SNTC1-CSPC2.4.1-RC3-OVF10.ova = "Press any key".

[jeremyjahns]

Working on a network where some devices have SMARTNET contracts but no one has the contract associated to their account or have new hardware being purchased without SMARTNET so recently had a colleague suggest SNTC for inventorying. After speaking to our Cisco rep. was told it is now a free product so we moved forward with creating a Delegated Admin and then deploying SNTC ova.

Sadly that's as far as we have gotten because with: SNTC1-CSPC2.4.1-RC3-OVF10.ova all we are getting is a quick boot to a black screen with the text "Press any key" and then when using the console receiving no response when pressing any key... Not finding much documentation on this tool and since we utilizing this as a free tool there is no official support.

Will be tough to convince the business side that we should be buying licenses for support on a tool that comes broken out of the box.

[Lynden Price]

Hello Jeremy,

The server is still booting during the "Press any key" prompt, but verbose display isn't enabled, so it looks like it is frozen. If you press a key on that screen and wait 5-10 minutes, it will eventually give you a login prompt.

That being said, the CSPC 2.4 collector is not currently supported for self-deployment. To enable the features of the SNTC portal, you currently have two options:

1) Wait until the release of CSPC 2.5, after which you will have access to a link to download the 2.5 OVA. Earlier versions require a TAC engineer to deploy and configure. The announcement of this release will be posted to the community.

2) Use the file import feature on the SNTC portal:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12566046/csv-file-import-sntc-3x-application-note

You can access the portal itself by going here:

https://tools.cisco.com/smartservices/

Here is a link to the portal user guide that should go into more detail about the full list features you can use and reports you can generate:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12566066/smart-net-total-care-portal-user-guide

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you,

Lynden

[Joe Cooper]

Having this problem with 2.5.2.1 as well.

Edit:  I just let it sit for 10 minutes or so and it finally went to a fully black screen.  Hit a key and now it is responsive.  False alarm.

[Lynden Price]

Hi Joe,

Unfortunately, you'll need to wait 10-15 mins for it to finish coming up. The verbose boot display was disabled for security reasons.

Thanks,

Lynden