Troubleshooting Connector Connectivity and Service Issues

Troubleshooting Connector Connectivity and Service Issues

Use this article when Cisco Spaces reports that a connector is not sending location updates, or any services are reporting as down, leading to Spaces apps impact. Common areas to check include firewall or allowlist changes, proxy configuration, DNS, and network connectivity. The troubleshooting steps differ between Connector 3.x and legacy Connector 2.x.

Before you begin

  • Identify the connector version and deployment region.

  • For Connector 3.x CLI diagnostics, have access to the connector CLI as spacesadmin.

  • If network policy recently changed, ask the network administrator to check DNS, proxy, firewall, and allowlist changes for the connector.

Connector 3.x

Run the connectivity diagnostic

  1. Sign in to the connector GUI.

  2. In the left navigation, select Troubleshoot.

  3. Select the Cisco Spaces URL for your region. If the connector token is configured, the field beside Run New Test is populated automatically.

  4. Select Run New Test and review the test results. Open the details or View Logs for warnings or failures.

  5. Select Download Diagnostic Logs to save the diagnostic output.

  6. On the connector CLI as spacesadmin, run:

    connectorctl troubleshoot connectivity
connectorctl systemservice service-manager

    Save the command output for review.

Follow up on a failed test

  1. If the diagnostic reports a DNS resolution failure for the cloud endpoint, ask the network administrator to verify DNS resolution from the connector network and check for recent DNS changes.

  2. If DNS succeeds but service connectivity fails, ask the network administrator to review outbound firewall rules, IP allowlists, and proxy configuration for the connector's region.

  3. The connector must reach the Cisco Spaces cloud endpoint for its deployment region. For the Global setup, the endpoint is https://connector.dnaspaces.io/; EU and Singapore deployments use their respective regional endpoints listed in the Cisco Spaces OS Runbook.

  4. If cloud connectivity succeeds but location updates are still missing, check the connector's service metrics and confirm controller-side connectivity and configuration with the wireless network administrator. Refer to the Connector 3 configuration guide for controller connectivity requirements.

Review Connector 3 services and logs

In the Cisco Spaces dashboard, open Setup > Wireless Networks, select View Connectors, choose the affected connector, and review its Metrics tab. Select the relevant service and time period to inspect its metrics.

For service-specific investigation, open Troubleshoot Connector for the connector and enable debug logging for the affected service. Debug logs are stored locally. If needed, select Upload Logs to Cloud to provide them to Cisco Spaces support.

If a service is crashed or hung, the Connector 3 guide documents restarting services from the connector's Instances tab: in Actions, select Restart Services. Use this only when the affected service is identified and follow your organization's change process. If the connector itself is unresponsive to SSH, the guide documents restarting the connector instance from Instances > Actions > Restart Connector.

Connector 2.x (legacy)

End of life: Cisco announced end of sale and end of life for Cisco Spaces Connector 2.x in October 2024. The bulletin lists October 31, 2024 as the last date of support. Use these steps only to diagnose an existing legacy deployment while planning migration to Connector 3; they are not a recommendation to install or continue deploying Connector 2.x.

Check DNS and cloud reachability

  1. In the Connector 2.x UI, verify that the DNS server status is green.

  2. Verify that Cloud Reachable is True.

  3. If cloud reachability is false, check for DNS, proxy, firewall, allowlist, or network changes that may block access to the Cisco Spaces endpoint.

Test the endpoint without a proxy

From the connector CLI, run the connectivity test using the root access procedure provided by Cisco Spaces support for the installed Connector 2.x release:

curl -vvv https://connector.dnaspaces.io/

A successful test should return HTTP 200. Review server.log for exceptions. The monitoring alert procedure calls for a Cisco Spaces support-provided root patch and installation steps; request the current procedure from support before using root access or installing a patch.

Test the endpoint through a proxy

If the connector uses a proxy, test proxy reachability and then the cloud endpoint through that proxy:

curl -vvv <proxy-ip>
curl -vvv --proxy https://<proxy-ip>:<proxy-port> https://connector.dnaspaces.io/

A successful endpoint test should return HTTP 200. Confirm the proxy scheme and address with the network administrator. Do not assume the Global endpoint applies to every region; use the correct regional endpoint for the deployment.

Review Connector 2 services and logs

Log into your connectors CLI as spacesadmin and execute the following commands:

connectorctl troubleshoot connectivity
connectorctl systemservice service-manager
connectorctl techsupport

Next, download the logs generated:

  1. Login to the connector GUI

  2. Go to the service tile and click the download option in the top-right corner

These logs can now be shared over a support case. Generate a new one, or upload to an existing one. Support teams will use these logs to investigate any issues.

Verify recovery in connectivity

For Connector 3.x, rerun the GUI connectivity test, confirm the relevant service metrics are updating, and verify that location updates resume in Cisco Spaces.

For Connector 2.x, verify that the DNS status is green and Cloud Reachable is True. Confirm the endpoint test returns HTTP 200 and check that location updates resume. Because Connector 2.x is end of life, plan migration to Connector 3 using the Connector 2.x to Connector 3 migration guide.

When to contact Cisco Spaces support

Provide the connector version, connector identifier, time the issue began, recent network or proxy changes, and the results of the relevant checks.

For Connector 3.x, include the downloaded diagnostic logs, output from the two CLI commands, and relevant service logs or metrics. For Connector 2.x, include screenshots showing DNS server status and Cloud Reachable, the curl output, and relevant server.log exceptions. Use the support channel associated with your Cisco Spaces account.

Special notes

Supplementary information