Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator Dashboard, Fabrics, and GUI Overview for ACI Fabrics, Release 4.4.1

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Last updated: July 29, 2024
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Dashboard

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

The GUI is arranged according to the functions. For example, the Overview page contains a summary of your fabrics, and their health. Toggle between the Platform View map or Journey to view the Getting Started Map.

The top navigation bar contains the common Cisco Nexus Dashboard menus, such as the Nexus Dashboard home button that allows you to return to the Cisco Nexus Dashboard GUI. You can use the top navigation drop-down list to switch between Admin-Console or Orchestrator.

User menu has options to configure your User Preferences, Change Password, Manage API Keys, or Sign Out. The ? menu includes information About Nexus Dashboard version and Help Center details. The Give your feedback link at the bottom right of the page is to provide any comments or suggestions about the product.

Functions like Manage contain fabric and tenant operations, fabric to fabric connectivity, tenant and fabric templates, and software management. The Analyze contains audit logs and tech support. The Admin category contains configuration import and service settings. The functionality of each NDO GUI page is described in specific chapters later in this document.

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Figure 1. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator

Overview

The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator Overview option displays a Global View map of your multi-fabric implementations in addition to their current functionality and health. The Settings icon allows you to overlay, Fabric to fabric Connectivity, Tooltip, and the Group Markers information over your map. You can zoom in or out using the + or - icons to any particular region of the map and then use the Save Layout option to save the configuration to the user profile.

The Fabrics page provides general information about each fabric. Click View Fabrics to see the list of fabrics and click Fabric Details to view the fabric to fabric connectivity and health status. It also gives you options like Refresh to reload the details and Actions option allows you to launch, which opens the fabric directly from the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator.

Colors coding denotes the fault severity and referenced in the Map Legend icon of the map. Red implies critical, yellow for degraded, and green denotes healthy state. Continuous line implies connectivity and fabrics or region unreachable by Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator are grayed out.

You can toggle between the Global View map or Journey to access several common tasks, such as adding fabrics or schemas, configuring specific policies, or performing administrative tasks.

As you are all set in your Global View map, you can see a summary of the inventory and status of:

  • Fabrics: This page shows general information like fabric health status, connectivity, and inventory information. You can click Fabric Details to see Operational information about that particular fabric.

  • Templates: Shows health and number of templates visualized By Type, By Status, and By State.

  • Tenants: Shows health and number of tenants visualized By Policy, By Template, and By Fabrics.

  • Inventory: Shows inventory health status along with the health status and number of Controllers, Switches, Interfaces, and L3 Neighbors.

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Figure 2. NDO Overview

Manage

Manage menu allows you to perform operational functions at Fabrics, Tenants, Fabric to Fabric Connectivity, Tenant or Fabric Templates, and Software Management.

Fabrics

Fabric presents a list of fabrics in tabular form with operational information. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like:

  • Controller Connectivity

  • Name

  • Type

  • State

  • Version

Click the ellipsis (…​) in the last column of the table for the Import Tenants option. This option allows you to import a tenant from the specific fabric. Also, you can click on the Launch Fabric option to open the fabric controller’s UI.

You can add a new fabric using the Add Fabric button. Click the Audit Logs to review audit logs for a set timeframe.

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Figure 3. Manage UI

Tenants

Tenants presents a list of tenants in tabular form with operational information. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like:

  • Name

  • Description

  • Assigned To Fabrics

  • Assigned To Users

  • Assigned to Templates

Click the ellipsis (…​) in the last column of the table to either Edit or Delete the tenant.

Fabric to Fabric Connectivity

Fabric to Fabric Connectivity: Shows a global map view of your Multi-Fabric implementations in addition to their current functionality and health. The Fabrics page provides general information about each fabric. If you click any particular fabric, it animates the fabric to fabric connectivity and health status. You can click View Details to see the fabrics details here you get options like Refresh to reload the details and Launch, which allows you to open the fabric.

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Figure 4. Fabric to Fabric Connectivity

The Settings icon allows you to overlay the map with information like, Fabric to fabric Connectivity, Tooltip, and the Group Markers. You can zoom in or out using the + or - icons to any particular region of the map and then use the Save Layout option to save the configuration to the user profile.

Colors coding denotes the fault severity and referenced in the Map Legend icon of the map. Red implies critical, yellow for degraded, and green denotes healthy state. Continuous line implies connectivity and fabrics or region unreachable by Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator are grayed out.

Current control plane fabric to fabric connectivity configuration is displayed under the General Settings pane with fields like:

  • BGP Peering Type

  • Keep alive interval (Seconds)

  • Hold Interval (Seconds)

  • Stale Interval (Seconds)

  • Graceful Start

  • Maximum AS Limit

  • BGP TTL Between Peers

  • IANA Assigned Port

You can configure these options using the Configure button. This option allows you to review the Audit Logs and also Deploy these configurations. The Fabrics tab shows the deployment status of individual fabrics along with its health status.

Tenant Template

Tenant Template configuration has options to configure templates. The page has options for:

  • Applications: This tab shows a table of schemas, you can filter or sort the table using the attributes like templates that are deployed, tenants, and policies associated with the schema. The ellipsis (…​) on the last column of the table allow you to Edit, Delete, and Clone the schema. You can add a new schema using the Add Schema button. You can select an individual schema for an overview of the schema.

  • L3Out: This tab shows a tabular deployment status of the L3Out templates. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, tenant, fabrics, and policies. The three dots on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the L3Out template. You can add a new L3Out template using the Create L3Out Template button. You can select each individual template to get a summary of the template. You can edit or deploy the template using the appropriate buttons under the summary. Action menu has options to perform fabric or template level actions.

  • Monitoring Policies: Allows you to create and edit monitoring policies templates.

  • Service Device: This tab shows a tabular deployment status of the service device template. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, tenant, fabrics, and policies. The ellipsis (…​) on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the service device template. You can add a new Service Device template using the Create Service Device Template button. You can select each individual template to get a summary of the template properties along with each fabric deployed.

  • Tenant Policies: This tab shows a tabular deployment status of the tenant policy template. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, tenant, fabrics, and policies. The three dots on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the tenant policy template. You can edit or deploy the template using the appropriate buttons under the Template Summary. You can add a new tenant policy template using the Create Tenant Policy Template button. Action menu has options to perform fabric or template level actions.

Fabric Template

Fabric Template configuration has options to configure Fabric policy templates. This menu option allows you to configure:

  • Fabric Policies: This tab shows a table of fabric policies. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, fabrics, and policies. The three dots on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the fabric policy template. You can add a new fabric policy template using the Create Fabric Policy Template button. You can edit or deploy the template using the appropriate buttons under the Template Summary. Action menu has options to perform fabric or template level actions.

  • Fabric Resource Policies: This tab shows a table of fabric resource policy templates. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, fabrics, and policies. The three dots on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the fabric resource policy template. You can add a new fabric resource policy template using the Create Fabric Resource Policy Template button. You can edit or deploy the template using the appropriate buttons under the Template Summary. Action menu has options to perform fabric or template level actions.

  • Monitoring Access Policies: This tab shows a table of monitoring access policy templates. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like status, name, fabrics, and policies. The three dots on the last column of the table allow you to Edit or Delete the monitoring access policy template. You can add a new monitoring access policy template using the Create Monitoring Policy Template button. You can edit or deploy the template using the appropriate buttons under the Template Summary. Action menu has options to perform fabric or template level actions.

Software management

This option provides the firmware update summary for every Controllers and Nodes in the fabric summary for each fabric. The Overview tab accounts for status like update completed, downloading, ready to install, installing, not supported, and failed. You can set firmware updates for each fabric using the Set Update button in either of the Controllers or Nodes tabs. Use Setup Download in the Downloads tab to set up a download firmware update image to the selected fabrics.

Analyze

Analyze menu allows you to view the Audit Logs and provide Tech Support.

Audit Logs

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator system logging is automatically enabled when you first deploy the Orchestrator cluster and captures the events and faults that occur in the environment. You can filter or sort the table using the attributes like:

  • Date

  • Action

  • Type

  • Details

  • User

You can also click Select button to filter the log details based on User, Type, or Action, then click Apply to apply the filter.

Tech Support

Tech support option allows you to capture and view the audit logs or all logs with External Streaming option enabled using service like splunk or syslog. You can add a maximum of 5 servers for this operation. You can download and save system logs to your local system using the download icon and by clicking the Download button.

Admin

Admin menu allows you to perform Configuration Import and Orchestrator Service Settings.

Configuration Import

Configuration import allows you to import an older configuration file and restore the configuration. You can import the backup configuration using the Import Backup File button.

Orchestrator Service Settings

The Orchestrator Service Settings allows you to assign System Alias and Banners along with option to assign the severity to the banner. You can enable the Schema Work Management by editing the Change Control option. You can also view and download the logs in the Audit Logs tab.


First Published: 2024-03-01
Last Modified: 2024-07-26

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