Network Convergence System 5000 Series Routers

The Network Convergence System 5000 Series offers a high-density, small-form-factor MPLS aggregation router for metro aggregation. It is designed to economically scale large enterprise, over-the-top (OTT), and service provider Data Center networking architectures.

The Cisco NCS 5000 Series is an extension to Cisco’s routing platform portfolio enabling Service Providers and MPLS enabled data center architectures to offer elastic networks with improved business agility and simplified operations to deliver high-bandwidth mobile, video, and cloud services.

It can also operate as an extension shelf of Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers using Network Virtualization (nV) technology, consolidating multiple layers in the network and dramatically reducing operational costs.

The Cisco NCS 5000 series routers are small form factor dense aggregation systems. Powered by industry leading routing operation system, IOS-XR, the system also offers rich functions such as third party application hosting, machine-to-machine interface, telemetry and flexible package delivery.

What's New in Cisco IOS XR Release 7.9.1

For more details on the Cisco IOS XR release model and associated support, see Guidelines for Cisco IOS XR Software.

New in Documentation

Product Description
YANG Data Models Navigator

We have launched the tool as an easy reference to view the Data Models (Native, Unified, OpenConfig) supported in IOS XR platforms and releases. You can explore the data model definitions, locate a specific model, and view the containers and their respective lists, leaves, leaf lists, Xpaths, and much more.

As we continue to enhance the tool, we would love to hear your feedback. You are welcome to drop us a note here.

Software Features Enhanced and Introduced

To learn about features introduced in other Cisco IOS XR releases, select the release from the Documentation Landing Page.

Feature Description

Programmability

Securely retrieve dynamic NACM with LDAP over TLS authentication

You can now securely retrieve the NETCONF Access Control Model (NACM) policies or rules on-demand from a remote Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to validate each NETCONF operation using Transport Layer Security (TLS) authentication. With TLS authentication, the router and the LDAP server communication is encrypted for security. Before this release, the policies or rules were not encrypted and posed security vulnerabilities

YANG Data Models Introduced and Enhanced

This release introduces or enhances the following data models. For detailed information about the supported and unsupported sensor paths of all the data models, see the Github repository. To get a comprehensive list of the data models supported in a release, navigate to the Available-Content.md file for the release in the Github repository. The unsupported sensor paths are documented as deviations. For example, openconfig-acl.yang provides details about the supported sensor paths, whereas cisco-xr-openconfig-acl-deviations.yang provides the unsupported sensor paths for openconfig-acl.yang on Cisco IOS XR routers.

You can also view the data model definitions using the YANG Data Models Navigator tool. This GUI-based and easy-to-use tool helps you explore the nuances of the data model and view the dependencies between various containers in the model. You can view the list of models supported across Cisco IOS XR releases and platforms, locate a specific model, view the containers and their respective lists, leaves, and leaf lists presentedvisually in a tree structure.

To get started with using data models, see the Programmability Configuration Guide for NCS 5000 Series Routers.

Feature Description

Programmability

openconfig-network-instance.yang

With this release, the OpenConfig data model is enhanced to view the number of routes that are routed through a specific neighbour for each peer and Subsequent Address Family Identifiers (SAFI) installed counter. The counter reflects the current state of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Routing Information Base (RIB), and can be monitored to check the presence of stale routes, missing routes, and the current installed state of the BGP routes in RIB.

The model supports a single instance of BGP with default VRF, and address family (IPv4, IPv6).

Release 7.9.1 Packages

This table lists the Cisco IOS XR Software feature set matrix (packages) with associated filenames.

Table 1. Release 7.9.1 Packages for Cisco NCS 5000 Series Router

Composite Package

Feature Set

Filename

Description

Cisco IOS XR IP Unicast Routing Core Bundle

ncs5k-mini-x.iso

Contains base image contents that includes:

  • Host operating system

  • System Admin boot image

  • IOS XR boot image

  • Alarm co-relation

Individually-Installable Optional Packages

Feature Set

Filename

Description

Cisco IOS XR Manageability Package

ncs5k-mgbl-3.0.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

 XML, Parser, HTTP Server, Telemetry, and gRPC.

Cisco IOS XR MPLS Package

ncs5k-mpls-3.1.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), MPLS forwarding , MPLS operations , Administration and maintenance (OAM), Layer3-vpn, layer-2 vpn.

Cisco IOS XR MPLS RSVP TE package

ncs5k-mpls-te-rsvp-1.1.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

Supports MPLS RSVP-TE (Resource Reservation Protocol with Traffic Engineering extensions)

Cisco IOS XR Security Package

ncs5k-k9sec-3.2.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

 Support for Encryption, Decryption, and Secure Shell (SSH)

Cisco IOS XR Multicast Package

ncs5k-mcast-2.2.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

Multicast routing protocols (PIM, IGMP, Auto-rp, BSR) and infrastructure (Multicast routing information Base), Multicast forwarding (mfwd)

Cisco IOS XR ISIS package

ncs5k-isis-2.2.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

Supports ISIS

Cisco IOS XR OSPF package

ncs5k-ospf-2.0.0.0-r791.x86_64.rpm

Supports OSPF

Caveats

There are no caveats in this release.

Important Notes

Upgrading Cisco IOS XR Software

Cisco IOS XR Software is installed and activated from modular packages, allowing specific features or software patches to be installed, upgraded, or downgraded without affecting unrelated processes. Software packages can be upgraded or downgraded on all supported card types, or on a single card (node).

Before starting the software upgrade, use the show install health command in the admin mode. This command validates if the statuses of all relevant parameters of the system are ready for the software upgrade without interrupting the system.


Note

  • If you use a TAR package to upgrade from a Cisco IOS XR release prior to 7.x, the output of the show install health command in admin mode displays the following error messages: 

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP0# show install health
. . .
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rw-r--r--. 1 8413 floppy 3230320 Mar 14 05:45 <platform>-isis-2.2.0.0-r702.x86_64
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rwxr-x---. 1 8413 165 1485781 Mar 14 06:02 <platform>-k9sec-3.1.0.0-r702.x86_64
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rw-r--r--. 1 8413 floppy 345144 Mar 14 05:45 <platform>-li-1.0.0.0-r702.x86_64

You can ignore these messages and proceed with the installation operation.

Production Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs)

A production SMU is a SMU that is formally requested, developed, tested, and released. Production SMUs are intended for use in a live network environment and are formally supported by the Cisco TAC and the relevant development teams. Software bugs identified through software recommendations or Bug Search Tools are not a basis for production SMU requests.

For information on production SMU types, refer the Production SMU Types section of the IOS XR Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs) guide.

Cisco IOS XR Error messages

To view, search, compare, and download Cisco IOS XR Error Messages, refer to the Cisco IOS XR Error messages tool.

Cisco IOS XR MIBs

To determine the MIBs supported by platform and release, refer to the Cisco IOS XR MIBs tool.