Quick start configuration

This quick start example shows how to create a configuration using the Cisco CSS Controller component. Cisco CSS Controller provides server weight information that assists Cisco CSS Switch in determining optimal server selection for load balancing decisions.

Figure 22. A simple Cisco CSS Controller configuration
A graphic displaying a basic Cisco CSS Controller configuration

What do you need?

For this quick start configuration example, you will need the following:

How do you prepare?

Ensure the following steps are complete before beginning configuration for this example:

Configuring the Cisco CSS Controller component

With Cisco CSS Controller, you can create a configuration by using the command line or the graphical user interface (GUI). For this quick start example, configuration steps are demonstrated using the command line.

Note:
The parameter values must be typed in English characters. The only exceptions are parameter values for host names and file names.

Configuring with the command line

From a command prompt, follow these steps:

  1. Start the ccoserver on Load Balancer. As root user or administrator, issue the following from a command prompt: ccoserver
  2. Add a switch consultant to the Cisco CSS Controller configuration, specifying the Cisco CSS Switch IP interface address and the read-write community name. These values must match the corresponding attributes on the Cisco CSS Switch:

    ccocontrol consultant add SwConsultant-1 address 9.17.32.50 community public

    This will check connectivity to Cisco CSS Switch and will verify that the SNMP read-write community name is working properly.

  3. Add ownercontent (OwnerContent-1) to the switch consultant, specifying ownername (OwnerName-1) and contentrule (ContentRule-1):

    ccocontrol ownercontent add SwConsultant-1:OwnerContent-1 ownername OwnerName-1 contentrule ContentRule-1

    These values must match the corresponding attributes on the Cisco CSS Switch.

    Cisco CSS Controller can now communicate with the switch over SNMP and will obtain the necessary configuration information from the switch. After this step, you should see information in the Cisco CSS Controller about which services are configured on Cisco CSS Switch for the specified ownercontent.

  4. Configure the type of metrics to collect (active connection, connection rate, HTTP) and proportion for each metric on the ownercontent:

    ccocontrol ownercontent metrics SwConsultant-1:OwnerContent-1 activeconn 45 connrate 45 http 10

    This command will configure which metric information and proportion you want to collect from the services to be used for weight calculation. The total proportion of all the metrics must equal 100.

  5. Start the switch consultant function of Cisco CSS Controller:

    ccocontrol consultant start SwConsultant-1

    With this command, all the metric collectors will start, and service weight calculations will begin. Cisco CSS Controller communicates the results of its service weight calculations to Cisco CSS Switch using SNMP.

Your basic Cisco CSS Controller configuration is now complete.

Testing your configuration

Test to see if the configuration is working:

  1. From the Client Web browser, go to location http://www.Intersplashx.com. If a page is displayed, the configuration is working.
  2. Reload the page in the Web browser.
  3. Look at the results of the following command: ccocontrol service report SwConsultant-1:OwnerContent-1:Service-1. The total connections column of the two Web servers should add up to "2."

Configuring with the graphical user interface (GUI)

For information on using the Cisco CSS Controller GUI, see GUI and Appendix A. GUI: General instructions.