The tools bar of the Administration screen enables you to select the current account and farm, and various administration tools to perform administrative tasks. The tools bar includes the following features:
Current Selections area where you can select the current account and farm with which to work
Lock Current Farm option to toggle the current farm between a locked and unlocked status
Administration Tools area to perform various administrative tasks
System Buttons so you can synchronize devices and software images known to the control plane software with the Control Center software
In the upper left corner of the window, you can select the account and farm associated with the account with which to work.
Current Account is used as the default account for all administration tasks. The selected current account gives you the ability to access all farms in the account.
Current Farm is the default farm displayed when navigating to other sections of the Administration screen. For example, the farm selected in the Current Farm is the default when options under the Farm Management Tools is selected.
As an administrator, you can use the Lock Current Farm option to prevent others from modifying a farm as long as you have the farm locked. With this feature, you toggle the current farm between the locked and the unlocked state. When you lock (and unlock) the farm, you must enter and confirm a password that is specific to that lock. If you forget your farm lock password, you can reset the password by using the command-line interface.
This function is applied only to farms that are in the active state.
The Control Center is a multi-user application. Hence, any user can edit any farm, user, or account at any time if the user has permission to do so. If two users make a change to the same farm, user, or account at the same time, the changes that the first user saves are applied. The second user to save changes is given the opportunity to overwrite the change by the first user. Otherwise, the second user's changes are discarded.
The features of the Administration section are grouped into three categories, as shown in the Administration Tools area of the Control Center window in Figure 2–6.
Farm Management Tools, for managing server farms.
Account Tools, for managing accounts.
Configuration Tools, for configuring basic features of the application.
The Control Center window contains two system buttons, as described in the following list.
Synchronize System is used for synchronizing devices and software images that are known to the control plane with the Control Center application.
Click Synchronize System whenever you add devices to an I-Fabric or when you add or change global software images using the command-line interface. Also synchronize system after you add a new I-Fabric.
Check System Configuration is used for validating I-Fabric configurations during the N1 Provisioning Server software installation.
Also check the system configuration each time you change a configuration parameter, such as the connector or an IP address. A dialog box displays the validation information for the system configuration and any error messages. Depending on the error that occurred, make the appropriate corrections, then check the system configuration again to ensure that the correct adjustment was made.