Brocade Network Advisor: CLI Configuration Manager

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Brocade Network Advisor:

CLI Configuration Manager

Brocade

®

_{Network Advisor is a unified network management platform}

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INTRODUCTION

Brocade®_{Network Advisor is the Brocade enterprise SAN and Ethernet management application. It provides}

an intuitive, user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the configuration and monitoring of multiple Fibre Channel (FC) fabrics, Ethernet fabrics, Ethernet switches and routers, Brocade Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), Brocade Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), and virtualized server infrastructures.

Brocade Network Advisor is a client-server application; multiple clients communicate with a central server, which stores configuration and performance data in an SQL Server database co-located on the server’s workstation. The server communicates with all of the managed devices to apply configuration changes and collect configuration and performance data.

This document describes the usage of the Command Line Interface (CLI) Configuration Manager feature in various modules of the Brocade Network Advisor application and the advantages of using the CLI

Configuration Manager feature over the device CLI usage. This document also explains how to track the CLI command execution history in the form of HTML reports.

The contents of this document apply to Brocade Network Advisor 12.0 and above.

FUNCTIONALITY SUPPORTED

This document provides information on the technical aspects of the CLI Configuration Management feature. This feature enables users to:

• Define CLI configuration and monitoring templates with selected targets and CLI commands, along with the provided parameters

• Edit/Duplicate/Delete/Verify/Deploy a user-defined CLI template

• Allow the import of parameters from a .csv file and preview the template with the imported parameters before deployment

• Associate separate parameter values for each device and device group; also, associate the same value to all the targets

• Add additional targets during manual deployment of the CLI template • Change the CLI credentials to be used while deploying the CLI template • Schedule a template for deployment

Supporting Requirements

• Firmware requirements: All versions of Brocade IronWare OS and Brocade Network OS

• Hardware requirements: No specific hardware requirements; supported for all Brocade IronWare OS and Brocade Network OS products

• License Requirements: None

USE CASES SUPPORTED

The CLI Configuration Manager feature is helpful in the following use cases:

• Configuring multiple devices at a time: Use this feature if you want to add, change, or delete configurations for several devices at the same time.

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• Reusing templates: You can create CLI templates using CLI commands and save them for later deployment or schedule them for periodic deployment. You can use saved templates at any time with any target.

• Dynamic target selection: You can add targets during manual deployment if “Prompt for additional targets during manual deployment” is checked while defining the CLI template.

• Using the predefined CLI command library for deployment: “Example CLI commands,” which is segregated by feature, helps you to pick one or more commands based on your requirements, create a template, and deploy the commands.

• Supporting CLI commands with inline arguments: You can create CLI templates and deploy them to devices with or without inline arguments. You can provide the values for the parameters in any one of the following ways:

• Manually enter the values in each table cell of the parameter table.

• Copy row and column values from an external file and paste them into the parameters table.

• Import parameter values from a .csv file using the Import button. During import, you match the target name and parameter name from the .csv file to recognize the value. If the parameter value is empty or invalid, then that particular value is ignored, and the remaining valid values are populated.

• Entering different parameter values for each target or the same value for all targets: The CLI template definition dialog box enables you to enter different parameter values for each target or to deploy the same value on all selected targets.

• Use of preview functionality for CLI commands with inline arguments: Users can preview the CLI template definition with inline parameters substituted to correct any errors.

• Dynamic parameter edit and review support: You can edit or review parameter values while deploying the CLI template manually.

• Scheduled deployment: You can define and schedule templates for deployment according to your preferred frequency and time. This is useful if you want to execute a few CLI commands periodically to determine the status of the device or view the configuration details.

• Creating pre- and post-deployment snapshots: The CLI monitoring templates created via this feature capture the device configuration snapshot before and after the configuration deployment. The CLI monitoring templates are available for the following modules:

• VLAN deployment

• Change management (configuration snapshot)

• Access Control List (ACL) deployment (configuration wizard)

Note: Refer to Sections 3-6 in the Appendix of this document to learn more about the usage of CLI monitoring templates in these modules.

• Deployment report generation: You can view the result of a CLI command deployment in a report, which you can also export to a text file, if required.

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HOW TO DEFINE A TEMPLATE AND EXECUTE

Overview

The CLI Configuration Manager dialog box is used to perform Create, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations on the CLI templates, and also for scheduling and manual deployment of the CLI templates to the devices. The CLI Configuration Manager dialog box can be launched as follows:

• IP Tab > Tools Bar > CLI

• IP Tab > Configure Menu > CLI Configuration

Use the Add, Edit, and Duplicate buttons on the CLI Configuration Manager dialog box to add, edit, and duplicate the user-defined templates. All of the user-defined templates are listed in tabular format in the dialog box, as shown below.

Figure 1. CLI Configuration Manager dialog box.

Steps to Define A Template and Execute It

Use the following steps to create, save, and deploy a CLI template using the CLI Configuration Manager dialog box. 1. Click the Add button in the CLI Configuration dialog box to launch the CLI Template dialog box.

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Figure 2. CLI Template Definition tab.

3. In the Targets tab, select the products on which the templates need to be deployed. The “Prompt for

additional targets during manual deployment” checkbox located below the selected targets table enables you to change the targets list during manual deployment, if required.

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4. You can use the CLI Commands tab to define the CLI commands that you want to deploy, in the following ways: a. Type in the CLI commands manually and select the Parameter data types from the Left-Hand Side (LHS)

tree for inline CLI commands, and move them to the Right-Hand Side (RHS). By default, the parameters are inserted in the following format: $<name|DATA_TYPE>. You should edit the parameter name to provide a meaningful name for the parameter.

b. Select the CLI commands from the “Example CLI Commands” list and move them to RHS to include them as part of the template definition.

c. Select “User-Defined Templates” under the “CLI Templates” node in LHS, and move the user-defined templates to RHS to define the CLI template.

“Evaluate CLI Responses” is made available to either validate or ignore the response based on the checkbox selection. The checkbox is visible in the CLI Commands tab only for configuration templates.

If the CLI command has a prefix of “-” in the command definition, the response will not be validated for that particular CLI command—even if the “Evaluate CLI Response” flag is turned on.

Figure 4. CLI Template: Command selection/creation tab.

5. The Parameters tab allows you to provide the parameter values if the inline CLI commands are selected; otherwise the tab is empty.

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If the drop-down option “Different Values for each Target” is selected, then all of the selected targets are listed in the Parameters table, and you are allowed to provide values for them.

If the drop-down option “Same Values for each Target” is selected, then all the selected targets use a single set of values.

Figure 6. CLI Template Parameters: Same Value for each Target.

You can provide parameter values while deploying the CLI template manually, if the checkbox “Always prompt for the parameter review/edit during manual deployment” is checked in the “Targets” tab, while defining the template.

Figure 7. CLI Template Parameters: Same Value for each Target.

6. You can use the Schedule tab to schedule a template to run periodically. The following UI is available to configure the scheduling details.

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7. Click “OK” in the CLI Template dialog box to save the CLI template definition in the Brocade Network Advisor database without deploying it.

8. Clicking the “Deploy” button saves the template in the Brocade Network Advisor database first, and then deploys it on the selected target devices. The Deployment Status dialog box is launched, showing the progress of the deployments on each device.

9. After the deployment completes, you can view the result of the CLI template deployment by clicking the “Report” button in the deployment status dialog box. Or, you can select Reports > Product CLI from the IP tab n menu. Refer to Sections 1 and 2 of the Appendix for more details on viewing reports.

Note: User interactive CLI command deployment using the CLI Configuration Manager is supported only with a default option selected internally; users are not allowed to provide inputs dynamically.

REFERENCES

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APPENDIX

Report Generation

You can view the results of the CLI template deployment as a report from this location: Under the IP Tab main menu, select Reports > Product CLI . Or you can click the “Reports” button on the Deployment Status dialog box. If the report is launched prior to the completion of the CLI command execution, then the “Status” column shows the status as “Pending.” If the deployment is finished, then the status is shown as “Failed” or “Success.”

Figure 9. CLI Deployment Report.

Export CLI Output to Text File

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CLI Monitoring Template Usage During VLAN Deployment

Select the Snapshots Use checkbox to enable the button “…”. Clicking the button will launch the Pre-Post Snapshot Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 11. The CLI template drop-down lists the monitoring templates, which you can select and run before, after, or during the VLAN deployment.

Figure 11. CLI template usage during VLAN deployment.

CLI Monitoring Template Usage in Change Management

The Configuration Snapshot tab of the Configuration Repository dialog box uses CLI monitoring templates to generate the report. You can view the CLI template output in a dialog, or you can view it in a web browser by clicking the Report button.

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CLI Monitoring Template Usage in ACL Deployment

CLI monitoring templates can be executed during ACL deployment to record the changes prior to and after deployment.

Figure 13. CLI monitoring template usage in ACL deployment.

CLI Monitoring Template Usage in the IP Tab Configuration Wizard

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CLI Configuration and Monitoring Template Deployment Using the Configuration Wizard

The CLI Configuration and monitoring templates created in the CLI Configuration Manager dialog box can be deployed through IP Tab > Configuration Wizard.

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Brocade Network Advisor: CLI Configuration Manager