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Cisco DNA Center : Setting up 3 node cluster controllers

November 06, 2021 ,

Setting up 3 node cluster controllers for DNA Center

Before you login to DNA center GUI, you should know that DNA center is hosted on the  UCS based CIMC controller. Here in this article, we will show how to setup DNA center CIMC controller.

As we said, DNA center is hosted on the UCS based CIMC controller and Cisco offers three types of controllers. All these controllers are Generation 2 UCS based controllers and these are

  • DN2-HW-APL
  • DN2-HW-APL-L
  • DN2-HW-APL-XL. 

Fig 1.1- Cisco DNA Center in Campus

Another thing here, We are setting up 3 node cluster which means there are three different UCS Gen 2 chassis and configured them in a cluster. Every node has 4 adapters to configure and we have 3 nodes in total. Let's start with node 1.

1st Node in the cluster
We need to Start a DNA-C Cluster as shown below. 

Fig 1.2- Start a Cluster- Node 1

You need to configure the adapters with the IP address and the subnet Masks as shown below. This interface can be used for intra Cluster communications. Connect to access switch with connections to other nodes in the cluster. Also provide a default Gateway and a DNS Server. If needed provide a static route, or leave it blank. Once done Click next.

Fig 1.3- Node 1, Adapter 1 Setup

Similarly for 2nd Adapter, configure all the required fields as shown below

Fig 1.4- Node 1, Adapter 2 Setup

Once completed 2nd Adapter, Click next and go with the 3rd Adapter configurations as shown below

Fig 1.5- Node 1, Adapter 3 Setup

And finally configure the 4th Adapter with the required configurations as shown below

Fig 1.6- Node 1, Adapter 4 setup

Once you completed all the adapter settings (1st adapter, 2nd adapter, 3rd adapter and 4th adapter). Validate the network settings as shown below before proceeding. 

Fig 1.7- Configuration in Process

Now enable the network Proxy server settings to enable internet connectivity or you can do firewall rules in place as well if you dont want to setup proxy server.

Fig 1.8 - Proxy setup Node 1

You can skip for the cluster virtual IP address, so now we will move with the setup of the password required. Enter the passwords for the operating system “Linux password” and the “Administrative Passphrase”

Fig 1.9 - Password setup, Node 1

Now your next screen is for the NTP server, Configure the NTP server configuration and DNA Center will proceed with the installation process. The whole process take more than 2 hours for nodes to come up with the full configurations. You can access GUI interface of DNA center after 2 hours. 

Fig 1.10- DNA Center Maglev Check

Check all the Maglev commands for Node to be up and status of all the services and packages of the DNA Center. Now same process needs to be done for node 2 and node 3. There is only one difference.

Go to the second node and instead of selecting " Start a Cisco DNA Center cluster" you need to select "Join a Cisco DNA center Cluster". rest all process of setting up adapters and other configurations are same.

Similarly, Go to the Third node and instead of selecting " Start a Cisco DNA Center cluster" you need to select "Join a Cisco DNA center Cluster". rest all process of setting up adapters and other configurations are same

Once all Nodes setup, you are good to login to GUI and check your DNA center with all the required settings and version.