System Install

Install NSO for production use in a system-wide deployment.

Installation Steps

Complete the following activities in the given order to perform a System Install of NSO.

Prepare

1. Fulfill System Requirements 2. Download Installer/NEDs 3. Unpack the Installer

Install

4. Run the Installer

Finalize

5. Set up User Access 6. Set Environment Variables 7. Runtime Directory Creation 8. Generate License Token

Mode of Install

NSO System Install can be installed in standard mode or in FIPS-compliant mode. Standard mode install supports a broader set of cryptographic algorithms, while the FIPS mode install restricts NSO to use only FIPS 140-3-validated cryptographic modules and algorithms for enhanced/regulated security and compliance. Use FIPS mode only in environments that require compliance with specific security standards, especially in U.S. federal agencies or regulated industries. For all other use cases, install NSO in standard mode.

^{* FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standards}

Step 1 - Fulfill System Requirements

Start by setting up your system to install and run NSO.

To install NSO:

1. Fulfill at least the primary requirements.

2. If you intend to build and run NSO deployment examples, you also need to install additional applications listed under Additional Requirements.

Where requirements list a specific or higher version, there always exists a (small) possibility that a higher version introduces breaking changes. If in doubt whether the higher version is fully backwards compatible, always use the specific version.

Primary Requirements

Primary requirements to do a System Install include:

• A system running Linux or macOS on either the x86_64 or ARM64 architecture for development. Linux for production. For FIPS mode, OS FIPS compliance may be required depending on your specific requirements.

• GNU libc 2.24 or higher.

• Java JRE 17 or higher. Used by Cisco Smart Licensing.

• Required and included with many Linux/macOS distributions:

  • tar command. Unpack the installer.

  • gzip command. Unpack the installer.

  • ssh-keygen command. Generate SSH host key.

  • openssl command. Generate self-signed certificates for HTTPS.

  • find command. Used to find out if all required libraries are available.

  • which command. Used by the NSO package manager.

  • libpam.so.0. Pluggable Authentication Module library.

  • libexpat.so.1. EXtensible Markup Language parsing library.

  • libz.so.1 version 1.2.7.1 or higher. Data compression library.

Additional Requirements

Additional requirements to, for example, build and run NSO production deployment examples include:

• Java JDK 17 or higher.

• Ant 1.9.8 or higher.

• Python 3.10 or higher.

• Python Setuptools is required to build the Python API.

• Often installed using the Python package installer pip:

  • Python Paramiko 2.2 or higher. To use netconf-console.

  • Python requests. Used by the RESTCONF demo scripts.

• xsltproc command. Used by the support/ned-make-package-meta-data command to generate the package-meta-data.xml file.

• One of the following web browsers is required for NSO GUI capabilities. The version must be supported by the vendor at the time of release.

  • Safari

  • Mozilla Firefox

  • Microsoft Edge

  • Google Chrome

• OpenSSH client applications. For example, ssh and scp commands.

• cron. Run time-based tasks, such as logrotate.

• logrotate. rotate, compress, and mail NSO and system logs.

• rsyslog. pass NSO logs to a local syslog managed by rsyslogd and pass logs to a remote node.

• systemd or init.d scripts to start and stop NSO.

FIPS Mode Entropy Requirements

The following applies if you are running a container-based setup of your FIPS install:

In containerized environments (e.g., Docker) that run on older Linux kernels (e.g., Ubuntu 18.04), /dev/random may block if the system’s entropy pool is low. This can lead to delays or hangs in FIPS mode, as cryptographic operations require high-quality randomness.

To avoid this:

• Prefer newer kernels (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04 or later), where entropy handling is improved to mitigate the issue.

• Or, install an entropy daemon like Haveged on the Docker host to help maintain sufficient entropy.

Check available entropy on the host system with:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

A value of 256 or higher is generally considered safe. Reference: Oracle blog post.

Step 2 - Download the Installer and NEDs

To download the Cisco NSO installer and example NEDs:

1. Go to the Cisco's official Software Download site.

2. Search for the product "Network Services Orchestrator" and select the desired version.

3. There are two versions of the NSO installer, i.e. for macOS and Linux systems. For System Install, choose the Linux OS version.

Identifying the Installer

You need to know your system specifications (Operating System and CPU architecture) to choose the appropriate NSO installer.

NSO is delivered as an OS/CPU-specific signed self-extractable archive. The signed archive file has the pattern nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.signed.bin that after signature verification extracts the nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.installer.bin archive file, where:

• VERSION is the NSO version to install.

• OS is the Operating System (linux for all Linux distributions and darwin for macOS).

• ARCH is the CPU architecture, for examplex86_64.

Step 3 - Unpack the Installer

If your downloaded file is a signed.bin file, it means that it has been digitally signed by Cisco, and upon execution, you will verify the signature and unpack the installer.bin.

If you only have installer.bin, skip to the next step.

To unpack the installer:

1. In the terminal, list the binaries in the directory where you downloaded the installer, for example:

   cd ~/Downloads
   ls -l nso*.bin
   -rw-r--r--@ 1 user  staff   199M Dec 15 11:45 nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin
   -rw-r--r--@ 1 user  staff   199M Dec 15 11:45 nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.signed.bin

2. Use the sh command to run the signed.bin to verify the certificate and extract the installer binary and other files. An example output is shown below.

   sh nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.signed.bin
   # Output
   Unpacking...
   Verifying signature...
   Downloading CA certificate from http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/certs/crcam2.cer ...
   Successfully downloaded and verified crcam2.cer.
   Downloading SubCA certificate from http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/certs/innerspace.cer ...
   Successfully downloaded and verified innerspace.cer.
   Successfully verified root, subca and end-entity certificate chain.
   Successfully fetched a public key from tailf.cer.
   Successfully verified the signature of nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin using tailf.cer

3. List the files to check if extraction was successful.

   ls -l
   # Output
   -rw-r--r--  1 user  staff   1.8K Nov 29 06:05 README.signature
   -rw-r--r--  1 user  staff    12K Nov 29 06:05 cisco_x509_verify_release.py
   -rwxr-xr-x  1 user  staff   199M Nov 29 05:55 nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin
   -rw-r--r--  1 user  staff   256B Nov 29 06:05 nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin.signature
   -rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user  staff   199M Dec 15 11:45 nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.signed.bin
   -rw-r--r--  1 user  staff   1.4K Nov 29 06:05 tailf.cer

There may also be additional files present.

Description of Unpacked Files

The following contents are unpacked:

• nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.installer.bin: The NSO installer.

• nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.installer.bin.signature: Signature generated for the NSO image.

• tailf.cer: An enclosed Cisco-signed x.509 end-entity certificate containing the public key that is used to verify the signature.

• README.signature: File with further details on the unpacked content and steps on how to run the signature verification program. To manually verify the signature, refer to the steps in this file.

• cisco_x509_verify_release.py: Python program that can be used to verify the 3-tier x.509 certificate chain and signature.

• Multiple .tar.gz files: Bundled packages, extending the base NSO functionality.

• Multiple .tar.gz.signature files: Digital signatures for the bundled packages.

Since NSO version 6.3, a few additional NSO packages are included. They contain the following platform tools:

• HCC

• Observability Exporter

• Phased Provisioning

• Resource Manager

For platform tools documentation, refer to the individual package's README file or to the online documentation.

NED Packages

The NED packages that are available with the NSO installation are netsim-based example NEDs. These NEDs are used for NSO examples only.

Fetch the latest production-grade NEDs from Cisco Software Download using the URLs provided on your NED license certificates.

Manual Pages

The installation program will unpack the NSO manual pages from the documentation archive, allowing you to use the man command to view them. The Manual Pages are also available in PDF format and from the online documentation located on NCS man-pages, Volume 1 in Manual Pages.

Following is a list of a few of the installed manual pages:

• ncs(1): Command to start and control the NSO daemon.

• ncsc(1): NSO Yang compiler.

• ncs_cli(1): Frontend to the NSO CLI engine.

• ncs-netsim(1): Command to create and manipulate a simulated network.

• ncs-setup(1): Command to create an initial NSO setup.

• ncs.conf: NSO daemon configuration file format.

For example, to view the manual page describing the NSO configuration file, you should type:

$ man ncs.conf

Apart from the manual pages, extensive information about command line options can be obtained by running ncs and ncsc with the --help (abbreviated -h) flag.

$ ncs --help

$ ncsc --help

Installer Help

Run the sh nso-VERSION.linux.x86_64.installer.bin --help command to view additional help on running binaries. More details can be found in the ncs-installer(1) Manual Page included with NSO.

Notice the two options for --local-install or --system-install.

sh nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin --help

Step 4 - Run the Installer

To run the installer:

1. Navigate to your Install Directory.

2. Run the installer with the --system-install option to perform System Install. This option creates an install of NSO that is suitable for production deployment. At this point, you can choose to install NSO in standard mode or in FIPS mode.

Standard System Install

The standard mode is the regular NSO install and is suitable for most installations. FIPS is disabled in this mode.

For standard NSO install, run the installer as below.

$ sudo sh nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.installer.bin --system-install

Example: Standard System Install

$ sudo sh nso-6.0.linux.x86_64.installer.bin --system-install

FIPS System Install

FIPS mode creates a FIPS-compliant NSO install.

FIPS mode should only be used for deployments that are subject to strict compliance regulations as the cryptographic functions are then confined to the CiscoSSL FIPS 140-3 module library.

For FIPS-compliant NSO install, run the command with the additional --fips-install flag. Afterwards, verify FIPS in ncs.conf.

$ sudo sh nso-VERSION.OS.ARCH.installer.bin --system-install --fips-install

Example: FIPS System Install

$ sudo sh nso-6.5.linux.x86_64.installer.bin --system-install --fips-install

NSO Configuration for FIPS

Note the following as part of FIPS-specific configuration/install:

1. The ncs.conf file is automatically configured to enable FIPS by setting the following flag:

<fips-mode>
    <enabled>true</enabled>
</fips-mode>

1. Additional environment variables (NCS_OPENSSL_CONF_INCLUDE, NCS_OPENSSL_CONF, NCS_OPENSSL_MODULES) are configured in ncsrc for FIPS compliance.

2. The default crypto.so is overwritten at install for FIPS compliance.

Additionally, note that:

• As certain algorithms typically available with CiscoSSL are not included in the FIPS 140-3 validated module (and therefore disabled in FIPS mode), you need to configure NSO to use only the algorithms and cryptographic suites available through the CiscoSSL FIPS 140-3 object module.

• With FIPS, NSO signals the NEDs to operate in FIPS mode using Bouncy Castle FIPS libraries for Java-based components, ensuring compliance with FIPS 140-3. To support this, NED packages may also require upgrading, as older versions — particularly SSH-based NEDs — often lack the necessary FIPS signaling or Bouncy Castle support required for cryptographic compliance.

• Configure SSH keys in ncs.conf and init.xml.

Default Directories and Scripts

The System Install by default creates the following directories:

• The Installation Directory is created in /opt/ncs, where the distribution is available.

• The Configuration Directory is created in /etc/ncs, where the ncs.conf file, SSH keys, and WebUI certificates are created.

• The Running Directory is created in /var/opt/ncs, where runtime state files, CDB database, and packages are created.

• The Log Directory is created in /var/log/ncs, where the log files are populated.

• System-wide environment variables are created in /etc/profile.d/ncs.sh.

• The installer creates a systemd system service script in /etc/systemd/system/ncs.service and enables the NSO service to start at boot, but the service is not started immediately. See the steps below for starting NSO after installation and before rebooting.

• To allow package reload when starting NSO, an environment file called /etc/ncs/ncs.systemd.conf is created. This file is owned by the user that starts NSO.

For the --system-install option, you can also choose a user-defined (non-default) Installation Directory, Configuration Directory, Running Directory, and Log Directory with --install-dir, --config-dir, --run-dir and --log-dir parameters, and specify that NSO should run as a different user than root with the --run-as-user parameter.

If you choose a non-default Installation Directory by using --install-dir, you need to specify --install-dir for subsequent installs and also for backup and restore.

Use the --ignore-init-scripts option to disable provisioning the systemd system service.

If a legacy SysV service exists in /etc/init.d/ncs when installing in interactive mode, the user will be prompted to continue using the old SysV service behavior or prepare a systemd service. In non-interactive mode, a systemd service will be prepared where a /etc/systemd/system/ncs.service.prepare file is created. The service is not enabled to start at boot. To enable it, rename it to /etc/systemd/system/ncs.service and remove the old /etc/init.d/ncs SysV service. When using the --non-interactive option, the /etc/systemd/system/ncs.service file will be overwritten if it already exists.

For more information on the ncs-installer, see the ncs-installer(1) man page.

For an extensive guide to NSO deployment, refer to Development to Production Deployment.

Enable Strict Overcommit Accounting on the Host.

By default, the Linux kernel allows overcommit of memory. However, memory overcommit produces an unexpected and unreliable environment for NSO because the Linux Out-Of-Memory (OOM) killer may terminate NSO without restarting it if the system is critically low on memory. Also, when the OOM killer terminates NSO, no system dump file will be produced, and the debug information will be lost. Thus, it is strongly recommended to enable strict overcommit accounting.

Heuristic Overcommit Mode as an Alternative to Strict Overcommit

The alternative—using heuristic overcommit mode (see below for best‑effort recommendations)—can be useful if the NSO host has severe memory limitations. For example, if RAM sizing for the NSO host did not take into account that the schema (from YANG models) is loaded into memory by NSO Python and Java packages affecting total committed memory (Committed_AS) and after considering the recommendations in CDB Stores the YANG Model Schema.

Recommended: Host Configured for Strict Overcommit

• Set vm.overcommit_memory=2 to enable strict overcommit accounting.

• Set vm.overcommit_ratio so the CommitLimit is approximately equal to physical RAM, with a 5% headroom for the kernel to reduce the risk of system-wide OOM conditions. E.g., 95% of RAM when no swap is present (recommended), or subtract 5 percentage points from the calculated ratio that neutralizes swap. Increase the headroom if the host runs additional services.

• Alternatively, set vm.overcommit_kbytes which takes precedence; vm.overcommit_ratio is ignored while vm.overcommit_kbytes > 0.

  • When vm.overcommit_kbytes > 0, it sets a fixed CommitLimit in kB and ignores ratio and swap in the calculation. Note that HugeTLB is not subtracted when overcommit_kbytes is used (it’s a fixed value).

• Strongly discourage swap use at runtime by setting vm.swappiness=1.

• If swap must remain enabled system-wide, prevent NSO from using swap by configuring its cgroup with memory.swap.max=0 (cgroup v2).

• If swap must be enabled for NSO use a fast disk, for example, an NVMe SSD.

Apply Immediately

To apply strict overcommit accounting with immediate effect

echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory

When vm.overcommit_memory=2, the overcommit_ratio parameter defines the percentage of physical RAM that is available for commit.

The Linux kernel computes the CommitLimit:

CommitLimit = MemTotal × (overcommit_ratio / 100) + SwapTotal − total_huge_TLB

• MemTotal is the total amount of RAM on the system.

• overcommit_ratio is the value in /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_ratio .

• SwapTotal is the amount of swap space. Can be 0.

• total_huge_TLB is the amount of memory set aside for huge pages. Can be 0.

The default overcommit_ratio is 50%. On systems with more than 50% of RAM available, this default can underutilize physical memory.

Do not set vm.overcommit_ratio=100 as it includes all RAM plus all swap in the CommitLimit and leaves no headroom for the kernel. While swap increases the commit capacity, it is usually slow and should be avoided for NSO.

Compute overcommit_ratio to Neutralize Swap

To allocate physical RAM only in commit accounting and keep a 5-10% headroom for the kernel:

• Compute the base ratio: base_ratio = 100 × (MemTotal − SwapTotal) / MemTotal.

• Apply headroom: overcommit_ratio = floor(base_ratio) − 5.

Notes:

• overcommit_ratio is an integer; round down for a bit of extra headroom.

• Recompute the ratio if RAM or swap changes.

• If SwapTotal ≥ MemTotal, swap cannot be neutralized via overcommit_ratio, use overcommit_kbytes; see Example 3.

• If the computed value is very low, ensure it still fits your workload requirements.

Example 1: No Swap, 5% Headroom

Check memory totals

cat /proc/meminfo | grep "MemTotal\|SwapTotal"
MemTotal:    8039352 kB
SwapTotal:         0 kB

Apply settings with immediate effect

echo 2  > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
echo 95 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_ratio
echo 1  > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Rationale: With no swap, set overcommit_ratio=95 to allow ~95% of RAM for user-space commit, leaving ~5% headroom for the kernel.

Example 2: MemTotal > SwapTotal, Neutralize Swap with 5% Headroom

Check memory totals

cat /proc/meminfo | grep "MemTotal\|SwapTotal"
MemTotal:    8039352 kB
SwapTotal:   1048572 kB

Calculate the ratio:

• base_ratio= 100 × ((8039352 − 1048572) / 8039352) ≈ 86.9%.

• Apply 5% headroom: overcommit_ratio = floor(86.9) − 5 = 81.

Apply

echo 2  > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
echo 81 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_ratio
echo 1  > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

This keeps the CommitLimit safely below physical RAM to provide kernel headroom and neutralizes swap’s contribution to CommitLimit and then applies 5% headroom toward the commit budget.

Example 3: SwapTotal ≥ MemTotal (Headroom via ratio not applicable, use overcommit_kbytes)

Check memory totals

cat /proc/meminfo | grep "MemTotal\|SwapTotal"
MemTotal:    16000000 kB
SwapTotal:   16000000 kB

Compute:

• CommitLimit_kB = floor(MemTotal × 0.95) = floor(16,000,000 × 0.95) = 15,200,000 kB.

Apply

echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
echo 15200000 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_kbytes
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Note that overcommit_kbytes sets a fixed CommitLimit that ignores swap; recompute if RAM changes. Also note the HugeTLB subtraction does not apply when using overcommit_kbytes (fixed commit budget).

Refer to the Linux proc_sys_vm(5) manual page for more details on the overcommit_memory, overcommit_ratio, and overcommit_kbytes parameters.

Persist Across Reboots

To ensure the overcommit remains disabled after reboot, add the three lines below to /etc/sysctl.conf (or a file under /etc/sysctl.d/).

Add to /etc/sysctl.conf

vm.overcommit_memory = 2
vm.overcommit_ratio = <integer> # if not using overcommit_kbytes
vm.overcommit_kbytes = <kbytes> # if using a fixed CommitLimit
vm.swappiness = 1

See the Linux sysctl.conf(5) manual page for details.

NSO Crash Dumps

If NSO aborts due to failure to allocate memory, NSO will produce a system dump by default before aborting. When starting NSO from a non-root user, set the NCS_DUMP environment variable to point to a filename in a directory that the non-root user can access. The default setting is NCS_DUMP=ncs_crash.dump, where the file is written to the NSO run-time directory, typically NCS_RUN_DIR=/var/opt/ncs. If the user running NSO cannot write to the directory that the NCS_DUMP environment variable points to, generating the system dump file will fail, and the debug information will be lost.

Alternative: Heuristic Overcommit Mode (vm.overcommit_memory=0) With Committed_AS Monitoring

As an alternative to the recommended strict mode, vm.overcommit_memory=2, you can keep vm.overcommit_memory=0 to allow overcommit of memory and monitor the total committed memory (Committed_AS) versus CommitLimit using, for example, a best effort script or observability tool. When Committed_AS crosses a threshold, for example, 90% of CommitLimit, proactively trigger a series of NSO debug dumps every few seconds via ncs --debug-dump. Optionally, a second critical threshold, for example, 95% of CommitLimit, proactively trigger NSO to produce a system dump and then exit gracefully.

• This approach does not prevent NSO from getting killed; it attempts to capture diagnostic data before memory pressure becomes critical and the Linux OOM-killer kills NSO.

• If swap is enabled, prefer vm.swappiness=1 and consider placing NSO in a cgroup with memory.swap.max=0 to avoid swap I/O for NSO. Requires Linux cgroup v2 and a service-managed cgroup (e.g., systemd) support.

• Committed_AS versus CommitLimit is a more meaningful early‑warning signal than Committed_AS versus MemTotal, because CommitLimit reflects the kernel’s current overcommit policy, swap availability, and huge page reservations—MemTotal does not.

• When in Heuristic mode (vm.overcommit_memory=0): CommitLimit is informative, not enforced. It’s still better than MemTotal for early warning, but OOM can occur before or after you reach it.

• If necessary for your use-case, complement with MemAvailable, swap activity (vmstat or /proc/vmstat), PSI memory pressure (/proc/pressure/memory), and per‑process/cgroup RSS to catch imminent pressure that Committed_AS alone may miss.

• Ensure the user running the monitor has permission to execute ncs --debug-dump and write to the chosen dump directory.

• See "NSO Crash Dumps" above for crash dump details.

Simple example script NSO debug-dump monitor

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Simple NSO debug-dump monitor for heuristic overcommit mode (vm.overcommit_memory=0).
# Triggers ncs --debug-dump when Committed_AS reaches 90% of CommitLimit.
# Triggers NSO to produce a system dump before exiting using kill -USR1 <ncs.smp PID> when Committed_AS reaches 95% of CommitLimit

THRESHOLD_PCT=90       # Trigger at 90% of CommitLimit (10% headroom).
CRITICAL_PCT=95        # Trigger at 95% of CommitLimit (5% headroom).
POLL_INTERVAL=5        # Seconds between checks.
PROCESS_CHECK_INTERVAL=30
DUMP_COUNT=10          # Number of dumps to collect.
DUMP_DELAY=10          # Seconds between dumps.
DUMP_PREFIX="dump"     # Files like dump.1.bin, dump.2.bin, ...

command -v ncs >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "ncs command not found in PATH."; exit 1; }

find_nso_pid() {
  pgrep -x ncs.smp | head -n1 || true
}

while true; do
  pid="$(find_nso_pid)"
  if [ -z "${pid:-}" ]; then
    echo "NSO not running; retry in ${PROCESS_CHECK_INTERVAL}s..."
    sleep "$PROCESS_CHECK_INTERVAL"
    continue
  fi

  committed="$(awk '/Committed_AS:/ {print $2}' /proc/meminfo)"
  commit_limit="$(awk '/CommitLimit:/ {print $2}' /proc/meminfo)"
  if [ -z "$committed" ] || [ -z "$commit_limit" ]; then
    echo "Unable to read /proc/meminfo; retry in ${POLL_INTERVAL}s..."
    sleep "$POLL_INTERVAL"
    continue
  fi

  threshold=$(( commit_limit * THRESHOLD_PCT / 100 ))
  critical=$(( commit_limit * CRITICAL_PCT / 100 ))
  echo "PID=${pid} Committed_AS=${committed}kB; CommitLimit=${commit_limit}kB; Threshold=${threshold}kB; Critical=${critical}kB."
  if [ "$committed" -ge "$critical" ]; then
    echo "Critical threshold crossed; collect a system dump and stop NSO..."
    kill -USR1 ${pid}
    exit 0
  elif [ "$committed" -ge "$threshold" ]; then
    echo "Threshold crossed; collecting ${DUMP_COUNT} debug dumps..."
    for i in $(seq 1 "$DUMP_COUNT"); do
      file="${DUMP_PREFIX}.${i}.bin"
      echo "Dump $i -> ${file}"
      if ! ncs --debug-dump "$file"; then
        echo "Debug dump $i failed."
      fi
      sleep "$DUMP_DELAY"
    done
    echo "All debug dumps completed; exiting."
    exit 0
  fi

  sleep "$POLL_INTERVAL"
done

Some older NSO releases expect the /etc/init.d/ folder to exist in the host operating system. If the folder does not exist, the installer may fail to successfully install NSO. A workaround that allows the installer to proceed is to create the folder manually, but the NSO process will not automatically start at boot.

Step 5 - Set Up User Access

The installation is configured for PAM authentication, with group assignment based on the OS group database (e.g. /etc/group file). Users that need access to NSO must belong to either the ncsadmin group (for unlimited access rights) or the ncsoper group (for minimal access rights).

To set up user access:

1. To create the ncsadmin group, use the OS shell command:

   # groupadd ncsadmin

2. To create the ncsoper group, use the OS shell command:

   # groupadd ncsoper

3. To add an existing user to one of these groups, use the OS shell command:

   # usermod -a -G 'groupname' 'username'

Step 6 - Set Environment Variables

To set environment variables:

1. Change to Super User privileges.

   $ sudo -s

2. The installation program creates a shell script file in each NSO installation which sets the environment variables needed to run NSO. With the --system-install option, by default, these settings are set on the shell. To explicitly set the variables, source ncs.sh or ncs.csh depending on your shell type.

   # source /etc/profile.d/ncs.sh

3. Start NSO.

   # systemctl daemon-reload
   # systemctl start ncs

   NSO starts at boot going forward.

   Once you log on with the user that belongs to ncsadmin or ncsoper, you can directly access the CLI as shown below:

   $ ncs_cli -C

Step 7 - Runtime Directory Creation

As part of the System Install, the NSO daemon ncs is automatically started at boot time. You do not need to create a Runtime Directory for System Install.

Step 8 - Generate License Registration Token

To conclude the NSO installation, a license registration token must be created using a (CSSM) account. This is because NSO uses Cisco Smart Licensing to make it easy to deploy and manage NSO license entitlements. Login credentials to the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) account are provided by your Cisco contact and detailed instructions on how to create a registration token can be found in the Cisco Smart Licensing. General licensing information covering licensing models, how licensing works, usage compliance, etc., is covered in the Cisco Software Licensing Guide.

To generate a license registration token:

1. When you have a token, start a Cisco CLI towards NSO and enter the token, for example:

   $ ncs_cli -Cu admin
   admin@ncs# license smart register idtoken
   YzIzMDM3MTgtZTRkNC00YjkxLTk2ODQtOGEzMTM3OTg5MG
   
   Registration process in progress.
   Use the 'show license status' command to check the progress and result.

   Upon successful registration, NSO automatically requests a license entitlement for its own instance and for the number of devices it orchestrates and their NED types. If development mode has been enabled, only development entitlement for the NSO instance itself is requested.

2. Inspect the requested entitlements using the command show license all (or by inspecting the NSO daemon log). An example output is shown below.

   admin@ncs# show license all
   ...
   <INFO> 21-Apr-2016::11:29:18.022 miosaterm confd[8226]:
   Smart Licensing Global Notification:
   type = "notifyRegisterSuccess",
   agentID = "sa1",
   enforceMode = "notApplicable",
   allowRestricted = false,
   failReasonCode = "success",
   failMessage = "Successful."
   <INFO> 21-Apr-2016::11:29:23.029 miosaterm confd[8226]:
   Smart Licensing Entitlement Notification: type = "notifyEnforcementMode",
   agentID = "sa1",
   notificationTime = "Apr 21 11:29:20 2016",
   version = "1.0",
   displayName = "regid.2015-10.com.cisco.NSO-network-element",
   requestedDate = "Apr 21 11:26:19 2016",
   tag = "regid.2015-10.com.cisco.NSO-network-element",
   enforceMode = "inCompliance",
   daysLeft = 90,
   expiryDate = "Jul 20 11:26:19 2016",
   requestedCount = 8
   ...

Evaluation Period

If no registration token is provided, NSO enters a 90-day evaluation period and the remaining evaluation time is recorded hourly in the NSO daemon log:

      ...
<INFO> 13-Apr-2016::13:22:29.178 miosaterm confd[16260]:
Starting the NCS Smart Licensing Java VM
<INFO> 13-Apr-2016::13:22:34.737 miosaterm confd[16260]:
Smart Licensing evaluation time remaining: 90d 0h 0m 0s
...
<INFO> 13-Apr-2016::13:22:34.737 miosaterm confd[16260]:
Smart Licensing evaluation time remaining: 89d 23h 0m 0s
...

Communication Send Error

During upgrades, if you experience a 'Communication Send Error' during license registration, restart the Smart Agent.

If You are Unable to Access Cisco Smart Software Manager

In a situation where the NSO instance has no direct access to the Cisco Smart Software Manager, one option is the Cisco Smart Software Manager Satellite which can be installed to manage software licenses on the premises. Install the satellite and use the command call-home destination address http <url:port> to point to the satellite.

Another option when direct access is not desired is to configure an HTTP or HTTPS proxy, e.g., smart-license smart-agent proxy url https://127.0.0.1:8080. If you plan to do this, take the note below regarding ignored CLI configurations into account:

If ncs.conf contains a configuration for any of the java-executable, java-options, override-url/url, or proxy/url under the configure path /ncs-config/smart-license/smart-agent/, then any corresponding configuration done via the CLI is ignored.

License Registration in HA Mode

When configuring NSO in High Availability (HA) mode, the license registration token must be provided to the CLI running on the primary node. Read more about HA and node types in High Availability.

Licensing Log

Licensing activities are also logged in the NSO daemon log as described in Monitoring NSO. For example, a successful token registration results in the following log entry:

<INFO> 21-Apr-2016::11:29:18.022 miosaterm confd[8226]:
Smart Licensing Global Notification:
type = "notifyRegisterSuccess"

Check Registration Status

To check the registration status, use the command show license status.

admin@ncs# show license status

Smart Licensing is ENABLED

Registration:
Status: REGISTERED
Smart Account: Network Services Orchestrator
Virtual Account: Default
Export-Controlled Functionality: Allowed
Initial Registration: SUCCEEDED on Apr 21 09:29:11 2016 UTC
Last Renewal Attempt: SUCCEEDED on Apr 21 09:29:16 2016 UTC
Next Renewal Attempt: Oct 18 09:29:16 2016 UTC
Registration Expires: Apr 21 09:26:13 2017 UTC
Export-Controlled Functionality: Allowed

License Authorization:

License Authorization:
Status: IN COMPLIANCE on Apr 21 09:29:18 2016 UTC
Last Communication Attempt: SUCCEEDED on Apr 21 09:26:30 2016 UTC
Next Communication Attempt: Apr 21 21:29:32 2016 UTC
Communication Deadline: Apr 21 09:26:13 2017 UTC

System Install FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about System Install.

Is there a dependency between the NSO Installation Directory and Runtime Directory?

No, there is no such dependency.

Do you need to source the ncsrc file before starting NSO?

No. By default, the environment variables are configured and set on the shell with System Install.

Can you start NSO from a directory that is not an NSO runtime directory?

Yes.

Can you stop NSO from a directory that is not an NSO runtime directory?

Yes.

For evaluation and development purposes, instead of a Local Install, you performed a System Install. Now you cannot build or run NSO examples as described in README files. How can you proceed further?

The easiest way is to uninstall the System install using ncs-uninstall --all and do a Local Install from scratch.

Can we move NSO Installation from one folder to another ?

No.