Appliances

Appliances are listed on the Appliances page (System > Appliances). You can toggle between the Stats view, which focuses on health and statistics, and the Default view.

The stats view displays the current Version you are using and alerts you with an admin message when a newer version is available (for ZTP-connected Collectives only).

Filtering and sorting appliances

Use the search box to filter appliances. Click on column headings to sort the data.

NOTE

If a customization is installed, it will be indicated in the Version column with a (c).

Before configuring an appliance

Gather the following information before configuring appliances:

• Network interface and routing details.

• LogServer details for receiving logs from the Collective appliances.

• NTP server details, including secure NTP information.

Pre-configure the following elements:

• DNS. The hostname of the new appliance must be resolvable by the Controller.

• Trusted certificates. If using a LogForwarder with mTLS, add the destination's certificate to Trusted Certificates.

• Sites. Configure the Site first if setting up a Gateway. Refer to the Sites section for details.

For background reading:

• See the About appliances section for general information.

• Learn about peer-to-peer connectivity in the System Connections section.

• Understand tunneled connections in the Tunnel architectures section.

• Refer to the Interface Schematic for typical appliance topology.

Use the Appliances page to:

• Add new appliances. Refer to the first Controller or Configuring a new appliance for guidance.

• Edit existing appliances. Changes to activated appliances will be pushed automatically without needing to reexport the configuration file.

• Monitor appliance health status.

• Perform bulk actions.

• Use the action buttons provided.

To begin configuring an appliance, select +Add in the Appliances page. See the System Settings, Functions, and Miscellaneous sections for information on completing the fields in the Add Appliance page.

Appliance Health Status

Appliance health statuses include:

• Busy. Appliances connected and performing actions.

• Error. Connected appliances that are unhealthy.

• Healthy. Correctly configured and functioning appliances.

• Not Active. Appliances not yet activated. See the Registering a new appliance section to activate them.

• Offline. Activated appliances not connected to a Controller.

• Warning. Connected but unhealthy appliances.

Appliance Health Details

Click on any appliance Status to open Appliance Health Details, which provides:

• Appliance health. Current health status.

• Function(s) health. Health status of each configured function.

• Upgrade status. Displays as “idle” unless an upgrade is in progress.

• Appliance metrics. CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network throughput of the busiest NIC and IP addresses.

NOTE

Monitor Memory usage closely as the system lacks a swap partition. Refer to the Instance Sizing section for capacity requirements.

• Appliance Customization. Appears if a customization is installed.

Refer to Appliance Troubleshooting for details on warnings or errors and suggested actions to improve system health.

Actions

The Admin UI tools page provides more information about bulk actions for appliances.

Action Buttons

Access action buttons by clicking the three dots icon () next to each item or from the Actions button. Options vary based on item type and state. The Action button in the Appliances page displays the following options:

• Reboot. Reboots the appliance.

• Renew Certificate. Required if appliance settings change, such as Interfaces or Hosts File.

NOTE

• The appliance will be temporarily deactivated during certificate renewal, dropping active connections but allowing automatic reconnection.

• Changing the appliance Hostname/IP will trigger automatic certificate renewal. The appliance will be shown as non-active for a short period.

• Download Logs. Downloads a zip archive of all appliance daemon logs.

• Deactivate. Removes an appliance from the Collective for future readdition. This deletes configurations, sets status to Not active, and reenables the Export seed file/ISO button. The Deactivate option is useful for reestablishing a deleted or damaged cloud instance.

NOTE

A functioning Controller cannot be deactivated. Disable the Controller function first and wait for it to become healthy.

NOTE

To delete an appliance, use the Delete button on the page for that specific appliance.

• Suspend/Resume. On Gateways, suspends new connections for maintenance and allows you to resume functionality when complete.

• Run Commands. Opens the Remote Commands window with eight limited commands available for diagnostics. Most commands have a Timeout field that accepts a value in seconds.

• Export seed file/ISO. Required for configuring a new appliance. You must create a new appliance and apply this seed file. This opens the Export seed modal with the following options:

NOTE

The Export seed action button is only visible for Not active appliances.

• Export seed. See Defining a new appliance for details.

• Upgrade to latest version.

  • If selected, generates a configuration compatible with the Controller’s current API version.

  • If not selected, generates a configuration compatible with the appliance record’s API version.

• Seed Lifetime. Use the dropdown to select the lifetime. Seeds contain temporary keys for Controller access. Keep the lifetime short. After expiration, the seed becomes invalid and must be reexported.

• Allow appliance customizations. Disabled by default; can be enabled later using cz-config. See cz-setup and cz-config commands for details.

• Use SSH key provided by the cloud instance. Specify a key when launching cloud-based appliances.

• Use SSH public key. Begins with ssh-rsa, ssh-dss, ssh-ed25519, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384, or ecdsa-sha2-nistp521.

• Use password. Use a password instead of an SSH key. Must be strong (grants root access). You can switch to a public key later; see SSH Command line administration.

• Seed type. Export as:

  • JSON. Typical format for cloud appliances; filename must end in -seed.JSON

  • ISO. For virtualized environments such as VMware.

  • RAW. Copies JSON to the clipboard for quick paste into the appliance using SSH, such as nano /home/cz/seed.JSON

After successful seeding, the appliance will be listed in the Appliances page. If not, see Registering a new appliance for troubleshooting.