README v2.1.1 2024-08-29
Table of contents
1. General
This document describes the cisco-sma NED.
Additional README files bundled with this NED package
Common NED Features
Verified target systems
1.1 Extract the NED package
It is assumed the NED package ncs-<NSO version>-cisco-sma-<NED version>.signed.bin has already
been downloaded from software.cisco.com.
In this instruction the following example settings will be used:
NSO version: 6.0
NED version: 1.0.1
NED package downloaded to: /tmp/ned-package-store
Extract the NED package and verify its signature:
In case the signature can not be verified (for instance if no internet connection), do as below instead:
The result of the extraction shall be a tar.gz file with the same name as the .bin file:
1.2 Install the NED package
There are two alternative ways to install this NED package. Which one to use depends on how NSO itself is setup.
In the instructions below the following example settings will be used:
NSO version: 6.0
NED version: 1.0.1
NED download directory: /tmp/ned-package-store
NSO run time directory: ~/nso-lab-rundir
A prerequisite is to set the environment variable NSO_RUNDIR to point at the NSO run time directory:
1.2.1 Local install
This section describes how to install a NED package on a locally installed NSO (see "NSO Local Install" in the NSO Installation guide).
It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.
Untar the tar.gz file. This creates a new sub-directory named:
cisco-sma-<NED major digit>.<NED minor digit>:Install the NED into NSO, using the ncs-setup tool:
Open a NSO CLI session and load the new NED package like below:
Alternatively the tar.gz file can be installed directly into NSO. Then skip steps 1 and 2 and do like below instead:
1.2.2 System install
This section describes how to install a NED package on a system installed NSO (see "NSO System Install" in the NSO Installation Guide).
It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.
Do a NSO backup before installing the new NED package:
Start a NSO CLI session and fetch the NED package:
Install the NED package (add the argument replace-existing if a previous version has been loaded):
Load the NED package
1.3 Configure the NED in NSO
This section describes the steps for configuring a device instance using the newly installed NED package.
Start a NSO CLI session:
Enter configuration mode:
Configure a new authentication group (my-group) to be used for this device:
Configure a new device instance (example: dev-1):
Finally commit the configuration
Verify configuration, using a sync-from.
If the sync-from was not successful, check the NED configuration again.
2. Optional debug and trace setup
It is often desirable to see details from when and how the NED interacts with the device(Example: troubleshooting)
This can be achieved by configuring NSO to generate a trace file for the NED. A trace file contains information about all interactions with the device. Messages sent and received as well as debug printouts, depending on the log level configured.
NSO creates one separate trace file for each device instance with tracing enabled. Stored in the following location:
$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ned-cisco-sma-gen-1.0-<device name>.trace
Do as follows to enable tracing in one specific device instance in NSO:
Start a NSO CLI session:
Enter configuration mode:
Enable trace raw:
Alternatively, tracing can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances:
Configure the log level for printouts to the trace file:
Alternatively the log level can be set globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.
The log level 'info' is used by default and the 'debug' level is the most verbose.
IMPORTANT: Tracing shall be used with caution. This feature does increase the number of IPC messages sent between the NED and NSO. In some cases this can affect the performance in NSO. Hence, tracing should normally be disabled in production systems.
An alternative method for generating printouts from the NED is to enable the Java logging mechanism. This makes the NED print log messages to common NSO Java log file.
$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ncs-java-vm.log
Do as follows to enable Java logging in the NED
Start a NSO CLI session:
Enter configuration mode:
Enable Java logging with level all from the NED package:
Configure the NED to log to the Java logger
Alternatively Java logging can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.
IMPORTANT: Java logging does not use any IPC messages sent to NSO. Consequently, NSO performance is not affected. However, all log printouts from all log enabled devices are saved in one single file. This means that the usability is limited. Typically single device use cases etc.
3. Dependencies
This NED has the following host environment dependencies:
Java 1.8 (NSO version < 6.2)
Java 17 (NSO version >= 6.2)
Gnu Sed
Dependencies for NED recompile:
Apache Ant
Bash
Gnu Sort
Gnu awk
Grep
Python3 (with packages: re, sys, getopt, subprocess, argparse, os, glob)
4. Sample device configuration
NONE
5. Built in live-status actions
The NED has support for all operational commands by use of the 'devices device live-status exec any' action. For example:
admin@ncs(config-device-ciscosma-1)# live-status exec any "version" result version
Current Version
Product: Cisco M300V Content Security Virtual Management Appliance Model: M300V Version: 9.6.1-019 Build Date: 2016-02-29 Install Date: 2016-09-26 15:16:31 Serial #: 422FE72986EA20BCC5EE-EF170590E757 BIOS: 6.00 CPUs: 4 expected, 4 allocated Memory: 8192 MB expected, 8192 MB allocated RAID: NA RAID Status: Unknown RAID Type: NA BMC: NA
admin@ncs(config-device-ciscosma-1)# live-status exec any "version ; status" result version
Current Version
Product: Cisco M300V Content Security Virtual Management Appliance Model: M300V Version: 9.6.1-019 Build Date: 2016-02-29 Install Date: 2016-09-26 15:16:31 Serial #: 422FE72986EA20BCC5EE-EF170590E757 BIOS: 6.00 CPUs: 4 expected, 4 allocated Memory: 8192 MB expected, 8192 MB allocated RAID: NA RAID Status: Unknown RAID Type: NA BMC: NA sma96.lab.tail-f.com>status
Enter "status detail" for more information.
Status as of: Thu Apr 21 12:21:14 2022 GMT Up since: Mon Feb 14 07:12:12 2022 GMT (66d 5h 9m 2s) Last counter reset: Never System status: Online Oldest Message: No Messages Feature - Cisco IronPort Spam Quarantine: Expired Feature - Cisco Centralized Web Reporting: Expired Feature - Cisco Centralized Email Reporting: Expired Feature - Incoming Mail Handling: Expired Feature - Cisco Centralized Web Configuration Manager: Expired Feature - Cisco IronPort Centralized Email Message Tracking: Expired
Counters: Reset Uptime Lifetime Receiving Messages Received 0 0 0 Recipients Received 0 0 0 Rejection Rejected Recipients 0 0 0 Dropped Messages 0 0 0 Queue Soft Bounced Events 0 0 0 Completion Completed Recipients 0 0 0 Current IDs Message ID (MID) 0 Injection Conn. ID (ICID) 0 Delivery Conn. ID (DCID) 1
Gauges: Current Connections Current Inbound Conn. 0 Current Outbound Conn. 0 Queue Active Recipients 0 Messages In Work Queue 0 Kilobytes Used 0 Kilobytes Free 29,360,128 Quarantine Messages In Quarantine Policy, Virus and Outbreak 0 Kilobytes In Quarantine Policy, Virus and Outbreak 0
sma96.lab.tail-f.com>
ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-ACCEPT Y ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-IP 192.168.88.1 ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-NAME ESA ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-NL "\n" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-OPER ADD ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-PWD "password" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-TYPE 1 ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPC-USER "user" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension command CMD-APPCFG applianceconfig ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-DONE "Appliance .* added" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-ERR "The value must not already be in use|The address must be a hostname or an IP|[E]error.*|Unknown option" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-FTA "Would you like to configure file transfer access for this appliance" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-IP "Enter the IP address or hostname of an appliance to transfer data with" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-NAME "Enter a name to identify this appliance" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-OPER "Choose the operation you want to perform" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-PWD Password: ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-SSH "Would you like to use a custom ssh port to connect to this appliance" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-TYPE "Please enter the type of Cisco appliance that this device is" ned-settings cisco-sma console extension pattern PAT-APPC-USER Username: ned-settings cisco-sma console extension action ACT-APPC init CMD-APPCFG flush true state PAT-APPC-OPER sendCommand CMD-APPC-OPER next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-TYPE sendCommand CMD-APPC-TYPE next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-IP sendCommand CMD-APPC-IP next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-FTA sendCommand CMD-APPC-NL next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-SSH sendCommand CMD-APPC-NL next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-NAME sendCommand CMD-APPC-NAME next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-USER sendCommand CMD-APPC-USER next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-PWD sendSecret CMD-APPC-PWD next ACT-APPC state PAT-APPC-DONE sendCommand CMD-APPC-NL next ACT-APPC state PAT-OPER-PMT sendCommand CMD-SAVE next SAVE-CONFIG state PAT-APPC-ERR reportError next ACT-APPC !
Example of execution: admin@ncs(config-device-ciscosma-1)# live-status exec any ACT-APPC
Due to legacy reasons, the following commands are also present (their state machine is hardcoded into the ned-console.json file.)
5.1 Applianceconfig -> add esa appliance
Value for 'hostname' (): Value for 'name' (): Value for 'username' (): Value for 'passphrase' (): <password?>
Example:
live-status exec add ESA hostname 192.168.22.22 name esa2 passphrase PASWWW username USER result
Security Appliances: Email No appliances have been added
Web No appliances have been added
Add a new appliance.
EDIT - Edit an appliance.
DELETE - Remove an appliance.
TEST - Test that an appliance is properly configured.
SERVICES - Configure the centralized services for an appliance.
STATUS - Display the status of centralized services.
PORT - Configure which port is used to communicate with remote appliances. []> ADD
. ESA 2. WSA [1]> 1
File transfer access via SSH is required to transfer reporting data, message logs, and quarantine safelist/blocklist data from appliances ]> Y
Enter the login credentials for an administrator or an operator account on the appliance. This will be used to obtain an SSH key for file transfers.
[]> .
Security Appliances: Email
IP Name Authenticated Policy Safelist Email Tracking
= ============= ==== ============= ========== ========= ========= ======== 1 192.168.22.22 esa2 Yes Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
Web No appliances have been added
Add a new appliance.
EDIT - Edit an appliance.
DELETE - Remove an appliance.
TEST - Test that an appliance is properly configured.
SERVICES - Configure the centralized services for an appliance.
STATUS - Display the status of centralized services.
PORT - Configure which port is used to communicate with remote appliances. []>
Thu Apr 21 12:50:41 2022 GMT
5.2 Load License
devices device live-status exec loadlicense
5.3 upgrade downloadinstall
devices device live-status exec any "upgrade downloadinstall " result
-- this above command takes a while to download and install (kindly update read-timeout respectively)
6. Built in live-status show
NONE
7. Limitations
NONE
8. How to report NED issues and feature requests
Issues like bugs and errors shall always be reported to the Cisco NSO NED team through the Cisco Support channel:
The following information is required for the Cisco NSO NED team to be able to investigate an issue:
Do as follows to gather the necessary information needed for your device, here named 'dev-1':
Enable full debug logging in the NED
Configure the NSO to generate a raw trace file from the NED
If the NED already had trace enabled, clear it in order to submit only relevant information
Do as follows for NSO 6.4 or newer:
Do as follows for older NSO versions:
Run a compare-config to populate the trace with initial device config
Reproduce the found issue using ncs_cli or your NSO service. Write down each necessary step in a reproduction report.
Gather the reproduction report and a copy of the raw trace file containing data recorded when the issue happened.
Contact the Cisco support and request to open a case. Provide the gathered files together with access details for a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED when investigating the issue.
Requests for new features and extensions of the NED are handled by the Cisco NSO NED team when applicable. Such requests shall also go through the Cisco support channel.
The following information is required for feature requests and extensions:
A detailed use case description, with details like:
Data of interest
The kind of operations to be used on the data. Like: 'read', 'create', 'update', 'delete' and the order of the operation
Device APIs involved in the operations (For example: REST URLs and payloads)
Device documentation describing the operations involved
Run sync-from # devices device dev-1 sync-from (if relevant)
Attach the raw trace to the ticket (if relevant)
Access to a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED team for testing and verification of the new feature. This usually means that both read and write permissions are required. Pseudo access via tools like Webex, Zoom etc is not acceptable. However, it is ok with access through VPNs, jump servers etc.
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