Ansible Automation for Nexus Dashboard/Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator

I am writing this article to make you aware of Ansible usage with Cisco Nexus Dashboard/Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator.  I will write one for Terraform with NDO soon. Previously, I had written an article  Getting Started: Cisco MSO with Ansible which is still valid for the most part. However, a few things changed from then to … More Ansible Automation for Nexus Dashboard/Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator

Cisco ACI APIC and cAPIC monitoring using Prometheus/Grafana

Changes: 1/14/2022: Replaced all occurances of APIC 5.3 to 5.2.3 From Release 5.2.3 of APIC and release 25.x of cAPIC  Promethus Node Exporter Feature is available.   This allows you to monitor statistics from Prometheus and view pre-configured dashboards from Grafana to get quick status of APICs/cAPICs. In this write up,  I will show you how … More Cisco ACI APIC and cAPIC monitoring using Prometheus/Grafana

A Guide To: Nexus Dashboard Insights Kafka Exporter to Elasticsearch/Kibana for Data Analysis & Visualization

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights from release 5.0.1x can use the Kafka services that runs on ND and subscribe to a topic as a publisher to that topic that has been created on a Kafka service.   You can then have a Kafka consumer subscribe to that topic and receive all the messages.  The messages that can … More A Guide To: Nexus Dashboard Insights Kafka Exporter to Elasticsearch/Kibana for Data Analysis & Visualization

Nexus Dashboard 2.1 – New Features – Federated Clusters

Nexus Dashboard 2.1 has incorporated a lot of New Features/Improvements.  In this write-up, I will primarily discuss the Federated Nexus Dashboard configuration, why use it and also discuss some of other underlying improvements/changes.  I will also show how to send API calls to Nexus Dashboard Federated Clusters to get Federation Related Information. Installing ND is … More Nexus Dashboard 2.1 – New Features – Federated Clusters

Introduction To Cisco Nexus Dashboard And Installation, Integrating With Radius, Configuring Intersight And Site Onboarding

Updates: 5/18/2021:  Deciphering ND Licensing 4/14/2021:  Please use Release 2.0.1d,  not release 2.0.1b (which got deferred)  On CCO downloads, please search for Nexus Dashboard.  2.0.1d can be found at: https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286327743/type/286328258/release/2.0(1d) 2.0(2) should be out anytime now By Now you are probably already familiar with Cisco Application Service Engine.  We had previously written some articles on … More Introduction To Cisco Nexus Dashboard And Installation, Integrating With Radius, Configuring Intersight And Site Onboarding

Getting Started: Cisco MSO With Ansible (updated: 1/13/2021)

Added on 12/03/2020:  A temporary workaround if you are using One Time Password / RSA device with Ansible/MSO.   Please see bottom of post. Added on 11/24/2020: Interesting discussion on One Time Password with Ansible that customer pointed out.  Please see bottom of post update for L3Out was added on 10/8/2020:  Please see the bottom of … More Getting Started: Cisco MSO With Ansible (updated: 1/13/2021)

ACI/Cloud Extension Usage Primer (Azure) – Multi-Node Service Graph with North South Firewall Scaling using vNET peering and hosting service devices in HUB vNET (overlay-2)

In a previous article for Multinode Service Graphs with Horizontal Scaling of Firewalls for East/West traffic on Azure I had described and guided you step by step on how to configure and test that scenario. I have had quite a few folks reach out to me and request that I do a similar writeup for … More ACI/Cloud Extension Usage Primer (Azure) – Multi-Node Service Graph with North South Firewall Scaling using vNET peering and hosting service devices in HUB vNET (overlay-2)

Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine ( AWS AMI Based SE)

Previously I had written an article on Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine (OVA Based SE).  That article was updated on 7/6/2020 to include the connectivity discussions and install instructions for release 3.0.2d MSO running on SE 1.1.3d. Added on 4/26/2021Current Release you should use  on AWS is as below (until such time as … More Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine ( AWS AMI Based SE)

Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine (OVA based SE) — updated 1/12/2021

Updated 7/06/2020 : Please skip to the SE install section: SE Release 1.1.3d (OVA) Install Instructions: Update 1/21/2021:  Current and recommended release of SE is 1.1.3e. Starting with Release 2.2(3) of MSO,  Cisco Application Service Engine (CASE) can be used to host the MSO.  Previous to this release MSO could only be installed in a … More Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine (OVA based SE) — updated 1/12/2021