram. You can also increase or decrease the size of the topology diagram by scrolling up or down, respectively, with your mouse wheel.

    You can move the entire topology diagram, a single topology element, or a node group. To move the diagram, an element, or a node group, click it and drag it.

    To view information about a node or an edge port, hover over the node or edge port icon with your mouse. The information displayed depends on the device you choose.

    To view information about a path, hover over the path in the topology diagram.

    To view information about a filter, hover over the Name of the filter in the Filters tab.

    What's New Utility Tool

    Starting with Cisco NDB Release 3.7, a new utility tools is added to the NDB user interface. This utility appears when you log into NDB and lists all the new features introduced for the release. You can also open this utility using the What's New icon on the NDB GUI.

    Saving Configuration Changes

    In Cisco Nexus Data Broker, Release 3.2.0 the auto-save configuration option is added. You can save the configuration changes, but it is not required. For example, if you configure Edge-SPAN, monitor the device, or configure any other functionality in Cisco Nexus Data Broker, it is saved automatically.

    Procedure

    On the menu bar, click Save.