After the OVA is deployed it’s time to set up Cisco Prime. Prime will be the monitoring and management software for the IWAN deployment, so it’s a logical place to start.
Before starting the process, we will fix an issue discussed in my post here: https://www.mytechgnome.com/2016/02/cisco-prime-infrastructure-vm-error.html
Edit the settings of the VM and add a serial port. (I just set it to output to a .txt file in the VM’s folder)
Time to power up the VM and connect to the console.
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| Prime Setup |
To begin the setup, type “setup”
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| Prime config |
Then you will get a series of prompts to configure the device. Most are self explanatory, except the timezone. Cisco has a list of accepted timezone names, which can be found here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/3-0/user/guide/pi_ug/timezones.html It’s also worth noting that the ‘admin’ account entered here is for CLI access. A web user is added later.
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| Prime config |
The setup process will enable the network interface and run a few tests. After that you will receive a notification that the install completed and it will ask if this is for an HA node. I’m not setting up an HA node, so I entered “no” and continued on.
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| Prime Config |
The default admin account on the web interface is ‘root’ so here you set the password. After that you’ll get a prompt confirming that all is well. After confirmation the server will finish the setup script and reboot. This process takes a while, like 10-15 minutes.
While this is working, it would be a good opportunity to get the license key for Prime downloaded, as well as the patches and tech pack. There is a bug in the licensing that will report the license is invalid (https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCuw89435)
The patches and tech pack can be found here: https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=286285348&flowid=76142&softwareid=284272933&release=3.0.2&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest (note that they need to be installed in order – 3.0.2, tech pack, 3.0.2 update 2)
The device pack can be found here: https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=286285348&flowid=76142&softwareid=286208063&release=3.0.3&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest
When the Prime startup is complete you should be able to access it from a web browser.
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| Prime web UI login |
Remember that the login name is ‘root’ and the password is what you set for the root account, not the admin account.
After logging in you will see an icon in the top left to open a menu. Click that, then Administration > Software Update.
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| Prime Menu |
In the Software Update window there is a link to upload files. Click that, browse to the update you want, and then upload it.
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| Prime Software Update |
After the file is uploaded you will have an Install button next to the file. Click Install and it will confirm the install and inform you if a reboot is required.
If a reboot is required go back to console of the Prime VM and log in. To restart Prime there are two commands needed:
ncs stop
ncs start
And the link to the Cisco document on restarting Prime: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/2-2/administrator/guide/PIAdminBook/maint_sys_health.html#pgfId-1088333
The restart will ofcourse take about 10 minutes, and you will need to do it multiple times to get the patches installed.
When all the patches are installed then the license(s) can be installed. However, before starting that, grab the UDI of the VM. Click the menu button in the top left, then Administration > Appliance
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| Prime Appliance settings |
The UDI is in the right column, in the middle. You will want to make note of the product ID and serial number. Those may be needed to license a PAK.
After downloading the licenses from the PAK registrations (they may be in .zip files, and if so, they need to be extracted) the keys can be installed. Again, open the menu at the top left, the Administration > Licenses.
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| Prime Appliance settings |
To load a license click Files > License Files on the left side. Then click Add and browse to the license file (it should be a .lic file). Repeat those steps to install all the Prime licenses.
That will get Prime installed, patched, and on the network. Adding devices into Prime will be covered later.