Cisco Nexus 9000 – POAP

In this article, we will discuss about POAP to provision multiple switches.

We need a DHCP, TFTP and SCP server. We can also use an HTTP server to deliver the software and the configuration.

POAP Infrastructure:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/i/300001-400000/330001-340000/331001-332000/331649.eps/_jcr_content/renditions/331649.jpg

POAP Process:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/i/300001-400000/330001-340000/332001-333000/332315.eps/_jcr_content/renditions/332315.jpg

Software used:

  • ISC-DHCP-SERVER – version 4.3.1
  • ATFTPD – version 0.7
  • OPENSSH-server 6.7p1

DHCP configuration example :

Subnet used : 192.168.255.0/24

In the following block, I reserve a baud for the Client XXXXXXXX. XXXX is the serial number of the switch.

In the option dhcp-client-identifier you need to add “\000” before the serial number.

We have to assign the following parameter:

  • IP address
  • Default Gateway
  • IP address TFTP Server
  • Filename
  • DNS server

In the file: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

option domain-name-servers 192.168.255.254;

subnet 192.168.255.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

host switch1 {
 option dhcp-client-identifier "\000XXXXXXXXXX";
 fixed-address 192.168.255.1;
 option routers 192.168.255.254;
 option bootfile-name "/nxos/poap.py";
 option tftp-server-name "192.168.255.200";
 }

}

TFPT server:

I kept the default configuration, in the file /etc/default/atftpd

USE_INETD=true
 OPTIONS="--tftpd-timeout 300 --retry-timeout 5 --mcast-port 1758 --mcast-addr 239.239.239.0-255 --mcast-ttl 1 --maxthread 100 --verbose=5 /srv/tftp"

In the directory /srv/tftp, I downloaded the poap.py file on github. (https://github.com/datacenter/nexus9000/blob/master/nx-os/poap/poap.py)

This script is provided by Cisco. In this file, you need to customize one part. In the following part you enter the information for:

  • The target image
  • Directory for the image and configuration
  • Method to download the image and configuration here scp
  • The credential of the SCP Server
  • The name of the configuration file (here based on the serial number)
# system and kickstart images, configuration: location on server (src) and target (dst)
 n9k_image_version       = "7.0.3.I5.2" # this must match your code version
 image_dir_src           = "/srv/tftp/nxos"  # Sample - /Users/bob/poap
 ftp_image_dir_src_root  = image_dir_src
 tftp_image_dir_src_root = image_dir_src
 n9k_system_image_src    = "nxos.%s.bin" % n9k_image_version
 config_file_src         = "/srv/tftp/nxos/conf" # Sample - /Users/bob/poap/conf
 image_dir_dst           = "bootflash:" # directory where n9k image will be stored
 system_image_dst        = n9k_system_image_src
 config_file_dst         = "volatile:poap.cfg"
 md5sum_ext_src          = "md5"
 # Required space on /bootflash (for config and system images)
 required_space          = 800000

# copy protocol to download images and config
 # options are: scp/http/tftp/ftp/sftp
 protocol                = "scp" # protocol to use to download images/config

# Host name and user credentials
 username                = "root" # server account
 ftp_username            = "anonymous" # server account
 password                = "password" # password
 hostname                = "192.168.255.200" # ip address of ftp/scp/http/sftp server
 config_file_type        = "serial_number"

After you need to generate a md5 of the poap.py script. The following line will replace the second line with the MD5. If the MD5 is not valided the POAP process will fail and restart.

f=poap.py ; cat $f | sed '/^#md5sum/d' > $f.md5 ; sed -i "s/^#md5sum=.*/#md5sum=\"$(md5sum $f.md5 | sed 's/ .*//')\"/" $f
#!/bin/env python
#md5sum="3b614973cbde2742388b5997228678cd"
# Still needs to be implemented.
# Return Values:

You also need to generate an md5 for the image:

md5sum nxos.7.0.3.I5.2.bin > nxos.7.0.3.I5.2.bin.md5

Don’t forget your configuration file name “conf.XXXXXXX” where XXXX is the serial number and to configure the credential in this file.