Installing Cisco DNA Center in ESXi as a Virtual Machine
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2020
- While not supported by Cisco, it is possible to install Cisco DNA Center virtually in ESXi. This is perfect for CCIE lab studies or even proof of concept in a work environment. By installing DNAC onto existing or used server gear, you can save a ton of money versus buying an official appliance. Plus, you gain the benefit of things like ESXi snapshots for easy config resets.
I have found associates who have had great success with this method for study. I can't wait to dig in.
Thanks. That helped me get my dna center up and running,
Thanks you so much for videos
Thanks very helpful!
Great content! Thanks for sharing.
I was able to deploy using 24vCPU / 256GB RAM.
Hi Jason, would you mind sharing how did you manage to make it work? I have been working on it for few weeks but didn't work well, even with spec: 44 vCPU + 256G RAM + full SSD. Installation works fine, but same issue as the other folks encountered: lots of services are not up.
@@weihanlu7378 So I think I may have posted this a bit too soon. I encountered the same thing with services not running. I ended up giving it 64vCPU and 512GB RAM to finally get all the services up so it obviously a resource issue when deploying. I have not tried to go any less than that though other than the 24/256.
@@jasonspring6970 Thank you Jason. I think the vCPU makes difference then. I did hear some successful installation with 88 vCPU + 256G RAM. But weird enough, I don't see the host CPU usage goes beyond any peak at 50% with 44 vCPU.
VMUG Advantage subscription could be another option for getting fully fledged VMWare for non production as it comes with 12 month licences for lab use.
Where can I download the DNA Center to test it?
Did you install SSD or SAS HDD on your server? I am planning to buy a server to use for the installation of DNAC in my home lab. I am planning to run this on QEMU KVM (RHEL 8). Would appreciate any response ASAP.
Tread carefully, @networkdojo . The first go who recorded this no longer has a channel
knox what do you think what should i do sandbox actually cant give me a good experience and i decided to install DNA center in my esxi
Network dojo
Which version that you have tried? How about version 2.1.2.4?
Did you manage to onboard cisco 3850/3650 switches without DNA essential or DNA advantage license on the switches?
I was able to onboard Cisco 3850 both as Border and CP and another 3850 as Edge in DNA center
Good video interesting to see this. Did you have any issues configuring SDA/have you tried. Assuming you have the swifches.
I've been configuring both wired and wireless SD-Access. So far, things work smoothly most of the time.
Where we can download the dnac image?
I was not able to get the GUI. I can log into ssh via port 222 and acess the command line and also within the VM I can access maglev cli but GUI is not working. How can I solve it ?
Is It works for 1.3.3.x or just 1.3.1.x ?
Great vid! Those are very hefty hardware requirements! I wonder if my dual Intel Xeon E5-2680v3 12 Core - 24 Thread will install successfully. If anyone has had success using such CPU please do let me know. Thank you!
what about license ? do we need to provide license or can we use trial or something like that to use this appliance ?
DNAC doesn't have licenses itself that I know of. It's licensing model rather leverages licenses on the devices it's managing.
Hello @Network Dojo - you mentioned that you were able to successfully onboard a FE device. Do we need to have a Temp./Eval. license needed on the FE to be managed by the DNAC ? greatly appreciate any thought/suggestion on this point.
So far, I've been able to lab things without DNAC subscription licenses on the devices. I only have experience with switches and wireless controllers/APs though.
@@Networkdojo Thank you for the response and all your input and suggestions on this whole thing. Greatly appreciate it.
@@Networkdojo Did you manage to onboard cisco 3850/3650 switches without DNA essential or DNA advantage license on the switches?
@@stephenarogbonlo6841 For lab purposes, yes. I still tell the switches to boot up with those license levels in the config though.
@@Networkdojo I don't quite get what you mean by " I still tell the switches to boot up with those license levels in the config though". The seller of my 3850 said the switch has been reset to factory default. I don't quite get how to use that switch. But it seems you meant I can still use it for lab purposes. If yes, I need to figure out the configuration to use. Maybe you could point me to a document to follow in that regard. Sorry for asking too much. You have done a lot by sharing your experiences. Thanks in advance.
¿De dónde sacaste la ISO para realizar la instalación? 🖥🖱
This is awesome. Have you tried with version 2.1? If so how to the hardware specs differ?
I have not tried any versions later than the one I showed in the video (1.3.1.x). I live in the CCIE Wireless lab world right now, so I tend not to venture away from what it uses.
@@Networkdojo Hi DoJo. Thank you for this video. So from RAM prospective, you have to assign 256 GB RAM only for the DNA so you need more RAM if you want to run multiple devices, right? Because my mainboard only supports 256 GB RAM.
@@pappagsm That's what I've done on my ESXI servers. I have 384 GB of RAM on them to support a bunch more VMs in addition to DNAC. You can give things a shot with 256 GB and see how it goes with additional VMs. Can't hurt to try.
Does Cisco DNA Center need DDR4 Ram, or DDR3 256Gig ram?
Please help so that I buy the correct type of ram.
I don't know if there is a requirement one way or another. But I used DDR4.
Do you need internet access during install process ?
Not 100% sure. But in some of my install testing, it seems to have made the difference between working and not working. So I'd have it connected if at all possible.
hi how can i download dna center trial
thx
After a few very long and time consuming attempts, I feel I have to give up on this :( I was able to successfully install almost every version that is available from Cisco's Software Central but unfortunately EVERY ONE of them reported an error upon completion - "Automation and Assurance services have been temporarily disrupted" with nearly the same number of Unhealthy Services (~60-62). I am wondering if the DNAC version shown in the Video (1.3.0.2) had something unique that it was able to fully install all the Modules and Services. I couldn't test with this 1.3.0.2 version as it's not in the list of available downloads from Cisco
I believe I used 1.3.1.2 in the video, which is what I've had the most experience with. I know the GUI lets you login before all of the services have completed loading. So seeing the "Automation and Assurance services have been temporarily disrupted" right away is normal. But usually the services will finish loading within about 15 minutes after first being able to login and that message goes away.
It's a frustraing beast for sure and I know people have different experences. I'll even have different results when doing seemingly the exact same steps.
Thank you for all your input and valuable suggestions, tips etc. on this. It is greatly appreciated. With regards to those unhealthy services post install, unfortunately even after a day or so, all those still showed as down. I remain hopeful though...there's got to be a way. Thanks for the correction as well on the version number. I meant to say 1.3.1.2 version...which is also not available to download from Cisco's Software Central Web site.
@@rehank00 read other comments, services down are caused by not enough resources assigned to VM
in my case it was a failed mission, installation goes smoothly, I reach the login console but ended up with the message when I tired to access the web interface: {"message":"no route and no API found with those values"}
I having same error message
@Stanislav run the command 'maglev package status' via the console and if the packages "system" and "platform-ui" show as "Not Deployed" run this command first 'maglev package deploy system' and wait for it to finish. Check its progress via the command 'maglev package status'. Once it is done, run the command 'maglev package deploy platform-ui' and wait for it to finish. These steps got rid of that error message and was able to access the GUI. The process does take about 10-15 minutes in my case but this is hardware dependent. Hope this helps!
can this installation be done on Vmware Workstation 15?
I've never attempted it on anything other that ESXi. So I'm not sure.
How much ram (in ESXi) does the DNA Center VM consume once it's installed and running with a minimal config? Does it use more than 192 GB from the get go? Has anyone had success installing on a VM with 24 or 32 vCPUs?
It grows as it loads up different services. My setup tends to eventually exceed 192 GB. But I know others have used tricks to minimize usage. That's outside of my expertise. I don't know what the CPU floor is for reliability. My goal was to mostly replicate a legit production level box in ESXi.
ESX handle a firewall that avoid connect to cloud services ?
Anyone try running on an AMD CPU like EPYC or Threadripper?
Hi, I have tried to followed your guide her, and it did install, and I can login fine,
But I can´t update, and it says now that it has 51 unhealthy services ...
did you do anything else in your installation that you did not show in the video ?
You will be able to login to the GUI before all services have finished loading up. Those would be the unhealthy services. Hopefully you can just give it time and the services will start eventually. Otherwise, I'd be trying restarting the server, ensuring you gave it Internet access, or even trying to reinstall.
@@Networkdojo I was able to login just fine, but after more than 24 hours, my patience rand out of waiting for the services to start.
Then I tryed a reboot, with the same result ..
And it can not update either.
I now am trying a reinstall
@@vanbynight Hope it works. I'm definitely not an expert at this. Just trying to share a method that I've used in the past to get things working.
@@Networkdojo No matter what I do now, I can´t get it to finnish the installation now, it stops at point where it says Pushing "latest" Maglev images to local registry
@@vanbynight I really am not well equipped to troubleshoot the install process. The best I can recommend is to give the VM 44+CPU/256GB RAM/and adequate SSD storage and give internet access with DNS. You can also try installing different versions of DNAC. I think I've had some older versions that I flat out couldn't get to finish an install.
hello.....as soon as i hit the DNAC ip into the browser.....i am getting an json error saying
{"message":"no route and no API found with those values"}
i have tried reinstalling for about 15 times...... still not able to resolve this error....
in the DNS i am giving local as well as open DNS ip..... also tried only with open DNS ip.... but still not able to comeup with any solution
any solution how to resolve this
i tried many times to search on internet but very less and limited options are mentioned which are actually not working for me
Sorry, but I haven't run across that error before. I'm not sure what the solution would be.
@Stanislav are you using HDD or SSD
@Stanislav I got the fix when I inserted SSD ...and allocated 56 cores to the DNAc VM ..... 3 storage of 480 200 and 200
Although overall I had 2tb SSD for snapshot as well..and it worked in one shot
My computer ram is 64 it will works ??
I'm not sure if anyone has gotten it to work at that low level of RAM. I've only ever tried with at least 256 GB.
Please can someone send me this DNA center in the format .iso?
Can this installation be done on KVM?
I've never attempted it on anything other that ESXi. So I'm not sure.
Yes. it is possible with proper settings. I would advise you to stick with ESXI if you intend to connect external physical hardware.
Anyone able to get this running with less than 256GB memory in their server?
Tried over allocating 256Gb to the VM on an ESXi host with 92Gb ...
I know some people have. But they use methods I'm not familiar with.
@@Networkdojo Well, I can confirm that 1.3.3.8 installs on ESXi 6.7, with 24 vCPUs, and 120Gb of Memory allocated to the VM.
It's taken about 3 hours to get to the point where I can login to the GUI. I'm presented with warnings of how Automation and Assurance services are not running, but it looks to be installing a whole bunch of Application Updates. Seems it needs a few more hours to run through that.
Watch this space. I'll try report back further when it finishes this batch of installs...
@@sbeggsuk Let us know how it goes...As I mentioned in one of earlier posts above, I had the exact same installation scenario with almost every version that is available for download from Cisco i.e. the "Automation and Assurance services have been temporarily disrupted" with around ~65 unhealthy services. My server configuration is 32 vCPUs/256GB RAM/3TB SSD. Just a thought - I think having a minimum of 44 vCPUs could be what is really needed....would love to hear form someone who got this going with a 24 or a 32vCPU setup. Even in this video, @Network Dojo had to change the allocation of CPUs to get it working.
At the time of this comment you can download the ISO on CCO with a valid Smart contract for DNAC without the need to create a ticket with Cisco TAC
Thanks for that. Cisco finally made it available without having to go through TAC. Pretty sure you still need entitlement though. But at least it's easier.
@@Networkdojo Could you possibly test changing the CPU count post-install to something lower than 44? And if that works, maybe tweaking some of the other settings lower? Curious if there are only checks for the physical appliance specifications in the initial-install and it will actually run fine with lower specs.
Thanks @Network Dojo
Can you share Image Please ?
Nope, sorry.
$30 billion in cash reserves and Cisco still claims they can't afford to support smaller/virtual versions of this bloated pig of an application.... Nice job trying to hack an install.