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The host_inventory file is the primary definition of all hosts (servers or virtual machines) that make up the ServAssure Collection Platform cluster.

All hosts are defined in the inventory file, and grouped according to their roles. Refer to Designate a poller as ServAssure TFTP Receiver for information about configuring host values. The following group roles exist within the file:

[rabbitmq]
Hosts for the RabbitMQ message bus.
NOTE:
  • Using a group name of rabbitmq to specify rabbit servers assumes a single tenant on-premises deployment and the TENANT_NAME var being set in site variables. For more complex deployment scenarios with multiple tenants, please contact CommScope Technical Support.
  • Host values for [nxt_engine] are technically part of a separate ServAssure NXT install process. However, if you install ServAssure Collection Platform before any ServAssure NXT installation and [nxt_engine] is not defined in the host_inventory, an nxt-eng user is not created in RabbitMQ. If you plan to use ServAssure Collection Platform with ServAssure NXT, define the ServAssure NXT hosts you plan to use with ServAssure Collection Platform before you run the ServAssure Collection Platform installation. Refer to ServAssure® NXT Design and Installation Guide for information about [nxt_engine] in the host_inventory file.
[docsis_manager]
Hosts that run the ServAssure Collection Manager application.
[docsis_poller]
Hosts that run the ServAssure Poller application.
[metrics]
The server handling the Metrics and Alerts processes. For upgrades only, not required for new installations.
NOTE: [metrics] is used only prior to Metrics 2.8.x release.
[metricsv2]
The server handling Metrics and Alerts processes for Metrics 2.8 and later. This server needs to be reachable via SSH during installation.
[logger]
The server handling the logger platform processes (optional).
[docker_hosts:children]
Groups in the host_inventory file where Docker must be installed to support installation of the ServAssure L2TP Receiver (optional). This group is only required if your deployment includes the ServAssure L2TP Receiver.
Example:
[docker_hosts:children]
docsis_l2tp_receiver
[docsis_l2tp_receiver]
Host details for the ServAssure L2TP Receiver application. Variables per host include:
<hostname>
Hostname for the server hosting the ServAssure L2TP Receiver
IP
IP address for the server hosting the ServAssure L2TP Receiver
NETWORK_PARTITION
Name of the network partition. This variable is optional. If not specified, the default value as defined in the [docsis_poller] group is used.
ansible_host
The IP address or host name that Ansible uses to connect to the L2TP host if it differs from <hostname> listed above. This variable can be left blank.
ansible_user
User name for the host that is specified in ansible_host, which Ansible uses to connect to the L2TP host. If ansible_host is blank, this value can still be explicitly defined.
L2TP_IP
The IP that the ServAssure L2TP Receiver application binds to and listens to. All L2TP receivers must use consistent IP address type, either IPv6 or IPv4.
Required if deployment includes the ServAssure L2TP Receiver.
L2TP_NAT
The IP that remote devices connect to when sending data to the ServAssure L2TP Receiver. All L2TP receivers must use consistent IP address type, either IPv6 or IPv4.
Optional. If not provided, L2TP_IP is used.
Example:
[docsis_l2tp_receiver]
my.server.hostname.1 IP=192.0.2.0 ansible_host=192.0.2.1 NETWORK_PARTITION=partition ansible_user=arris  L2TP_NAT=2001:db8:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0001 L2TP_IP=2001:db8:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0002
NOTE: It is extremely important that you populate the file with the correct information, as the ServAssure Collection Platform installation will only be performed against the hosts identified within this file. Additionally, the configuration parameters used for all hosts during installation come from the contents of the host_inventory and site_vars files.

Continue editing the file to populate all remaining groups and hosts. See ServAssure Collection Platform host_inventory for a fully populated example file. Confer with your CommScope representative to verify the correct values for this file.

NOTE: In deployment scenarios where the ServAssure Collection Platform is integrated with ServAssure NXT and the two are not sharing one inventory file, the inventory file for ServAssure Collection Platform must contain a 'nxt-engine' group or a 'appserver' group. In this scenario, the 'nxt-engine' group or 'appserver' group does not need to contain any hosts. The installation/configuration scripts use the presence of this group to perform additional configuration steps to set up the integration with ServAssure NXT.

Add TFTP server details to docsis_poller group

You must edit the [docsis_poller] group to add TFTP server details when you are configuring:
  • a non-default IPv4 or IPv6 address to bind to ServAssure Poller
  • CM/CMTS-specific NAT addresses for TFTP client access
[docsis_poller]
my.server.hostname.1 TFTP_IPV4=192.0.2.0 TFTP_IPV4_CMTS_NAT=192.0.2.1 TFTP_IPV4_CM_NAT=192.0.2.2my.server.hostname.2 TFTP_IPV4=192.0.2.3 TFTP_IPV4_CMTS_NAT=192.0.2.4 TFTP_IPV4_CM_NAT=192.0.2.5
NOTE: Ensure that the CM/CMTS will be able to reach the NAT addresses for UDP (port 69) and that the NAT rules are already configured to forward this traffic to the TFTP Server bind IP address for ServAssure Poller. Ansible only configures the ServAssure Poller application to set this information on the TFTP clients and does not configure NAT rules.

If not using NAT addresses, define the TFTP_IPv4/6 variable for a specific IP or let the variables pick up defaults.