VeloCloud Monitoring

General information

VeloCloud Orchestrators and Edges can be added to Netreo as managed devices for availability and performance monitoring. Netreo supports both single and multiple-enterprise deployments of VeloCloud SDWANs.

Before any VeloCloud resources are added to Netreo for monitoring, some configuration steps must be performed in your VeloCloud account and Netreo (see Set up in VeloCloud and Set up in Netreo below).

Set up in VeloCloud

Netreo requires access to your VeloCloud resources so that it can retrieve the necessary data from the VeloCloud API. To keep your resources secure, it is recommended to create a dedicated service account in VeloCloud for use with Netreo only. How that account must be configured depends on whether you are monitoring a single enterprise or multiple enterprise architecture.

• Single enterprise requires an Enterprise admin account configured with the “Enterprise Standard Admin” role.
• Multiple enterprise requires an Operator account configured with the “Standard Operator” role.

In either case, you will need to add the following permissions to the service account:

• API Enablement

You will need to refer to the VeloCloud documentation for instructions on creating and configuring the service account.

Set up in Netreo

Netreo does not support automatic monitoring of VeloCloud resources out-of-the-box. Some set up and downloading of additional components is required (these additional components are freely available from the Netreo cloud libraries).

After the set up is performed, you will need to manually add your Orchestrators to Netreo (either individually using Manual Add or in bulk using the Device Import tool).

Once an Orchestrator has been added, Netreo will automatically detect and add any connected Edges and begin monitoring both resource types for availability and performance.

To set up Netreo to monitor VeloCloud resources, follow the instructions in each of the steps below.

• Download the VeloCloud service checks
• Download the VeloCloud device templates
• Edit the VeloCloud device types
• Create appropriate device groups
• Create auto-configuration rules
• Begin adding your Orchestrators

It is recommended to complete all of the listed steps before adding your first Orchestrator to Netreo to make sure that the onboarding process goes as smoothly as possible.

All of these steps require you to log in to Netreo as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.

Download the VeloCloud service checks

(See also Service Check)

The service checks required to monitor VeloCloud resources are not included in a Netreo default deployment and must be downloaded from the Netreo cloud library.

1. Select Administration >> Change Devices >> Manage Service Checks from the main menu to open the Service Checks Administration page.
2. Click the Service Checks Cloud Library button to open the Service Check Cloud Library.
3. In the search box, type "velocloud" (not case-sensitive) to narrow down the list of service checks.
4. Locate the "VeloCloud Edge Cloud Status" service check and click its download button in the ACTIONS column.
   • The service check is automatically downloaded, installed, and ready for immediate use.
   • If the download button is yellow, it means that the item is a newer version of one already installed on your system.
5. (Optional) Locate the "VeloCloud Link and VPN Status" service check and download it the same way. (This check is used to monitor the link and VPN interfaces for operational status.)
6. Locate the "VeloCloud Orchestrator Check" service check and download it.

You now have the service checks you need. Move on to the next step.

Download the VeloCloud device templates

(See also Device Template)

Two premade device templates, intended for use with VeloCloud resources, are available from the Netreo cloud library.

1. Select Administration >> Templates from the main menu to open the Device Templates Administration page.
2. Click the Device Templates Cloud Library button to open the Device Template Cloud Library.
3. In the search box, type "velocloud" (not case-sensitive) to narrow down the list of device templates.
4. Locate the "VeloCloud VCE" device template and click its download button in the ACTIONS column.
   • The template is automatically downloaded, installed, and ready for immediate use.
   • If the download button is yellow, it means that the item is a newer version of one already installed on your system.
5. Locate the "VeloCloud VCO" device template and download it the same way.

After downloading the device templates, you must configure them.

1. On the Device Templates Cloud Library page, click the Device Templates Administration button to return to the Device Templates Administration page.
2. Locate the "VeloCloud VCE" device template in the list and click its edit icon in the ACTIONS column to open the template edit page.
   1. In the User Credentials section, enter the username and password for the VeloCloud service account you created earlier.
   2. In the Template Components area, locate the Service Checks section and confirm that:
      1. The "VeloCloud Edge Cloud Status" service check is listed. (If not, you can add it by using the instructions in Add a Service Check to a Device Template. When adding, this check will be listed under the Web Checks category.) No configuration of this check is required.
      2. (Optional) The "VeloCloud Link and VPN Status Check" service check is listed. (If not, you can add it by using the instructions in Add a Service Check to a Device Template. When adding, this check will be listed under the Web Checks category.) If you wish to add a regular expression to this check to filter the interfaces to be monitored for availability, you may do so by clicking the edit button for the check. (Remember to click Edit Template after editing the check.)
   3. Click the icon at the top right of the page to return to the Device Templates Administration page.
3. Locate the "VeloCloud VCO" device template in the list and click its edit icon in the ACTIONS column to open the template edit page.
   1. In the User Credentials section, enter the username and password for the VeloCloud service account you created earlier.
   2. In the Template Components area, locate the Service Checks section and confirm that:
      1. The "VeloCloud Orchestrator Check" service check is listed. (If not, you can add it by using the instructions in Add a Service Check to a Device Template. When adding, this check will be listed under the Web Checks category.) No configuration of this check is required.
      2. Optionally, you may choose to add a "Check TCP Port" service check configured to port 443 to monitor VeloCloud API availability. (You can add it using the instructions in Add a Service Check to a Device Template. When adding, this check will be listed under the Network Connectivity Checks category. It is recommended to edit the DESCRIPTION field of the check to something like "VeloCloud API Endpoint Check" so it will be easily identifiable in dashboards and alerts.)
   3. Click the icon at the top right of the page to return to the Device Templates Administration page.

Your VeloCloud device templates will now automatically configure the credentials and service checks for any managed devices to which they are applied.

Move on to the next step.

Edit the VeloCloud device types

(See also Device Types/Subtypes)

By default, Netreo ships with device types for VeloCloud Orchestrator and Edge resources, but they must be edited to work with the device templates downloaded in the previous step.

1. Select Administration >> Change Devices >> Edit Device Types/Subtypes to open the Polling Administration page.
2. Locate the "VeloCloud VCE" device type and click its edit icon in the ACTIONS column to open its edit page.
   1. In the TEMPLATE field, use the menu to select the VelocCloud VCE device template.
   2. Click the Update button.
   3. Click the arrow icon at the top left of the page to return to the Polling Administration page.
3. Locate the "VeloCloud VCO" device type and click its edit icon in the ACTIONS column to open its edit page.
   1. In the TEMPLATE field, use the menu to select the VelocCloud VCO device template.
   2. Click the Update button.
   3. Click the arrow icon at the top left of the page to return to the Polling Administration page.

Your VeloCloud device types will now automatically apply the appropriate device templates to any newly added VeloCloud devices.

Move on to the next step.

Create appropriate device groups

You will now want to create device groups to organize your VeloCloud devices within Netreo. These groups are useful when creating reports and performing maintenance on your devices. They also allow you to apply additional device templates to your managed devices at different levels in the device template hierarchy.

Categories

(See also Category (Device Group))

Categories allow you to group managed devices by device type.

Create appropriate categories for your VelocCloud resources by following the instructions in Create a Category. (If you do not create appropriate categories before adding your Orchestrators, all VeloCloud resources will automatically be assigned to the "New Devices" category.)

Use auto-configuration rules (see below) to assign your VeloCloud resources to the appropriate categories.

Sites

(See also Site (Device Group))

Sites allow you to group managed devices by location, and allow you to see the overall health of those devices on the geographic map.

Netreo can typically create new sites automatically based on detected subnets when detecting devices via subnet scan. However, because Netreo accesses your Orchestrators via an API, it does not automatically create new sites based on their IP address. So, you must manually create the sites needed to organize your VeloCloud devices by location or subnet.

Create as many sites as you need by following the instructions in Create a Site. (If you do not create appropriate sites before adding your Orchestrators, all VeloCloud resources will automatically be assigned to the "Unknown" site.)

For each site created, you can assign the subnets of the VeloCloud resources you would like to be included in that site. By doing this, detected resources will be automatically placed together in the same site based on their subnet association. Assign subnets to sites by following the instructions in Assign Subnets to a Site.

If you don't want to assign subnets directly to your sites, you can instead choose to use auto-configuration rules (see below) to place those resources into the appropriate sites, either by subnet or other arbitrary criteria.

Strategic groups

(See also Strategic Group (Device Group))

Strategic groups allow you to group managed devices by arbitrary means.

Creating strategic groups for your VelocCloud resources offers convenient ways to monitor those resources in dashboards and allows easy selection for maintenance.

Create as many strategic groups as you need by following the instructions in Create a Strategic Group.

Use auto-configuration rules (see below) to assign your VeloCloud resources to the appropriate strategic groups. (Auto-configuration rules refer to strategic groups using the "functional groups" label.)

Create auto-configuration rules

(See also Auto-Configuration of Managed Devices)

Auto-configuration rules offer additional configuration options for managed devices. Since they are constructed manually by the user, they offer more flexibility than device templates alone. The use of device templates and auto-configuration rules together provides a huge amount of flexibility when configuring your managed devices within Netreo. It can be very effective to build auto-configuration rules based on your resource naming conventions.

Create any desired auto-configuration rules for your VeloCloud resources by using the information in Auto-Configuration of Managed Devices.

At the very least, you will want to create a rule that includes steps that set the following device properties based on their appropriate values:

• Category based on device type
• Site based on device name or device subnet (if you haven't configured your sites created earlier with subnets)
• Functional group (strategic group) based on device name or device type

Multiple instances of the last two steps can be added in the same rule to assign different VeloCloud devices to different groups.

Finished

You have finished configuring Netreo to monitor your VeloCloud resources. Begin adding your Orchestrators to Netreo.

Add an Orchestrator to Netreo

Orchestrators must have a public IP address or FQDN that Netreo can access (port 443 access).

You may now begin adding your Orchestrators to Netreo by using either of the following options:

• By using the Manual Add tool (not Quick Add)
• By using the Import tool

When adding your Orchestrators, you are required to provide only:

• A name for the managed device.
• An IP address or hostname
• The username of the VeloCloud dedicated service account (the credentials are included in the device templates you configured, but it's good to include them here as well).
• The password for the above service account

You can safely ignore any fields that do not apply to VeloCloud resources. Optionally, you can provide configuration for any available fields that do apply to your Orchestrator, such as:

• Type (device type)
• Template (device template)
• Category (device group)
• Site (device group)

Whether you add your Orchestrators by using Manual Add or Import, if you've created auto-configuration rules for them, be sure to enable the Run Auto Configuration Rules setting.

After adding an Orchestrator, Netreo immediately processes it as a new managed device and begins queuing calls to the VeloCloud API (using the supplied credentials) to retrieve data. It may take several minutes before you begin to see Edges being detected and added, and data populating the Device Dashboards of each device.

Viewing VeloCloud Devices in the UI

After you've added your Orchestrators and data begins to populate, you can view your VeloCloud devices in the Netreo user interface.

In general, the fastest way to navigate to the Device Dashboards for these devices is by drilling into the Tactical Overview widget on the default Consolidated Dashboard. Navigate to this dashboard by selecting Quick Views >> Consolidated from the main menu or clicking the Home icon to the left of the main menu. (This is assuming you have not changed the assignment of the home dashboard from the Consolidated Dashboard to another custom dashboard.) Alternatively, you can use the search field to the right of the main menu to search for the name, IP address, or hostname of the device you want to view.

See Device Dashboard for information about what this dashboard typically shows for managed devices.

Orchestrators show little information in their Device Dashboard, so there is little to see beyond their current availability status.

Edge devices, in addition to the standard device availability status, bandwidth speeds, and bandwidth usage for interfaces, also show the following performance metrics from the VeloCloud API:

• Latency
• Jitter
• Packet loss
• Traffic analysis data

These can be viewed on the Performance tab of the Device Dashboard.

Due to the nature of how VeloCloud data is collected, no topology information is available on the Topology tab of the Device Dashboard for either Orchestrators or Edges.

Troubleshooting

Netreo monitoring of VeloCloud environments is API-based. Unfortunately, this means that any VeloCloud Orchestrator auto-detected via subnet scanning or CMDB will fail to be added to Netreo and remain in the failed state in Device Management. These failed entries should be removed automatically after manually adding the Orchestrators as soon as Netreo has automatically updated the metadata for the managed devices.