CBD and SG300 switches

[msitechs]

Our organization has been attempting to get the Cisco Business Dashboard rolled out to manage the switches at our clients. We've gotten started on rolling out our first client, however I seem to be getting some conflicting information and need some assistance in figuring this out.

The first client we are rolling out to has CBS250, CBS350, SG300 and SG250 switches. We have setup direct management on the CBS switches, and they are manageable from the platform just fine, their status is connected and I can mange config changes directly from the dashboard. 

The SG switches show up in the dashboard under the Inventory, but they are not manageable, can't run backups, only can access the GUI login interface for the switch. The switches have been updated to the latest firmware - see screenshot below. 

As you can see above, there is no section for PnP, Port Management or Pending Config on the SG300. According to this device list Cisco Business Dashboard - Device Support List - Cisco the SG300 and SG250 switches have the following functions: Discovered, Monitored, Operation, Configuration, and Reporting. However I am not getting any of those, and you can see that the CBD Agent not supported message comes up too. 

What am I missing? I thought it may have had something to do with SNMP, but even with that being setup correct on the switches in an identical fashion, it did not make a difference. I verified I can ping the dashboard from the switch. Is the information in the device list incorrect? Is there a different procedure for connecting the SG switches than there is for CBS switches? There is no CBD or FindIT section on my switch, and I have not been able to find the certificate section to import the certificate on the switch to enable them either.

Also was wondering if maybe the direct management switches don't have capability of managing other switches but only connecting them to the dashboard? Do I need a separate probe for the SG switches? Another separate issue is that there is also one switch which is a SG350 and that one DOES have a CBD section after I imported the certificate to it, but it stays disconnected despite following the procedure for an embedded probe. No errors, no logs, nothing to go off of.  Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

[Mark Fang · Accepted solution]

You are right, direct management switches don't have capability of managing other devices. Since not all your devices support direct management, a Probe managed network is the only viable option.

Embedded Probe can manage up to 15 network devices. Looks like your network comprises no more than this number, you can enable an embedded Probe on any of your CBS switches. Otherwise you will need to setup a software Probe.

A network can either be managed directly or by a Probe, but not both simultaneously. You have two options to proceed:
1) Delete the current network and create a new network, selecting network type as Probe Managed.
2) Disconnect all devices to make the network offline, then you will be able to change the network type to Probe Managed.

After implementing one of these options, open the network detail page and navigate to the Onboarding tab. Follow the steps to enable an embedded Probe and connect it to the CBD.

[msitechs]

Thank you Mark, I was indeed able to get this working with a software probe, will have to do some testing with the embedded probe in the near future. Thanks a ton!