Rehoming Remote Devices

Rehoming remote devices enables Skylight operators to move remote-devices from one Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Sensor Control instance (source Sensor Control) to another (destination Sensor Control). The full configuration of the target remote-device is preserved over the migration process. Once it is fully under the management of the destination Sensor Control, the target remote-device is expected to function as it did at the original location, that is, the source Sensor Control.

Besides collecting and transferring the remote-devices' configuration, this feature also enables possible firmware upgrades to the target remote-devices as well as undoing the migration process if the rehoming procedure cannot be completed successfully.

The main applicable scenario for rehoming is to provide a gradual software upgrade. Instead of having to upgrade a Sensor Control instance and all of the remote devices that it currently manages in a single phase, the process can be done by migrating all remote-devices from a Sensor Control with an older software version to another with newer version, with the remote-devices being upgraded during the process. The rehoming can be done in a controlled fashion, with the target remote devices being selected appropriately to minimize service interruption. This functionality is not limited to software upgrades and is helpful in scenarios where the management of a remote-device needs to be transferred from one Sensor Control to another with the remote-device's configuration fully preserved.

Applicable Configurable Entities

The configurable entities below are created on a per device basis for each remote-devices and will be exported:

• Alarms associated with the remote-devices
• Flow broker's packet engines
• Flowmeter's rules
• Sampling rate
• Interfaces and their associated routes
• Loopbacks
• Ports
• Policies
• SAT RFC2544 generators
• SAT RFC2544 test suites
• SAT Y1564 tests
• SOAM v2 maintenance domains (MDs) and maintenance associations (MAs), if the remote-device is using SOAM v2 library
• SOAM (v1 and v2) maintenance association end-points (MEPs)
• For SOAM v2, this configuration includes packet loss measurements and synthetic loss measurements, if these are configured
• SOAM (v1 and v2) delay measurement instances (DMMs) TWAMP reflector sessions
• VCEs and their associated routes
• VCAs and VCA-VLANs

The Global Sensor Control configurations which are not related to the remote-device will not be exported, therefore, these configurations will NOT be exported:

• SNMP and Syslog configuration
• DNS configuration
• Certificate
• Storage Configuration
• Configuration under System Session: User/Permission/SessionConfig/RADIUS/TACACS/ACL/Licensing/OSService
• SystemMonitoring
• Security Key Management & FeatureSuite Management
• Discovery Configuration.

There are global Sensor Control configurations that are indirectly related to features used by remotedevices, such as Filters and Cos Profiles; these would only be exported if in use. This means that if there was a mismatch with the second Sensor Control, it would cause an error.

Assumptions and Dependencies

To successfully migrate the target remote-device to the destination Sensor Control and fully import the configuration it had at the source Sensor Control, it is expected that connectivity from the destination Sensor Control to the target remote-device can be established and that the settings of global configuration parameters at the destination Sensor Control are similar to those at the source Sensor Control.

When a remote-device is connected, all of its applications will be operational. When a remotedevice is disconnected, the operation of its applications are stopped. However, the applications preserve their respective configuration. That is, when the remote-device is connected again after being disconnected, its applications are expected to be re started using the same configuration.

The section below details these assumptions and expectations:

Assumptions and Expectations

Capacity and Connectivity
The destination Sensor Control must have
sufficient capacity to accept the new remote-device and its configuration.

If the target remote-device was connected to the source Sensor Control through a discovery method, it must be discovered through the discovery instances of the destination Sensor Control.

If the target remote-device was connected to the source Sensor Control using static configuration, it must be connectable using the same static configuration.

The license server used by the destination Sensor Control must be the same as that used by the source Sensor Control.

Global Configuration
History buckets must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

PM Collect must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

SAT Reporting must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

NFV tunnel base TCP port number must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

Flow broker base TCP port number must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

SNMP configuration must be configured on the destination Sensor Control.

Exporting Remote Devices

When an export request is received for a remote-device, the Sensor Control collects the configuration of its applications and other shared configurations (for example, filters and COS profiles) that are used by the remote-device and translates that data into an external format. This external configuration data is then sent to a repository specified as part of the export request.

Schemes supported in URL: ftp:, ftps:, scp:, sftp:, tftp.

To export a remote device configuration from File Server

1. Access the page Remote devices ▶ Export/Import ▶ From File Server.

2. Populate the following fields: Remote Device Name, Server URL and Password

3. Click the Test Export URL button to test the connectivity of the URL for the remote repository.

4. Click the Export button.

To export a remote device configuration from Local File

1. Access the page Remote devices ▶ Export/Import ▶ Local File.

2. Enter the Remote Device Name.

3. From the Config Export File Name the Name of the Config file you wish to export.

4. Click the Export button.

Importing Remote Devices

When an import request is received by the Sensor Control, the Sensor Control is expected to retrieve the import data from a repository specified in the import request. The import data is converted into the internal format and is used to add the remote-device to the Sensor Control and to configure various applications of the newly added remotedevice. If the import is off-line, the remote-device will be left disconnected at the end of a successful import process.

Schemes supported in URL: ftp:, ftps:, http:, https:, sftp:, tftp.

To import a remote device configuration from File Server

1. Access the page Remote devices ▶ Export/Import ▶ From File Server.

2. Populate the following fields: Server URL and Password

3. Select the Off-line import checkbox

4. Click the Import button.

To import a remote device configuration from Local File

1. Access the page Remote devices ▶ Export/Import ▶ Local File.

2. Select the Off-line import checkbox.

3. From the Config Import File area, click the Browse button to choose the local file you wish to import.

4. Click the Import button.

For more information on specific parameters, refer to the following tables.

Remote Device Parameters (Remote Devices ▶ Export/Import)

From File Server

Local File