Cisco DNA Center ATXs Follow-Up Discussion: Getting Started and Installation Best Practices

[Vivien Chia]

Welcome to the follow-up discussion for Ask the Experts (ATXs) sessions or if you have any questions regarding:

• Getting Started: Cisco DNA Center 
• Installation Best Practices: Cisco DNA Center 

Cisco experts Danmu Wu, Dilip Jasutkar, and Johnson Li are available to answer any questions you post between May 12 to May 18, 2021. Participate and ask the first question! 

In the meantime, you can read some commonly asked questions as outlined below, and their answers in Cisco DNA Center Ask the Experts FAQ: Getting Started and Installation Best Practices:

• What are the system specifications that I need to be aware of before physically installing DNA Center in my Data Center?
• I see that DNA Center has multiple ports available. Do I need to connect all of them? If not, which are the ones I need to focus on initially?
• Can you also share the requirements for IP connectivity?
• Why do I need to provide internet access to DNA Center? If this is really necessary, what is the best way to achieve external connectivity?
• Are there any other pre-requisite before I start adding devices to DNA Center?

You can also review Cisco DNA Center Ask the Experts Resources for the latest guides.  

To participate in this discussion, please use thebutton below to ask your questions

Post your questions from May 12 to May 18, 2021

**Helpful votes encourage participation!**
Please be sure to rate the Answers to Questions

[ps982p]

the DNA center equipped with SSD, now if I Hard reset the Hardware through CIMC what all data we will loose?

There are multiple back-end services are running to work properly many features in the DNA appliance. In-case if the the client uninstalled any service manually then what will be procedure to install that single service?

[Johnson Li]

For your first question:

Basically, hard reset flushes DIMMs and temporary data for running procedures. (hard reset flushes current unsaved data).
No matter the type of hard disk, it is not a great idea to do a hard reset for all the usual reasons, a graceful restart is a way to go ('shutdown -r now' executed from maglev CLI).
Data loss on shutdown is going to be usually minimal, the problem is more on reboot as if something was in flight that does matter, on a hard reset that won't complete and a service may fail to start.
Really you should never hard reset any system (not just DNAC) through the CIMC unless you know the OS is down or you don't care what is on the server.
Please get a full backup from DNAC before doing the hard reset if it is necessary.

And for your 2nd question:

Cisco DNA Center treats individual applications as separate from the core infrastructure. Specifically, individual packages for applications can be installed to run on Cisco DNA Center.

Packages for applications may take time to install and deploy. Therefore, install the packages during a maintenance period for your network.
Only a user with SUPER-ADMIN-ROLE permissions can perform this procedure.
You can refer to the below link for more details:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-1-2/admin_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_1_2/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_1_1_chapter_011.html

[ps982p]

couple of times back there was complete SDA LAB in D-Cloud, but now a days we cant see that lab in Dcloud. What best Dcoud practice we can do for SDA lab?

[Dilip Jasutkar]

Thanks for raising your concern.

If this is happening for some operational reason, BU stopped this service, then wait for sometime and I think it would get resumed in some days or you can use the 'Support' tab on the dcloud page and can raise this concern. You will get clear clarity on this service whether its being stopped temporarily or will get continued.

I would also recommend to use the 'Make a Request' Tab on the dcloud page and can mention about this enhancement, BU will think and may come up with some service to support the customers for using labs.

Hope this helps!

[jaiwaei36]

Can DNA-C send email notification/alert? How do we configure that? 

[Johnson Li]

Hi,

Thanks for your question.

Cisco DNA Center supports email notifications for both events and reports.

Emails are sent out from Cisco DNA Center using the SMTP protocol. Cisco DNA Center only supports clear text SMTP for email event notifications. If you use an email server that requires SSL/TLS support, you will not be able to receive the email event notifications.

You can configure it in the below menu:
System > Settings > External Services > Destination > Email

For a more detailed Step by step procedure, you can refer to the below link:
[Section]Configure an Email Destination
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-platform/2-1-2-0/user_guide/b_dnac_platform_ug_2_1_2/b_dnac_platform_ug_2_1_1_chapter_0101.html