Create a site and download an image - BlueCat Edge - Service Point v3.x.x

BlueCat Edge Deployment Guide

Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Edge
Version
Service Point v3.x.x

Create your sites and generate service point images for deployment in your VMWare ESX, Nutanix. AWS, Azure, or GCP environment. You can also deploy service points to BlueCat DNS/DHCP Servers. Service points begin collecting data after you deploy them in VMWare, Nutanix, AWS, Azure, GCP, or to a DNS/DHCP Server.

Creating a site

  1. In the top navigation bar, click and select Sites.
  2. Click New to add a new site, or select an existing site and click Edit, and complete the following information:
    • Name: Enter the site name.
      Note: If you're configuring a site to use a namespace that's configured for the Cisco Umbrella integration, the site name must not be more than 45 characters in length.
    • Location: Enter the site address, city, and country. This will be converted into longitude and latitude when the site is saved.
    • Service Point Version: Select the software version that will be operating on service points deployed from this site.
      Note:
      • If you are editing a site, you cannot update the service point version.
      • The service point version of the site must be v3.0.6 or greater to deploy a service point on AWS or Azure.
    • Namespaces: Select a namespace and click to add it as a default forwarder for the site. You need to set at least one, and can select a maximum of three, namespaces. You can override the default forwarder IP addresses by entering a different IP address.
      Note: When you create a new site, the order of the namespaces at the site level is determined by the order configured in the Namespaces page.
      Attention: Some namespace features might not be applied as expected on service points within Sites that are running an older service point version. BlueCat recommends running the latest service point version to ensure that all namespace features function as expected.
  3. Click Save to save the new site.
  4. To delete a site, select it and click Delete. The delete button is only active if there are no service points configured for the site. You must remove the forwarding DNS address(es) to delete a site.

View the service point version of a site

You can view the version of software that has been configured to run on all service points that have been deployed from the site from the individual site details page or from the Service Point Version column on the Sites overview page.
  1. On the Sites page, select the site you want to work with.
  2. The Site details page displays the following information:
    • Service Point Version: The current software version that has been configured to run on all service points that have been deployed from this site.
    • Latest Available Version: The latest available version of service point software.
    • Update Initiated: The timestamp of when the service point update selection was confirmed at the site level.
      Note: When updating the service point version on multiple sites, the Update Initiated of the selected sites will display the same timestamp. For a more accurate representation of when the update was initiated on each service point, refer to the Update Initiated field in the service point details page.
    • Update Status: The status of the last service point update. The individual update status of each connected service point is cumulatively displayed in this field as follows:
      • Completed - All connected service points deployed from this Site were successfully updated to the service point version configured at the Site.
      • Update in progress - At least one of the connected service points deployed from this site is updating to the service point version configured at the Site.
      • Rolling back - At least one of the connected service points deployed from this Site could not successfully update to the service point version configured at the Site and is currently rolling back to the service point version that was running before the update was initiated.
      • Rollback completed - At least one of the connected service points deployed from this Site could not successfully update to the service point version configured at the Site and successfully rolled back to the service point version that was running before the update was initiated.
      • Failed - If at least one of the connected service points deployed from this Site has one of the following issues:
        • The service point could not successfully update to the service point version configured at the Site and was unable to successfully roll back to the service point version that was running before the updated was initiated.
        • The service point returns the Timed out state.
      • Unknown status - The service point update status could not be determined across the Site.
      • No connected service points - The service point update was applied to a Site that contains no connected service points.
      Note:
      • The Update Status of the site uses the following precedence order based on the statuses returned by the service points:
        • Failed
        • Rolling back
        • Rollback completed
        • Update in progress
        • Completed
        • Unknown status
        • No connected service points
      • A service point returns the Timed out status when it could not return its update progress to the site within 15 minutes of it starting the service point update. The service point update status will continue to display the Timed out status until the next attempted update.

        You can review the status of each service point deployed from a site by reviewing the Site details page or by reviewing the individual Service Point details page.

        If your service point returns the Timed out status:
        • Review the Current Version and Applied Version field of the Service Point details page. If the versions are the same, the update applied successfully but the Update Status was not updated correctly, and no further action is required.
        • If the versions listed in the Current Version and Applied Version fields are different, retry the service point update. For more information, refer to Retry the service point update.
        • If the Connection State of the service point is Disconnected, review the Cloud access requirements and the connection between the service point and the BlueCat Edge Cloud to ensure that the service point can communicate with the BlueCat Edge Cloud. Once the service point Connection State returns Connected, you can retry the service point update.

        If the issue persists and you can't successfully update the service point, contact BlueCat Customer Care for assistance.

      • If the status of the site Update Status is Rollback completed or Failed, you can retry the update. For more information, refer to Retry the service point update.

From the Sites overview page, you can use the Service Point Version column to quickly view the configured service point version of that site. If you have automatic service point updates enabled, this column displays the latest service point version for all sites.

The following icons might appear next to the service point version and indicate the following:
  • - The service point Update Status of the Site is Rolling back, Rollback completed, Failed, or Unknown status.
  • - The service point Update Status of the Site is Update in progress or No connected service points.
The icon is only visible to System Administrators and is greyed out if you have not disabled automatic service point updates. If you have disabled automatic service point updates and your sites are not running the latest service point update, a small circle displays at the top right of this icon, indicating that a new service point version is available to be deployed to your sites. For more information on manually updating the service point version of sites, refer to Manually update service point versions.

Retry the service point update

If a service point fails to update and returns an update status of Rollback failed, Rollback complete, or Failed, you can retry the service point update.
  1. On the Sites page, select the site with the service points that did not successfully update.
  2. At the bottom of the site details page, click Retry Update.

    A message is displayed at the top of the page, indicating that the affected service points are attempting to update again.

Clear the cache of service points of a site

You can clear the cache of service points that belong to sites.
  1. On the Sites page, select the site you want to work with.
  2. At the bottom of the site details page, click Clear Cache.

    A message is displayed at the top of the page, indicating that it's in progress.

Download a service point image for VMWare or Nutanix
  1. On the Sites page, select the site you want to work with.
  2. Under Service Point Downloads, select VMWare and click to generate an image.
  3. Click to download the image.
  4. When the image has downloaded, deploy it to your VMWare ESX or Nutanix environment.

    To learn how to deploy the service point image to VMWare ESX, refer to Deploy using vCenter Server and ESXi.

    To learn how to deploy the service point image to Nutanix, refer to Deploy to Nutanix.
    Note: The downloaded OVA file does not expire. You can use the file to deploy a service point image at a later point in time.

Download a service point configuration file for AWS, Azure, or GCP

You can deploy multiple service points using a single configuration file.
Attention: The service point version of the site must be v3.0.6 or greater to deploy a service point on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
  1. On the Sites page, select the site you want to work with.
  2. Under Service Point Downloads, select AWS/Azure/GCP and click to download the config file.
  3. When the file has downloaded, deploy the service point to your environment.
    Attention: The config file is only valid for 48 hours. If you deploy a service point on AWS, Azure, or GCP more than 48 hours after the initial config file was downloaded, you must download a new config file to use during the deployment.

    The default file name includes the site name and the configuration file's expiration date and time.

    To learn how to deploy the service point, refer to Deploy to Amazon AWS, Deploy to Azure, or Deploy to Google Cloud Platform.