New Cisco Module

Background

Cisco has discontinued the SMI-S interface in the DCNM from version 12 which was used by BVQ to collect topology and performance data for Cisco MDS switches. For this reason, BVQ was forced to gather that information in a different way. BVQ now gathers information from the MDS switches using NX-OS API.

Impact

During the upgrade to BVQ 2022.H2.1, all data related to Cisco will be deleted without further notice. 

The following data will be lost after the upgrade:

• Cisco Scanner configurations
• Cisco topology and performance data
• Cisco alert rule results

Required Actions

After upgrade to BVQ 2022.H2.1, Cisco scanners need to be configured again.

While previously one scanner per DCNM had to be configured, it is now necessary to configure one scanner per SAN. A SAN defines all MDS switches that are physically connected together.

Example:

• SAN A consists of MDS-1, MDS-2 and MDS-3 → one scanner configuration
• SAN B consists of MDS-4, MDS-5 and MDS-6 → second scanner configuration

Note: 
If predefined Cisco alert rules were enabled prior to the BVQ update, they will be automatically enabled again after the new Cisco scanner configurations are saved and successfully persisted for the first time. 

SVAMon integration

Beginning with version 2022.H2.x, BVQ supports exposing alert results to SVAMon. A special plugin in SVAMon is required to display BVQ alert results in SVAMon.
If you are interested, please get in touch with your BVQ or SVAMon contact for further information and help in setting up SVAMon with BVQ.

Initial configuration wizard

To help with the initial configuration of BVQ, a configuration wizard pops up after installing BVQ for the first time.

This wizard helps you to configure the first scanner configurations and to enable alerting. A short video explains how to work with BVQ's alerting engine.

Using the wizard is optional.

Capacity Charts via REST

Topology and Performance favorites can be accessed via REST using the BVQ Webui in Reporting > Datasources. But it wasn't possible to access Capacity Charts. This functionality has been added to 2022.H2.3.

Removal of BVQ database backup functionality

As BVQ covers more and more system, the required data increases and the complexity of our internal database structure grows. Unfortunately, with BVQ Version 2022.H2.x a safe and restorable backup of the BVQ database cannot be guaranteed using the previous implementation. Hence, the internal database backup function was removed from the WebUI.

Unchanged the best only recommended way to backup BVQ is to create a backup of the virtual machine BVQ is running in with the tools provided by the vendor of your hypervisor. This will continue to provide a safe and restorable backup.

If you want to safe space, you have the choice to only backup the database of BVQ. Different ways to backup a mongo db database are described here: https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/core/backups/

Keep in mind that by just backing up the BVQ database you will lose all rendered reports in case of a restore, because they are stored in the BVQ filesystem not in the DB.