Add and manage network devices

Alert: Cisco has made the end-of-life (EOL) announcement for the Cisco Edge Device Manager (EDM).

Add network devices that can be used for data management by other Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard (IoT OD) services such as Edge Intelligence or Industrial Asset Vision (IAV). You can add a single device by entering the information for that device, or bulk add devices from a CSV file.

Prerequisites

Cisco IoT OD is now integrated with Cisco Smart Account for quick and easy onboarding of IoT OD-supported Cisco devices. Devices added in a given Smart Account (SA) Virtual Account (VA) get auto-populated in a linked IoT OD organization. Configure these devices using the following workflow:

1. Click the "people icon"  in the far right of the header. Click Organization Settings > Edit Organization.
2. Click Smart Account tab.
3. Add information for Client ID and Client Secret.
4. Click Validate. This command retrieves values for both the Smart Account and the Virtual Account.
5. Choose Smart Account and Virtual Account information from the drop-down menus.
6. Click Save.

The devices that are added in the Plug and Play account (PnP Connect) of the connected Smart Account (SA) Virtual Account (VA) get auto-populated into Operations Dashboard > Inventory into the Unused list. The device list is fetched from the PnP Connect once every 12 hours. The following also affects the device list:

• If the SA/VA configuration is not present, then the system does not perform a PnP sync.
• If the SA/VA sync fails, having previously been successful, then only previously shown and synced devices are shown in the Unused tab.
• Manually added unheard devices show under the Unused tab, whether or not an SA/VA account is connected.
• Devices which have been assigned a configuration Group, but have not yet completed the PnP process, are shown in the Unused tab.
• Devices which are requested to be deleted and are in Pending Delete state are listed in the Unused tab.

Note:

• All users see the warning message but only a Tenant Admin role can configure SA/VA for the organization.
• If you update/refresh your SA/VA, that command triggers a device sync with IoT OD. This eliminates waiting for 12 hours for the next auto-sync function. Updating SA/VA deletes the Unused PnP synced devices from the Organization and syncs the new devices from the Plug and Play account for the updated SA/VA.
• If you delete the SA/VA accounts, then that action deletes all the Unused PnP synced devices from your Organization.
• The devices synced from PnP Connect do not have a configuration group assigned to them. Therefore, the Group column is blank for those devices.

Select the devices, apply the network configuration and onboard them into IoT Operations Dashboard. Devices automatically move from the Unused list to the In Use list as they successfully trigger the onboarding process in IoT OD.

IMPORTANT: You must enable the following feature: PnP Device Sync.

To enable the feature:

1. Click the "people icon" in the far right of the header. Click > Organization Settings > Edit Organization.
2. Scroll down to Features.
3. Click the following feature flag: PnP Device Sync | Edge Device Manager.
4. Click Save.

Add a single device

1. From the left pane, click Inventory. Notice two new tabs that show the status of all of your detected network devices: In Use and Unused. In Use is defined as those network devices that have been assigned to a group (with a configuration template already attached) and onboarded with a Cisco Smart Account using the Plug-n-Play setup. Unused are network devices that you purchased that have NOT yet started the onboarding process. They are visible in the IoT OD, but not yet available because they have not successfully completed the Plug-n-Play set up or been assigned to a group.
2. Click Unused.

The following error scenarios may cause your devices to appear in the Unused tab.

Note: Unheard devices will still continue to show up in Operations Dashboard maps.

Conflicted devices

Conflicted devices are the ones which have already been onboarded in IoT OD by a different organization and are still present in the Plug and Play account in the SA/VA associated with your organization. These devices will be synced in the Unused list but cannot be moved to In Use until the conflict is resolved. Please raise a TAC case so that a Cisco engineer can contact the Tenant Admin of that respective organization and can ask to deactivate that device. Once this step is complete, you can onboard this device in IoT OD.

You can change the columns that display here. Use the Gear Icon (in red box) and click Edit Table Columns. Device Type does not show by default.

Scroll through the list and find devices with no information in the Group column. These are devices that were synced with PnP Connect, but have no Group assigned to them, so they must appear in the Unused list. Also, it will display Never in the Last Heard column. This is normal.

To search Groups:

Click the Group down arrow. The Group column sorts. Click it again and the devices from the bottom appear at the top of the list (not assigned to a group yet).

There are 2 statuses of devices in the Unused list: Unheard and Pending delete.

• Pending delete is defined as: you took an action to Delete Device.
• Unheard is defined as: the device is not part of a group assignment, has not been synced to IoT OD using PnP Connect, and onboarding to IoT OD failed.

Assign a configuration group to devices

Note: Since configuration groups are device-type specific, all the devices selected for assigning to a group must be of the same device type. For example, all IR11xx.

1. Click the devices you want to assign to a group.
2. Click Assign to Group. The new Assign Device(s) to Group screen appears.

3. Select a Group from the drop-down list. Only the compatible groups will show in the list. The information for that group loads.
4. If the selected group does not have device-specific parameters, click Next and proceed with group assignment. The Review device(s) screen appears.
5. If the selected group has device-specific parameters, optionally, these parameters can be specified from this screen. See "Optional Device Specific Settings" below.

Optional Device Specific Settings

1. Click the slider to enable Optional Device Specific Settings. The following two options are available:

• Click Download pre-populated configuration settings for individual devices. The .CSV file will have few mandatory fields (eid, device type, config group) pre-filled followed by optional fields (e.g., name). For each device in the file, fill the applicable values under appropriate columns. Save the file.
• If the pre-populated .CSV was already downloaded and filled with necessary parameters, click Choose a file or drag and drop to upload the filled .CSV file.
• Click Next.

IMPORTANT: The contents of the .CSV file take precedence over the selections in the UI and the devices specified in the .CSV will now appear in the group assignment Review Devices screen.

2. Expand Review Devices to see the device and group you chose. Scroll down for Group Configuration details. Depending on the group configuration, one or more of the following sections may show up showing details of the currently selected group:

   Management Profile, WAN Uplink, Cellular, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, DNS/NTP, DHCP, Port Forwarding, and VPN. Each section has its own screen and fields.

3. Check the set of devices and the group configuration.

4. Click Assign to Group.

Even after devices are assigned to a group successfully, the devices will show up in the Unused tab of Inventory. These device(s) will move to the In Use tab when the device contacts IoT OD and the onboarding and configuration process starts.

To edit device specific settings for a particular device after assigning a group, choose one of these methods:

• Go to Device Configuration tab in the Device Details screen. Click Inventory > Unused > select device > Device Configuration > Edit Config. Update the properties as required from the UI.
• Select the device in Unused tab and perform Assign a configuration group to devices again, selecting the same group and uploading a .CSV file with updated properties.
• Use the Device Properties workflow under Configuration menu. Click Configuration > Group > group name > Edit Group > Properties > Device Properties. Upload a .CSV file containing the updated properties.

To check the status of your uploaded job:

Click More Actions > View CSV Upload History. Use the Search function to find information quickly.

Bulk and Manual adding of devices

To add device(s) not previously auto-detected from PnP Connect:

1. Click Inventory > Unused > Add Devices.
2. Select Manual Add and complete the following fields in the Add Devices page.

3. Select a configuration group from the list. The configuration template associated with that Group will be applied to the network device.
4. Click Next.
5. In the Configuration window, complete the settings and variables included in the custom template, if used for the selected Group.
   If no settings appear, the Group's configuration does not include additional variables and only the base configuration will be applied.
6. Click Next after all settings are complete.
   Correct any errors before proceeding, if necessary.
7. In the Review window, check that your settings are correct and click Save.

Add multiple devices

Use a .CSV file to add a large number of network devices.

1. From the left pane, click Inventory > Unused > Add Devices.
2. Select Bulk Add.

3. For help formatting your .CSV file:

   a. Select a Product ID (PID) and Group.
   b. Download the sample file that contains the correct column fields.
   c. Enter the settings and variables for your network devices.

   Note:

   • If the Group's configuration includes additional variables, enter the values for each device.
   • Some fields may not be included. Be sure to include a column for all settings required by your devices.

4. Upload the .CSV file that includes the settings for your network devices.
5. Click Claim and wait for the success message to appear. If the claim fails, correct your .CSV file and try again.

Example .CSV file

Each row in the .CSV file creates a device entry based on the eid column (product PID+serial_number). Additional required columns identify the device type and configuration.

Required values for each device entry

• ei: Product ID (PID) + device serial number that uniquely identifies the device. For example: IR829GW-LTE-NA-AK9+FTX2149Z015
• configGroup: The device Group that defines the configuration template for the devices. For example: default-ir800
• deviceType: The device model for your supported device. For example: IR800 or IR1101.

Additional configuration values: Port forwarding example

Additional configuration values can be included in the .CSV file.

For example, to configure Port Forwarding, include a column called "portForwarding". For each device row, enter the values for protocol, privateIP, localPort, publicPort. The following table shows the portForwarding format and a sample configuration.

Search and filter devices

The Search bar enhancements include the following:

• Improved Search function across the entire list of devices, not just the first records shown
• A Filter function which allows you to focus your search using more specific criteria
• A Bookmark icon, to save a search

Click in the Search bar to see these icons. Start typing a text string, then hit Return. The Searched devices appear in the table.

Note: The UPT variable changed from 1.20 to 1.21 and device properties have enhanced search capability.

Click the Search Options "i" icon for additional Search functions. Search function compares Name, Serial Number (SN#), and Firmware Version. For more Search Options, type in the format key:value (no spaces). The following key values are supported:

• deviceType - Type of the device--can be one of IR800, IR1100
• cellularICCID1 - This is the ICCID of the primary SIM card of the device
• cellularICCID3 - This is the ICCID of the secondary SIM card of the device
• cellularIMEI1 - This is IMEI number of the primary SIM card slot
• cellularIMEI3 - This is IMEI number of the secondary SIM card slot

To define a complex filter function using multiple key values:

1. Click the Filter icon. A row showing the following fields appears.

• Name
• Status
• Group Name
• Firmware
• Serial Number

2. Type in a text string in the field you want to filter.

For Status, click the blank line and the drop-down appears.

Table Display Enhancements

Click the gear icon on far right to get a Table Settings window. Customize your table displays throughout the UI, wherever you see the gear icon. 

Click the Edit Table Columns tab on the left to choose which columns you want to display. Click Apply.