Overview

Know your Web UI

When you launch the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Web UI for the first time, the Feature Management window opens. After you choose a deployment type, the left pane displays menu relevant to the personality.

The top pane displays the following UI elements:

  • Home icon – Click to view One view on the Nexus Dashboard setup.

  • Nexus Dashboard – Click to view One view on the Nexus Dashboard setup.

  • Help – Click on Help to see a drop-down list with the following options:

    • About Nexus Dashboard – Displays the version of the Cisco Nexus Dashboard on which Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is deployed.

    • Welcome Screen – Displays What's New information. You can choose to see this page every time you launch the Web UI.

    • Help Center – Click to view the Help Center page. You can access various product documents from this page.

      Scroll to the end of the page to view the services installed on Nexus Dashboard. Click on the Service to view Help Center.

  • User Role – Displays the role of the user who is currently logged in, for example, admin. Click on the username to see a drop-down list with the following options:

    • User Preferences – Allows you to view the Welcome screen on every login.

    • Change Password – Allows you to change the password for the current logged-in user.

      If you are a network administrator user, you can modify the passwords of other users.

    • Logout – Allows you to terminate the Web UI and return to the login screen.

  • Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Persona – Specifies the deployment persona – Fabric Controller or SAN Controller or Fabric discovery.

  • View Alarms – Click the bell icon to view the Alarms. You can also view this page from Operations > Event Analytics > Alarms from the left pane.

  • Help icon – Click to view help pages or information about Cisco NDFC.

    • Select Help to view the context-sensitive help for the UI page.

    • Select About NDFC to view the version number and copyright information.

General icons on UI:

  • Hamburger icon – Click on Hamburger icon adjacent to product name on home screen to minimize the menu items on home screen or to view menu items in details.

  • Refresh icon – Click refresh icon to refresh and load screen.

Cohosting of NDFC Managed mode with Nexus Dashboard Insights

From Release 12.1.1e, you can host NDFC Fabric Controller persona and Nexus Dashboard Insights on the same Nexus Dashboard Cluster in Managed mode to manage fabrics and Nexus Dashboard Insights to monitor the same fabrics. Note that NDFC in Fabric discovery mode, that is, monitored mode with NDI on the same Nexus Dashboard cluster is supported with NDFC Release 12.0.2f. Cohosting requires 4 physical Nexus Dashboard nodes for a maximum scale of up to 50 switches. This functionality is also supported on NDFC Release 12.1.1e with the corresponding paired Nexus Dashboard Insights release.


Note

Nexus Dashboard deployed on KVM doesn’t support cohosting NDFC and Insights service on the same Nexus Dashboard cluster.

Note

For cohosting NDFC and Insights on the same Nexus Dashboard cluster, the Nexus Dashboard nodes must be Layer 2 adjacent. Support for Layer 3 adjacency for cohosting deployments will be introduced in future releases.

The following table shows the compatible versions for Nexus Dashboard and services.

Services

Compatible Version

Nexus Dashboard

 2.3.1c

Nexus Dashboard Insights

6.2.1

Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller

12.1.2e

The following table shows the system requirements for Nexus Dashboard.

Specification

Supported Scale

Number of physical Nexus Dashboard nodes

5

Number of switches supported

50

Number of flows supported in Nexus Dashboard Insights

10000

Installation of NDFC and NDI on the same Nexus Dashboard

Cisco NDFC can be cohosted with Nexus Dashboard Insights on the same Nexus Dashboard.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you’ve installed the required form factor of Cisco Nexus Dashboard. For instructions, refer to Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment Guide.

  • Ensure that you meet the requirements and guidelines described in Prerequisites section in Cisco NDFC Installation Guide.

  • The Cisco DC App Center must be reachable from the Nexus Dashboard via the Management Network directly or using a proxy configuration. Nexus Dashboard proxy configuration is described in Cisco Nexus Dashboard User Guide.

  • If you are unable to establish the connection to the DC App Center, skip this section and follow the steps described in Installing Services Manually section in Cisco NDFC Installation Guide.

  • Ensure that the services are allocated with IP pool addresses on the Cisco Nexus Dashboard. For more information, refer to Cluster Configuration section in Cisco Nexus Dashboard User Guide.

Installing Nexus Dashboard

Install the required form factor of Cisco Nexus Dashboard. For instructions, refer to Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment Guide.

Installing NDFC

Refer to Cisco NDFC Installation Guide.

Configure NDFC sites on Nexus Dashboard. Refer to the Adding Sites section in the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment Guide.

Installing NDI

On the same Nexus Dashboard set up, install the Nexus Dashboard Insights service. Refer to Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights Deployment Guide, for more information.

Post Installation

After installing compatible versions of NDFC and NDI on the 5-node physical Nexus Dashboard, launch NDFC as Fabric (LAN) Controller. Create Fabric, discover and import switches on NDFC fabric. Nexus Dashboard automatically identifies the NDFC fabric and lists on the Sites page as entities.


Note

You must provide the password for each of the sites in the Nexus Dashboard site manager.