Prerequisite tasks

Plan your deployment for managing devices by determining the following:

• the number of NEs you need to manage, the redundancy requirements and the hardware required for the system

• the management network latency and management network bandwidth requirements

• the naming conventions for objects that you create

See the NSP Planning Guide for the full list of deployment considerations.

Integrate the NSP with other EMS, as required.

Review the adaptor artifact guides for release-specific information about the compatibility of NSP functions with the adaptors.

Install the physical device as per the appropriate device-specific hardware user documentation.

Install the required NE adaptors on the NSP; see “How do I install adaptor artifacts that are not supported in the Artifacts view?” in the NSP System Administrator Guide.

Download and install any additional required artifacts, such as intent types, alarm rules, and mapping files. See “How do I install an artifact bundle?” in the NSP Network Automation Guide.

If you will be managing classic devices, verify that the NFM-P is running and fully operational.

Review GUI basics for managing devices

Familiarize yourself with GUI operations for configuring and managing devices such as navigating the GUI, performing searches, and customizing the GUI user preferences; see “NSP UI overview” in the NSP User Guide.

Launch the on-product user documentation to access the customer documentation and search tools.

Familiarize yourself with available OSS functions using programmable APIs; see the API documentation page on the Network Developer Portal.

Perform account and security tasks

Set up all required user accounts and user groups with the required scope of command roles, span of control permissions, and the ongoing monitoring and management of those accounts. See “NSP user security” in the NSP System Administrator Guide for more information.

For greater security, enable two-way client authentication using mTLS between the NSP and the managed NEs; perform “How do I enable mTLS on the NSP mediation interface?” in the NSP System Administrator Guide.

Note: For information about generating the required TLS root CA and client certificates, see the device documentation.

Verify that a gRPC certificate has been implemented in the NSP; see “How do I enable TLS for telemetry and gNMI on_change support?” in the NSP System Administrator Guide.

Prepare network devices for NSP management

Configure the following on the device:

• device identification—NE name used for NSP filtering, configuration and monitoring

• management interface protocol configuration—authentication and communication parameters for device management interface

See the device and adaptor artifact guides for information.

Discover the device and verify the device management; see How do I discover devices?.

Configure and manage the discovered device

Update parameters on a model-driven NE configuration or state schema tree; see How do I configure device objects?.

Deploy NE configuration templates to one or more devices; see How do I create a deployment?.

Create services over devices

Configure services as required using service templates; see the NSP Service Management Guide.

Monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot devices

Configure alarm settings, and monitor incoming alarms to check the type and characteristics of the alarms, and to resolve the network problems or physical equipment failures identified by the alarms; see the NSP Network and Service Assurance Guide.

Configure OAM testing to troubleshoot network problems and for SLA verification; see “OAM tests” in the NSP Data Collection and Analysis Guide .

Familiarize yourself with the Network Map and Health dashboard; see “Monitoring network health” in the NSP Network and Service Assurance Guide .

Collect statistics to monitor network and service performance, compile equipment usage and billing data, and ensure SLA compliance; see the NSP Data Collection and Analysis Guide.

Configure charts and Analytics reports as needed; see the NSP Data Collection and Analysis Guide and the Analytics Report Catalog.

Perform device maintenance functions, as required, for example:

• configuration backups and restores; see How do I back up an NE? and How do I restore an NE from a backup?

• software upgrades; see Chapter 5, NE software upgrades using NSP

Identify and resolve performance issues in the network or on a system as required. See “Troubleshooting network objects” in the NSP Network and Service Assurance Guide for a starting point.