Cisco Intersight

Central. Once the Cisco DC is installed, it builds a bi-directional secure communication channel bridging Cisco Intersight with Nutanix Prism Central. Cisco Intersight uses Prism Central v4 Management APIs to display and monitor different Intersight services for Cisco HCI clusters running Nutanix software (as also described under Benefits). The development of a bi-directional interface between the Cisco Intersight management platform and Nutanix Prism Central enables both Cisco and Nutanix to develop observability and monitoring features independently in future. Supported hardware ● All Cisco HCI servers are officially supported ◦ HCI M6 and M7 rack servers ◦ HCI M7 X-series modular servers ● UMM (UCSM Managed Mode), ISM (Intersight Standalone Mode), and IMM (Intersight Managed Mode) clusters are supported Supported software ● Nutanix software ◦ Prism Central 2024.3 or later ◦ AOS 6.8 or later ◦ Lifecycle Manager (LCM) 3.1 or later (for device connector upgrades) ◦ Cisco Device Connector (DC) 4.3.0 or later ◦ Support for both- Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) and ESXi hypervisor ● Cisco software ◦ Support for Cisco Intersight SaaS ◦ Support for Cisco Intersight Connected Virtual Appliance (CVA) and Private Virtual Appliance (PVA) (1.1.2-0 or later) Cisco Intersight and Nutanix Prism Central Day 1 integration scale limits ● Phase 1 support (initial release) – support each Prism Central with 25 registered clusters and 5000 alarms Learn more For information on Cisco Compute Hyperconverged Infrastructure with Nutanix, visit cisco.com/go/computehyperconverged. For information on Cisco Intersight, visit

Cisco Intersight Cisco Intersight is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) infrastructure management platform that is augmented by other intelligent systems. It provides global management of the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and Cisco HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure, Cisco APIC, and other platforms including Nexus Dashboard. Data center apps, such as Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights, connect to the Cisco Intersight portal through a Device Connector that is embedded in the management controller of each system, in this case your Nexus Dashboard platform. Device Connector provides a secure way for the connected devices to send information and receive control instructions from the Cisco Intersight portal, using a secure internet connection. When an Intersight-enabled device or application starts, the Device Connector starts at boot by default and attempts to connect to the cloud service. If the Auto Update option is enabled, the Device Connector is automatically updated to the latest version through a refresh by the Intersight service when you connect to Cisco Intersight. For more information on the Auto Update option, see Configuring Device Connector Settings. For additional information on Cisco Intersight, see Note If you upgraded from Application Services Engine and your Intersight device connector is claimed with a proxy configured, you will need to re-configure the proxy in the Cluster Configuration screen. For more information, see Cluster Configuration. Configuring Device Connector Settings Devices are connected to the Cisco Intersight portal through a Device Connector, which provides a secure way for the connected devices to send information and receive control instructions from the Cisco Intersight portal. All device connectors must properly resolve svc.intersight.com and allow outbound initiated HTTPS connections on port 443. If a proxy is required for an HTTPS connection, you must configure the proxy settings in your Nexus Dashboard. This section describes how to configure the basic Device Connector settings. Navigate to your Nexus Dashboard’s Admin Console. From the main navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Intersight. In the top right of the main pane, click Settings. Click the General tab to configure basic options. Use the Device Connector knob to enable or disable the Device Connector. This enables you to claim

Cisco continues to invest and enhance our data center automation and private cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform, Cisco UCS Director. At the same time, we are leveraging the Cisco Intersight platform to deliver additional value and operational benefits when coupled with UCS Director.Guest Blogger: Sri Hary Vengadasubbu, Cisco Intersight Product ManagementExecuting on Our StrategyWe introduced Cisco Intersight software as a service (SaaS) systems management platform that unifies the Cisco UCS rack and blade servers and HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure for our customers. In a series of blogs, the product management team has explained our strategy for helping our customers transition from Cisco UCS Director to Cisco Intersight. Here’s the list of blogs from the series:UCS Director – A Strategic IaaS EvolutionUCS Director – Simplify Infrastructure Automation AnywhereCisco Intersight and UCS Director: Executing on Our StrategyInvestment ProtectionCisco is committed to delivering private cloud IaaS automation offered by UCS Director and in protecting our customers investments. A new Intersight Advantage edition to be announced shortly will include UCS Director, in addition to other capabilities, and it will extend customer’s investment protection as they transition to Cisco Intersight. Over time, the combination of UCS Director and Intersight will simplify day to day operations and extend private cloud IaaS services.Bringing SaaS Benefits to UCS Director: Hybrid SaaSOne of the advantages of the Cisco Intersight SaaS platform is that customers get the benefits of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). This means they can realize the advantages of new, enhanced capabilities as they are made available every couple of weeks without creating additional work for operations teams. Customers using on-prem enterprise software like UCS Director traditionally go through a delayed patch and upgrade process. As a result, they do not realize the benefits of new capabilities for 3-6 months, or even longer, after a product release, due to delays in operational processes.Starting with latest Cisco UCS Director 6.7 release, customers can now get SaaS and CI/CD benefits by simply “claiming” their UCS Director on-prem installation from the Cisco Intersight SaaS platform. This claim process enables a secure hybrid SaaS setup by associating the Intersight

The need for visibility and insights IT organizations must ensure they are delivering digital experiences that delight customers. Delivering outstanding digital experiences can boost customer satisfaction and enhance brand reputation, potentially leading to increased sales and revenue. Operational costs can decrease due to fewer support requests, and the insights gained can drive strategic business decisions. However, complex IT operations and lack of visibility can: ● Obscure the ability to swiftly identify and resolve system issues, leading to prolonged downtimes and poor user experiences ● Result in inconsistent system performance, reduce resource optimization, and hinder informed decision-making ● Lead to security vulnerabilities going unnoticed, risking data breaches and loss of customer trust Simplified operations with enhanced monitoring is essential to optimize performance and proactively manage your technology landscape from a centralized vantage point. Cisco Intersight and Nutanix Prism Central (PC) integration Cisco® and Nutanix have collaborated to introduce foundational integration capabilities between Cisco Intersight® and Nutanix Prism, delivering greater visibility and insight into the Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix solution. This integration will deliver a more unified experience to customers implementing the solution and provide increased visibility and control across distributed hyperconverged clusters. Benefits ● Simplify operations: Single dashboard on Cisco Intersight for monitoring Cisco Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) running Nutanix software from multiple Nutanix Prism Centrals (PCs) ● Enhance visibility: Bi-directional interface enables the ability to see Cisco HCI Nutanix cluster and node detail view; storage utilization; cluster-level alarm aggregation and alarm acknowledgement, and Nutanix license entitlement, compliance, and violations. ● Ease of use and flexibility: A single view to manage Cisco Intersight licenses and Nutanix licenses; automatic upgrade of Cisco Device Connector (DC) via Intersight; and support for Cisco Intersight SaaS, Cisco Intersight Connected Virtual Appliance (CVA), and Private Virtual Appliance (PVA) ● Efficient troubleshooting: Future cross-launch capabilities will facilitate quicker debugging and issue resolution across both platforms. What it does Nutanix Prism Central (PC) can be a managed target connected to the Intersight portal through a Cisco Device Connector. The Cisco Device Connector (DC) application (Opt-in) must be downloaded from the Prism Central Marketplace and installed in Nutanix Prism

Nexus Switch Intersight Device Connector This chapter contains the following sections: Nexus Switch Intersight Device Connector Overview Devices are connected to the Cisco Intersight portal through a Nexus Switch Intersight Device Connector (NXDC) that is embedded in the Cisco NX-OS image of each system. Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 10.2(3)F, the Device Connector on NX-OS feature is supported which provides a secure way for the connected devices to send information and receive control instructions from the Cisco Intersight portal, using a secure Internet connection. The NXDC is enabled by default on all Cisco Nexus series switches and it starts at boot by default, and attempts to connect to the cloud service. Once a secure connection has been established and the device connector is registered with the Intersight service, the device connector collects detailed inventory, health status and sends the adoption telemetry data to the Intersight database. Inventory is refreshed once in a day. The NXDC supports the AutoUpdate feature where it gets automatically updated to the latest version through a refresh by the Intersight service when you connect to Intersight. The NXDC also supports the Connected TAC feature to collect tech-support data from devices that are claimed. The NXDC feature integration was done to resolve the standalone Nexus switches with the following capabilities: It provides fast and quick solution to gather basic data from standalone Nexus switches. It stores and manages private data securely in the cloud. It is flexible for future capabilities and enables the ability to upgrade NXDC. Guidelines and Limitations NXDC has the following guidelines and limitations: You must configure DNS. You must ensure svc.intersight.com gets resolved and allow outbound initiated HTTPS connections on port 443. If a proxy is required for an HTTPS connection to svc.intersight.com, the proxy can be configured in the NXDC user interface. For proxy configuration, see Configuring NXDC. Configuring Nexus Switch to Intersight By default the Nexus switch attempts to connect to Cisco's Intersight. If your Nexus device does not have the ability to reach Intersight, a specific proxy for Intersight must be configured. Note By default the Intersight feature (also known as Nexus Device Connector) is enabled. To configure the optional parameters for the Intersight feature, follow the below steps: SUMMARY STEPS configure terminal (Optional) intersight proxy port (Optional) intersight use-vrf (Optional) intersight trustpoint [host-name] (Optional) intersight source-interface (Optional) no feature intersight DETAILED STEPS Command or Action Purpose Step 1 configure terminal Example: switch# configure terminalswitch(config)# Enters global configuration mode. Step 2 (Optional) intersight proxy port Example: switch(config)# intersight proxy proxy.esl.cisco.com port 8080 (Optional) Configures the proxy server for Intersight connection. proxy-name: IPv4 or IPv6 address or DNS name of proxy server. proxy-port: Proxy port number. The range is 1-65535. The