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Versa Networks

Onboard CPE Devices in Versa Titan

Versa-logo-release-icon.pngFor supported software information, click here.

The Versa Titan Portal application allows cloud management of your Versa Secure SD-WAN, making it easier for IT to manage and secure branch services. Titan Portal provides a central dashboard that you use to deploy and monitor networking devices.

Versa Titan Portal provides the following features:

  • Activate Versa appliances using Versable, WiFi, or GZTP
  • Corporate and guest WiFi
  • Easy Quick Picks option automatically repopulates a configuration area with default values
  • Ability to configure appliances in high-availability (HA) pairs
  • Ability to configure branches in AWS
  • Enterprise-class advanced security for appliance and site, including UTM, NGFW, antivirus, anti-malware, intrusion detection, and DoS prevention
  • Traffic conditioning and QoS for SaaS and business applications
  • Site-to-site (SD-WAN) connectivity speed test
  • Appliance health and status monitoring in real time
  • Real-time and historical analysis of network, security policy including URL category and IP reputation, and application bandwidth use
  • Access to Versa support through phone, email, chat, online, and the customer support portal

This article describes the activation process for onboarding a CPE device in Versa Titan Portal, and describes best practices for you to follow to ensure successfully onboarding and to avoid unnecessary failures.

Process for Onboarding CPE Devices in Titan Portal

To onboard a CPE device in Titan Portal, you perform the following steps:

  1. Create a site. For more information, see Create a Site. Note that user cannot change the license type after you have created the site. If you need to correct the license type, you must remove the site and then recreate it.
  2. Create a device configuration. For more information, see Create a Device Configuration. It is recommended that you choose the site topology type before saving the device configuration. To change the topology after saving, you must undeploy the configuration, change the topology, and then redeploy the configuration.
  3. Deploy a device configuration, as described below.
  4. Deploy high availability (optional), as described below.
  5. Activate an appliance, as described below.
  6. Verify device status, as described below.

Deploy a Device Configuration

Deploying the device configuration copies the configuration information to the Versa Director and informs the Versa Controller that the configuration exists. After the configuration is deployed, any changes you save are automatically copied to the Versa Director. Note that you should configure WAN interfaces before deploying the device configuration.

The following diagram summarizes the actions performed on a cloud Director when you deploy a site in Titan Portal:

titan-cpe-deployment.png

To deploy a device configuration:

  1. In the bottom of any configuration window, click Deploy.

    Portal_Deploy_button.png
  2. In the Activation popup window, select the activation method:
    • Versable—Activate the appliance using Versable from a mobile phone running the Titan Mobile application.
    • GZTP—Activate the appliance over the internet using Titan Portal or Titan Mobile.
    • WiFi—For appliances that support WiFi, use WiFi to activate from a laptop using Titan Portal or from a mobile phone running the Titan Mobile application.

      Portal_Activate_choose_method.png
  3. For GZTP activation, click the pencil icon, and then enter the appliances serial number if it is not shown.

    Portal_Activate_serial_on_appliance.png
  4. Click Continue. A confirmation message displays.

Deploy High Availability

High availability (HA) ensures a seamless bringup of the standby Titan device, thus allowing network services to continue with no disruptions. Any settings that you configure on the primary Titan device automatically extend to the secondary Titan device. The secondary device cannot perform any action until it activates.

You can use Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) to configure HA redundancy. Any changes that you make to the VRRP interface are synchronized with both the primary and secondary devices.

To configure and activate HA:

  1. Deploy and activate each device separately.
  2. Set up the appliance wiring on the two appliances. Wire the configured WAN, HA cross-connect port, and VRRP port, and then configure the site.

For more information, see Deploy High Availability.

The following procedure describes best practices for installing the wiring on appliances at HA sites:

  1. Wire the two appliances before you configure them for HA. When wiring the device for HA, the ports are divided into three sections. WAN ports are the lower numbered ports on the left. LAN ports are the higher numbered ports on the right. Assign a port in the middle, which is called a cross-connect port. The cross-connect port marks the boundary between the WAN and LAN ports.
  2. Connect the WAN ports. WAN ports must be connected starting with Port 0, then Port 1, and so forth. WAN ports are always the lower port numbers. Attach Port 0 on both devices to a WAN.
  3. Determine the cross-connect port number.
    • If both devices use the same number of ports for WAN connections, assign the next port number after the highest WAN port number as the cross-connect port number. For example, if you use Ports 0 and 1 as WAN ports on both devices, use Port 2 as the cross-connect port.
    • If the devices use an unequal number of WAN connections, use the device with the larger number of WAN connections to determine the cross-connect port number. For example, if the first device uses Ports 0 and 1 as WAN ports and the second device uses only Port 0 as a WAN port, then use Port 2 as the cross-connect port on both devices. In this case, Port 1 on the second device is unused.
  4. Connect the cross-connect port on the first device to the cross-connect port on the second device using a Cat6 Ethernet cable. Again, you must use the same port number on both devices for the cross-connect.
  5. Connect the LAN ports. The higher numbered ports are used as LAN ports. Connect the first LAN port (that is, the port immediately to the right of the cross-connect port) to the local LAN. This port is used for VRRP communication.

Note: For HA primary and secondary devices, you cannot deactivate the devices. You must undeploy and then redeploy the device to activate it again.

Activate an Appliance

Activation validates the appliance, downloads its configuration, and allows traffic to begin flowing through it. You can activate the device using Versable, GZTP, or WiFi. 

The following figure summarizes the Titan activation prestaging phase.

titan-cpe-activation-prestaging.png

The following figure summarizes the Titan activation staging and post-staging phases.

titan-cpe-activation-post-staging.png

Activate an Appliance Using GZTP

Before you activate the appliance:

  • Deploy the device on the Titan Portal dashboard.
  • On the appliance, make sure that WAN1 Port 0 (vni-0/0), WAN2 Port 1 (vni-0/1), or LTE is connected to the internet.
  • Keep the power turned off on the device until the deployment completes.
  • If you plan to use LTE for internet connectivity backup, make sure that the SIM card is inserted in the device.

To activate an appliance using GZTP:

  1. After the device is deployed, turn on the power.
  2. Click Configure in the left menu bar to open the Configure dashboard.
  3. In the Configure dashboard, hover over the device to view its options card. Click Click to Activate.

    gztp-activate-a-device.png
  4. In the Activate Device window, click Activate.

    gztp-activate-a-device-steps.png
  5. Wait approximately 30 minutes for the activation to complete. The activation process proceeds through the following stages, which you can track using the messages icon:
    1. Staging Started—In this stage, Titan checks whether the appliance has been created in GZTP Director and fetches the appliance creation task. 

      ztp-activation-staging-started.png
    2. Post Staging—If create appliance process started in Titan Director, the appliance activation progress bar displays the status Post-Staging.

      ztp-activation-post-staging.png
    3. Rebooting—After the appliance creation is successful, the appliance activation progress bar displays the status Rebooting, because the appliance reboot after it is created in Director.

      ztp-activation-rebooting.png
    4. Connecting Device—When the appliance is up and the connection established in Versa Director, the appliance activation progress bar displays the status Connecting Device.

      ztp-activation-connecting-device.png

      gztp-activated-device.png
  6. After a device is activated, the device displays a green circle. Hover over the device to view its options card, which indicates the administrative state as activated. To check the appliance's status, go to the Monitor option in the Titan dashboard.

    ztp-activated-device.png

Activate an Appliance Using WiFi with URL-based ZTP

If an appliance supports WiFi, you can activate it using URL-based ZTP. If an appliance does not support WiFi, connect a LAN cable to Port 2 and connect the other end to a laptop to activate the device.

Before you activate an appliance using WiFi with URL-based ZTP:

  • Ensure that WAN Port 0 is connected to the internet and that the power is turned on.
  • If you plan to use LTE for internet connectivity backup, ensure that you insert the SIM card in the device.

To activate an appliance using WiFi with URL-based ZTP:

  1. On a laptop, connect to WiFi on the appliance using the following SSID and password:
    • SSID—VERSA-ZTP-WiFi
    • Password—VR00M123
  2. Click Configure in the left menu bar to open the Configure dashboard.
  3. Hover over the device to view its options card, and then click Click to Activate.

    Portal_Activate_click_to_activate-wifi.png
  4. In the Activate Device window, click Activate.

    wifi-activate-a-device.png
  5. The Web UI Device Management portal displays in a browser tab. Click Start Activation.

    Portal_Activate_initial_activate_router.png
  6. Wait while the system configures the device. You can view the progress in the Web UI Device Management portal.

    Portal_Activate_initial_activate_2.png

Verify Device Status

  1. Click the progress-message-icon.png message icon to track the activation progress in each stage.
  2. If, after multiple attempts, the activation continues to fail, click Contact Support.

Undeploy Devices

Undeploying a device removes the configuration from the Versa Director. The saved device configuration is still present in the Titan cloud portal, and you can still change settings and redeploy. You undeploy a device configuration from the Inventory dashboard. 

Note that undeploying preserves the site and configuration information and the device license remains associated with the site, while deactivating a device (removing a site) deletes the device's configuration information and returns the device license to inventory.

For HA sites, undeploying a primary device also undeploys the secondary device. You cannot undeploy secondary device only. To synchronize Titan backend services, you need to wait for 5 minutes after undeploy a device before redeploy it.

Troubleshoot the Onboarding Process

This section describes steps you can take to troubleshoot issues with the device and the device activation process.

  • If you loaded a new software image to the device, after staging, check the Titan dashboard Task menu. Loading a new software image increases the time required to activate the appliance, and the amount of time varies, depending on the internet WAN speed, especially if you are using LTE to perform the activation.
    • To monitor the download rate (rx-bps) on WAN interface, issue the show interfaces statistics vni-0/0 CLI command. The rx-stats and rx-bps counters increase as the image downloads.
admin@versa-vos-cli> show interfaces statistics vni-0/0
    interfaces statistics vni-0/0
    tenant-id 1
    vrf       grt
    host-inf  eth1
    rx-stats rx-packets 124454
    rx-stats rx-pps 1604
    rx-stats rx-bytes 126412741
    rx-stats rx-errors 0
    rx-stats rx-bps 14319864
    tx-stats tx-packets 23782
    tx-stats tx-pps 320
    tx-stats tx-bytes 7234530
    tx-stats tx-errors 1
    tx-stats tx-bps 671624
admin@versa-vos-cli> show interfaces statistics vni-0/0
      interfaces statistics vni-0/0
      tenant-id 1
      vrf       grt
      host-inf  eth1
      rx-stats rx-packets 137414
      rx-stats rx-pps 1473
      rx-stats rx-bytes 142127113
      rx-stats rx-errors 0
      rx-stats rx-bps 13937464
      tx-stats tx-packets 26555
      tx-stats tx-pps 315
      tx-stats tx-bytes 7953454
      tx-stats tx-errors 1      
      tx-stats tx-bps 658768
  • To monitor the software upgrade, issue the tail –f /var/log/versa/upgrade.log CLI command. The software upgrade starts after you download the software image.
[admin@versa-vos: scripts] $ tail -f /var/log/versa/upgrade.log
  >>    /etc/rc0.d/K20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc1.d/K20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc6.d/K20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc2.d/S20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc3.d/S20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc4.d/S20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
  >>    /etc/rc5.d/S20versa-recovery -> ../init.d/versa-recovery
2023-03-17 12:19:22.920 INFO  Upgrade checkpoint #1: recovery handler installed
2023-03-17 12:19:22.923 INFO  [4168] Clear PAM configs if any
2023-03-17 12:19:24.013 INFO  [4168] Stopping and removing current package 20.2.3 (VCSN)
2023-03-17 12:19:54.192 INFO  Upgrade checkpoint #2: Previous package removed
  >>
  >>  => Purging old kernels
  >> (Reading database ... 100632 files and directories currently installed.)
  >> Removing linux-headers-4.4.0-142-generic (4.4.0-142.168~14.04.1) ...
  >> Removing linux-image-extra-4.4.0-142-generic (4.4.0-142.168~14.04.1) ...
  • To check the status of interfaces after software upgrade, issue show interfaces brief | tab CLI command. Installing new software takes about 10 minutes, and the CPE reboots to complete the software upgrade. 
admin@versa-vos-cli> show interfaces brief | tab

NAME       MAC                OPER  ADMIN  TENANT  VRF     IP               
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
eth-0/0    0c:fa:d5:4d:00:00  down  up     0       global                   
tvi-0/1    n/a                up    up     -       -                        
tvi-0/1.0  n/a                up    up     1       mgmt    10.0.1.131/24    
vni-0/0    0c:fa:d5:4d:00:01  up    up     -       -                        
vni-0/0.0  0c:fa:d5:4d:00:01  up    up     1       grt     10.40.194.176/16 
vni-0/1    0c:fa:d5:4d:00:02  down  down   -       -                        
vni-0/2    0c:fa:d5:4d:00:03  down  down   -       -                         
vni-0/3    0c:fa:d5:4d:00:04  down  down   -       -   
  • About 10 minutes after the software upgrade completes, Versa Director commits the post-staging template. Depending on WAN link speed, this process can take up to 50 minutes.
  • If the software upgrade fails, check your WAN links and ensure internet connectivity is available. Then, reboot CPE device.
  • If CPE device does not receive post-staging configuration (commit from Versa Director) 15 minutes after the software upgrade, issue the $ vsh restart shell command.
  • Contact Versa Support if CPE device activation does not complete after one hour.
  • GZTP is not supported on appliances activated with a PPPoE-enabled circuit on the WAN. If the device has a PPPoE WAN circuit and an additional DHCP-enabled WAN or LTE circuit that does not use PPPoE, use the additional DHCP-enabled WAN circuit to activate and upgrade the branch.You can use the PPPoE WAN circuit after the device activation and upgrade complete.
  • If the device has only a PPPoE WAN circuit, you must have an additional temporary WAN circuit that is not PPPoE-based to use for the device activation and upgrade. The temporary WAN circuit can be DHCP-enabled Ethernet or LTE. If an additional WAN link is not available for activation, contact Versa Networks Customer Support.
  • Follow the instructions in the Activation Troubleshoot popup window.

    gztp-activation-troubleshoot.png

The following video describes deploying and activating sites in Titan Portal: 

Supported Software Information

Releases 10.3.4 and later support all content described in this article.

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