IPERA Starling - Cisco CMX Integration

Purpose

This document provides information about how to enable Cisco CMX to share the Floor Map, Zones and Location information with IPERA Guest Engagement server. IPERA Server processes this information for multiple purposes:

1. Reports & Analytics – Providing Presence and Location Analytics 
2. Engagement Campaigns (e.g.: Triggered Campaigns) – sends message to the user device
3. Business systems – to notify when a guest is entered in the venue 
4. Wayfinding – shares the device location information with Wayfinding Mobile App 

The configuration procedure has been performed and tested for the following S/W or Firmware versions:

Cisco CMX (MSE) : 10.2.1-219

Prime Infrastructure : 2.2.0

Cisco WLC : 8.2.141.0

General Overview

Following minimum configuration steps to be completed for CMX to generate location information and share with IPERA

Prime Infrastructure (PI) Configuration Highlights:

• Campus, Building and Floor definition
• Import/Export Floor Plans / Maps
• Discovery of network devices like WLC and AP
• Locate APs on maps

IPERA Configuration Highlights:

• Configure IPERA Server to Integrate with CMX (section 1) 
• Import Locations from CMX to IPERA (section 2)

Cisco CMX (MSE) Configuration Highlights:

• Import Maps and WLC information from Cisco Prime
• Configure CMX to share the Location information with IPERA – see below section

1. Configure IPERA Server to Integrate with CMX

Note: This configuration is applied by IPERA support engineers 

Location Analytics settings should be defined under Settings > Locations > Import to import information from Cisco CMX

Under Settings > System Settings > Advanced > Location Analytics, select Cisco CMX and enter the information below:

Server URL: Enter IPERA Server 

Username: API User name should have either of the following roles: read-only, system or admin

Password: API User password

2. Import Locations from CMX

2.1. How to Import Data from CMX Directly

Note: This configuration is applied by IPERA Consultants.

In order to import locations from CMX, you need to first define the CMX information form Global Tenant Settings > Locations > Location Import Wizard 

2.2 How to Import Data from CMX Manually 

IPERA Guest Wi-Fi system is capable of importing CMX data directly from CMX. In some cases, if IPERA system cannot access CMX directly, it is required to import CMX data manually from CMX and export to the IPERA system.

  Steps to Import CMX Data Manually 

1. Download postman application for your OS from https://www.getpostman.com/apps
2. Install and launch postman (No registration needed, you can skip login or registration steps)
3. From the 'File' menu, click 'Settings'. In 'General' tab, turn off 'SSL certificate verification' option

4. Choose Authorization type as 'Basic Auth' and enter your CMX username and password into 'Username' and 'Password' fields.

5. Send a request to https://<cmx-server-ip>/api/config/v1/maps

3. Configure CMX to share Location Information with IPERA

Note: The following configuration (step 3.1 and step 3.2) is required to integrate WLC with Cisco Prime and Cisco CMX to share the location information with IPERA Location Engine server. If you have performed those steps, please ignore it and move on to the step 3.3 

1. WLC Configuration to define SNMP community 

Login Cisco WLC and locate Management > SNMP > Communities page 

Define a community (e.g.: ipera) with Access Mode: Read/Write and Status is Enabled. Leave IP Address and IP Mask as “0.0.0.0”

2. Import Maps and WLCs from Prime

Select Settings icon under SYSTEM tab

On the Settings page, select Import and enter PI credentials and click the button “Import Controllers and Maps”

Click Save button after import operation

Note: In this step it is also possible to use Advanced option to Import Maps and WLC information manually

Click <Edit> next to the WLC controller that you added. 

Select Controller SNMP Version: Default is v2c

Enter Controller SNMS Write Community key that you defined on WLC. This key must be the same that you defined WLC at Step 1.1 above 

3. Define ‘Location Update’ notification:

Note: Prior to this configuration, define CMX information on IPERA (Section 1) and import location information from IPERA Server (Section 2)

 On Page MANAGE\Notifications click New Notification 

 On opening page define these parameters:

Name: Provide a name like ‘IPERA-Notification’

Type: Select ‘Location Update’

Conditions\Device Type: Select ‘Client’

Conditions\Hierarchy: select ‘All Zones’ under specific floor

MacAddress: leave blank

Receiver: http or https depending on IPERA Location Engine Server configuration

host address: IPERA Location Engine Server Host Name (e.g.: engage.iperawifi.com)

port: IPERA Location Engine Server Port Number (443)
URI: “api/v1/location/analytics/cmx/<CMX-Key>/location/<CMX-LocationID>”

          (CMX-Key and CMX-LocationID will be provide by IPERA Consultants)

   MAC Scrambling: OFF,

   Message Format: JSON

Note: We define a single Location Update notification for the purpose of this document. However more notification definitions may be required depending on project requirements

4. Parameters for the solutions

CMX-Key: To be provided by IPERA consultants

CMX-LocationID: To be provided by IPERA consultants