Step 1

Download the Cisco Nexus Dashboard image.

1. Browse to the Software Download page.

   https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286327743/type

2. Click Nexus Dashboard Software.

3. From the left sidebar, choose the Nexus Dashboard version you want to download.

4. Download the Cisco Nexus Dashboard image for Linux KVM (nd-dk9.<version>.qcow2).

Step 2

Copy the image to the Linux KVM servers where you will host the nodes.

# scp nd-dk9.2.2.1a.qcow2 root@<kvm-host-ip>:/home/nd-base

Step 3

Create the required disk images for the first node.

1. Log in to your KVM host as the root user.

2. Create a directory for the node's snapshot.

   The following steps assume you create the snapshot in the /home/nd-node1 directory.

   # mkdir -p /home/nd-node1/
   # cd /home/nd-node1

3. Create the snapshot.

   In the following command, replace /home/nd-base/nd-dk9.2.2.1a.qcow2 with the location of the base image you created in the previous step.

   # qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b /home/nd-base/nd-dk9.2.2.1a.qcow2 /home/nd-node1/nd-node1-disk1.qcow2

   Note

   If you are deploying in RHEL 8.6, you may need to provide an additional parameter to define the destination snapshot's format as well. In that case, update the above command to the following: # qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b /home/nd-base/nd-dk9.2.1.1a.qcow2 /home/nd-node1/nd-node1-disk1.qcow2 -F qcow2

4. Create the additional disk image for the node.

   Each node requires two disks: a snapshot of the base Nexus Dashboard qcow2 image and a second 500GB disk.

   # qemu-img create -f qcow2 /home/nd-node1/nd-node1-disk2.qcow2 500G

Step 4

Repeat the previous step to create the disk images for the second and third nodes.

Step 5

Create the first node's VM.

1. Open the KVM console and click New Virtual Machine.

   You can open the KVM console from the command line using the virt-manager command.

2. In the New VM screen, choose Import existing disk image option and click Forward.

3. In the Provide existing storage path field, click Browse and select the nd-node1-disk1.qcow2 file.

   We recommend that each node's disk image is stored on its own disk partition.

4. Choose Generic for the OS type and Version, then click Forward.

5. Specify 64GB memory and 16 CPUs, then click Forward.

6. Enter the Name of the virtual machine, for example nd-node1 and check the Customize configuration before install option. Then click Finish.

   Note	You must select the Customize configuration before install checkbox to be able to make the disk and network card customizations required for the node.

   The VM details window will open.

1. Select NIC <mac>.

2. For Device model, choose e1000.

3. For Network Source, choose the bridge device and provide the name of the "mgmt" bridge.

1. Click Add Hardware.

2. In the Add New Virtual Hardware screen, select Network.

3. For Network Source, choose the bridge device and provide the name of the created "data" bridge.

4. Leave the default Mac address value.

5. For Device model, choose e1000.

1. Click Add Hardware.

2. In the Add New Virtual Hardware screen, select Storage.

3. For the disk's bus driver, choose IDE.

4. Select Select or create custom storage, click Manage, and select the nd-node1-disk2.qcow2 file you created.

5. Click Finish to add the second disk.

Step 6

Repeat the previous step to create the VMs for the second and third nodes, then start all VMs.

Step 7

Open one of the node's console and configure the node's basic information.

1. Begin initial setup.

   You will be prompted to run the first-time setup utility:

   [ OK ] Started atomix-boot-setup.
          Starting Initial cloud-init job (pre-networking)...
          Starting logrotate...
          Starting logwatch...
          Starting keyhole...
   [ OK ] Started keyhole.
   [ OK ] Started logrotate.
   [ OK ] Started logwatch.
   
   Press any key to run first-boot setup on this console...

2. Enter and confirm the admin password

   This password will be used for the rescue-user SSH login as well as the initial GUI password.

   Admin Password:
   Reenter Admin Password:

3. Enter the management network information.

   Management Network:
     IP Address/Mask: 192.168.9.172/24
     Gateway: 192.168.9.1

4. For the first node only, designate it as the "Cluster Leader".

   You will log into the cluster leader node to finish configuration and complete cluster creation.

   Is cluster leader?: y

5. Review and confirm the entered information.

   You will be asked if you want to change the entered information. If all the fields are correct, choose n to proceed. If you want to change any of the entered information, enter y to re-start the basic configuration script.

   Please review the config
   Management network:
     Gateway: 192.168.9.1
     IP Address/Mask: 192.168.9.172/24
   Cluster leader: no
   
   Re-enter config? (y/N): n

Step 8

Repeat previous step to configure the initial information for the second and third nodes.

Step 9

Wait for the initial bootstrap process to complete on all nodes.

Please wait for system to boot: [#########################] 100%
System up, please wait for UI to be online.

System UI online, please login to https://192.168.9.172 to continue.

Step 10

Open your browser and navigate to https://<node-mgmt-ip> to open the GUI.

The rest of the configuration workflow takes place from one of the node's GUI. You can choose any one of the nodes you deployed to begin the bootstrap process and you do not need to log in to or configure the other two nodes directly.

Enter the password you provided in a previous step and click Begin Setup

Step 11

Provide the Cluster Details.

1. Provide the Cluster Name for this Nexus Dashboard cluster.

2. Click +Add NTP Host to add one or more NTP servers.

   You must provide an IP address, fully qualified domain name (FQDN) are not supported.

   After you enter the IP address, click the green checkmark icon to save it.

3. Click +Add DNS Provider to add one or more DNS servers.

   After you enter the IP address, click the green checkmark icon to save it.

4. Provide a Proxy Server.

   For clusters that do not have direct connectivity to Cisco cloud, we recommend configuring a proxy server to establish the connectivity, which will allow you to mitigate risk from exposure to non-conformant hardware and software in your fabrics.

   If you want to skip proxy configuration, click the information (i) icon next to the field, then click Skip.

5. (Optional) If your proxy server required authentication, change Authentication required for Proxy to Yes and provide the login credentials.

6. (Optional) Expand the Advanced Settings category and change the settings if required.

   Under advanced settings, you can configure the following:

   • Provide one or more search domains by clicking +Add DNS Search Domain.

     After you enter the IP address, click the green checkmark icon to save it.

   • Provide custom App Network and Service Network.

     The application overlay network defines the address space used by the application's services running in the Nexus Dashboard. The field is pre-populated with the default 172.17.0.1/16 value.

     The services network is an internal network used by the Nexus Dashboard and its processes. The field is pre-populated with the default 100.80.0.0/16 value.

     Application and Services networks are described in the Prerequisites and Guidelines section earlier in this document.

7. Click Next to continue.

Step 12

In the Node Details screen, provide the node's information.

1. Click the Edit button next to the first node.

2. In the Password field, enter the password for this node and click Validate.

   This will auto-populate the Serial Number and Management Network information for the node.

3. Provide the node's Name.

4. Provide the node's Data Network information.

   The Management Network information is already pre-populated with the information you provided for the first node.

   You must provide the data network IP address/netmask (for example, 172.31.140.58/24) and gateway (for example, 172.31.140.1). Optionally, you can also provide the VLAN ID for the network. For most deployments, you can leave the VLAN ID field blank.

5. (Optional) Provide IPv6 addresses for the management and data networks.

   Nexus Dashboard supports either IPv4 or dual stack IPv4/IPv6 for the management and data networks.

   Note

   If you want to provide IPv6 information, you must do that now during cluster bootstrap process. If you deploy the cluster using only IPv4 stack and want to add IPv6 information later, you would need to redeploy the cluster. All nodes in the cluster must be configured with either only IPv4 or dual IPv4/IPv6 stack.

6. (Optional) If required, Enable BGP for the data network.

   BGP configuration is required for the Persistent IPs feature required by some services, such as Nexus Dashboard Insights with NDFC fabrics. This feature is described in detail in the "Persistent IP Addresses" sections of the Nexus Dashboard User's Guide.

   Note	You can enable BGP at this time or in the Nexus Dashboard GUI after the cluster is deployed.

   When you enable BGP, you must also provide the following information:

   • ASN (BGP Autonomous System Number) of this node.

     You can configure the same ASN for all nodes or a different ASN per node.

   • BGP Peer Details, which includes the peer's IPv4 or IPv6 address and peer's ASN.

7. Click Save to save the changes.

Step 13

In the Node Details screen, click Add Node to add the second node to the cluster.

1. In the Deployment Details section, provide the node's Management IP Address and Password for the rescue-user you configured when deploying the node's VM, then click Verify.

   This will auto-populate the Serial Number and Management Network information for the node.

2. Provide the node's Name.

3. Provide the node's Data Network IP address and gateway.

   The Management Network information will be pre-populated with the information pulled from the node based on the management IP address and credentials you provided in the previous sub-step.

   You must provide the data network IP address/netmask (for example, 172.31.141.58/24) and gateway (for example, 172.31.141.1). Optionally, you can also provide the VLAN ID for the network. For most deployments, you can leave the VLAN ID field blank.

4. (Optional) Provide IPv6 information for the management and data networks.

   Nexus Dashboard supports either IPv4 or dual stack IPv4/IPv6 for the management and data networks.

   Note

   If you want to provide IPv6 information, you must do it during cluster bootstrap process. If you deploy the cluster using only IPv4 stack and want to add IPv6 information later, you would need to redeploy the cluster. All nodes in the cluster must be configured with either only IPv4 or dual IPv4/IPv6 stack.

5. (Optional) If required, Enable BGP for the data network.

6. Click Save to save the changes.

Step 14

Repeat the previous step to add the 3rd node.

Step 15

In the Node Details screen, click Next to continue.

After you've provided the information for all 3 nodes in the cluster, continue to the next screen of the bootstrap process.

Step 16

In the Confirmation screen, review and verify the configuration information and click Configure to create the cluster.

Step 17

Verify that the cluster is healthy.

1. Verify that the cluster is up and running.

   You can check the current status of cluster deployment by logging in to any of the nodes and running the acs health command.

   While the cluster is converging, you may see the following outputs:

   $ acs health
   k8s install is in-progress

   $ acs health
   k8s services not in desired state - [...]

   $ acs health
   k8s: Etcd cluster is not ready

   When the cluster is up and running, the following output will be displayed:

   $ acs health
   All components are healthy

2. Log in to the Nexus Dashboard GUI.

   After the cluster becomes available, you can access it by browsing to any one of your nodes' management IP addresses. The default password for the admin user is the same as the rescue-user password you chose for the first node of the Nexus Dashboard cluster.