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Cisco Intersight ATXs FAQ

ezong
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

on ‎08-10-2021 08:54 PM - edited on ‎02-15-2023 07:57 PM by Community Manager

Here are some commonly asked questions and answers to help with your adoption of Cisco Intersight. Subscribe (how-to) to this post to stay up-to-date with the latest Q&A and recommended Ask the Experts (ATXs) sessions to attend.

Can I use AWS's IdP service for group-based authentication?

Answer: Yes. For group based authentication, the IdP needs a "memberOf" attribute that matches what Intersight has configured as the group name. With AWS SSO, "memberOf" can be manually configured. The "User attribute in the application" field should have a value of "memberOf". The value of the "Maps to this string value or user attribute in AWS SSO" field matches the group name configured on the Intersight side.

 

Is IST End-of-Life? Can I continue to use Terraform with Intersight for IaC?

Answer: Yes, IST is now End-of-Life. Intersight Service for HashiCorp Terraform (IST) is an integration of Cisco Intersight with HashiCorp Terraform Cloud for Business (TFCB). Moving forward, Intersight will no longer offer this integration. However, TFCB will continue to be available on Cisco's global price list, particularly for customers who are focused on networking infrastructure automation use cases.

 

When will IWO be available on CVA and PVA?

Answer: Our latest target is Q1 CY22.

 

How do I calculate the number of IWO licenses I need?

Answer: IWO is also subscription-based. The unit of measure is the number of VMs or number of VDI instances.
In addition, we do have more economic licensing options for VDI workloads to acknowledge the fact that there's often a much lower active to idle VM ratio in VDI than VSI.

Recommended ATXs - Implementation Best Practicses: Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer

 

Do we support HCL and Advisories in CVA and PVA?

Answer: This information (HCL database) is bulk loaded as part of the virtual appliance upgrade, so it is not as dynamic as it is in Intersight SaaS.

 

On which level in a hyperflex cluster is IWO working? Is it on OS level, VMware level or application level?

Answer: IWO is ideally talking to all the layers, from UCSM to HyperFlex, vCenter, and even further up the stack like Kubernetes or app components (if supported). This allows IWO to collect information from a vantage point and correlate all the layers while doing the analytics and calculations for reasonable recommendations. Just remember that all these layers must be claimed into Intersight as targets.
For more information, please reference the IWO target configuration guide and other documents.

Recommended ATXs - Deployment Best Practices: Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer

 

What should I do if the person who owns the only Intersight account administrator user has left the company?

Answer: You will have to un-claim all the targets in the old Intersight account and reclaim them in a new account. As our best practice, it is recommended to add redundant Account Administrator role users to avoid having to reclaim the devices.

In a private virtual appliance, where should I download the server firmware images? Intersight repository? Or Cisco.com?

Answer: Intersight repository provides all the IMM server firmware. For servers in standalone or UCS Managed mode, you will still need to download firmware from cisco.com and upload the files into your local Intersight software repository (through your Intersight account).
Recommended ATXs - Deployment Best Practices: Cisco Intersight and Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Managed Mode

 

What is the difference between .bin and .gbin in the Intersight firmware download list?

Answer: All images (bin or gbin) are the same for IMM and naming change (from gbin to bin) has been introduced few months ago.

 

What are the features of Intersight's "Recommendation Engine"?

Answer:

1. HyperFlex "Capacity Runway" is definitely one of them, which provides recommendations for storage planning (mainly to buy more storage and scale up the cluster storage capacity).

2. Hardware Compatibility List, or HCL, which provides driver recommendations for different OS upgrades.

3. Security Advisory and Field Notices can also be considered part of the recommendation engine where we report a lot of the vulnerabilities and potential hardware failures.

Recommended ATXs - Use Case Overview and Planning: Cisco Intersight

 

If I have claimed a UCS server into my Intersight Private Virtual Appliance, and then if I changed the CIMC's password, would there be any impact to my existing connection between the Intersight PVA and the UCS Server like disconnection or being unclaimed?

Answer: In a Virtual Appliance, the credentials of CIMC or any endpoint devices are required only during the initial claiming process. Once claimed, communication happens between the Virtual Appliance and Device Connector on the endpoints. (e.g. CIMC, UCSM, etc.). Credentials will no longer be needed. So there is no impact changing the credentials of claimed targets.

 

How do I manage single and multi-domain Service Profiles in Intersight similar to what I used to do in UCS Manager and UCS Central?

Answer: Traditionally, with UCS Manager, we only had local Service Profiles that could be used on that particular domain, whereas with UCS Central, the idea of a Global Service Profile was a Service Profile that could be used on any registered domains.

Now, in Intersight where we manage a lot more types of devices and platforms, we have unified and standardized that concept as Server Profiles. It's more like a global, reusable, logical container of policies.

In UCS Manager mode, Intersight takes care of operations, and UCS Manager continues maintaining profiles and policies, whereas in Intersight Managed Mode (IMM), Intersight takes care of everything.

Since IMM, by default, does not limit Server Profiles to individual IMM domains, we effectively have that Global Service Profile functionality in Intersight.

Note: FI-attached UCS Servers in UCS Manager mode does not have the implicit *Global Service Profile* feature.

Recommended ATXs - Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Managed Mode

 

In case of UCS Blade Chassis, does HCL takes into consideration both the Blade Server and the Fabric Interconnects to which it attaches?

Answer: No, HCL is only applicable to UCS Servers. It basically does what the UCS online tool does. For the compatibility of the attached Fabric Interconnects, you will need to reference the UCSM release notes and the cross matrix chart in it.

Recommended ATXs - Use Case Overview and Planning: Cisco Intersight

 

Does IWO also execute the actions or only gives advisories? If it executes actions, then how does it manage the lifecycle for complex actions?­ 

Answer: ­It can automate actions, or you can stop the automation and evaluate the actions before you take them yourself. You can monitor and track the whole action history taken by IWO­. These actions are done via APIs and can also integrate with orchestration tool to automate complex tasks.

Recommended ATXs - Use Case Overview and Planning: Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer

 

Do the IWO automation actions come out-of-the-box or do they need to be created manually?

Answer: ­IWO will recommend actions based on the targets added; you can create policies and help IWO understand what is your desired state and IWO will recommend you actions based on that.­

Recommended ATXs - Use Case Overview and Planning: Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer and Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer Policy

 

Where can I find and download the Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance? I have looked everywhere on my Intersight portal and Cisco Software Download page but I couldn’t find it.

Answer: The Intersight Assist is packaged in the same file that is used for deploying the Intersight Connected and Private Virtual Appliance. You can download the file from the following page, the same page where you would download any appliance in any format, for example, an OVA file for vSphere. Be aware that, when you hit the FQDN of the OVA (or Hyper-V, KVM) for the first time, you can select the option as Intersight Assist. Learn more here. 

Recommended ATXs - Deployment Best Practices: Cisco Intersight

 

Do the DNS requirements apply for the Intersight Assist?

Answer: Yes, requirements are also the same for an Intersight Assist deployment. If you are looking for the Intersight Assist installation guide, you can find it here.

Recommended ATXs - Deployment Best Practices: Cisco Intersight


Is the task to replicate the policies and profiles in the existing UCSM domain a manual configuration process?

Answer: It used to be a fully manual process but, with the release of our IMM Transition Tool, things have become so much easier.
At the current phase, although the IMM Transition Tool does not convert a complete UCSM configuration to IMM, it can convert Service Profile Templates + policies + pools + fabric configuration. You can create hundreds of policies at one click.
In future phases, it is planned to also convert Service Profiles with preservation of identities (MAC, WWN, UUID, etc.), and, eventually, it is aimed at automating the whole IMM migration process.

Recommended ATXs - Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Managed Mode

 

Is it possible to deploy HyperFlex with Fabric Interconnects in Intersight Managed Mode?

Answer: No. Cisco HyperFlex™ hyperconverged infrastructure is currently not supported in the Intersight Managed Mode. However, as planned, Intersight will support FI-based HyperFlex clusters (or Datacenter type of HX clusters) starting HX 5.5.

 

If I have 2 Fabric Interconnects (UCSM), and 3 HyperFlex nodes, ­how many license do I need to buy?­

Answer: You can purchase your licenses based on the features that you would like to use for different FI-based, standalone, or HX clusters. It all boils down to the features that will benefit you the most. You can keep some of your servers in Essentials, some in Advantage or Premier. The licensing in Cisco Intersight is very flexible & subscription based as you will see in this session. I would encourage you to reference our documentation via this link (see more details on Intersight Essentials, Advantage, and Premier features).

Recommended ATXs - Getting Started: Cisco Intersight


If I want to do an Intersight POC, but I want to do it on an Intersight Private Virtual Appliance, can I request a trial license for that?­

Answer: ­A subscription-based license that is equal to or higher than Essentials is required to deploy a Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance, be it Connected or Private. I would encourage you to consulted with your Cisco Sales representative for the same requirement as well as to purchase Intersight Essentials, Advantage, or Premier licenses.

 

In an Intersight-UCSM integration, does Intersight do a policy provisioning as well? Or is it done in the UCSM?­

Answer: In the native UCSM-based systems, policy provisioning is confined to UCSM. Intersight provides extended management and maintenance capabilities.
On the other hand, in an IMM (Intersight Managed Mode) UCS domain, Intersight owns all the configurations used to be done in the UCSM and CIMC (or, in the future HX releases, the complete configuration for an HX cluster).

Recommended ATXs - Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Managed Mode

 

Do we have the option to remain using UCS Manager instead of IMM? And for how long?­

Answer: UMM (UCSM Managed Mode) and IMM (Intersight Managed Mode) are not conflicted with nor meant to replace each other.
They can and should coexist because it is in your best interest to keep them both for a smooth hardware refresh and transition.
Therefore, we don't have any plans to replace / retire the supportability of UMM, but you can keep an eye out for future announcements in the "What's New" updates.­

Recommended ATXs - Feature Overview: Cisco Intersight Managed Mode

 

<In case you missed it> Further ATXs resources and upcoming sessions

Looking for more resources? Access the latest guides, recordings and more via Cisco Intersight ATXs Resources; or visit Intersight Help Center. 

Want to learn more and get real-time Cisco expert advice? Through live Q&A and solution demos, Ask the Experts (ATXs) real-time sessions help you tackle deployment hurdles and learn advanced tips to maximize your use of Cisco technology. View and register for the upcoming Ask the Experts (ATXs) sessions today. [Pro tip: Subscribe to the event listing for new session updates.]

 

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