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Director GUI Overview

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The Versa Director provisioning and management platform provides a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) that you use to orchestrate your network. The Director GUI provides a single pane of glass from which you configure and monitor all devices in your secure SD network, perform administrative functions, and access your Versa Analytics nodes. For device configuration, the Director GUI offers a wizard called Workflows that you use to configure the common and basic features across devices, and it offers a series of well-organized menus for configuring additional features. For device monitoring, the Director GUI displays real-time network and device status in graphical and tabular formats and provides the ability to drill down on screen elements to see more detailed information. The Analytics nodes provide both real-time and historical network and device status data, and they allow you to display system logging (log) information.

This article provides a tour of the Director GUI, describing all the areas on the GUI screens and the information displayed in them. You can use the information in this article to familiarize yourself with the Director GUI and to understand the nomenclature that the Versa Networks product documentation uses to describe the components of the Director GUI.

Note that this articles describe the GUI for Director nodes that are running Versa Operating SystemTM (VOSTM) Releases 22.1 and later. For a description of the GUI for Director nodes that are running Releases 21.2 and earlier, see Director GUI Overview (for Releases 21.2 and Earlier).

Browser Support

To use a Director node, it is recommended that you use one of the following browsers:

  • Chrome, Versa 71 or later
  • Firefox, Version 60 or later

Login Screen

To access the Director GUI, enter the URL of the Director node in the browser's URI field. The login screen displays. Then type your username and password, and click Login.

director-login-screen.png

When you log in to a Director node for the first time, you are in Director view. For subsequent logins, the screen that you were last on displays when you log in.

Terminology

The articles on the Versa Networks documentation portal use the following terminology. The articles attempt to use these terms consistently so that you can clearly understand the explanations and procedures.

  • Screen—The full browser window for Versa Director (and also for Versa Analytics). A Director screen always include a top menu bar, and can include other screen components such as a horizontal menu bar, a left menu bar, and a main pane. The following is an example of a Director screen.

    director-view-monitor-tab-callouts.png
     
  • Screenshot—An illustration of all or some of a Director screen or of a popup window that displays when you select an item or an action on a screen.
  • Tab—An area on the screen that allows you to open a different page on Versa Director. In the screenshot above, the tabs in the top menu bar are Monitor, Configuration, Workflows, Administration, and analytics. The tabs in the horizontal menu bar are Summary and Devices. To use a tab, you select it.
  • Top menu bar—The area across the top of the screen that includes the company logo, buttons that allow you to choose the view tabs and, on the right, icons and a user drop-down menu.
  • Main pane—The area beneath the top menu bar that display information from the Director node. The main pane can include one or more horizontal menu bars, one or more smaller panes, tables and graphical objects.
  • Pane—A smaller pane on the main pane.
  • Horizontal menu bar—The area at the top of the main pane that displays tabs that you can select to open different pages. Some screens have more than one horizontal menu bar, each with its own tabs.
  • Left menu bar—The area to the left of the main pane that displays items that you can select to open different pages. The screenshot above does not include a left menu bar.
  • Popup window—A window that pops up, or displays, and is superimposed over the current screen. Popup windows typically allow you to add or modify (edit) a networking or service component. For screenshots of popup windows, the articles on the documentation portal generally show just the popup window, not the popup window on top of its underlying screen, so that it is easier to see the popup window. The following is an example of a popup window as you see it on the Director screen, superimposed over the current screen. A documentation portal article would show a screenshot only of the Add Appliance popup window.

    popup-window.png
     
  • Select and click—Verbs that indicate how to choose items on screens, pane, panels, and popup windows. For any item that is a tab and for any selectable item in the left menu bar, you select the tab or item to choose it. For any other items, you click to choose one of them. These items include names, devices, or organizations in tables; checkboxes; arrows; icons; items in drop-down menus; and graphical elements on monitoring screens. To select a tab or click an item, you click on it once.
  • Drill down—Display more detailed information about elements on device monitoring screens. To drill down, you click on a graphical component, such as a section in a bar graph, or you click on an item in a table.

Director Single Pane of Glass

The Director single-pane-of-glass design provides a powerful tool for managing your entire network, allowing you to configure and monitor individual devices and interfaces, groups of devices for individual customers (called tenants) and provider organizations, and the entirety of your network enterprise, including SD-WAN and SASE portions of the network from a single interface. These broad views of the network and its components are provided by a streamlined graphical user interface (GUI) that begins with five high-level home screens, one of which is a link to the Analytics home screen. You access each home page by selecting a tab at the top of the screen. Each tab arranges device and network-related information in a logical and straightforward manner. Because of the large number of network and device components and the amount of information that the Director node is managing, each of the home screens has many screens under it to allow you to access all components and information.

To perform operations and view information, you navigate from the Director home screens in a number of ways—by selecting tabs, clicking buttons and fields, and clicking items in tables or portions of graphical elements. Selecting or clicking displays additional or more detailed information (sometimes referred to as drilling down), opens popup windows, performs a test or other operation, or changes the presentation of the information that is displayed.

In an effort to provide a usable and somewhat concise overview of the Director GUI, this article describes many, but not all, of the Director screens, and many, but not all, of the selectable and clickable items on each screen. The goal here is to allow you to familiarize yourself with the design of the GUI and the available options, especially if you do not have access to a Director node. When you do have access to a Director node, you are strongly encouraged to explore all the screens and the options on them. For monitor and other screens that report information, viewing the information and changing views (for example, changing from a table to a graph, or from one style of graph to another style) has no impact on the operation of the network or its devices. With a few exceptions, the options on configuration-related screens are viewable, and they have delete or cancel options, allowing you to explore screens and popup window, and configure test items, and then undo your trial work.

Areas on the Director Screen

All screens that you can access in the Director GUI have common areas, as illustrated in the screenshot below:

  • Top menu bar contains View buttons and tabs. The View buttons allow you to switch quickly to Director View, Appliance View, or Template View. Configuration  The tabs allow you to perform different tasks from the Director GUI, including monitoring, configuring, administering, using workflows, and accessing Versa Analytics  The icons and drop-down menu in the upper right of the top menu bar provide access for performing administrative tasks related to the Director node itself.
  • Left menu bar allows you to navigate to devices and task menus.
  • Horizontal menu bar provides additional navigational links or tabs. Many screens have a horizontal menu bar that is below the top menu bar. Some screens have multiple horizontal menu bar. In both cases, they are called horizontal menu bars. You can use the text description of the menu bar to determine which one is being discussed.
  • Main pane displays the information that results from your navigational choices.
  • Versa Verbo platform is an intelligent chatbot assistant that you use to ask questions and receive answers about the Director GUI. Versa Verbo derives answers to your questions using natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine-learning (ML).


director-appliance-view-configuration-tab.png

To select any tabs in the top menu bar or the horizontal menu bar, or to select an item in the left menu bar, you click the tab or item. For items in the left menu bar that are containers for other items, click the ► to display the subordinate items.

Buttons in the Top Menu Bar

The Director GUI has four distinct presentation formats, which are referred to as views. In each view, you can monitor different items and perform different tasks. The four View buttons in the top menu bar allow you to switch quickly between view. For more information, see Select a Director View, below.

Tabs in the Top Menu Bar

The Director GUI generally always has the same five tabs in the top menu bar:

  • Monitor—From the Monitor home page, you monitor the network and its devices in real time.
  • Configuration—From the Configuration home page, you configure VOS devices and the Director node itself.
  • Workflows—The Workflows home page provide wizards for configuring VOS device properties that are shared across multiple devices.
  • Administration—From the Administration home page, you configure and modify systemwide and networkwide properties.
  • Analytics—Redirects you to an Analytics node, where you can view real-time and historical device information and device system logging data (also called logs). From this tab, you can also monitor and configure Analytics clusters.

To select a tab, you single-click it. Selecting the Monitor, Configuration, Workflows, or Administration tab takes you to the home screen specific for that function. Selecting the Analytics tab takes you to the home screen on one of the Analytics node in your network. The tabs on these home screens may differ slightly from those listed above. The home screens and their subordinate screens are discussed below.

Other Items in the Top Menu Bar

The icons and drop-down menu in the upper right of the top menu bar provide access for performing general administrative tasks on the Director node. These icons generally remain constant regardless of the tab that you select in the top menu bar.

The following items are in the top menu bar:

  • Notifications Bell notifications-icon.png icon—Click to display all notifications that have been sent to the Director node. You can also clear all the notifications.
  • Tasks tasks-icon.png icon—Click to display all tasks that are currently running on the Director node and on the VOS nodes for which the Director node is responsible.
  • Information (circle-i) icon—Click to display information about the VOS software version running on the Director node.
  • Username—Name of the user who is logged in to the Director node. In the screenshot above, the username is Administrator.

Click the username to display a drop-down menu that contains the following items:

  • Director CLI—Click to start the CLI on the Director node. In the Shell In A Box popup window, enter the password to access the CLI. To log out of the CLI, enter the exit CLI command or close the Shell In A Box popup window.

    shell-in-a-box.png
     
  • Change Session Timeout—Click to change how long a Director GUI session is idle before the user is logged out. By default, the Director GUI timeout is set to 15 minutes.

    change-session-timeout.png
  • Change Password—Click to change the user's password. Type the existing password, and then type and confirm the new password.

    change-password.png
  • Change Logo—Click to change the logo displayed on the left side of the top menu bar.

    change-logo.png
  • Change Footer—Click to change the footer displayed along the bottom of the Director GUI.

    change-footer.png
  • Change Favicon—Click to change the favicon (logo bug) to display next to the log in the top menu bar.

    change-favicon.png
  • Toggle Chatbot—Click to disable the Chatbot if it is visible or to enable it if it is not visible.
  • Show RBAC Privileges—Click to display information about the services enabled on the VOS devices that are managed by the Director node.
  • REST API Documentation—Click to display the REST API documentation for the version of the VOS software that is running on the Director node.
  • Language—Click to select the language in which to display the Director. You can choose English or Chinese.
  • Logout—Click to log out of the Director node.

Sections in the Left Menu Bar

The left menu bar in the Director GUI lists the options available for the tab that you select in the top menu bar. To select an item in the left menu bar, single-click it. For items in the left menu bar that are organized hierarchically, click the > or ► to display the subordinate items.

The top of the left menu bar may have a search box so that you can search the items in the left menu bar.

Items in the Horizontal Menu Bars

The items that display in the horizontal menu bars vary, depending on the tab that you select. The sections below that describe each of the tabs describe some of the horizontal menu bars.

Director GUI Views

The Director GUI has four distinct presentation formats, which are referred to as views. In each view, you can monitor different items and perform different tasks.

  • Director view, which displays when you log in for the first time, is the centralized connection point to a series of dashboards from which you can display all activities and control all operations on the devices that are managed by the Director node. To go directly to Director view, click the Director View button in the top menu bar.
  • Appliance view displays when you select a VOS device (which is sometimes referred to as an appliance) so that you can view information about or perform a task related to that device. To go directly to Appliance view, click the Appliance View button in the top menu bar.
  • Template view displays when you select the Workflows tab in the top menu bar. Template view provides configuration templates that you can use to deploy configurations across an organization or across devices in an organization. For more information, see Overview of Configuration Templates. To go directly to Template view, click the Template View button in the top menu bar.
  • Analytics view displays when you select the Analytics tab in the top menu bar, a selection that connects you to a node in your Analytics cluster. The Director and Analytics nodes almost always run on different devices.

Director View

Director view is the centralized connection point to a series of dashboards from which you can display all activities and control all operations on the devices that are managed by the Director node.

When you log in to a Director node for the first time, you are in Director view. For subsequent logins, the screen that you were last on displays when you log in.

To go directly to Director view, click the Director View button in the top menu bar.

In Director view, the top menu bar shows the Monitor, Configuration, Workflows, Administration, and Analytics tabs.

When you select the Monitor tab in Director view, a monitor home screen similar to the following displays:
 

director-view-monitor-tab.png

When you select the Configuration tab in Director view, a configuration home screen similar to the following displays:

director-view-configuration-tab.png

When you select the Workflows tab in Director view, a workflows home screen similar to the following displays:

director-view-workflows-tab.png

When you select the Administration tab in Director view, an administration home screen similar to the following displays:

director-view-administration-tab.png

When you select the Analytics tab in Director view, the Analytics home screen displays

Appliance View

Appliance view displays when you select the Monitor, Configuration, or Administration tab and then select a VOS device (which is sometimes referred to as an appliance) so that you can view information about or perform tasks related to that device.

In Appliance view, the top menu bar shows the Monitor, Analytics, Configuration, and Administration tabs, and the horizontal menu bar shows a Home button and a drop-down box that shows the device's name and that allows you to select other devices.

To return to Director view, click the Home button or click the Director View button in the top menu bar.

To go directly to Appliance view, click the Appliance View button in the top menu bar. Then, select a VOS device from the Select Appliance popup window.

appliance-view-select-appliance-popup.png

When you select a device, the view changes to Appliance view and a home screen displays for the device that is similar to the screenshot below. The horizontal menu bar shows the name of the device, here, Controller1. This horizontal menu bar also has a Build button, to allow you to perform a build operation. This device home screen has a second horizontal menu bar, which shows the tabs Summary, Services, System, and Tools and which has buttons for operations you can perform here, including Shell, Configuration Status, Upgrade and Subscription. Select a tab to display additional monitoring-related information about the device. The left menu bar lists the organizations and tenants associated with the device you selected. Select an organization or tenant to display monitoring-related information specific to it.
 

appliance-view-configuration-tab2a.png

When you select the Configuration tab in Director view and then select a device, the view changes to Appliance view and a home screen displays for the device that is similar to the screenshot below. Again, the horizontal menu bar shows the Home button and the name of the device, SDWAN-Branch1. This horizontal menu bar also has a Build button, to allow you to perform a build operation. The left menu bar has tabs for four configuration sections:

  • Networking
  • Services
  • Objects & Connectors
  • Others

Depending on the configuration option you select, the device home screen may have a second horizontal bar, with tabs that allow you to fine-tune configuration parameters. In the screenshot below, Networking > Interfaces is selected in the left menu bar, and the second horizontal menu bar has tabs for each of the interface types that you can configure.
 

appliance-view-configuration-tab2.png

Template View

Template view displays when you select the Workflows tab in the top menu bar. Template view provides configuration templates that you can use to deploy configurations across an organization or across devices in an organization. For more information, see Configuration Using Templates, below, and Overview of Configuration Templates.

To go directly to Template view, click the Template View button in the top menu bar.

Analytics View

Analytics view refers to the home page of the Analytics software running on the Analytics node. For more information about the Analytics home page, see the articles in Versa Analytics Configuration Concepts.

Select a Director View

You can directly change the Versa Director view to Director view, Template view, or Appliance view by clicking one of the buttons in the top menu bar. A message displays in the horizontal menu bar to indicate which view you are currently in. You use the buttons in the bar to the right of the log to change views.

director-view-view-buttons.png

To change to Appliance view, click the Appliance View button. The following popup window displays. First, select an organization to display the available appliances in the organization. Then, click the name of an appliance to go to Appliance view.

director-view-to-appliance-view.png

To change to Template view, click the Template View button. The following popup window displays. First, select an organization to display the available templates for the organization. Then, click the name of a template to go to Template view.

director-view-to-template-view.png

Monitor Tab in Director View

In Director view, the screens on the Monitor tab allow you to monitor the network and its devices in real time. You can monitor the Director node itself and all the provider organizations, VOS branch devices, and Controller nodes for which the Director node is responsible. Note that you can also monitor the network and devices by selecting the Analytics tab, which takes you from the Director node to the Analytics node, as discussed below. On an Analytics node, you can view both real-time and historical device information.

In the left menu bar, you click the device or devices to monitor.

Monitor a Director Node

Select Director in the Organization field in the horizontal menu bar to display monitoring information about the Director node itself. For example:

monitor-tab-home-director.png

Most of the panes on the Monitor screen display static information about the Director node. The exception is the Alarms pane, which reports active alarms on the Director node and on the Analytics node to which it is connected. Alarms are organized by severity, and an active alarm is indicated by a number other than 0 in the circle. To display more information about the active alarms, click the alarm's box or click View Details. A table describing the alarms displays. For example:

monitor-tab-alarms-details.png

Click the blue Back button in the horizontal menu bar to return to the Director monitoring screen.

Monitor an Organization

When you select an organization in the left menu bar, you display real-time status information for the provider and its tenants. In the horizontal menu bar, you select the display option, either Summary or Devices.

Summary View

On the Monitor home screen, select the Summary tab in the horizontal menu bar to display a summary of real-time information about the organization. The information displays in a number of panes and is presented in both table and graphical format. For example:

monitor-tab-organization-summary.png

The Monitor screen shows the following panes. Click the Refresh icon in the horizontal menu bar to update the information displayed. For some of the panes, you can drill down to display more information or change the presentation of the display.

  • Asset Summary—Displays information about the device in the organization. Click View Details to display information about specific assets for each tenant. For example:

    monitor-asset-summary-detail.png

    In the horizontal menu bar, you can perform the following actions:
    • Return to the summary pane—Click the blue Back button in the horizontal menu bar. Note that you cannot use the browser's Back arrow or menu option to return to the summary pane.
    • Select the columns to display in the table—Click the column-filter-icon.png Column Filter icon, and then click the columns to display or hide.

      monitor-asset-summary-detail-filter.png
    • Select specific records to display—Click the filter-icon.png Filter Records icon, select the items and value to display, click the Add icon, and then click Filter.

      monitor-asset-summary-detail-filter-records.png
    • Change the number of records displayed per screen.
  • Recent Events—Displays a visual summary of recent alarms, arranged by alarm severity. Click Details to display a table with more information about the recent alarms. In the horizontal menu bar, you can perform the same actions as for Asset Summary Details. In addition, you can refresh the display because the alarm information changes, while the asset summary details are static.

    monitor-alarm-detail-refresh.png
  • Provider Health—Displays information about the health of the provider's network infrastructure components. No detailed information is available.
  • System Summary—Displays a summary of the provider's hardware and software components. No detailed information is available.
  • Services—Displays the number of instances of SD-WAN services running on the provider's devices. No detailed information is available.

Devices View

On the Monitor home screen, select the Devices tab to display a table in the main pane that lists all devices. For example:

monitor-tab-organization-devices.png

In the horizontal menu bar, you can perform the following actions:

  • Add a device—Click the Add icon to add a VOS device.
  • Delete a device—Click the box to the left of a device name to select it, and then click the Trashcan icon.
  • Open a shell on a device—Click the box to the left of a device name to select it, and then click the Display/Prompt icon.
  • Select the columns to display in the table—Click the Column Filter icon, and then click the columns to display or hide.
  • Select specific records to display—Click the Filter Records icon, and then select the items and value to display.
  • Change the number of records displayed per screen.

The right side of the horizontal menu bar has five operation buttons:

  • Configuration—Click to configure the device.
  • Shell—Click to open a shell to the device so that you can perform operations from the CLI.
  • Configuration Status—Click to perform configuration operations on the device:
    • Sync To
    • Sync From
    • Compare
  • Upgrade—Click to upgrade the software on the device.
  • Subscription—Click to view information about the device's Versa Networks software subscription.

Initially, the Summary tab is selected in the lower horizontal menu bar.

Select the Summary tab in the horizontal menu bar to display summary information for the device. Scroll down to display additional information.

monitor-tab-devices-detail-summary1.png
 

monitor-tab-devices-detail2.png

Select the Services tab in the horizontal menu bar to display the networking software and security services that are enabled and running on the device. The following screenshot shows an example of services running on a Controller node:

monitor-tab-devices-detail-services-controller.png

The following screenshot shows an example of services running on a VOS branch node:

monitor-tab-devices-detail-services-branch.png

Select the Networking tab in the horizontal menu bar to display information about the networking software for the device.

monitor-tab-devices-details-networking-branch-bgp.png

Select the System tab in the horizontal menu bar to display hardware and system-level information for the device. Scroll down to display additional information.

monitor-tab-devices-detail-system1.png
 

monitor-tab-devices-detail-system2.png
 

monitor-tab-devices-detail-system3.png

Select the Tools tab in the horizontal menu bar to issue ping or traceroute commands on the device, or perform a tcpdump or speed test on the device.

monitor-tab-devices-detail-tools.png

Monitor a Tenant

When you select a tenant in the left menu bar, you display real-time status information for the tenant's devices. In the horizontal menu bar, you select the display option, either Summary or Devices.

Summary View

On the Monitor home screen, select the Summary tab in the horizontal menu bar to display a summary of real-time information about the organization. The information displays in a number of panes and is presented in table, graphical, and map formats. For example:

monitor-tab-tenant-summary.png

The Asset Summary, Tenant Health, Recent Events, System Summary, and Services panes show the same type of information as for an organization, as described in Monitor an Organization, above.

The Map View pane shows the location of the tenant's devices. Hover over a device for more information about it.

Devices View

On the Monitor home screen, select the Devices tab in the horizontal menu bar to display a table in the main pane that lists all the tenant's devices. For example:

monitor-tab-tenant-devices.png

The icons for actions you can perform in the horizontal menu bar are the same as for an organization, as described in Monitor an Organization, above.

When you click on a device's name in the main pane, the detailed status information displayed about the device is the same as for an organization, as described in Monitor an Organization, above.

Monitor Tab in Appliance View

When you select the Monitor tab in Director view and then select a device, the view changes to Appliance view. The Monitor screen has the following items in the horizontal menu bar:

  • Summary tab—Displays status information for a device.
  • Services tab—Displays the status of services (such as SD-WAN, NGFW, and CGNAT) and networking items (such as interfaces, routes, and BGP) for the device.
  • Networking tab
  • System tab—Displays system status information for a system.
  • Tools tab—Allows your to run network reachability and performance tests.
  • Build button—Allows you to commit all the configuration changes in the current session to the associated appliance.
  • Shell button—Click to open a shell to the device so that you can perform operations from the device's CLI. Note that only the organization's owner can open a shell to the device.
  • Configuration Status—Click to perform configuration operations on the device:
    • Sync To
    • Sync From
    • Compare
  • Upgrade button—Click to upgrade the software on the device.
  • Subscription button—Click to view information about the device's Versa Networks software subscription.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-tabs2.png

Summary Tab

In Appliance view on the Monitor tab, the Summary tab in the horizontal menu bar displays network and health information about the selected device. Scroll down to see all the panes of information.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-summary1a.png
 

monitor-tab-appliance-view-summary2a.png

Services Tab

In Appliance view on the Monitor tab, the Services tab in the horizontal menu bar lists the security services that are running on the selected device. A secondary horizontal menu bar lists detailed options for each service.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-services2.png

To display more information about a service, click the name of the service and then select one of the options. The information is generally displayed in a table. The following screenshot shows information about sites for the SD-WAN service, and site information is displayed in a table.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-services-sd-wan-sites.png

The display for many of the service and networking components has its own set of tabs that you can use for viewing various types of information related to that service component. The following menu items are available:

  • ADC
    • Load Balancer
    • Monitor
    • Server
    • SSL Proxy
    • Virtual Service
  • APM
    • Application Statistics
    • MOS
    • Summary Statistics
    • TCP Statistics
  • CGNAT
    • Pools
    • Rules
    • Sessions
  • IPsec
    • Branch To Branch
    • IKE History
    • IKE Security Association
    • IPsec History
    • IPsec Security Association
    • Overview
    • Profile Statistics
  • NGFW
    • Antivirus
    • Decryption
    • DNS Filtering
    • DoS Policies
    • File Filtering
    • IP Filtering
    • Persistent Action
    • Policies
    • Security Packages
    • Sessions
    • URL Filtering
    • User Packages
    • Vulnerability
    • Vulnerability Signature
    • Web Proxy
    • Zone Protection
  • SCI—No individual tabs
  • SD-LAN
    • Forwarding Profiles
    • MOS
    • Policies
    • Sessions
  • SD-LAN
    • Forwarding Profiles
    • MOS
    • Policies
    • Sessions
  • SD-WAN
    • Aggregate Traffic
    • Application Metrics
    • EIP Cache
    • Forwarding Profiles
    • MOS
    • Policies
    • Sessions
    • Sites
    • SLA End-to-End Paths
    • SLA Metrics
    • SLA Paths
    • Traffic Engineering
    • Transport Paths
    • Web Proxy
  • Secure Access
    • History
    • IPsec Profiles
    • MDM Profiles
    • Policies
    • Services
    • SSL VPN
  • Sessions—No individual tabs

Networking Tab

In Appliance view on the Monitor tab, the Networking tab in the horizontal menu bar lists the networking services that are running on the selected device. A secondary horizontal menu bar lists detailed options for each service.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-networking2.png

The display for many of the service and networking components has its own set of tabs that you can use for viewing various types of information related to that service or networking component. The following menu items are available:

  • 802.1X—No individual tabs
  • ARP—No individual tabs
  • BFD—No individual tabs
  • BGP
    • Advertised Prefixes
    • Neighbors
    • Received Prefixes
  • Certificate
    • Server
    • Signing Requests
  • CoS
    • App QoS Policies
    • Interfaces
    • Per-User Policer
    • QoS Policies
  • DHCP
    • Active Leases
    • Lease History
    • Statistics
  • DNS Proxy
    • Network Obfuscation Cache
    • Profile Monitor
    • Statistics
  • IGMP—No individual tabs
  • Interfaces—No individual tabs
  • IP SLA—No individual tabs
  • LACP
  • LEF
    • Collector Groups
    • Collectors
  • LLDP—No individual tabs
  • NPU
    • IPv4 ACL Ingress Policies Double Wide
    • IPv4 ACL Ingress Policies Single Wide
    • IPv6 ACL Ingress Policies
    • Layer 2 ACL Ingress Policies
    • Traffic-Mirroring Policies
  • OSPF—No individual tabs
  • OSPFv3—No individual tabs
  • PIM—No individual tabs
  • RIP—No individual tabs
  • Routes—No individual tabs
  • SaaS Applications—No individual tabs
  • Switching
    • ARP Suppression
    • Bridge Domain Interfaces
    • EVPN Multihoming
    • Ingress Table
    • MAC Address Table
    • Spanning Tree
  • TWAMP
    • Control Client State
    • Control Server State
    • Session Reflector State
    • Session Sender State
  • VRRP—No individual tabs

System Tab

In Appliance view on the Monitor tab, the System tab in the horizontal menu bar displays system-related information for the selected device. Scroll down to see all the panes of information.

monitor-tab-appliance-view-system1a.png
 

monitor-tab-appliance-view-system2a.png
 

monitor-tab-appliance-view-system3a.png

Tools Tab

In Appliance view on the Monitor tab, the Tools tab in the horizontal menu bar allows you to perform status and reachability testing on the selected device.

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You can use the following tools:

  • Ping—Issue a ping command to check the reachability of other devices in the network. For more information, see Access Monitoring Tools.
  • Traceroute—Issue a traceroute command to check the path to another device in the network. For more information, see Access Monitoring Tools.
  • Tcpdump—Display a description of the contents of packets on a network interface. For more information, see Access Monitoring Tools.
  • Speedtest—Run internet speed tests from the device to an internet speed-test server. For more information, see Run Internet Speed Tests.

Configuration Tab in Director View

In Director view, the screens on the Configuration tab allow you to configure networking features and security services. There are three ways to perform configuration:

  • Templates—You use configuration templates to deploy common network and security elements across multiple devices in an organization. The VOS software provides predefined configuration templates that automate the many time-consuming and repetitive tasks involved in device configuration. You can modify the predefined configuration templates or create custom templates. You perform configuration using templates when the you already know what you need to configure and what needs to be applied to multiple devices.  You would typically use templates when initially setting up an organization's devices.
    For portions of the configuration that differ from device to device, such as IP addresses, you configure these as variables in the templates and then you bind them to the device when you send the configuration parameters from the Director node to the VOS device. The variables are called bind variables, and you define them in templates by parameterizing the value of the option.
  • Devices—You can configure individual devices in an organization with networking features and security services specific to the device. These configurations are temporary and are overwritten the next time you apply a template to the device.
  • Objects—Some configurations required you to create specific network elements, which are called objects.

Configure VOS features using templates or by configuring devices differ as follows:

  • Permanent configuration—To make permanent configuration changes, you use templates, and you configure the settings by selecting Templates > Device Templates in the horizontal menu bar. Then, in the main pane, click the name of the template that you want to modify. The view changes to Appliance view, and the drop-down menu to the right of the Home button shows the name of the template. You perform configuration using templates when the you already know what you need to configure and what needs to be applied to multiple devices. After you make the template modifications, you perform a commit operation to apply the template to the VOS device or devices. When you apply the template to the VOS devices, it overrides the existing configuration on the VOS device configuration with configuration from the template, and any temporary changes you may have made are overridden.
  • Temporary configuration—To make temporary configuration changes to to an individual device, select Devices > Device in the horizontal menu bar. Then, in the main pane, select the device name. The view changes to Appliance view, and the drop-down menu to the right of the Home button shows the name of the device. Any modifications you make to the VOS device are applied immediately. However, these modifications are overwritten the next time you apply a template to the device. Using this method to configure VOS devices is useful when you are testing a new configuration and you need to make changes and see the effects of the changes right away.

Configuration Using Templates

Versa Director supports three types of templates:

  • Device templates—Also known as post-staging templates, are a baseline configuration that can be deployed across branches, saving time and effort in configuring and deploying similar services across many branches in a network.
  • Service templates—These are service-specific configurations that can be used to configure certain services. They can then be applied to device configurations to enable the services.
  • Common templates— Also known as data store templates, are automatically created for an organization. There is only one common template for any tenant or organization. The common template is always applied by default to all devices in the tenant or organization.

For more information about templates, see Overview of Configuration Templates.

To view existing device and service templates and the common template, select the Configuration tab in the top menu bar, click Templates in the horizontal menu bar, and then select an item in the drop-down menu.

configuration-template2.png

The table in the main pane shows the following information:

  • Name—Name of the template.
  • Organizations—Organizations and tenants whose configurations are using the template.
  • Template Type—Type of template:
    • Staging templates—Designed to redirect the device to the staging Controller device, and they are primarily used on the Versa Networks global ZTP server.
    • Post-staging templates—Main template that is associated with a device.

For more information, see Overview of Configuration Templates.

To perform operations on a template, click the box to the left of the template's name to enable operation icons in the horizontal menu bar.

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You can perform the following operations:

  • Filter Records—Click, and in the Filter Records popup window, select specific records to display.
  • Add—While you can create a template on the screen, it is strongly recommended that you create templates on the Workflows tab.
  • Delete—Click to delete the template. You are prompted to confirm the deletion request.
  • Clone—Click to create a copy of the template. For more information, see Create and Manage Staging and Post-Staging Templates.
  • Import—Click to import a template. For more information, see Create and Manage Staging and Post-Staging Templates.
  • Lock and Unlock—Click to lock or unlock a template. For more information, see Create and Manage Staging and Post-Staging Templates.
  • Screen number box—Displays the screen number when information is displayed on multiple screens.
  • Items per page box—Select the number of lines in the table to display on each screen.
  • Column Sort—Click in each column head to change the column sort order.

Configuration of Devices

To view existing devices, device groups, and device bind data, select the Configuration tab in the top menu bar, click Devices in the horizontal menu bar, and then select an item in the drop-down menu.

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For devices, the table in the main pane shows the following information:

  • Name—Name of the device.
  • Management Address—Management IP address of the device.
  • Tags—Create, delete, or display tags to associate with the device.
  • Type—Type of device, either Branch or Controller.
  • Service Start Time—Time when the device started operating.
  • Software Version—The software version running on the device.
  • Organization—Organizations using the device.
  • Status—Status information about the device:
    • Configuration Synchronized—Whether the configurations on the Director node and the device are synchronized (identical).
    • Reachability—Whether the device is reachable from the Director Note.
    • Service—Whether Versa services are running on the device (Up or Down).
    • Locked—Click to lock or unlock access to the device.

To perform operations on a device, click the box to the left of the device's name to enable operation icons in the horizontal menu bar.

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You can perform the following operations:

  • Add—Click to add a device.
  • Delete—Click to delete the template. You are prompted to confirm the deletion request.
  • CLI—Click to open the CLI on the device.
  • Sync the Branch—Synchronize the configuration on the Director node with the VOS branch.
  • Sync from Branch—Synchronize the configuration on the VOS branch with the Director node.
  • Compare—Compare the configurations on the Director node and the VOS branch with each other, and copy the configuration differences.
  • Clone—Click to create a copy of the configuration.
  • Import and Export—Click to import or export a VOS branch configuration.
  • Lock and Unlock—Click to lock or unlock a device configuration.
  • Column Filter icon—Click to select the columns to display or hide.
  • Filter Records icon—Click, and in the Filter Records popup window, select specific records to display.
  • Screen number box—Displays the screen number when information is displayed on multiple screens.
  • Items per page box—Select the number of lines in the table to display on each screen.

For device groups, the table in the main pane shows the following information:

  • Name—Name of the device group.
  • Organization—Organization to which the device group belongs.
  • Contact Information—Email address and phone number of the person responsible for the organization.
  • Members—Appliances and devices that are part of the device group.

On Devices > Device Bind Data, you can view and define variables for parameterized fields.

Configuration of Objects

To view existing devices, device groups, and device bind data, select the Configuration tab in the top menu bar and hover over Devices in the horizontal menu bar. Then, click the Down arrow and select an item in the drop-down menu.

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You can configure the following types of objects:

  • WAN Networks—Associate WAN networks with transport domains. For more information, see Configure Transport Domains and WAN Networks.
  • DHCP Options Profiles—Configure and display DHCP options profiles. For more information, see Configure DHCP.
  • VPN Profiles (not shown in screenshot above)—Create and display VPN profiles, which are used with site-to-site tunnels. For more information, see Create Device Templates in the Configure Basic Features article.
  • S2S Tunnels (not shown in screenshot above)—Create and display the site-to-site tunnels. For more information, see Configure Site-to-Site Tunnels.
  • Virtual Switches—Configure and display virtual switches, which are used with Layer 2 forwarding. For more information, see Configure Layer 2 Forwarding.
  • Analytics Email Templates—Define a template for emailing notifications from an Analytics node.
  • Analytics Notification Profiles—Define a notification profile, which includes a list of email recipients, the name of an Analytics email template, and the frequency at which to send notifications from an Analytics node.
  • Cloud Elastic Profile (not shown in screenshot above)—Configure and display the cloud elastic profiles that are associated with a cloud service provider. For more information, see Configure Dynamic Versa Cloud Gateways.

Configuration Tab in Appliance View

When you select the Configuration tab in Appliance view, the Select Appliance popup window displays, and then you select a device.

In Appliance view, the top menu bar shows the Monitor, Analytics, Configuration, and Administration tabs, and the horizontal menu bar shows an Appliance field that shows the device's name and allows you to select other devices.

The Appliance view screen has a left menu bar of configuration options that are organized into four groups of related options. The options listed are generally the same on all Director nodes, but some options are available depending on the license subscription tier for the organization. In the left menu bar, click the down arrow to display more options in each list.

The following are the four option lists in the left menu bar:

  • Networking—Configure networking properties, such as interfaces, VRRP, zones, routers and switches, class of service, and policy-based forwarding.

    configuration-tab-appliance-view-networking2.png
  • Services—Configure services, such as CGNAT, next-generation firewall (NGFW), IPsec, SD-WAN, web proxy, and captive portal.

    configuration-tab-appliance-view-services2.png
  • Objects and Connectors—Configure objects, which are common network functions or service instances, such as address, address groups, schedules, and configure connectors, which are connections that allow traffic to flow from the selected device to another device.

    configuration-tab-appliance-view-objects-connectors2.png
  • Others—Configure miscellaneous properties, such as high availability, elasticity, alarms, and syslog servers.

    configuration-tab-appliance-view-others2.png

Workflows Tab

In Director view, you can select the Workflows tab. On the Workflows tab, you can view and configure network infrastructure components (Controller nodes and organizations), and you can view and create templates to use for configuring multiple VOS branch devices that have similar, identical, or nearly identical configurations.

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The Workflows tab has the following options in the horizontal menu bar:

  • Infrastructure
    • Controllers—Configure and deploy Controller nodes on the VOS device. For more information, see Set Up an SD-WAN Controller in the Perform Initial Software Configuration article.
    • Organizations—Configure customer organizations. For more information, see Configure Basic Features.
  • Template
    • Templates—Configure templates to use for staging VOS devices and for deploying VOS devices in production environments. For more information, see Create and Manage Staging and Post-Staging Templates.
    • Application Steering—Configure application-steering templates, in which you create traffic categories, which are also called buckets, and define rules for handling the traffic that fall into those buckets. For more information, see Create Application-Steering Templates.
    • Spoke Groups—Create spoke groups that help direct traffic between the Controller node and specific VOS branches or hubs. For more information, see Create SD-WAN Spoke Groups.
    • Service Chains—Configure chains of service. For more information, see Configure Service Chains.
  • Devices
    • Devices—Associate device-specific service templates with a device. For more information, see Overview of Configuration Templates.
    • Device Bind Data—For portions of the configuration that differ from device to device, such as IP addresses, you configure these as variables in the templates and then you bind them to the device when you send the configuration parameters from the Director node to the VOS device. The variables are called bind variables, and you define them in templates by parameterizing the value of the option.

Administration Tab in Director View

In Director view, the screens on the Administration tab allow you to perform administrative tasks and some configuration tasks on the network and network devices.

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The left menu bar in the main pane contains the following items:

  • Organizations—View information about provider and customer (tenant) organizations. You can also modify some of the information. While you can add organizations from the Appliance tab, it is recommended that you create them from the Workflows tab. For more information, see Configure Basic Features.
  • Appliances—View information about appliances (VOS devices). You can also modify the information and create new VOS devices.
  • Connectors—View and manage connectors for the local organization, CMS, authentication, syslog, Kafka, AQMP, and Analytics.
    • You associate CMS connectors with local provider and tenant organizations. For more information, see Configure Basic Features.
    • You create CMS connectors to associate an AWS or Azure virtual machine (VM) with an organization, and when you create site-to-site tunnels. For more information, see Install on AWS, Install on Azure, and Configure Site-to-Site Tunnels.
    • You configure connectors to link the Director node to authentication servers. For more information, see Configure AAA.
    • You configure syslog connectors to export logging information. For more information, see Configure Log Export Functionality.
    • You configure Versa Director to publish alarms and event notifications to an Apache Kafka server. For more information, see Configure Kafka Connectors.
    • You use Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) connectors when you enable event and object notifications and when you configure and connect to an AMQP server. For more information, see Configure AMQP Notifications.
    • You configure connectors so that the Director and Analytics nodes can communicate with each other. For more information, see Versa Analytics Configuration Concepts.
  • System—Configure Director-wide properties for high availability (HA), authorization, NTP servers, static routes, DNS servers and domains, single sign-on (SSO), timezone, proxy settings, and secure upload settings. View systemwide information for device uptime, resource (disk) usage, license status, and southbound addresses. Upgrade the software on the Director node. For more information, see Configure Systemwide Functions.
  • Scheduled Tasks—View, edit, and delete scheduled tasks.
  • Notification Configuration—Configure notifications for SMTP/SMS, webhook, and email. For more information, see Enable SMS Text Messaging, Configure Webhook Notifications for Alarms, and Configure Notifications for Alarms.
  • Entitlement Manager—Display license subscription information. For more information, see Licenses and Entitlement and Configure Basic Features.
  • Director User Management—Configure users, roles, and map roles to users on the Director node. For more information, see Configure AAA.
  • Inventory—Download software upgrade packages, configure hardware devices, and download security packages.
  • SD-WAN—Configure global SD-WAN settings.
  • Support—Access troubleshooting and support information.

Administration Tab in Appliance View

In Appliance view, the screens on the Administration tab allow you to perform administrative tasks and some configuration tasks on individual devices.

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Analytics Tab

In Director view, when you select the Analytics tab in the top menu bar, you are redirected to an Analytics node (typically, one of the nodes in an Analytics cluster), where you can view real-time and historical device information and device system logging data (also called logs). For more information, see Overview of Analytics Dashboards, Log Screens, and Reports.

In Appliance view, when you select the Analytics tab in the top menu bar, you are redirected to an Analytics node, and you can view dashboards and log screens that display information that applies only to the current appliance.

Supported Software Information

Releases 22.1 and later support all content described in this article.

For information about the Director GUI for Releases 21.2 and earlier, see Director GUI Overview (for Releases 21.2 and Earlier).