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Zero Touch Deployment

Updated August 17, 2023. Written for LMS Version 6.3.

Overview

Zero Touch Deployment enables the automatic configuration of Local Managers via DHCP. A factory fresh Local Manager will use DHCP and DNS to automatically find and begin communicating with the Lantronix Control Center (UCC). Once a Local Manager is communicating with the UCC, a network administrator can move the Local Manager into an inventory group and begin configuring it. This functionality eliminates the need to preconfigure a Local Manager before sending it to a remote site, as well as the need to have technical assistance on-site when deploying a new Local Manager.

Note: Zero Touch Deployment for automatic discovery of a Lantronix Control Center is not supported in environments using custom heartbeat certificates. The Local Manager may still discover the UCC, but it will be unable to automatically "accept" the heartbeart certificate. The user will need to manually add the certificate using config system crypto certificate management on the CLI.

Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) with DNS

The Local Manager (LM) will attempt to DHCP an IP address for its management Ethernet interface on first boot. In addition to using DHCP to automatically configure its Ethernet management interface, it will use DNS, domain, and NTP information (if present) to configure network settings and attempt to automatically find and begin communicating with the UCC.

DNS Servers

If a list of DNS servers is provided to the Local Manager via DHCP, it will automatically configure itself to use those servers for name resolution unless automatic DNS configuration is disabled.

DNS Domain

If a domain or list of domains is provided to the Local Manager via DHCP and the management server (UCC) setting is set to automatic configuration (the default setting), the Local Manager will attempt to use the domain(s) and DNS servers to resolve the UCC IP address by querying the DNS server for a TCP "uplogix" service (i.e. SRV record). Here is an example of a SRV record for the Lantronix Control Center service:

_uplogix._tcp.yourcompany.com. 3600 IN SRV 0 5 8443 ucc.yourcompany.com.

SRV Record Format

Setting Description
service The name of the Lantronix service - should be set to "uplogix" - this field should begin with an underscore and end with a dot
protocol The Lantronix service transport protocol - should be set to "TCP" - this field should begin with an underscore and end with a dot
name The domain name for which this service record is valid, ending in a dot.
TTL This is the standard DNS time to live - set to 1 hour in this example
class This is the standard DNS class field (this is always IN).
Record type Since this is a service record, it should be set to "SRV"
priority The priority of the target host, lower value means more preferred.
weight A relative weight for records with the same priority, higher value means more preferred.
port The TCP port on which the service is to be found - the Lantronix Control Center uses TCP port 8443.
target The canonical hostname of the machine providing the service, ending in a dot.

If the Local Manager fails to resolve the UCC name querying for a service record, it will attempt to resolve the UCC IP address by querying for an A-record using the following name convention: uplogix-control-center.<DHCP=provided domain>. If the Local Manager cannot resolve the UCC IP address, it will begin traversing the search domain, attempting to resolve the UCC name all the way back to the root domain.

NTP Servers

If a list of NTP servers is provided to the Local Manager via DHCP, it will automatically configure itself to use those servers to set and correct its clock unless automatic NTP configuration is disabled.

Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) without DNS

Local Managers also support Zero Touch Deployment with DHCP and vendor encapsulation.

  • The port value is optional, and defaults to 8443
  • Either host or IP is required, IP will be ignored if host provided

Example configuration for ISC-DHCP server in Linux:

option space Lantronix;
option Lantronix.ucc-ip code 1 = ip-address;
option Lantronix.ucc-port code 2 = unsigned integer 16;
option Lantronix.ucc-host code 3 = text;
option local-encapsulation code 43 = encapsulate Lantronix;
…
class "uplogix-clients" {
  match if option vendor-class-identifier = "Lantronix";
  option Lantronix.ucc-ip 192.168.12.22;
}

Automatic Management Server Configuration Without DHCP

While true Zero Touch Deployment requires DHCP, automatic server configuration can be configured without using DHCP for the case where you want the Local Manager to automatically find its Lantronix Control Center. In this case, when you run the config system ip command to configure a static management IP address for the LM, be sure to configure at least one DNS server and a domain. For example:

[admin@LantronixLM]# config system ip
--- Existing Values --- 
Use DHCP: Yes 
Management IP: 0.0.0.0
Host Name: LantronixLM
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 
Broadcast Address: 0.0.0.255 
Default Route: 0.0.0.0 
Speed/duplex: auto: 1000full
MAC Address: 00:0F:2C:00:CC:C6 
Bonding Link: yes
[E1] Primary Ethernet Link: yes (bonded active)
[E2] Auxiliary Ethernet Link: no (bonded)
[E3] Internal SFP Ethernet Link: no (bonded)
Change these? (y/n) [n]: y
--- Enter New Values --- 
Use DHCP: (y/n) [y]: n
Management IP: [0.0.0.0]: 198.51.100.4
Host Name: [LantronixLM]: 
Subnet Mask: [255.255.255.0]: 
Default Route: [0.0.0.0]: 198.51.100.254
speed/duplex: [auto:1000full]: 
Use DNS (y/n) [y]: 
Automatically configure DNS (y/n) [y]: n
DNS Server IP 1: 172.30.4.252
DNS Server IP 2: 172.30.4.253 
Domain Search: yourcompany.com
Warning: Remote connections may be lost if you commit changes. 
Do you want to commit these changes? (y/n): y

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