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Book Contents Book ContentsCisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.1(x)
This chapter contains the following sections:
The APIC GUI is a browser-based graphical interface for configuring and monitoring the ACI fabric. The GUI is organized to provide hierarchical navigation to all components, logical and physical, of the overall system. The primary control regions of the GUI are shown in the following figure.
The functions of these regions are described in the following links:
Below the Navigation pane, the Last Login is displayed, showing the date and time of the last instance of the current user's login.
As you operate the GUI to make configuration changes and retrieve information, the GUI communicates with the underlying operating system by exchanging REST API messages. You can observe these API messages using the API Inspector tool described in Viewing an API Interchange in the GUI.
The menu bar is displayed across the top of the APIC GUI. The menu bar provides access to the main configuration tabs, along with access to tools such as search, notifications, and preferences. Immediately below the menu bar is the submenu bar, which presents specific configuration areas for each selected menu bar tab. The submenu bar tabs are different for each menu bar tab and might also differ depending upon your specific configuration or privilege level.
In the APIC GUI configuration instructions, you will see notation such as Fabric > Fabric Policies . In this example, you are asked to click the Fabric tab in the menu bar followed by the Fabric Policies tab in the submenu bar.
At the far right side of the menu bar are the following menu bar tools:
The name of the currently logged in local user.
The individual menu bar tabs and tools are described in the following sections.
Use the System tab to collect and display a summary of the overall system health, its history, and a table of system-level faults.
In addition, the System tab provides the following functions:
Use the Tenants tab in the menu bar to perform tenant management. The submenu bar provides a list of all tenants, an Add Tenant link, and links to three built-in tenants plus up to two of the most recently used tenants.
The built-in tenants are:
For Layer 2 configuration of ports, you can type into the node and path fields to filter ports.
Use the Virtual Networking tab to view and configure the inventory of the various virtual machine (VM) managers. You can configure and create various management domains under which connections to individual management systems (such as VMware vCenters or VMware vShield) can be configured. Use the Inventory tab in the submenu bar to view the hypervisors and VMs that are managed by these VM management systems (also referred to as controllers in API).
Use the Admin tab to perform administrative functions such as authentication, authorization, and accounting functions, scheduling policies, retaining and purging records, upgrading firmware, and controlling features such as syslog, Call Home, and SNMP.
The capacity dashboard displays the available capacity of configurable resources such as endpoints, bridge domains, tenants, and contexts. The dashboard contains the following tabs:
The Apps tab displays all the applications installed or uploaded to APIC. The tab allows an APIC administrator to upload, enable, upgrade, install, or uninstall a packaged application in APIC.
Use the Integrations tab to view all third-party integrations.
Click the Search icon to display the search field. The search field enables you to locate objects by name or other distinctive fields.
The search function allows the use of wildcards (*).
Click the Multi-Site Manager icon to launch the multi-site manager. The multi-site manager allows you can launch site APICs.
Figure 3. Launch the Multi-Site Manager
Click the feedback menu bar icon to send comments to Cisco.
Figure 4. Feedback
Click the alert menu bar icon to view a list of active alerts. When system alerts are available, a numeric badge will appear on the alert icon indicating the number of active alerts. When critical system notifications are available, the alert icon will blink red. To view the alerts, click the following icon.
To disable blinking of the alert icon, remove all critical alerts from the alert list. A disabled Close button on a critical alert indicates that you must first resolve the underlying issue before the alert can be cleared.
To access the system tools, click the following menu bar icon and select an item from the drop-down list.
The following selections are available:
Global system settings are configured in System > System Settings .
To access the Help tools, click the following menu bar icon and select an item from the drop-down list.
Figure 7. Help
The following selections are available:
To configure settings and preferences for the logged in user, click the following menu bar icon and select an item from the drop-down list.
The following selections are available:
Use the Navigation pane, which is on the left side of the APIC GUI below the submenu bar, to navigate to all elements of the submenu category.
For each submenu category, the Navigation pane is organized as a hierarchical tree of objects, logical and physical, related to that category. These objects typically represent ports, policies, or groupings of other objects. When you select an object in the Navigation pane, details of the object display in the Work pane.
When you right-click an object in the Navigation pane, you might be presented with a menu of possible actions related to the object, such as one or more of the following actions:
Use the Work pane, which is on the right side of the APIC GUI, to display details about the component that you selected in the Navigation pane.
The Work pane includes the following elements:
In addition to displaying specific task menus, the Work pane also displays several types of special-purpose menus described in this section.
Many APIC menu and submenu tabs open an initial Quick Start page, which summarizes the purpose of the tab, provides links to step-by-step instructions and videos for commonly-used procedures, and provides shortcut links to commonly-used subsections within the tab. An overall Quick Start page at System > QuickStart assists you in performing common and basic procedures, providing step-by-step instructions, available concept information, and links to main functional areas in the GUI.
Dashboard pages provide at-a-glance summaries of the status of the ACI system and major system components, including health score trends, components with below-threshold health scores, and fault counts. You can configure health score thresholds to determine when components will appear in the dashboard. The system dashboard page at System > Dashboard summarizes the health of the overall ACI system, while switch dashboard pages at Fabric > Inventory > Pod n > component > Dashboard summarize the health and faults of each spine and leaf switch.
Many top-level folders in the Navigation pane display tile-based Summary pages in the Work pane that link to subfolders. Some Summary pages, such as those in Fabric > Inventory > Pod n , contain tiles summarizing major components along with brief health and fault information for each component. Other Summary pages, such as those in Fabric > Fabric Policies > Policies , contain tiles that describe the configuration areas served by the contained folders.
An ACI controller cluster comprises three or more APICs. In some cases, it might be helpful to know which APIC you are viewing. Perform the following steps to add a custom name to the heading of the APIC GUI.
On the APIC menu bar, choose System > System Settings .
In the Navigation pane, click APIC Identification Preferences .
In the work pane, type the desired APIC name in the GUI Alias box.
You can define banners to be displayed when the user is prompted to log in to the CLI or GUI. The CLI banner is a simple text string to be printed at the terminal before the password prompt. You can define a banner for the APIC CLI and a separate banner for the switch CLI. The GUI banner displays at the APIC URL before user login authentication. The GUI banner is defined as a URL of a site hosting the desired HTML.
On the APIC menu bar, choose System > System Settings .
In the Navigation pane, click APIC Identification Preferences .
In the work pane, complete the following fields as desired:
Note | The URL site owner must allow the site to be placed in an iFrame to display the informational banner. If the owner of the site sets the x-frame-option to deny or sameorigin , the site the URL points to will not appear. |
Beginning with Cisco APIC Release 4.0(1), you can log in to the APIC GUI and then open additional browser tabs or windows to the same APIC without being required to log in from each new tab or window. This behavior is disabled by default and can be enabled by checking the Enable Single-Browser Session (SBS) checkbox in the User Profile and Preferences > Settings menu from the main menu bar tools.
If you want to log in to APIC from different tabs or windows of a browser using different credentials, make sure the single-browser session management feature is disabled.
By configuring Deployment Warning Settings , you can enable the automatic display of policy usage information whenever you modify or delete policies that might affect other resources or policies. The policy usage information allows you to identify which resources and policies are being used by the policy that you are currently modifying or deleting. Tables display the nodes where the given policy is used and other policies that use this policy. By default, usage information is displayed within a dialog box whenever you attempt to modify a policy. Also, at any time, you can click the Show Usage button at the bottom of the screen to view the same information.
The Deployment Warning Settings dialog box allows you to enable and alter the scope of deployment notification that displays policy usage information. You can access this dialog box by selecting Change Deployment Settings in the menu bar tool User Settings and Preferences drop-down list or through a button on the Policy Usage Information dialog box.
When the Policy tab is selected in the upper right corner of the Deployment Warning Settings dialog box, you can configure the following policy options:
When the History tab is selected in the upper right corner of the Deployment Warning Settings dialog box, you can view tables of Events and Audit Log entries for previous deployment warnings.
The APIC GUI provides a graphical method for configuring ports, port channels, and virtual port channels on the leaf switches in the fabric, configure ports for dynamic breakout, and link interfaces to FEX switches. This configuration capability is present in the following GUI locations:
In the Work pane's Interface tab, click on the + button (at the top left), select one or more switches to configure, and click Add Selected . To select multiple switches, use Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click.
The switches are graphically displayed with their ports and links. If you have configured a breakout port, a block containing the sub ports is displayed below the leaf diagram.
Select the interfaces to configure. When interfaces are selected, the available configuration buttons appear. Depending on the number of selected interfaces and where they are located, you can then click one of the following buttons at the top of the page:
When you perform a task in the APIC graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI creates and sends internal API messages to the operating system to execute the task. By using the API Inspector, which is a built-in tool of the APIC, you can view and copy these API messages. A network administrator can replicate these messages in order to automate key operations, or you can use the messages as examples to develop external applications that will use the API.
Log in to the APIC GUI.
In the upper right corner of the APIC window, click the System Tools icon to view the drop-down list.
In the drop-down list, choose the Show API Inspector .
The API Inspector opens in a new browser window.
In the Filters toolbar of the API Inspector window, choose the types of API log messages to display.
The displayed messages are color-coded according to the selected message types. This table shows the available message types:
Name | Description |
---|---|
trace | Displays trace messages. |
debug | Displays debug messages. This type includes most API commands and responses. |
info | Displays informational messages. |
warn | Displays warning messages. |
error | Displays error messages. |
fatal | Displays fatal messages. |
all | Checking this checkbox causes all other checkboxes to become checked. Unchecking any other checkbox causes this checkbox to be unchecked. |
In the Search toolbar, you can search the displayed messages for an exact string or by a regular expression.
This table shows the search controls:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Search | In this text box, enter a string for a direct search or enter a regular expression for a regex search. As you type, the first matched field in the log list is highlighted. |
Reset | Click this button to clear the contents of the Search text box. |
Regex | Check this checkbox to use the contents of the Search text box as a regular expression for a search. |
Match case | Check this checkbox to make the search case sensitive. |
Disable | Check this checkbox to disable the search and clear the highlighting of search matches in the log list. |
Next | Click this button to cause the log list to scroll to the next matched entry. This button appears only when a search is active. |
Previous | Click this button to cause the log list to scroll to the previous matched entry. This button appears only when a search is active. |
Filter | Check this checkbox to hide nonmatched lines. This checkbox appears only when a search is active. |
Highlight all | Check this checkbox to highlight all matched fields. This checkbox appears only when a search is active. |
In the Options toolbar, you can arrange the displayed messages.
This table shows the available options:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Log | Check this checkbox to enable logging. |
Wrap | Check this checkbox to enable wrapping of lines to avoid horizontal scrolling of the log list |
Newest at the top | Check this checkbox to display log entries in reverse chronological order. |
Scroll to latest | Check this checkbox to scroll immediately to the latest log entry. |
Clear | Click this button to clear the log list. |
Close | Click this button to close the API Inspector. |
This example shows two debug messages in the API Inspector window:
13:13:36 DEBUG - method: GET url: http://192.0.20.123/api/class/infraInfra.json response: <"imdata":[<"infraInfra":<"attributes":<"instanceId":"0:0","childAction":"", "dn":"uni/infra","lcOwn":"local","name":"","replTs":"never","status":"">>>]> 13:13:40 DEBUG - method: GET url: http://192.0.20.123/api/class/l3extDomP.json? query-target=subtree&subscription=yes response:
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Displays concept information for the current menu page
Plays a Quick Start video
Displays a Quick Start procedure
Link to related section
Collapse Tree View
Expand Tree View
Collapse All Nodes
Displays a drop-down list of actions
Refresh the displayed information
Download to a file
Critical—This icon displays a fault level with critical severity.
Major—This icon displays a fault level with major severity.
Minor—This icon displays a fault level with minor severity.
Warning—This icon displays a fault level that requires a warning.
This release introduces a preview of the next generation user interface (UI), which includes a modern and simplified Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller ( APIC ) GUI. With this preview, you can get an idea of upcoming development of the GUI. Any selection that is grayed out in the new GUI does not exist in this preview, but will be added in a future release. You cannot make any configuration changes using the preview; the new GUI will allow you to make configuration changes in a future release.
The new GUI shows the new GUI.
Table 1 describes the areas of the new GUI.
This area contains basic tools that appear regardless of the GUI page.
This is the core navigation for the Cisco APIC , which is present on all GUI pages.
This area contains tabs that change depending on the core navigation that you chose. The tabs enable you to navigate to subsections of that core navigation.
This area changes depending on which page you are viewing. The work area shows status, contains links to view configured objects, and much more. Any text in blue is a link that you can click to see more information about or change the configuration of something.
This release introduces a preview of the next generation user interface (UI), which includes a modern and simplified Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller ( APIC ) GUI. Follow these steps to preview the next generation user interface.
Click the profile icon in the upper right of any page and choose Switch to new UI .
You cannot view anything in the new GUI that is grayed out. These pages will be added in a future release.
To change back to the original GUI so that you can make configuration changes, click the profile icon in the upper right of any page and choose Switch to existing UI .