Configure Versa Director Using the Initial Wizard
For supported software information, click here.
When you log in to Versa Director for the first time, the initial wizard screen displays to help you with the onboarding process and configure basic Director settings. The initial wizard screen offers two primary options:
- Director Configuration—Initiates the Versa Director onboarding process and allows users to configure basic settings before accessing the main Director UI. If you are not familiar with Versa Director and are using Director for first time, it is recommended that you use this option.
- Take me to Director—Redirects you to the main Director home page without any initial configuration steps. If you are familiar with Versa Director and do not need assistance with Director configuration, you can log in directly to Versa Director.
You can access all configuration screens available in the initial wizard steps later from the Director interface. The initial wizard provides simplified and guided steps for new users. Any configuration you add using the initial wizard reflects in the main Director configuration and you can edit or delete the configuration later from the Director. After you complete the initial wizard configuration, the initial wizard screen does not appear again on subsequent logins.
Access the Versa Director UI
To access the Director GUI:
- Enter the URL of the Director node in the browser's URI field. The login screen displays.
- Enter the username and password.
- Click Login. If you are logging into Director for first time, the initial wizard screen displays the Welcome to Versa Director screen with the following options:
- Director Configuration—Click to configure Versa Director using a guided wizard. See Configure Basic Settings for Director through the Initial Wizard.
- Take me to Director—Click to login directly to Versa Director and configure Director by yourself. See Log in Directly and Configure Versa Director.
Log in Directly and Configure Versa Director
To log in to Versa Director directly and configure Director by yourself, click Take me to Director:
When you log in to a Director for the first time, you are in Director view. For subsequent logins, the screen that you were last on displays when you log in.
Configure Basic Settings for Director through Initial Wizard
To configure Director using the initial wizard:
- Select workflow step 1, DNS Server, and enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Name Servers Enter the IP address of the Domain Name System (DNS) server, and then click the 
Add icon. A DNS server maintains a directory of domain names and translates them to IP addresses. You can add a maximum of three DNS servers.Search Domains Enter the domain names that are automatically appended to resolve hostnames that are not fully qualified, and then click the
Add icon. For example, if you enter versa-networks.com as the search domain, when you input "mail" as a domain name, the system resolves it as "mail.versa-networks.com".Test Connection Click
to check if the DNS server can resolve the provided fully qualified domain name (FQDN), ensuring a valid configuration. In the Test DNS Connection window, enter an FQDN to test the connection, and then click OK to execute the DNS lookup against the configured name servers.
- Click Next to go to step 2, NTP Server.
- The Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronizes clock times on the Director. To configure an NTP server, enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Time Zone Select the timezone to display date and time in the Director UI, logs, and reports. Note that timezone configuration is independent of the NTP server. Servers (Group of Fields) - Servers
Enter the Hostname or IP address of the NTP server to query for time synchronization. - Key
Select an NTP authentication key to associate with the server. NTP keys are supported only for private NTP servers. If you use public NTP servers, leave the field blank.
To add a new authentication key, click the + Add New option. In the Add NTP Key screen, enter information for the following fields:
- Key ID (Required)—Enter an ID number for the NTP key.
Range: 1 through 65535.
- Type (Required)—Select the cryptographic hash algorithm used for NTP authentication:
- md5
- sha1
- sha256
- sha384
- sha512
- Value (Required)—Enter a password for the NTP key.
- Iburst
Click to enable iburst on the server. Using iburst improves the time required for initial synchronization. With iburst, when the NTP server is unreachable, a burst of eight packets is sent instead of the usual one packet. - Click Next to go to step 3, SMTP Server.
- Enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Configure SMTP Server Select to configure an SMTP server, which is used to send email notifications from Versa Director for real-time alerting on network events, device status changes, policy violations, scheduled reports, certificate expiry warnings, and compliance notifications. For more information see, Configure SMTP for Tenants. Skip SMTP Configuration Select to skip SMTP configuration. Email notifications are not available until SMTP is configured later through the Director UI. Name (Required) Enter a name for the SMTP configuration. Host Name (Required) Enter the URL or IP address of the SMTP server that you configure. SSL Port (Required) Enter the SSL port that the SMTP server uses. Set as default configuration Click to make this the default SMTP configuration. SSL Connection (Group of Fields) - Use SSL to Connect
Click to enable use of SSL encryption for sending email notification. If you enable Use SSL to connect, configure the username and password fields. - Username (Required)
Enter the username to use to connect to the SMTP server. - Password (Required)
Enter the password to use to connect to the SMTP server. - Confirm Password (Required)
Re-enter the password for confirmation. From (Required) Enter the email address from which the email notification is sent. To Enter the email address to place in the To: field of the email. This is the address that receives the email notification. Test Email Click
to send a sample email to verify that the SMTP configuration is working correctly. In the Test SMTP Email screen, enter the following information, and then click OK.
- To (Required)—Enter the recipient email address for the test email.
- CC—Enter a carbon-copy recipient for the test email.
If the test email is not received, verify the following:
- Host name and SSL port are correct.
- Authentication credentials are valid if you enabled the Use SSL to Connect option.
- Firewall rules allow outbound SMTP traffic from Director.
- The SMTP server authorizes the From email address to send emails.
- Check the recipient’s spam or junk folder.
- Click Next to go to step 4, Overlay.
- Enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Overlay Prefix (Required) Enter the IPv4 network prefix in CIDR notation for overlay addressing. For example, 10.0.0.0/8. ID Displays the overlay address profile identifier. Available IP Addresses Displays the number of IP addresses in the IP address prefix that are available. Used IP Addresses Displays the number of IP addresses in the IP address prefix that are already used. Total IP Addresses Displays the total number of IP addresses in the IP address prefix. - Click Next to go to step 5, Static Routes.
- Enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Node ID Select the Director node on which you can configure static routes. You configure static routes to define fixed network paths for the Director to reach specific destination networks that are not reachable through the default gateway.
You can configure static routes across multiple nodes when a multi-node setup is enabled. In a multi-node Director deployment, each node may have different network interface and gateway configuration.
+ Add Icon Click the + Add icon to add a static route. - Destination Prefix
Enter the destination IP address of the static route. - Next-Hop IP Address
Enter the IP address of the next-hop interface to reach the destination. - Description
Enter a text description for the static route. - Click Next to go to step 6, License.
- Enter information for the following fields.
Field Description Node ID Select the node ID for the Director license. The node ID information is displayed. Download Node ID File Click to download the node ID file—vsnodeid.vd or vsnodeid.vd-rp-1. Upload License Key To request a Director license key, open a support ticket with Versa Networks Customer Support along with the downloaded node ID file. Customer Support will then provide you with a license key file.
After receiving the license key file from Customer Support, click Upload License Key to upload the license key. The license key file must be in .key format.
- Click Next to go to step 7, Provider Organization.
- Enter information for the following fields. The provider organization must be created during the initial setup.
Field Description Organization Name Enter a name for the organization. Global Organization ID Enter a unique ID for the organization. - Click Next to go to step 8, WAN. Note that the WAN configuration step displays only after you configure the provider organization.
- Enter information for the following fields.
Field Description + Add Click the + Add icon to configure a WAN network. WAN Network Name Enter a name for the WAN network. Transport Domain Select a transport domain. To create a new transport domain, click the + Add icon. In the Add Transport Domain screen, enter information for the following fields:
- Name (Required)—Enter a name for the transport domain.
- Description—Enter a text description for the transport domain.
- Transport Domain ID (Required)—Enter a numeric identifier for the transport domain.
Description Enter a text description for the WAN network. - Click Next to go to step 9, Review.
- For all sections, review the information. Click the
Edit icon to make changes, if needed. - To redirect to the Director view, click Proceed to Director.
Supported Software Information
Releases 23.1.2 and later support all content described in this article.