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Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) Software

Release Notes for Cisco ACNS Software, Release 5.3.1

Table Of Contents

Release Notes for Cisco ACNS Software, Release 5.3.1

Contents

Introduction

New and Changed Information

New Features

Hardware Supported

Important Notes

Eliminated Upgrade/Downgrade Paths

Media File System Issues When Downgrading to ACNS 5.0 Software

SmartFilter Issues When Upgrading or Downgrading to Another ACNS Software Release

Websense Issues When Downgrading to the ACNS 5.0 Software or ACNS 5.1 Software

Interoperability with ICAP Vendors

ICAP Performance

Changes to WCCP Support

Matrix of Supported Caching, Filtering, and Authentication Methods

Caveats

Open Caveats - ACNS 5.3.1 Software

Resolved Caveats—ACNS 5.3.1 Software

Acquisition and Distribution Resolved Caveats

ICAP Resolved Caveats

Management Resolved Caveats

Proxy and Caching Resolved Caveats

Rules Resolved Caveats

Other Resolved Caveats

Related Documentation

Product Documentation Set

Hardware Documentation

Software Documentation

Online Help

Obtaining Documentation

Cisco.com

Documentation DVD

Ordering Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Cisco Product Security Overview

Reporting Security Problems in Cisco Products

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Cisco Technical Support Website

Submitting a Service Request

Definitions of Service Request Severity

Obtaining Additional Publications and Information


Release Notes for Cisco ACNS Software, Release 5.3.1


August 4, 2005

ACNS Build 5.3.1-b5


Note The most current Cisco documentation for released products is available at Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com. The online documents may contain updates and modifications made after the hardcopy documents were printed.


Contents

These release notes contain information about the Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) 5.31 software. These release notes describe the following topics:

Introduction

New and Changed Information

Important Notes

Caveats

Related Documentation

Obtaining Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Cisco Product Security Overview

Obtaining Technical Assistance

Obtaining Additional Publications and Information

Introduction

The ACNS software combines the technologies of demand-pull caching and pre-positioning for accelerated delivery of web applications, objects, files, and streaming media; the ACNS software runs on Cisco Content Engines, Content Distribution Manager, and Content Router hardware platforms.

These release notes are intended for administrators who will be configuring, monitoring, and managing devices that are running the ACNS 5.3.1 software. These release notes describe the new product features, the supported hardware, and the open and resolved caveats regarding the ACNS 5.3.1 software.

New and Changed Information

This section describes new and changed features in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release. It also lists the supported hardware.

New Features

Table 1 lists the new features in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

Table 1 New Features in the ACNS 5.3.1 Software 

Feature Type
Description
Windows Media RTSP Streaming
 
 

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, support for streaming Windows Media Version 7, 8, and 9-encoded files through the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) was added.

Content Engines that are running the ACNS 5.3.1 software and later releases interoperate with the following Windows media clients, servers, and encoders:

Windows Media 6.4, 7.0, and 9.0 players on Windows 2000

Windows Media 9.0 players on Windows XP

Windows Media 4.1 and 9.0 servers

Windows Media 7.0 and 9.0 encoders

Two additional transport protocols are supported: RTSP-over-UDP (RTSPU) and RTSP-over-TCP (RTSPT)

Protocol rollover from the RTSP protocol to the MMS protocol (MMS-over-TCP [MMST], or rollover from MMS-over-UDP [MMSU]) to MMS-over-HTTP

Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP) enhancements to support transparent redirection of Windows Media Technologies (WMT) RTSP requests from Windows Media 9 players

This new capability is supported by configuring and enabling two WCCP Version 2 media-caching services on the Content Engine and the WCCP routers: the new wmt-rtspu service (service 83) and the rtsps service (service 80). (See Table 3 for a list of the supported WCCP services.)

Windows Media RTSP Streaming
(Continued)
 
 

Live-stream splitting over RTSP

The protocol for the live source can be MMST, HTTP, multicast, or RTSPT. The protocol for the stream output can be MMSU, MMST, HTTP, multicast, RTSPT, or RTSPU.


Note The splitting of live streams, which are part of a server-side playlist, is not supported.


Next-click source failover (encoder > parent Content Engine > Windows Media server)

Pass-through authentication to a Windows Media 9 origin server

All of the available authentication modes (Negotiate, NT LAN Manager [NTLM], Kerberos, and Digest) are supported.

Proxy support for the following:

Proxy caching of RTSP streams for Windows Media 9 players is supported.

RTSP proxy chaining is also supported.

Streams that are part of a server-side playlist are not cached. Stream controls (for example, bandwidth, bit rate, and the maximum number of concurrent streams) now apply to the WMT RTSP traffic and as to the MMS traffic.

Single bit rate (SBR) and multiple bit rate (MBR) encoding is supported for proxy caching, video on demand (VOD), and live-stream splitting

Ability to configure a maximum packet size

Fast streaming support

Fast Cache and Fast Start are supported in the following circumstances:

When serving pre-positioned content over RTSP or

In proxy situations when the object is a cache-hit only


Note Fast Start is also supported for live-split streaming over RTSP. Fast Recovery, Fast Reconnect, and Fast Cache over RTSPU are not supported.


Ability to configure the following WMT advanced client features on a Content Engine through the Content Distribution Manager GUI or the CLI with the new wmt advanced client global configuration commands:

Specify the client maximum packet size (WMT maximum IP packet size) in bytes

Specify the maximum amount of time that the Content Engine is to wait for a response from a WMT client before timing out the connection.

Modification of the CISCO-CONTENT-ENGINE-MIB to add support for WMT RTSP streaming for Windows Media 9 clients and servers (Windows Media 9 players and Windows Media 9 servers).

Windows Media RTSP Streaming
(Continued)
 
 

Support of a VOD server for serving pre-positioned content

All supported redirection methods are supported.

Support of multicast-in (live streaming and rebroadcasting) and multicast-out (rebroadcasting)

Enhancements to configuring WMT multicasts are as follows:

Ability to configure multiple sources for failover (fully qualified alternative source URLs)

Ability to configure a retry policy if the original source fails

To support this feature, the wmt multicast station-configuration station-name failover global configuration command was added.

Ability to resume a WMT multicast automatically after a Content Engine is reloaded

To support this feature, the wmt multicast station-configuration station-name schedule-start now global configuration command was introduced. If you specify this new command for a specific multicast station, the multicast station is automatically started after the Content Engine is reloaded.


Note The reason for introducing this new global configuration command was that the existing wmt multicast-station start station-name EXEC command is not persistent across reboots (if a multicast station is running before the Content Engine is reloaded, it will not continue to run after the reload).


The new no wmt multicast station-configuration station-name schedule-start now global configuration command works exactly like the wmt multicast-station stop station-name EXEC command. You can use either command to stop a specific WMT multicast station.

Support of scheduled rebroadcasts

The Content Distribution Manager GUI and the application program interfaces (APIs) now support RTSP URLs for WMT RTSP scheduled rebroadcasts.

Support of URL filtering through local URL list files

The url-filter global configuration command was modified to support local list URL filtering for RTSP requests from Windows Media 9 players. The WMT local list file can now contain MMS or RTSP URLs.

The output of the show wmt proxy EXEC command was modified to include configuration information about the new WMT RTSP proxy server that can now be enabled on a Content Engine, which is acting as a Windows Media 9 server.

   
   
   
   
   
Windows Media RTSP Streaming
(Continued)
 
 

The output of the show statistics wmt EXEC commands was modified to include information about WMT RTSP requests. For example, the output from the show statistics wmt EXEC commands was changed as follows:

RTSP-related information was added to the show statistics wmt all command output.

Information about RTSPT and RTSPU was added in the transport protocol portion of the show statistics wmt bytes command output.

RTSPT and RTSPU errors were added to the show statistics wmt errors command output.

The show statistics wmt requests command output includes the RTSPT and RTSPU protocols and Fast Start and Fast Cache data.

The live option was added to the show statistics wmt streamstat EXEC command to allow you to display aggregated live statistics.

Other Windows Media Technology (WMT) Enhancements
 
 

Content Distribution Manager GUI and CLI configuration enhancements

The same set of configuration options that were supported for MMS and MMS-over-HTTP streaming in previous ACNS software releases is now supported for WMT RTSP streaming.

All of the new WMT configuration mode CLIs and the CLIs for configuring the new predefined WCCP Version 2 wmt-rtspu service (service 83) are supported in the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

Support for Digital Rights management

Active stream tracking and reporting (per stream statistics for unicast live streams) through the Content Engine CLI

Ability to configure bandwidth control for WMT requests (MMS, HTTP, and RTSP) based on the client IP address and subnet.

The ability to configure to configure IP subnet-based bandwidth control for WMT requests allows you to specify the maximum bandwidth consumption for specific client IP subnets (the aggregate bandwidth for the subnet).

This bandwidth control feature is supported for WMT streaming through the following protocols:

Windows Media 9 RTSP

MMS

HTTP

A WMT restart is reported as an alarm by the Node Health Manager and then displayed in the status bar of the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

Reporting and logging (transaction and error logging) for WMT RTSP requests

API support for the same set of statistics, scheduling (Program API), and configuration APIs are available for WMT RTSP traffic and MMS and MMS-over-HTTP traffic

Other Windows Media Technology (WMT) Enhancements
(Continued)
 
 

You specify the rules for limiting subnet-based outgoing bandwidth in an XML configuration file.


Note This configuration file is called the advanced bandwidth configuration file.


Support for overlapping bandwidth configurations

Support for rebroadcasting with a Cisco Streaming Engine is as follows:

Multicast streaming of hinted .mp4 and .mov files

Support of the IP/TV Program Manager GUI

Currently limited to one pre-positioned file per program (playlists are not supported)

Ability to configure the MTU size through the CLI

New monitoring and troubleshooting CLIs

For example, there are new CLI commands for displaying the following type of information:

Header information of a pre-positioned WMT streaming file

Status and statistical information of all the running multicast stations that have been configured through the CLI, aggregated streaming statistics per live stream

Additional information about scheduled programs

Caching
Enhancements
 
 

Native FTP proxy support is as follows:

Handles proxy-mode FTP protocol control and data connections.

Clients are applications using the FTP protocols (for example, clients that are using UNIX- or DOS-based command line FTP programs, the Reflection FTP program, or the WS-FTP program).

For improved usability, the ftp keyword was replaced with the ftp-over-http and ftp-native keywords in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

For example, the show ftp proxy EXEC command was replaced with the show ftp-over-http and show ftp-native EXEC commands in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

Syslog messages for proxy-mode native FTP support were added in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

   
   
   
   
   
Caching
Enhancements
(Continued)
 
 

Support for the following Websense server services is as follows:

The employee Internet Management (EIM) Server

The local Network Agent

The local User Service

The local RADIUS Agent (new in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release)

The local eDirectory Agent (new in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release)


Note In the ACNS 5.3 software release, Websense server Version 5.2 is supported on all Cisco Content Engine platforms. With Websense 5.2.0 software, you can use a local or remote Websense Policy Server to activate the local EIM Server, the local RADIUS Agent, the local eDirectory Agent, the local Network Agent, and the local User Service individually on a Content Engine.

For detailed information about configuring the Websense software, go to the following URL on the Websense website:

http://ww2.websense.com/docs/support/documentation/setup/v52/WSPreinstall_CiscoCE_ACNS_53.pdf


Management Enhancements
 
 

Ability to accept a license once for all Content Engines

In the ACNS 5.2.x software and earlier, you could accept a license for an entire device group, and you had to accept the license again if a new device is added.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, you can read and accept each type of license agreement once for all of your Content Engines.

Enhancements to customized transaction logging are as follows:

Support for the Extended Squid-equivalent tokens that were not supported by the W3C format

Support for an additional hierarchy token that treats a configured HTTP outgoing proxy (http outgoing-proxy) as a Squid-style DEFAULT_PARENT hierarchy event


Note Additional format tokens that are extensions to the W3C Customized Logging Format were added in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release to support additional Cisco and Squid-like customized logging fields.

These new format tokens provide support for Squid-like logging format from within the W3C customizable token set.


Management Enhancements
(Continued)
 
 

Content Distribution Manager GUI enhancements are as follows:

The grouping of windows in the table of contents under devices was modified to improve the usability.

Content Distribution Manager support for acquisition and distribution alarms.

Addition of the System.healthmonitor.collectRate option to the System Configuration window. This new option allows you to specify the rate at which alarm information is sent from devices to the Content Distribution Manager.

Enhancements to the Content Distribution Manager GUI Syslog window.

The Content Provider and Website Listing windows, which were removed in a previous software release, were added back in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

The time zone settings are now listed as standard time zones.

Content Distribution Manager GUI support for the following legacy global configuration CLI commands: ip, access list 300, http authentication realm, cms database maintenance, hostname, http cache-vary-user-agent sub-string, disk-error handling, http destination-port, primary-interface (configuration of an external IP address), offline-operation, line console carrier-detect, kernel kdb (enabling the kernel debugger), mediafs-division, websense service, username (the ability to configure or modify a Content Distribution Manager user's username or password through the GUI was expanded to include Content Engine and Content Router users in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release), and the ntlm server commands.


Note In software releases prior to the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the NTLM window in the Content Distribution Manager GUI only allowed you to enter the domain, primary, and secondary servers.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the NTLM window was modified to allow you to configure all of the options that are available from the ntlm server, ntlm server ad-group-search, ntlm server connection-timeout, and the ntlm server connection-retry global configuration CLI commands.


Ability to configure the following types of banners through the Content Distribution Manager GUI or the CLI (the banner global configuration command):

motd banner—Sets the message of the day. This message is the first message that is displayed when a login is attempted.

login banner—Displayed after the motd banner but before the actual login prompt appears.

exec banner—Displayed after the EXEC CLI shell has started.

All three of these banners are effective on a console, Telnet, or a Secure Shell (SSH) Version 2 session. When you run an SSH Version 1 client and log in to the Content Engine, the motd and login banners are not displayed.

Management Enhancements
(Continued)
 
 

Ability to define a one-line description for a specific interface (for example, "This is an interface to the WAN") through the new description description text interface configuration command

This feature is supported for the following interfaces: Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Port Channel, and Standby. It is not currently supported for the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) or the Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interfaces. The maximum length of the description text is 240 characters.

Gigabit Ethernet network interface card (NIC) is configurable when shut down

Ability to configure standby interfaces through the Content Distribution Manager GUI and the CLI

You can configure one or more interfaces to act as a backup interface (a standby interface) for another interface on a Content Engine. This feature is called standby interface support. Standby groups, which are logical groups of interfaces, are used to implement this feature.

When an active network interface fails (because of cable trouble, Layer 2 switch failure, high error count, or other failures) and that interface is part of a standby group, a standby interface can become active and take the load off the failed interface.

The following are supported:

In earlier releases of the ACNS software, you could only configure the standby interface through the CLI. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, you can now configure standby interfaces through the Content Distribution Manager GUI as well.

In the ACNS 5.2.x software, a physical interface needed a dummy or valid IP address assigned to it before you could add the physical interface to a standby group. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software and later releases, this is no longer a requirement.

You can now configure a group IP address regardless of whether the standby group is shut down or not.

The CLI syntax for configuring standby groups (the syntax for the interface standby global configuration command) was changed to make it more similar to the port channel CLI syntax.

The failure or failover of member interfaces within a standby group will trigger alarms and traps (if alarms and traps are enabled on the Content Engine)

Ability to use the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to connect to a Content Engine and securely retrieve log files from the device

Ability to configure a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share name

The share-name option was added to the network-filesystem server cifs share-web-site global configuration command to allow you to configure a CIFS share name.

   
   
   
   
Management
Enhancements
(Continued)
 
 

Support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) referrals that provides the following capabilities:

Support of Active Directory trusted domain user authorization

Support of LDAP referral for NTLM nested group searches (configurable LDAP nesting referral level that is set to five nested levels, by default)

Ability to configure the LDAP nesting referral level

Ability to configure Active Directory domain controllers from multiple domains for NTLM load balancing purposes


Note The ability to configure Active Directory domain controllers from multiple domains requires that the multiple domains are in a trusted relationship. Authentication and authorization will not be performed correctly if the multiple domain controllers from different nontrusted domains are configured.


Support for three new message identifiers when configuring the HTTP custom error pages

error-signature—Signature message that is appended to the final error page that is displayed to the end user. A custom error signature message supports dynamic data. This dynamic data is specific to the particular request and response that is to be shown with the error messages. If you do not create a customized error-signature message, then the default error-signature message is used.

www-allow-domain-error—Error response that is displayed in the HTTP custom error page when the domain is not allowed to authenticate.

www-no-default-domain-error—Error response that is displayed in the HTTP custom error page when there is no default domain available to authenticate.

Troubleshooting
Facilitation

WMT streaming debug tools were added. The following three new WMT diagnostic tools are accessible through the Content Distribution Manager CLI and the Content Engine CLI:

asfhead—Examines the headers of a Windows Media file (for example, an .asf, .wmv, or .wma file).

nschead—Examines the .nsc file headers. The .nsc file is created when a multicast station is configured. This tool is useful for multicast debugging.

mmsdig—Decodes the MMS protocol (a binary protocol) that is captured in tcpdump traces or in any standard network trace output.

Addition of an Export to csv button in the Syslog window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI to facilitate troubleshooting. This new button allows you to export syslog messages to the Microsoft Excel application so that you can view them offline with the Excel application.

The acquisition and distribution CLI commands were improved to have a more consistent look and provide information in a more clear and concise manner to facilitate the debugging process.

Ability to easily access the log information for the stream scheduler was added.

Content Networking
Enhancements
 
 

Configurable root Content Engine failover and fallback grace period

The Content Distribution Manager GUI was enhanced to allow you to configure a grace period before the root Content Engine failover and fallback may occur.

Acquisition of content with query strings

Additional alarms for acquisition and distribution

Acquisition (Manifest file) enhancements

Support of distribution network address translation (NAT)

Support of distribution Quality of Service (QoS)

Multicast distribution enhancements

Unicast distribution speed improvements

Hardware-Related
Enhancements
 
 

Support of new hardware, including the Content Engine model CE-7326

Ability to remotely upgrade the BIOS through the CLI


Note This feature is currently only supported for the CE-7326.


Time zone configuration enhancements:

The ACNS system has several predefined standard time zones. Some of these time zones have built-in daylight saving time information while others do not. The system includes about 1500 standard time zone names. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, you can now display a list of all the standard time zones.

In the ACNS 5.2.x software and earlier, there was no restriction on these reserved standard time zone names. You could overload these standard names in various ways. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, strict checking was added. For example, the clock summertime command is now disabled when a standard time zone is configured. Consequently, you can now only configure daylight saving time if the time zone is not a standard time zone (if the time zone is a customized zone).

 

Disk handling enhancements are as follows:

In the ACNS 5.2.1 software release, support for remapping bad (but unused) sectors on a SCSI drive was added. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, this capability is extended to include IDE and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment [SATA] drives.

Support for filtering multiple syslog messages for a single failed section for SCSI disks and SATA disks was added.

Ability to proactively monitor the health of disks with Self Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART).

SMART provides you with hard drive diagnostic information and information about impending disk failures. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the output from the show tech-support EXEC command was modified to include SMART information.

Ability to stop applications from using a specific disk drive without having to reboot the drive (the disk unuse feature)


Note This disk unuse feature cannot be used with disk00 (the first disk drive) or with the drive that contains the /local/local1 directory (for example, if disk01 contains the /local/local1 directory, then you cannot use the disk unuse command with disk01). The disk unuse EXEC command was added to support this feature.


If there are disk failures, a message is printed notifying you about this situation when you log in to a Content Engine that is running the ACNS 5.3.1 software and later releases.

The ext3 file system is used instead of the ext2 file system.

By migrating to the ext3 file system, the amount of time required to perform a file system check of the CDNFS, MEDIAFS, and SYSFS partitions is decreased, which increases the availability of the Content Engine. If you are upgrading from an earlier release of the ACNS software, the ext2 file system is automatically converted to the ext3 file system when you upgrade to the ACNS 5.3.1 software and later releases.

Other
Enhancements

For a list of other enhancements (additional Severity 6 enhancements) that are part of the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, see Table 2.


Table 2 lists the Severity 6 (Sev 6) enhancements that are part of the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

Table 2 Severity 6 Enhancements Included in the ACNS 5.3.1 Software Release 

Severity 6
Caveat
Functionality
Description
Acquisition and Distribution
   

CSCec45487

SNMP traps

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the Node Health Manager support was expanded in the area of acquisition and distribution. It now presents GUI alarms and generates SNMP traps to alert you about error conditions.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the Content Distribution Manager GUI was also modified to ensure that these alarms are displayed and the replication status is consistent.

CSCee30576

Decrease the
latency of content
distribution

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the speed of content replication between Content Engines was improved.

This enhancement is especially useful in high-bandwidth and high-latency networks.

CSCee47613

Manifest relative rules

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, support for relative time for matched rules for acquisition in a Manifest file was added.

CSCee56743

NAK suppression

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the multicast receiver is aware of a multicast network condition and does not send a NACK to the multicast sender if the receiver has lost multicast connectivity with the sender.

This enhancement results in files not being sent unless required.

CSCef14566

QoS support

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the Content Distribution Manager GUI was enhanced to allow you to configure the QoS marking of the content replication traffic.

CSCef14582

Support for files
greater than
2 GB files

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, support for acquiring and distributing files that are larger than 2 GB was added.

Streaming
   

CSCec09658

Usability
improvement

In software releases earlier than the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the show statistics wmt streamstat EXEC command displayed incoming and outgoing statistics but the Content Distribution Manager GUI only showed the outgoing statistics.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, incoming and outgoing statistics are displayed in the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

CSCef38191

Fix

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the problem that previously prevented script events in a broadcast stream from working properly was fixed.

Management
   

CSCea82962

Usability
improvement

In the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the "remaining" shortcut is now supported in the File System Configuration window in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

CSCee74432

Usability
improvement

In the ACNS 5.2.x software and earlier, the API output for the content distributor did not match the output of the GUI. The APIs for the Cisco Streaming Engine did not include bandwidth or a time stamp while the GUI did. This discrepancy was fixed in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

CSCee91944

Usability
improvement

In the ACNS 5.2.x software releases, the Content Distribution Manager GUI allows you to configure auto-deletion of Cisco Streaming Engine live or WMT live programs only.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, you can now configure WMT rebroadcast and IP/TV-out programs. (The configuration of export programs is not supported.)

CSCef21982

Usability
improvement

In the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the text "WMT" was changed to "Windows Media" in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

CSCef36786

Reliability

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the ability to enable or disable the encoder during the live program schedule was added.

The streaming scheduler attempts to establish the live stream five times. During this time, if the encoder is disabled then the program will never restart unless you modify the program (for example, add a schedule or modify the description).

CSCef54911

Usability
improvement

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, you can use the System Message Log window in the Content Distribution Manager GUI to truncate the system message log in one of three ways:

Size Truncation—Number of system messages to keep in the log.

Date Truncation—Number of days of system messages to keep in the log.

Message Truncation—Message pattern to remove system messages from the log.

The truncate feature is only available from the system-wide System Message Log window because truncation applies to all messages regardless of the device type. For security reasons, authorization to the System Log window provides automatic access to the truncate feature.

CSCef55552

Usability
improvement

You can now select an existing Content Engine and create a new, empty device group that has the same configuration settings for all groupable settings. You can then assign Content Engines to this group, which results in the group settings being copied to the Content Engines.

Note The group settings only match the source Content Engine at the moment of creation.

CSCef62716

Usability
improvement

In most cases, the published URL for WMT should be one of a small number of possibilities. A drop-down menu was added to allow you to choose from the list of published URLs for WMT.

You can also still manually enter the entire URL.

CSCef70856

Performance
enhancements

Performance optimizations were implemented to improve scalability.

CSCef81336

Security
improvement

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the manifest files that are created through the Content Distribution Manager GUI are now placed in the /state/exported/manifests directory instead of in the /local/local1 directory.

CSCeg15353

Usability
improvement

In the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the Select Version option was changed to Disabled in the WCCP Configuration window in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

Content Routing Enhancements
   

CSCee82299

CLI usability
improvement

Previously, if you specified an invalid website FQDN name when entering the show content-routing website website FQDN name EXEC command, an error message was not displayed. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, if you enter an invalid website FQDN name, an error message is displayed on the command line.

CSCef21707

CLI usability
improvement

The WMT, bypass, RTSP, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and Websense statistics, which are not supported by a Content Router, were removed from the show tech-support EXEC command output for the Content Router CLI mode.

CSCef50385

CLI usability
improvement

The error-handling global configuration command was removed from the Content Router CLI mode because error handling is not applicable to Content Routers. Because error handling is applicable to Content Engines, the error-handling global configuration command is still available from the Content Engine CLI mode.


Hardware Supported

The ACNS 5.3.1 software supports the following hardware platforms. All of the listed platforms also support the ACNS 5.2.x software release except for the CE-7326. The CE-7326, which is a new platform that is supported in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, does not support ACNS 5.2.x, 5.1.x, or 5.0.x software.

NM-CE-BP-SCSI

CE-565-K9

NM-CE-BP-80G

CE-565A-72GB-K9

NM-CE-BP-40G

CE-565A-144GB-K9

NM-CE-BP

CE-590

CDM-4630

CE-590-DC

CDM-4650

CE-7320

CE-507

CE-7305-K9

CE-507AV

CE-7305A-K9

CE-510-K9

CE-7325-K9

CE-510A-80GB-K9

CE-560

CE-510A-160GB-K9

CE-560AV

CE-511

CE-7325A-K9

CE-566-K9

CE-7326

 

CR-4430


Important Notes

This section emphasizes important information regarding the ACNS 5.3.1 software and includes the following sections:

Eliminated Upgrade/Downgrade Paths

Media File System Issues When Downgrading to ACNS 5.0 Software

SmartFilter Issues When Upgrading or Downgrading to Another ACNS Software Release

Websense Issues When Downgrading to the ACNS 5.0 Software or ACNS 5.1 Software

Interoperability with ICAP Vendors

ICAP Performance

Changes to WCCP Support

Eliminated Upgrade/Downgrade Paths

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the following upgrade and downgrade paths were eliminated:

Upgrading from the ACNS 4.2 software to the ACNS 5.3 software

Downgrading from the ACNS 5.3 software to the ACNS 4.2 software

Media File System Issues When Downgrading to ACNS 5.0 Software

If you have configured the media file system (mediafs) with the ACNS 5.1 software and later releases, and then downgrade to the ACNS 5.0 software, the mediafs disk space assignment is lost and reverts to ACNS network file system (cdnfs) disk space. (The mediafs is used for on-demand content that is fetched through the two streaming protocols [RTSP and WMT]. The cdnfs is used for pre-positioned content in the ACNS network.)

This situation occurs because of a design change that was implemented in the ACNS 5.1 software. Because the ACNS 5.0 software is not compatible with this change, the disk space becomes assigned to cdnfs instead of mediafs. To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. After you downgrade to the ACNS 5.0 software, use the CLI (disk config EXEC command) or the GUI to assign the mediafs disk space.

Use the Content Distribution Manager GUI for Content Engines that are registered with a Content Distribution Manager. Use the Content Engine GUI for standalone Content Engines (Content Engines that are not registered with a Content Distribution Manager and are being managed through the Content Engine GUI or CLI).

2. Reboot the Content Engine for the disk configuration changes to take effect.

SmartFilter Issues When Upgrading or Downgrading to Another ACNS Software Release

When you upgrade or downgrade the Content Engine to a different release of the ACNS software, if there is a difference in the SmartFilter plug-in version, the SmartFilter database and configuration files are deleted and default configurations are loaded. This change occurs because the configuration details might be changed with each new version of SmartFilter software. After each upgrade or downgrade of the SmartFilter plug-in, a fresh database has to be downloaded from the SmartFilter Administration Console to the Content Engine.

Websense Issues When Downgrading to the ACNS 5.0 Software or ACNS 5.1 Software

If the local (internal) Websense server is enabled on the Content Engine and you downgrade from the ACNS 5.2.x software to either ACNS 5.0 software or ACNS 5.1 software, the WebsenseEnterprise directory is removed from the Content Engine and the local Websense server stops working. The ACNS 5.2.x software does not generate an error message indicating that the WebsenseEnterprise directory has been removed. However, in the ACNS 5.3.1 software and later releases, the following error message is displayed to notify you about this Websense downgrade issue:

WARNING:
Websense does not support downgrade
Hence removing /local/local1/WebsenseEnterprise
Websense will stop working after copy ftp install

To avoid this problem when downgrading from the ACNS 5.3.x or ACNS 5.2.x software to either ACNS 5.1.x software or ACNS 5.0.x software, follow these steps:


Step 1 Disable the local (internal) Websense server on the Content Engine.

Step 2 Deactivate the Websense services on the Content Engine.

Step 3 Install the ACNS 5.1 software or ACNS 5.0 software downgrade image on the Content Engine.


Interoperability with ICAP Vendors

The Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP) is an open standards protocol for content adaptation, typically at the network edge. Content adaptation includes virus scanning, content translation, content filtering, content insertion, and other ways of improving the value of content to end users. ICAP specifies how a Content Engine, acting as an HTTP proxy server, can communicate with an external device that is acting as an ICAP server, which filters and adapts the requested content.

ICAP provides two content-processing modes for HTTP services. These modes define the transactions that can occur between a Content Engine acting as an ICAP client and an ICAP server. The two modes are as follows:

Request modification (reqmod)—Allows modification of requests as they are sent from the Content Engine to the ICAP server on their way to the origin server. The ICAP server can modify these requests depending on the services requested.

Response modification (respmod)—Allows modification of requests after they return from the origin server. The ICAP server only acts on requested objects after they return from the origin server.

The following is a complete list of the ICAP vendors that have been certified to interoperate with the Content Engine:

TrendMicro for reqmod and respmod

Symantec for respmod

ICAP Performance

With the respmod vectoring point, which is used by virus-scanning Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP) vendors, the performance of the Content Engine model CE-7305 will be 300 transactions per second.

With the reqmod-precache vectoring point, which is used by URL filtering ICAP vendors, the performance of the Content Engine model CE-7305 will drop 20 percent from the rated performance.


Note The performance of the Content Engine will be limited by the performance of the ICAP server.


Changes to WCCP Support

In the ACNS 5.2.1 software release, up to 25 active WCCP Version 2 services are supported. In the ACNS 5.2 software release, there are 17 WCCP Version 2 services that can be configured.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, there are now 18 WCCP Version 2 services that can be configured. In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, service 83 was added. Table 3 lists the supported WCCP services.

Table 3 Supported WCCP Services with Standalone Content Engines 

Service
Number
Service
Name
Type of
Service
Service Description

0

web-cache

Predefined

Web-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 1 or Version 2-enabled router to redirect HTTP traffic to a single port on the Content Engine. The Content Engine is functioning as a transparent forward proxy server. Only a single WCCP-enabled router is supported with WCCP Version 1. Multiple WCCP-enabled routers (those on the router list) are supported with WCCP Version 2.

The Content Engine listens for redirected HTTP requests on the standard HTTP port (default port 80). To enable the Content Engine to listen for WCCP-intercepted HTTP traffic on ports other than the default port, configure the custom-web-cache service or a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97).

53

dns

Predefined

DNS-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect client requests transparently to a Content Engine for the Content Engine to resolve the DNS name. After the Content Engine resolves the DNS name, it stores the resolved DNS name locally so that it can use the resolved names for future DNS requests.

60

ftp-native

Predefined

Caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect FTP native requests transparently to a single port on the Content Engine. The Content Engine retrieves the requested FTP content, stores a copy locally, and serves the requested content to the requester.

Note In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the name of this WCCP service was changed from ftp to ftp-native to clearly differentiate between FTP native requests and FTP-over-HTTP requests. Service 60 (the ftp-native service) only applies to transparent redirection of FTP native requests and does not apply to FTP-over-HTTP requests.

70

https-
cache

Predefined

Caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to intercept port 443 TCP traffic and redirect this HTTPS traffic to the Content Engine (acting as a transparent forward proxy server that is configured for HTTPS transparent caching). The Content Engine retrieves the requested content, stores a copy locally (HTTPS transparent caching), and serves the requested content to the client.

In the ACNS 5.2.1 software release, another interception mode (the accept-all mode) was added for the WCCP https-cache service. This mode was added to support the filtering of HTTPS traffic. This mode works the same way as the traditional WCCP services (for example, the web-cache service that intercepts all web traffic by default).

By default, the Content Engine accepts all HTTPS traffic.

ContentEngine(config)# wccp https-cache ?

accept-all Accept all https traffic by default

mask Specify mask used for CE assignement

router-list-num Router list number


If the wccp https-cache accept-all global configuration command is used, the HTTPS cache (the Content Engine that has the https-cache service configured and enabled) operates in accept-all mode (all HTTPS traffic is intercepted by the Content Engine); otherwise, the Content Engine (the HTTPS cache) works in accept-only mode, as in the ACNS 5.1.x software.

The Content Engine listens for redirected HTTPS requests on the standard HTTPS port (default port 443). To intercept HTTPS traffic on ports other than the default port, configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97).

80

rtsp

Predefined

Media-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect RTSP client requests transparently to a single port on a Content Engine (RealMedia transparent caching).

The Content Engine listens for redirected RTSP requests on the standard RTSP port (default port 554). To intercept RTSP traffic on ports other than the default port (port 554), configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97). To configure transparent interception of RTSP requests from RealMedia clients, you only need to configure the rtsp service (service 80) on the WCCP Version 2-enabled router.

Note You must configure the rtsp service (service 80) and the wmt-rtspu service (service 83) on the WCCP Version 2-enabled router to configure transparent interception of WMT RTSP requests.

81

mmst

Predefined

Media-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to use MMST redirection to redirect WMT client requests transparently to a single port (port 1755) on a Content Engine (a transparent proxy server that is configured for WMT transparent caching).

Note MMST is the Microsoft Media Server protocol with transport over TCP.

82

mmsu

Predefined

Media-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to use MMSU redirection to redirect WMT client requests transparently to a single port (port 1755) on a Content Engine (a transparent proxy server that is configured for WMT transparent caching).

Note MMSU is the Microsoft Media Server protocol with transport over UDP.

83

wmt-rtspu

Predefined

Media-caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect RTSP requests from Windows Media Services 9 clients (Windows Media 9 players) transparently to a single port on a Content Engine (port 5005). The Content Engine listens for redirected RTSP requests from Windows Media 9 players on the standard Windows Media RTSPU port (default port 5005). To intercept RTSP requests from Windows Media 9 players on ports other than the default port, configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97). To configure transparent interception of WMT RTSP requests, you must configure the rtsp service (service 80) and the wmt-rtspu service (service 83) on the WCCP Version 2-enabled router.

90-97

User-
configurable

User-
defined

Eight user-defined (dynamic) WCCP services that each support multiple ports (up to eight ports per WCCP service). In order to configure these services (services 90 to 97), you must create one port list for each user-defined service that will be used (for example, create port list number 1 for service 90). The port list contains the port numbers on which the WCCP Version 2-enabled router will support WCCP redirection for that particular WCCP service. When configuring these user-defined services, you must specify whether the traffic is to be redirected to the HTTP caching application, HTTPS caching application, or the streaming application on the Content Engine.

To configure the Content Engine to cache web traffic using multiple ports, configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97) Use these user-defined WCCP services to support WCCP redirection of HTTP, MMS, HTTPS, and RTSP requests on multiple ports (up to eight ports per service) for standard WCCP services (for example, the https-cache, rtsp, mmst, and reverse-proxy services) that ordinarily only support a single port.

98

custom-
web-cache

Predefined

Caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect HTTP traffic to a Content Engine on multiple ports other than port 80. The Content Engine is functioning as a transparent forward proxy server. This service allows you to support WCCP redirection of HTTP requests on multiple ports (up to eight ports) without having to configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97).

99

reverse-
proxy

Predefined

Caching service that permits the WCCP Version 2-enabled routers to redirect HTTP reverse proxy traffic to a Content Engine (a transparent reverse proxy server) on a single port (port 80). To intercept reverse proxy traffic on ports other than the default port (port 80), configure a user-defined WCCP service (services 90 to 97).


Matrix of Supported Caching, Filtering, and Authentication Methods

Table 4 lists the caching, filtering, and authentication methods supported by Content Engines that are running the ACNS 5.3.x software. An asterisk (*) indicates a feature is supported for that particular protocol.

Table 4 Caching, Filtering, and Authentication Methods and Related Protocol Support 

   
Filtering
   
Proxy Authentication
Protocol
Caching
N2H2
Websense
SmartFilter
RADIUS
LDAP
NTML
TACACS+

HTTP

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

FTP-over-HTTP

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

HTTPS-over-
HTTP

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

RTSPG

*

             

MMSU

*

             

MMST

*

             

MMS-over-HTTP

*

     

*

*

   

HTTP-WCCP

*

 

*

*

*

*

*

*

FTP-WCCP
(native FTP)

*

             

HTTPS-WCCP

*

 

*

*

       

RTSPG-WCCP

*

             

MMSU-WCCP

*

             

MMST-WCCP

*

             

MMS-over-HTTP
-WCCP

*

     

*

*

   

Caveats

This section lists and describes the open and resolved Severity 1, 2, and 3 caveats in the ACNS 5.3.1 software. Caveats describe unexpected behavior in the ACNS 5.3.1 software. Severity 1 caveats are the most serious; Severity 2 caveats are less serious. Severity 3 caveats are moderate caveats.

Open Caveats - ACNS 5.3.1 Software

This section lists caveats that have not been resolved in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

CSCdy82311

Symptom: Content cannot be acquired using strong authentication from secure origin servers that use certificates from nonstandard certificate authorities (CAs). If strong authentication was chosen for content acquisitions from such a site, the acquirer error statistics will contain a 401 (Unauthorized) error code, and the acquirer error log contains the following error message:

Strong Cert Authentication rejects certificate due to error: ssl error code

Condition: This problem occurs if the origin server uses a certificate that is not known as a standard certificate to the ACNS software acquirer. For content acquisition from secure sites over HTTPS using strong authentication, only sites with certificates from standard certificate authorities are supported.


Note With strong authentication, if any errors occur during certificate verification by the ACNS acquirer, then content from that site will not be acquired. With weak authentication, certain errors (for example, a certificate has expired, certificate is not yet valid, and a subject issuer mismatch has occurred) are allowed during certificate verification.


Workaround: Use one of these workarounds:

Use weak authentication.

On the secure server, use a certificate that was generated by one of the standard certificate authorities. ACNS network administrators should refer to the following information to determine which CA certificate to install on their origin servers. Note that the certificate list differs based on the version of the ACNS software. For the ACNS 5.1.x software release or later, refer to the certificate list in the Cisco ACNS Software Update and Maintenance Guide, Release 5.x.

CSCea51815

Symptom: When a Content Engine model CE-565 is attached to a Storage Array SA-7 device, if too large a cache file system (cfs) partition is configured, and a combined streaming and caching workload is used, then a lower HTTP performance is observed.

Condition: This problem occurs when the CE-565 has Windows Media Technologies (WMT) enabled, a combined streaming and caching workload is used, and the Content Engine is attached to an SA-7 device.


Note The Storage Array device is used for the cache file system (cfs).


Workaround: Allocate less space to the cfs if a Storage Array is attached to the Content Engine.

CSCec52221

Symptom: Windows Media Technologies (WMT) is enabled with no media file system (mediafs) after you downgrade from the ACNS 5.1b300 software to the ACNS 5.0.7b8 software.

Condition: This problem occurs if you upgrade from the ACNS 5.0.7b8 to the ACNS 5.1bx software, configure the disk, and then downgrade to the ACNS 5.0.7b4 software.

Workaround: Reconfigure the disk with a mediafs partition and reload the software.

CSCec52319

Symptom: Using FTP inside the .meta file to have the Content Engine obtain the .bin file for a Content Distribution Manager GUI-initiated upgrade is unsuccessful if the user's home directory differs from the FTP root.

Condition: Either you receive an error in the Content Distribution Manager GUI when you are creating the definition for the upgrade (when the .bin file does not exist in the user's home directory), or the Content Engine displays an error message on the upgrade (when the .bin file does not exist in the FTP root directory).

Workaround: Copy the .bin file to both the FTP root and the user's home directory, or use a user whose home directory is the FTP root.

CSCed68360

Symptom: A constant stream of bandwidth error messages (one about every 2 seconds) is reported in the syslog. As the following sample messages indicate, these messages are not very useful.

Feb 11 13:24:26 webcache01 bandwd: %CE-BANDWD-3-115002: BANDWD: Trying again in two 
seconds 
Feb 11 13:24:28 webcache01 bandwd: %CE-BANDWD-3-115003: BANDWD: verification 
registration failed, err=30 

Condition: None.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCed68727

Symptom: The Content Distribution Manager only checks if coverage zone files refer to invalid Content Engines after there is a fresh import. When there is a configuration change that can cause already imported coverage zone files to refer to invalid Content Engines, the Content Distribution Manager does not check or display the correct error message until the next fresh import.

Condition: This problem occurs if there is a coverage zone configuration change that causes already-imported coverage zone files to refer to invalid Content Engines.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCed77655

Symptom: The Content Engine stops spoofing the client IP address and uses its own IP address to fetch content from the origin server.

Condition: The http l4-switch spoof-client-ip enable global configuration command turns on IP spoofing on a Content  Engine that is functioning as a caching engine. When a rule action use-server global configuration command is used, the Content Engine stops spoofing the client IP address and instead uses its own IP address to fetch the content.

Workaround: Remove the rule configurations.

CSCed84227

Symptom: The network management system (NMS) host does not know where SNMP traps are coming from.

Condition: This problem occurs if there are two interfaces and you configure interface redundancy using both interfaces. You must use a dummy address for the physical addresses. You then configure a real address that floats between the two interfaces. If you then configure SNMP traps, the traps are being sourced from the dummy address and not the routable address. Therefore, the NMS host does not know where the trap is coming from.

Workaround: Configure the Content Engine to generate SNMP version 2c type trap messages. Because the SNMP version 2c trap message does not contain the IP address of the SNMP agent, the NMS software will use the source IP address of the UDP message to identify the address of the SNMP agent.

CSCee17283

Symptom: The cdnfs files are turned into directories (which are visible if you enter the cdnfs browse EXEC command on the Content Engine).

Conditions: This problem is rare and occurs only when the file system corruption has caused a directory entry to be a subdirectory when it should have been a file. This problem occurs only if multiple cdnfs entries are being updated and the Content Engine crashes (for example, the Content Engine crashes because of a power failure).

Workaround: Enter the cdnfs cleanup start EXEC command on the Content Engine.

CSCee25042

Symptom: Even though you entered the url-filter wmt bad-sites-deny global configuration command on the Content Engine, the Content Engine is not filtering requests for content that is pre-positioned in its wmt_vod directory.

Condition: This problem occurs in the following situation:

a. You pre-position a file (for example, file.asf) on the Content Engine in its wmt_vod directory.

b. After pre-positioning the file, you configure the bad site list for URL filtering using mmst://Content Engine IP address/wmt_vod/file.asf.

c. A user makes a content request for this URL (mmst://Content Engine IP address/wmt_vod/file.asf).

Workaround: Configure the bad site list using mmst://127.0.0.1/wmt_vod/file.asf instead of mmst://Content Engine IP address/wmt_vod/file.asf.

CSCee38190

Symptom: A WMT live stream in a managed live event environment is accessible for a period longer than the scheduled duration.

Condition: This problem occurs only with WMT live programs that have unicast access enabled. In this situation, streams can be accessible for up to 24 hours after the last playtime of the event if "Auto Delete" is set to true or can be accessible indefinitely if "Auto Delete" is set to false.

Workaround: Control the live-stream source through the schedule for the event. Typically, this process involves starting and stopping the WMT encoder.

CSCee40593

Symptom: Syslog messages contain the following text:

uns-server: %CE-CDNFS-0-480000: uns_read_meta: WOW! url mismatch:
wanted 'URL>', swaw '^C'

Condition: This problem occurs because of file system corruption; the cdnfs metadata files have the wrong content (the content is internally consistent but is in the incorrect file). This problem occurs infrequently. For example, it can occur if the cdnfs content is being updated and a crash occurred because of a kernel panic (which occurs infrequently).

Workaround: Although there is no known workaround to stop the syslog messages shown above, lookups for the target URL (listed in the syslog message) may succeed if the ACNS software has created a new cdnfs entry for the target URL.

You can enter the cdnfs lookup url EXEC command to see if the URL is found. If the URL is not found, a way to force it to be replicated is to modify the file on the origin server (for example, by entering the touch command on a UNIX-based origin server).

Alternatively, you can enter the acquisition-distribution database-cleanup start command on the affected Content Engine to query the cdnfs for all the objects that are supposed to be on the Content Engine. Missing objects should be detected and replicated.

CSCee49106

Symptom: The content replication status can show an incorrect manifest item count.

Condition: This problem can occur if too many channels share the same content (for example, if over 100 channels share the same 30 files in each channel). Even though all 100 channels should show the 30 files that were acquired and distributed, it takes an extended period (days) before the correct manifest item count is displayed.

Workaround: Reduce the number of channels that share the same contents.

CSCee56998

Symptom: The CPU usage on the Content Engine hits a peak of 100 percent.

Condition: This problem can occur if the internal (local) Websense server is enabled on the NM-CE-BP models.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCee67227

Symptom: If you specify foo as a folder URL in the manifest file, and there is a single item redirection from foo to foo/ by the web server, the ACNS acquirer fails to process such redirections and generates a 716 error message. If you are using the quick crawl tool in the Channel Content window, some of the files also report 716 error messages.

Condition: This problem occurs if you are using the quick crawl tool and there is a single item redirect from foo to foo/. However, if foo is a link from a crawl job, single item redirections from foo to foo/ are allowed.

Workaround: Specify foo/ in the manifest file, or specify a crawl job instead of using the quick crawl tool.

CSCee67330

Symptom: Microsoft NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication fails and the pop-up window is displayed again.

Condition: This problem occurs if NTLM authentication is being used and the specified domain name is longer than 50 characters.

Workaround: For NTLM authentication, use a domain controller (DC) that has a domain name shorter than 35 characters.

CSCee68339

Symptom: Proxy requests to the Content Engine proceed to allow mode (if allow mode is enabled) or are blocked (if allow mode is disabled) when the Websense URL filtering mechanism is configured to use the local Websense server.

Because the connections from the Content Engine to the Websense server time out, all requests go to allow mode until all 40 connections are exhausted. (This situation makes it appear as if the Websense server is not responding.) After all 40 connections are attempted, the Content Engine successfully connects to the Websense server and works properly thereafter.

Condition: This problem can occur under the following conditions:

The Content Engine is configured to use the local (internal) Websense server for URL filtering.

The local Websense server is running on the Content Engine.

There are long periods of inactivity.

The cache process has difficulty connecting to the local Websense server.

Workaround: Reconfigure Websense URL filtering on the Content Engine so that the Content Engine will attempt to establish new connections to the Websense server.

CSCee71157

Symptom: Channel routing causes loops for several Content Engines.

Condition: This problem can occur if there are Content Engines that are running the ACNS 5.1.x software or earlier, and these Content Engines are registered with a Content Distribution Manager that is running the ACNS 5.2.x software.

Workaround: Upgrade the Content Engines to the ACNS 5.2.x software. Currently, a Content Distribution Manager that is running the ACNS 5.2.x software does not propagate some configuration changes to Content Engines that are running an ACNS software release earlier than the ACNS 5.2.x software. Therefore, Content Engines that are running the ACNS 5.1.x software or earlier, may not recognize that the root Content Engine was changed from one Content Engine to another. Consequently, routing loops can develop within the system.

CSCee78190

Symptom: When a root Content Engine is downgraded from the ACNS 5.2.x software to the ACNS 5.1 software, some channels are disabled and some content fails to be acquired.

Condition: This problem occurs when the manifest file URL is a Server Message Block (SMB) URL with a uniform naming convention (UNC) path format (for example, \\host\share\file), or when an item or crawl task specified in either the src or start-url attribute has a UNC path format.

Because the ACNS 5.1 software does not support SMB file acquisition, the root Content Engine running the ACNS 5.1 software is not able to fetch the manifest file or acquire content from the SMB shares.

Workaround: Either before or after you downgrade the root Content Engine from the ACNS 5.2.x software to the ACNS 5.1 software, remove the SMB URL from the Manifest URL field in the Channel configuration window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI and use a URL with supported protocols (HTTP, FTP, or HTTPS).


Note From an ACNS 5.1 Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Channels > Channels > Edit Channel.

From an ACNS 5.2.x Content Distribution Manager GUI, choose Content > Channels > Edit Channel > Channel Content.


Edit the manifest file by removing content items and crawl tasks that have UNC formatted paths.

Use the acquirer start-channel EXEC command to initiate channel acquisition and verify that the workaround is successful.

CSCee81376

Symptom: The CMS service on the Content Distribution Manager cannot start and fails to create the CMS database backup file.

Condition: This problem can occur if the ACNS network configuration is very large (for example, with 2000 configured Content Engines) and the sysfs partition is 2 GB or less.

Workaround: Create a sysfs partition that is greater than 2 GB.

CSCee90245

Symptom: Microsoft NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication occurs even though you disabled it on the Content Engine.

Condition: This problem occurs very rarely. In very rare situations, even though you entered the no ntlm server enable global configuration command to disable NTLM proxy authentication on the Content Engine, NTLM proxy authentication is still not turned off. In such cases, NTLM authentication can still occur, although the output of the show running EXEC command shows that the NTLM server is not enabled on the Content Engine.

Workaround: Enter the no ntlm server enable global configuration command again on the Content Engine.

CSCee92698

Symptom: The ICAP service is enabled on the Content Engine, but the Content Engine is unable to retrieve the content.

Condition: This problem can occur if the Content Engine is running the ACNS 5.x software, and you configure two or more ICAP services to subscribe to the same vectoring point (the response modification [RESPMOD] vectoring point).

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCee92917

Symptom: A cleanup of the sysfs partition removes all pre-positioned RealMedia contents from the /local1/real_vod/ directory on the Content Engine.

Condition: This problem occurs if the sysfs partition is saturated because of the population of content in the real_vod directory.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCef11091

Symptom: The WCCP cache farm (a cluster of Content Engines that are running WCCP) is formed using the assignment method even though you specified the mask-assignment assign-method- strict option when configuring the WCCP service.

Condition: This problem occurs if the WCCP cache farm is associated with Cisco routers instead of switches.

Workaround: There is no known workaround. Mask assignment was only designed for Catalyst 6500 series switches and is not supported by Cisco routers.

CSCef16345

Symptom: The stream scheduler in the edge Content Engine retrieves stale Session Description Protocol (SDP) information from its forwarder and stores it in its local1/cse_live/ucast folder if the encoding is modified through IP/TV Program Manager. All further RTSP requests are served with this stale SDP content.

Condition: This problem occurs if the stream scheduler retrieves stale SDP information from its forwarder because the program has been edited and the encoding changed for a program. This situation occurs if the Content Distribution Manager notification at the edge Content Engine triggers the stream scheduler before the same occurs at the root Content Engine. Consequently, the edge Content Engine obtains the SDP content from its forwarder, which is valid content at that moment.

Workaround: Reload the Content Engine.

CSCef37606

The Content Engine becomes unresponsive, and it takes a long time for commands to be executed.

Condition: This problem occurs when the load that is running on the Content Engine is almost as high as the maximum permissible load for a Content Engine, and you then enable ICAP (especially with request modification [REQMOD] transactions). This situation causes the Content Engine to go into an overload state and not recover easily.

Workaround: The load on the Content Engine with ICAP enabled (for the response modification [respmod] transactions) should be kept to 50 percent of the load that it can handle without ICAP.

CSCef37947

Symptom: A URL in the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) file that has the "repeatCount" value set, may not be requested as many times as specified by the "repeatCount" setting.

Condition: This problem occurs only when RealPlayer Version 10 is used. The player exhibits the same behavior whether or not there is a Content Engine between the client and the origin server.

Workaround: Use RealOne player instead of RealPlayer Version 10, or request the SMIL file again. The URL will be played at least once in the player.

CSCef44709

Symptom: An HTTP 1.0 request that is received by the Content Engine from a client web browser is sent as an HTTP 1.1 request by the Content Engine to the origin server.

Condition: This problem occurs only when the ICAP service is enabled on the Content Engine.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCef57641

Symptom: The cache process on the Content Engine restarts.

Condition: This problem occurs if a large volume of HTTPS and FTP traffic is being directed to the Content Engine, which is operating in transparent mode.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCef60282

Symptom: Even though you entered a write memory command, after an immediate reload, a prompt appears that the configuration has been changed.

Conditions: This problem occurs if the following conditions are met:

You have enabled Websense on the Content Engine.

The IP address of the Content Engine is removed or changed.

You enter a write memory command on the Content Engine.

You reload the Content Engine.

Workaround: Note that ACNS functionality is not affected if this problem occurs. However, if a prompt appears stating that the configuration has been changed, enter yes to save the configuration.

CSCef61845

Symptom: Unicast access to a live program does not work.

Condition: This problem occurs only when you use special characters ("?" and "#") in the unicast reference URL.

Workaround: To publish a live event, use URLs that do not contain special characters.

CSCef62968

Symptom: The Content Engine reboots suddenly when you are performing database maintenance.

Condition: The problem can occur because of a platform issue in the power supply of the device.

Workaround: Properly trim the power supply of the Content Engine.

CSCef65567

Symptom: You are not able to download the control list or apply a policy (for example, the policies that control when the SmartFilter subscription or control list expire) to the SmartFilter 3.x plug-in.

Condition: This problem occurs if you use the SmartFilter 4.0 Administrator Console to define the SmartFilter 3.x plug-ins as part of a plug-in group.

Workaround: Use the SmartFilter 4.0 Administrator Console to define the SmartFilter 3.x plug-ins as individual plug-ins.

CSCef67934

Symptom: The proxy autoconfiguration file is missing from the Content Engine after you switch from group settings to device settings, and then switch back to group settings.

Condition: This problem can occur in the following condition:

a. You have specified values in the Client Proxy Autoconfig Device Group window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

b. You override these values through the Client Proxy Autoconfig Device window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

c. You revert the Content Engine back to the device group settings (you click the Force device group settings button in the device group window or you select the device group from the drop-down menu in the device window).

The autoconfiguration file is not found but the proxy autoconfiguration feature is shown as enabled.

Workaround: Return to the device window in the Content Distribution Manager GUI, delete the values from the proxy autoconfiguration fields in the device window, and then select device group from the drop-down menu.

CSCef67938

Symptom: When using the quick start tool in the Content Distribution Manager GUI, if you repeatedly click the Add-Router to List button before the window completely loads in your browser, the following message appears in your browser:

The system had trouble processing your last request.

This situation can occur under the following circumstances:

You click the BACK or REFRESH browser buttons.

Multiple browser windows from the same client machine are accessing the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

Another user deletes the item that you are working with in the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

Condition: This problem occurs only when there is a slow connection between the Content Distribution Manager and your browser and you perform any of the unsupported actions described above.

Workaround: Return to the Content Distribution Manager GUI and wait until the window is completely loaded in your browser before you click the Add-Router to List button.

CSCeg04809

Symptom: HTTP VOD file statistics are not being updated correctly.

Condition: This problem can occur if you enter the show statistics wmt requests EXEC command while you are using the HTTP protocol to play a stream. The command output shows the total unicast requests field as 2 but shows the other types of requests (for example, the number of served streaming requests) as only 1.

Workaround: Wait until the stream ends before you enter the show statistics wmt requests EXEC command.

CSCeg22697

Symptom: The Websense EIM server that is running on the Content Engine generates a core file.

Condition: This problem can occur when the Websense server is enabled on the Content Engine.

Workaround: No user intervention is required. If this problem occurs, the Websense server functionality is not affected. After generating a core file, the Websense server will be automatically restarted and the functionality is restored.

CSCeg49287

Symptom: When WCCP transparent redirection is being used to redirect RTSP client requests transparently to WCCP routers, the client receives an error stating that it is unable to locate the server when it attempts to retrieve the RTSP URL. This problem can occur because the URL presented to the client is a modified "bad" URL. This modified URL is the original URL with the Content Engine's RTSP gateway IP address prepended before the domain name. For example, if the original RTSP URL is "rtsp://website.com.domain:554/url-path-info," then the following modified "bad" URL is returned to the client:

rtsp://ciscoRTSPG.ipaddress-of-rtsp-gateway.website.com.domain:554/url-path-info

The reason that the client is unable to resolve the DNS is because the Content Engine is using the modified URL.

Condition: The problem can occur when the WCCP router list (wccp router-list x.x.x.x CLI command) on the Content Engine is configured with a router IP address that the router does not use in its WCCP "I See You" messages.

Workaround: Configure the WCCP router list to use the IP address that the WCCP router is using on its "I See You" messages.

CSCeg51354

Symptom: The Windows Media player goes into a buffering state for RTSPU-based file streaming.

Condition: This problem can occur under the following circumstances:

The bandwidth between the client and the Content Engine is low.

The file used for streaming contains multiple audio streams.

Workaround: Use RTSPT-based file streaming instead of RTSPU-based file streaming.

CSCeg55742

Symptom: Multiple connections are seen between the root Content Engine and the Windows Media server/encoder.

Condition: This problem can occur if the root Content Engine is under a heavy load and multiple Content Engine children or clients connect to the root Content Engine to access a unicast stream. Because of timing issues, the root Content Engine can create multiple connections to the encoder/server. This problem does not adversely impact the clients that are watching the stream; however, one side effect is that more bandwidth will be used between the root Content Engine and the encoder/server.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg56075

Symptom: RealPlayer crashes when the streams are switched over from the first stream to the second stream.

Condition: This problem can occur if you have set the reconnect as automatic for broadcast redundancy.

Workaround: Set the reconnect as manual instead as automatic.

CSCeg57195

Symptom: After changing the DNS configuration, WMT fails and the WMT error logs show that there is a problem with resolving URLs.

Condition: This problem occurs because WMT is not recognizing that a DNS change has occurred and is trying to use the old DNS configuration that may point to a server that is down or is inaccessible.

Workaround: After you change the DNS configuration, reload the Content Engine to ensure that all of the processes will obtain the current DNS configuration when they start up.

CSCeg60760

Symptom: CPU usage on the Content Engine reaches 99 percent.

Condition: This high CPU usage can occur if the Content Engine is serving numerous live-streaming requests and it is running the ACNS 5.1.11 software and later releases.

Workaround: If you are not expecting a very high load on the Content Engine, you can turn off kernel optimization by entering the no wmt accelerate live-split enable global configuration command.

CSCeg63788

Symptom: The internal Websense server on the Content Engine is not responding to a block page message.

Condition: This problem can occur if certain clients do not behave properly and fail to send the requested data back to the Websense block page server. The block page server is not timing out these requests, reaches a limit, and then stops responding.

Workaround: Restart the internal Websense server or reboot the Content Engine to clear the connections.

CSCeg68274

Symptom: SNMP management is not able to learn the standby interface in order to test the standby interface for accessibility.

Condition: This problem can occur if the Content Engine is configured with a standby interface and the SNMP management station uses an MIB query for ipAdEntAddr. The SNMP management system learns the addresses of the individual interfaces but not the address of the standby group.

Workaround: Configure real addresses for the interfaces on the Content Engine so that the SNMP management station can at least test that the interfaces on the Content Engine are active.

CSCeg69790

Symptom: After you configure a live event through the ACNS 5.2 Content Distribution Manager GUI, the URL link generated by the Content Distribution Manager cannot be played.

Condition: This problem only occurs if the media filename or program name includes a blank space.

Workaround: Do not use a blank space in either the media filename or the program name when using the Content Distribution Manager to configure a live event. For example, use "-" or "_" instead of a blank space.

CSCeg74062

Symptom: Internet Explorer does not display the RealServer License Monitor window correctly. (This window is displayed by logging in to the RealServer administrative interface and then selecting Logging & Monitoring and License Monitor.)

Condition: This problem only occurs with Internet Explorer.

Workaround: Use the Firefox or Netscape browsers, which display the License Monitor window correctly.

CSCeg74070

Symptom: Both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers do not correctly display changed settings for the broadcast transmitter and receivers.

Condition: This problem occurs if the Content Engine is running the ACNS 5.2.x software and later releases, and is using RealServer as a back-end RTSP server.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg82405

Symptom: The Internet Explorer client retrieves a partial (incomplete) customized error page and displays it along with some partial HTML code.

Condition: This problem occurs if a customized error page is configured on the Content Engine and an Internet Explorer client requests a nonexistent HTTPS URL, which causes the customized error page to be returned.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg84004

Symptom: NTLM authentication for a valid user may take a longer period than usual (approximately two minutes) if the client sends the request when the Content Engine has been idle for a long period of time.

Condition: This problem can occur in the following condition:

a. NTLM request authentication is enabled on the Content Engine.

b. The request is sent after the Content Engine has been idle for a long period of time.

c. The client machine has some malfunctioning program (for example, spyware or a virus) and is sending HTTP requests to the Content Engine along with the first request from the browser. The user agent is named Tioga, and the request is as follows:

    GET http://somehostname/Zone-UVWXYZ/config.cfg HTTP/1.0\r\n
    Request Method: GET
    Accept: */*\r\n
    User-Agent: Tioga\r\n
    Host: somehostname\r\n
    Pragma: no-cache\r\n

where somehostname is a hostname.

The user will be authenticated after waiting approximately two minutes. After reporting a failure to the browser, the Content Engine uses the same credential and retrieves the group information for that user from its HTTP authentication cache.

Workaround: On the Content Engine, configure a rule to either reject requests from the user agent named Tioga, or configure the no-auth rule to bypass authentication for this user agent.

CSCeg84304

Symptom: The ICAP daemon that is running on the Content Engine generates a core file.

Condition: This problem can occur when there is a heavy load of HTTPS proxy traffic that is being processed by the Content Engine.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg86386

Symptom: In a Content Router environment, users are not able to choose RTSPU(UDP) or RTPST(TCP) by requesting with rtspu:// or rtspt:// from their Windows Media players. Another symptom is that an RTSPT stream is returned when an RTSPU stream is requested. A third symptom is that even though you specified the wmt disallowed-client-protocols rtspu global configuration command, it is not preventing clients from being served for a request rtspu://crfqdn/file.asf, this returns an RTSP stream instead of an error.

Condition: This problem can occur if a Content Router is being used for RTSP redirection.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg88951

Symptom: When viewing a rich media stream, the video display may be black for a couple of minutes. After the video starts to play, if you click the progress bar in the Windows Media player to advance the video, the video display may go black again as though the video were starting over again.

Condition: This problem can occur if you are using a Windows Media 9 client to view a rich media stream.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeg90529

Symptom: Even though TACACS AAA accounting is enabled on the Content Engine, no command information is being received under the standard Cisco Access Control Server (ACS) TACACS headers.

Condition: This problem can occur if TACACS accounting is enabled on the Content Engine and it is reporting to a Cisco ACS 3.1 TACACS server.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeh00314

Symptom: In case of WMT live and content routing, the HTTP failover URL does not work.

Condition: In case of a WMT live using content routing, after the initial communication between the client and the Content Router, the client is redirected to the Content Engine. When the Content Engine receives this request, it sends back an .asx file with two URLs in it. One is an MMS URL and the other is an HTTP URL. In the case of WMT live, this HTTP URL is not valid. If the client fails over to this URL if the MMS fails, the stream will not be served by the Content Engine. This problem occurs on systems that are running the ACNS 5.1.x, 5.2.x and 5.3.1 software.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeh06795

Symptom: A live channel may fail to be played from the clients. The replication fails as indicated by the output from the show programs EXEC command.

Condition: This problem can occur in the following condition:

a. You are running the ACNS 5.2.1b7 software and later releases.

b. You configure a live channel and then schedule it through the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

c. You use uppercase letters when specifying the program name.

Workaround: Because uppercase letters are sometimes rejected, avoid using capital letters when specifying the program name in the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

CSCeh15968

Symptom: The client receives an unexpected 400 bad request HTTP response from the origin server when the request is going through a Content Engine.

Condition: This problem can occur if the client sends an unnecessary carriage-return and line feed (\r\n) in between the end of one request and the beginning of another request. These extra characters have been seen using the following version of the browser:

Internet Explorer

Version: 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.040919-1003

Cipher Strength: 128-bit

Update Versions:; SP1; Q832894; Q837009; Q831167; Q823353; Q871260;

Workaround: Disable persistent connections on the client side by entering one of the following configuration mode commands:

For server-side only persistent connections, enter the http persistent-connections server-only command.

For no client-side or server-side persistent connections, enter the no http persistent-connections all command.

CSCeh20906

Symptom: Even though you have the transaction log sanitize feature enabled on the Content Engine, the RealProxy or RealServer access logs still display the client IP address even though it should be hidden.

Condition: This problem is caused because the transaction-logs sanitize CLI command is not working properly for the RealProxy and RealServer. Even though you have entered the transaction-logs sanitize global configuration command, the RealProxy or RealServer access logs still display the client IP address even though it should be hidden.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeh21067

Symptom: Windows Media player files are not being downloaded properly.

Condition: This problem can occur if you have entered the wmt disallowed-client-protocols http global configuration command on the Content Engine and the Content Engine is rebooted.

Workaround: When the Content Engine is rebooted, reenter the wmt disallowed-client-protocols http command on the Content Engine.

CSCeh23466

Symptom: The table of contents and the index of the ACNS Content Distribution Manager online help are not functioning. When you open the online help window, the left pane, which contains the table of contents and index, appears blank.

Condition: This problem is caused by the Windows Security Update MS05-001. This security patch prevents the creation of an instance of the HTML Help ActiveX control that is served in HTML content from outside the Local Machine zone.

Workaround: Because the ACNS Content Distribution Manager is part of your internal network, you may modify the Windows registry to allow execution of ActiveX controls that are served from within the Intranet zone. For more information on modifying the registry to workaround this issue, refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 892675, which is available at this URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892675.

CSCeh28890

Symptom: When you perform a software upgrade or downgrade between the ACNS 5.3 software release and the ACNS 5.0 software release, the TCP Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) configuration is not retained.

Condition: This problem can occur if you enter the tcp ecn enable global configuration command when the device is running the ACNS 5.0 software release, and then upgrade the device to the ACNS 5.3 software release.

Workaround: After upgrading the device to the ACNS 5.3 software release, reenter the tcp ecn enable command.

CSCeh31111

Symptom: A core file is generated by the web server.

Condition: This problem can occur under the following condition:

a. In the Rules window of the Content Engine GUI, you choose Cache as the action and any pattern.

b. You fill in all the appropriate fields but leave the action Value string blank.

c. You click Update.

Workaround: Do not leave the action value field in the Rules windows blank.

CSCeh31352

Symptom: The cache process generates a core file.

Condition: This problem can occur under the following condition:

a. The Content Engine has NTLM request authentication enabled.

b. One client (client A) requests an NTLM protected object from a origin server.

c. Another client (client B), whose user belongs to 500 groups, requests a plain object such as www.yahoo.com.

d. While client B is still waiting for all the groups to be retrieved, client A sends a request to www.google.com for plain objects.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeh34004

Symptom: When connected to an external ICAP server, the Content Engine may stop forwarding data. After the ICAP server timeout occurs, an error is reported to the HTTP client.

Condition: This problem can occur because of the timing of server responses.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCeh34039

Symptom: The no proxy rule action does not work for transparently redirected proxy style requests.

Condition: This problem occurs if there is a pattern configured for a domain name such as abccorp.com and a request is given to a source that is not a FQDN (for example, http://www).

Workaround: Give the request itself as a FQDN (for example, http://wwwin.abccorp.com).

CSCeh34292

When the WMT player is being proxied to the Content Engine, the player stops and starts buffering several times when it is playing a media file.

Condition: This problem can occur under the following condition:

a. WMT is disabled on the Content Engine.

b. The media file is located on the Windows Media Series 9.1 server that will send back a keepalive header without a content-length header.

Workaround: Enter the http ignore-resp-len-conn-hdr-check global configuration command, which is a hidden CLI command, on the Content Engine.

CSCeh34279

Symptom: The Content Engine does not export the transaction logs when the transaction log export feature is enabled.

Condition: This problem only occurs if there are Cisco Streaming Engine logs files in the /local1/logs/cisco-streaming-engine directory.

Workaround: To work around this problem, follow these steps:

a. Disable the Cisco Streaming Engine on the Content Engine, as follows:

ContentEngine(config)# no rtsp server cisco-streaming-engine enable

b. If you want to save a copy of the Cisco Streaming Engine log files before deleting them, then save them either in another directory or on another machine.

c. Remove the Cisco Streaming Engine log files from the Content Engine using the following EXEC commands:

ContentEngine# cd /local1/logs/cisco-streaming-engine
ContentEngine# delfile cseaccess*
ContentEngine# delfile ftp_export.status

d. After removing the Cisco Streaming Engine log files, disable and then reenable the transaction log export feature on the Content Engine, as follows:

ContentEngine(config)# no transaction-logs export enable
ContentEngine(config)# transaction-logs export enable

On the next schedule export, any file that has been archived but not yet exported will be exported. To perform an export prior to the next scheduled export time (to force an export that is referred to as an on-demand export), enter the transaction-logs force export EXEC command.

CSCeh35923

Symptom: When you are trying to install the ACNS software on a Content Engine, DMA errors are displayed.

Condition: This problem only occurs under the following condition:

a. You are trying to install the ACNS software image on a CE-7326.

b. You select Option 7 from the Installer main menu as follows:

Installer Main Menu:
    1. Configure Network
    2. Manufacture flash
    3. Install flash cookie
    4. Install flash image from network
    5. Install flash image from cdrom 
    6. Install flash image from disk 
    7. Wipe out disks and install .bin image
    8. Exit (and reboot)
Choice [0]: 7

Workaround: The DMA errors are displayed four to five times in sequence and then the normal operation of the Content Engine continues without any user intervention.

CSCeh35997

Symptom: A file not found error message is generated for a pre-positioned IP/TV VOD file.

Condition: The problem can occur with a pre-positioned file that is moved from its origin server to another server, and then restored back to its original server location.

Workaround: Delete the on-demand program in the Program Manager GUI and define a new program to generate a fresh entry in the Manifest file.

CSCeh38741

Symptom: The Windows Media player is not able to stream content for more than one hour in the case of a cache hit.

Condition: This problem can occur when the Limit Player Timeout Inactivity value in the origin Windows Media server is set to the default value of 3600 seconds

Workaround: Increase the Limit Player Timeout Inactivity value in the origin Windows Media server.

CSCeh40432

Symptom: When the source of a WMT alias is changed to another source URL, the clients do not reflect the changes. The client is still connected to the old source stream even though the changes have been made. The user is watching a completely different stream than the one that is being sourced to the originating Content Engine. When using Windows Media streams in a cascaded hierarchy (one Content Engine that is pulling a stream from another and so on), if a client is pulling a stream from an alias and the alias it is pointing to is changed to a different source, the client stream is not updated.

Condition: This problem occurs with the ACNS 5.1.13, 5.2 and 5.3 software.

Workaround: Delete and re-create the publishing point. In the case that the source is an Encoder, if Encoder1 is given as the source to the broadcast alias, and when the source is changed to Encoder2 while the client is playing the content, Closing Encoder1 will force the client to give a new Request, in the new request the client will be able to obtain the stream from Encoder2.

CSCeh41137

Symptom: The status of a Cisco Streaming Engine program continuously switches between playing and failed.

Condition: The problem can occur with a normal Cisco Streaming Engine program if a failing rebroadcast program already exists because the file had a filename or folder name that contained special characters.

Workaround: Delete the rebroadcast program that is failing because of the presence of special characters.

CSCei62672

Symptom: When you click links from the table of contents or the index of the ACNS Content Distribution Manager online help, the links open in the same pane, that is, the left pane, which contains the table of contents and the index, instead of opening in the right pane, which contains the help topics.

Condition: This problem occurs after you install Microsoft security update MS05-026. This security patch disables cross-frame navigation features that are based on HTML Help ActiveX control (HHCTRL).

Workaround: To reenable cross-frame navigation features that are based on HHCTRL, modify your Windows registry as explained in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 896905, which is available at this URL:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896905/

CSCin54434

Symptom: Websense Manager cannot connect to the local Websense server (the Websense server runs as a separate process on the Content Engine instead of running on a separate system).

Condition: This problem occurs if an external IP address is used from Websense Manager to connect to the local Websense server that is running on the Content Engine.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCin59462

Symptom: An FTP client application stops receiving data for a data transfer operation such as a directory listing (ls) or file transfer (GET). The same symptom can occur for FTP-over-HTTP data transfers from the FTP server to the Content Engine.

Condition: For FTP client applications, the Content Engine must be using the FTP proxy through WCCP redirection, configured for following the FTP client's mode for establishing a data connection. The FTP client application must have also been set to use active mode to the FTP server.

ContentEngine(config)# wccp ftp router-list-num number
ContentEngine(config)# wccp version 2 
ContentEngine(config)# ftp proxy active-mode enable 

For FTP-over-HTTP data transfers, the Content Engine must be configured for an FTP incoming proxy and configured to use active mode to the FTP server. The client browser must be configured to use the Content Engine FTP proxy for FTP URLs.

ContentEngine(config)# ftp proxy incoming port
ContentEngine(config)# ftp proxy active-mode enable 

The symptoms can occur with the configurations described above and when the FTP server starts sending data packets that are received out of order by the Content Engine before the Content Engine sends the TCP connection establishment SYN-ACK packet to the FTP server.

Workaround: Remove the Content Engine active mode configuration by entering the following global configuration command:

ContentEngine(config)# no ftp proxy active-mode enable

When this symptom occurs on an FTP client application, press Ctrl-C simultaneously to stop the partial data transfer operation.

When this symptom occurs on a browser configured for FTP-over-HTTP, click the STOP button to stop the partial data transfer operation.

CSCin60029

Symptom: When a rule with the redirect action is configured with a URL of 0 and with a matching pattern (no replacing pattern), the cache process crashes if the request matches the pattern.

Condition: This problem occurs when you configure a numeric value of 0 for the redirected URL (for example, if www.yahoo.com is redirected to 0). If you want the Content Engine to redirect URL x to URL y, then you can configure the rule redirect action. While doing so, you must configure URL x and URL y.

Workaround: There is no known workaround.

CSCin67818

Symptom: The manifest validator fails to fetch the XML file if the source is authenticated.

Condition: This problem occurs only if the file is located at an authenticated location.

Workaround: Put a copy of the manifest file in a nonauthenticated location to use the manifest validator.

Resolved Caveats—ACNS 5.3.1 Software

This section lists the caveats that have been resolved in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release. The resolved caveats are grouped into the following categories:

Acquisition and Distribution Resolved Caveats

ICAP Resolved Caveats

Management Resolved Caveats

Proxy and Caching Resolved Caveats

Rules Resolved Caveats

Other Resolved Caveats

Acquisition and Distribution Resolved Caveats

CSCeh09178

If you enter the show distribution remote sender-IP address unicast-sender EXEC command, unicast distribution is triggered. (Entering this EXEC command should not trigger unicast distribution from the sender Content Engine.)

CSCin65344

When MPEG-2 is specified as the preferred format in a channel, the programs cannot be created in that channel. This problem occurs only if MPEG-2 is the preferred format.

ICAP Resolved Caveats

CSCef94485

If ICAP is enabled on the Content Engine, the IP Type-of-Service (ToS) settings for the match client and match server do not work.

Management Resolved Caveats

CSCef08306

If you specify a value with a decimal point instead of a numeric value in the File System window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the value is rejected and you receive an error message indicating that you must enter a numeric value.

CSCef23332

If you are using the Content Distribution Manager GUI to configure NFS as the protocol for the network attached storage (NAS), you must include a forward slash (/) when specifying the remote directory pathname; otherwise, you will receive an error message. (If you specify the remote directory pathname through the CLI instead of the Content Distribution Manager GUI, you do not receive an error message if you do not include the forward slash in the pathname.)

CSCeg06945

The number of alarms that is reported in the status bar of the Content Distribution Manager GUI is greater than the actual number of alarms that exist. This problem can occur if a device has been deactivated, downgraded, or is offline.

CSCeg20974

In the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the Process content changes icon in the Channel Content window does not work as expected; when you click the icon, it does not trigger immediate notification to relevant Content Engines. However, the changes will be sent to the Content Engines when the next configuration update occurs.

CSCeg27575

When you use the Content Distribution Manager GUI to import a coverage zone file or a proxy autoconfiguration (PAC) file, it might taken longer than expected for the import process to be completed.

CSCeg48024

Duplicate key error messages are reported for certain operations that you perform through the Content Distribution Manager GUI as follows:

Dec  6 22:39:04 ODI-MGMT-CE-510 java: %CE-CMS-4-700001: ce(Dispatcher-1):  
Duplicate key: System.ftpcache.proxyEnable
Dec  6 22:39:04 ODI-MGMT-CE-510 java: %CE-CMS-4-700001: ce(Dispatcher-1):  
Duplicate key: System.https.tcpRWTimeOutEnable
Dec  6 22:39:04 ODI-MGMT-CE-510 java: %CE-CMS-4-700001: ce(Dispatcher-1):  
Duplicate key: System.ftpcache.proxyEnable

CSCeg73725

When you configure a sequence of CLI commands on a centrally managed Content Engine, and you set and unset or modify the same values multiple times in the same sequence, the CLI might display the earlier values that you specified through the CLI commands if these same values can also be specified through the Content Distribution Manager GUI.

CSCeg76120

The SNMP host processing on the Content Engine does not properly handle the default values for the no authorization setting, which causes a local-central management (LCM) difference to occur (the SNMP settings are overridden when a hostname is used for a device group's SNMP host).

CSCeg89767

In the WCCP Bypass List window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI, duplicate bypass list entries are shown if you have specified "any" as the client or server address for a device group.

CSCeh04334

A Content Engine with a failed downgrade remains in that state if you deregister it from the Content Distribution Manager and then reregister it without first resolving the downgrade issue. This problem only occurs if the following unusual sequence of operations occurs. You use the Content Distribution Manager GUI to initiate a software upgrade on a Content Engine, the upgrade fails, and before you fix the upgrade problem (by running the upgrade manually through the CLI), you deregister and then reregister the Content Engine.

CSCeh06042

If you enter a double space (you enter two consecutive space characters) in the Device Group window of the Content Distribution Manager GUI, the Device windows for the Content Engines show that the Content Engines are using the device settings instead of the group settings. The Device windows for the Content Engines also show a single space where the Device Group window had a double space.

Proxy and Caching Resolved Caveats

CSCeg28868

Some syslog.txt messages are not categorized.

CSCeg36621

File transfers of large files fail and connection reset error messages are generated. This problem occurs with HTTP, native FTP, and FTP-over-HTTP proxies (Content Engines) that are running the ACNS 5.2.x and 5.1.x software. This problem was fixed in the ACNS 5.3.1 software release.

CSCeg53888

In rare situations, if you enter the show running-config EXEC command, the command fails to execute properly and a core file and the following errors are generated:

cfg/gl/device_mode: Item Not Found. (Error 4)
cfg/gl/device_mode_configured: Item Not Found. (Error 4)
cfg/gl/device_mode: Item Not Found. (Error 4)

CSCeg67584

The /local/local1/WebsenseEnterprise/ directory does not exist on the Content Engine.

CSCeg76945

When WCCP FTP is being used, an FTP GET operation to certain FTP servers fails because the remote FTP server is not properly handling the Content Engine request.

CSCeg79094

If a website resolves to IP addresses and one of the IP address servers is down, the Content Engine can experience problems if it goes to the server that is down first and then fails over to the second IP address server. When the DNS resolution is not properly failing over, the Content Engine does not return certain web pages.

CSCeg82504

Every two seconds, syslog messages such as the following, are being continuously generated:

Jan 16 01:37:02 CE7325-CE1 bandwd: %CE-BANDWD-3-115003: BANDWD:  
verification registration failed, err=30 
Jan 16 01:37:02 CE7325-CE1 bandwd: %CE-BANDWD-3-115002: BANDWD:  
Trying again in two seconds 

CSCeg83927

When the Content Engine is handling chunked HTTP responses, the HTTP GET responses may fail and the connection is terminated. No user intervention is required because the cache process is automatically restarted.

CSCeg89686

Preloading of content on a Content Engine does not work under the following condition:

a. SmartFilter is enabled as the URL filtering method on the Content Engine.

b. Preloading is enabled on the Content Engine.

c. The SmartFilter "meant to be blocked" URLs are preloaded on the Content Engine.

CSCeg90538

For TACACS accounting on the Content Engine, the Content Distribution Manager user is being logged as unknown.

CSCeg90553

When TACACS accounting has been enabled on the Content Engine, the caller identification information is only being logged for certain events for the TACACS accounting.

CSCeh05320

The entire group information is not retrieved when the referred LDAP server goes down while processing the request and another request comes for a user who is in the same domain as the NTLM server.

CSCeh12282

A client might hang when it is waiting to receive a close to the connection from a Content Engine that has received a 304 response from the origin server.

CSCeh17930

Not all of the syslog.txt messages have a message code associated with them. This is causing the syslog error log to fill up because the syslog machines, which expect a message code, are writing error messages to the syslog error log.

CSCeh20894

The Content Engine cannot smoothly play a media file from a Windows Media Series 9.1 server. When the WMT media player plays a media file from a Windows Media Series 9.1 server through the Content Engine, one of the following problems can occur:

The player will not play the media file from the Windows Media Series 9.1 server and keeps buffering.

The Content Engine plays the media file partially and then enters into buffer mode several times while playing the file.

CSCeh30618

The ip domain name domain name global configuration command does not allow the domain name to start with a number. The command requires that the domain names begin with a letter and then only contain numbers and letters. For example:

ContentEngine(config)# ip domain name 123abc.mydomain.com
Illegal domainname 123abc.mydomain.com.
Valid domainname can contain only alphanumerics, hyphen and dot.

In the ACNS 5.3.1 software release, the ip domain name domain name global configuration command was modified to allow domain names that begin with a number.

CSCeh33774

A core file is generated and you are unable to log in to the Content Engine. This problem can occur under the following circumstances:

TACACS+ authentication is being used.

URL filtering with Websense is being used.

ICAP is enabled on the Content Engine without the icap append-x-headers x-authenticated-user command being specified and the traffic exceeds 140 transactions per second, and the no icap apply all command has been specified.

The core files are found in the /local1/core_dir directory for the login and sshd processes.

Rules Resolved Caveats

CSCeg29859

It is not possible to access a piece of a pre-positioned file from a rewritten URL. The only workaround is to use the URL preload feature instead of the pre-positioning feature.

CSCeg85614

The use proxy rules configuration does not work if the use proxy failover rules configuration is also configured with same pattern list number. For example, if a configuration such as the following exists and pattern list 1 is used, then the use-proxy failover action (shown in "a" of this example) takes precedence over the use-proxy action (shown in "b" of this example) and the second CLI is never executed (it becomes a dummy rule):

a. ContentEngine(config)# rule action use-proxy 1.2.3.4 8080
failover pattern-list 1

b. ContentEngine(config)# rule action use-proxy 128.107.193.242 8080
pattern-list 1


CSCeh31116

After you specify the allow rule action, the rule actions that are configured on the Content Engine are not retained.

Other Resolved Caveats

CSCed34718

If you edit a file-based scheduled program and the Quality of Service (QoS) feature is configured, the revised program retains the QoS configuration even if you disable the QoS feature. This problem occurs only with file-based scheduled programs; it does not occur with live programs.

CSCef27174

After you reload a parent Content Engine in a live split-tree type environment, its children Content Engines lose their RTSP connections to this parent and do not attempt to reestablish these RTSP connections after the parent comes back up. This problem occurs only if the Cisco Streaming Engine is restarted on the parent Content Engine (for example, the Content Engine is reloaded, or you enter a clear statistics EXEC command on the Cisco Streaming Engine).

CSCef96069

The output of the show tech-support EXEC command displays the following warning message in the "system log info" section (the kernel log):

Warning - running *really* short on DMA buffers

This problem can occur under situations such as the following:

You have performed a software upgrade, and you reboot the ACNS software.

Other conditions, which involve substantial disk I/O shortly after startup, have occurred.

Note that the above message does not indicate that the ACNS software is not functioning properly.

Related Documentation

Your product shipped with a minimal set of printed documentation. The printed documentation provides enough information for you to install and initially configure your product.

Product Documentation Set

In addition to these release notes, the product documentation set includes:

Documentation Guide and License and Warranty for Cisco ACNS Software, Release 5.3

Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information for the Cisco Content Networking Product Series

Refer to the Documentation Guide and License and Warranty for Cisco ACNS Software, Release 5.3 for a complete documentation roadmap and URL documentation links for this product.

Hardware Documentation

Cisco Content Engine 7326 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Engine 7305 and 7325 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Engine 511 and 566 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Engine 510 and 565 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Engine 500 Series Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Distribution Manager 4630 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Router 4430 Hardware Installation Guide

Cisco Content Networking Hardware Installation Guide for the Seven-Rack Unit Chassis

Software Documentation

Cisco ACNS Software Upgrade and Maintenance Guide, Release 5.x

Cisco ACNS Software Configuration Guide for Centrally Managed Deployments, Release 5.3

Cisco ACNS Software Command Reference, Release 5.3

Cisco ACNS Software API Guide, Release 5.3

Release Notes for Cisco IP/TV Broadcast Server and Viewer Software, Release 5.2.5

Release Notes for Cisco ACNS Software Program Manager for IP/TV, Release 5.3

Online Help

Content Distribution Manager GUI online help system for centrally managed ACNS networks

Content Engine GUI online help system for locally deployed Content Engines


Note The term locally deployed Content Engine refers to a Content Engine that was initially configured with the autoregistration feature turned off so that the Content Engine would not automatically register with the Content Distribution Manager. Because the Content Engine did not register with the Content Distribution Manager, it can be individually managed through the Content Engine CLI or GUI as a locally deployed device. The Content Engine GUI allows you to remotely configure, manage, and monitor locally deployed Content Engines through your browser.

The Content Distribution Manager GUI and the Content Engine GUI both have context-sensitive online help that can be accessed by clicking the HELP button.


Obtaining Documentation

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available on Cisco.com. Cisco also provides several ways to obtain technical assistance and other technical resources. These sections explain how to obtain technical information from Cisco Systems.

Cisco.com

You can access the most current Cisco documentation at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/home/home.htm

You can access the Cisco website at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com

You can access international Cisco websites at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/public/countries_languages.shtml

Documentation DVD

Cisco documentation and additional literature are available in a Documentation DVD package, which may have shipped with your product. The Documentation DVD is updated regularly and may be more current than printed documentation. The Documentation DVD package is available as a single unit.

Registered Cisco.com users (Cisco direct customers) can order a Cisco Documentation DVD (product number DOC-DOCDVD=) from the Ordering tool or Cisco Marketplace.

Cisco Ordering tool:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/ordering/

Cisco Marketplace:

http://www.cisco.com/go/marketplace/

Ordering Documentation

You can find instructions for ordering documentation at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/es_inpck/pdi.htm

You can order Cisco documentation in these ways:

Registered Cisco.com users (Cisco direct customers) can order Cisco product documentation from the Ordering tool:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/ordering/

Nonregistered Cisco.com users can order documentation through a local account representative by calling Cisco Systems Corporate Headquarters (California, USA) at 408 526-7208 or, elsewhere in North America, by calling 1 800 553-NETS (6387).

Documentation Feedback

You can send comments about technical documentation to bug-doc@cisco.com.

You can submit comments by using the response card (if present) behind the front cover of your document or by writing to the following address:

Cisco Systems
Attn: Customer Document Ordering
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-9883

We appreciate your comments.

Cisco Product Security Overview

Cisco provides a free online Security Vulnerability Policy portal at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_security_vulnerability_policy.html

From this site, you can perform these tasks:

Report security vulnerabilities in Cisco products.

Obtain assistance with security incidents that involve Cisco products.

Register to receive security information from Cisco.

A current list of security advisories and notices for Cisco products is available at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt

If you prefer to see advisories and notices as they are updated in real time, you can access a Product Security Incident Response Team Really Simple Syndication (PSIRT RSS) feed from this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_psirt_rss_feed.html

Reporting Security Problems in Cisco Products

Cisco is committed to delivering secure products. We test our products internally before we release them, and we strive to correct all vulnerabilities quickly. If you think that you might have identified a vulnerability in a Cisco product, contact PSIRT:

Emergencies — security-alert@cisco.com

Nonemergencies — psirt@cisco.com


Tip We encourage you to use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) or a compatible product to encrypt any sensitive information that you send to Cisco. PSIRT can work from encrypted information that is compatible with PGP versions 2.x through 8.x.

Never use a revoked or an expired encryption key. The correct public key to use in your correspondence with PSIRT is the one that has the most recent creation date in this public key server list:

http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=psirt%40cisco.com&op=index&exact=on


In an emergency, you can also reach PSIRT by telephone:

1 877 228-7302

1 408 525-6532

Obtaining Technical Assistance

For all customers, partners, resellers, and distributors who hold valid Cisco service contracts, Cisco Technical Support provides 24-hour-a-day, award-winning technical assistance. The Cisco Technical Support Website on Cisco.com features extensive online support resources. In addition, Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) engineers provide telephone support. If you do not hold a valid Cisco service contract, contact your reseller.

Cisco Technical Support Website

The Cisco Technical Support Website provides online documents and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. The website is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport

Access to all tools on the Cisco Technical Support Website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password. If you have a valid service contract but do not have a user ID or password, you can register at this URL:

http://tools.cisco.com/RPF/register/register.do


Note Use the Cisco Product Identification (CPI) tool to locate your product serial number before submitting a web or phone request for service. You can access the CPI tool from the Cisco Technical Support Website by clicking the Tools & Resources link under Documentation & Tools. Choose Cisco Product Identification Tool from the Alphabetical Index drop-down list, or click the Cisco Product Identification Tool link under Alerts & RMAs. The CPI tool offers three search options: by product ID or model name; by tree view; or for certain products, by copying and pasting show command output. Search results show an illustration of your product with the serial number label location highlighted. Locate the serial number label on your product and record the information before placing a service call.


Submitting a Service Request

Using the online TAC Service Request Tool is the fastest way to open S3 and S4 service requests. (S3 and S4 service requests are those in which your network is minimally impaired or for which you require product information.) After you describe your situation, the TAC Service Request Tool provides recommended solutions. If your issue is not resolved using the recommended resources, your service request is assigned to a Cisco TAC engineer. The TAC Service Request Tool is located at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest

For S1 or S2 service requests or if you do not have Internet access, contact the Cisco TAC by telephone. (S1 or S2 service requests are those in which your production network is down or severely degraded.) Cisco TAC engineers are assigned immediately to S1 and S2 service requests to help keep your business operations running smoothly.

To open a service request by telephone, use one of the following numbers:

Asia-Pacific: +61 2 8446 7411 (Australia: 1 800 805 227)
EMEA: +32 2 704 55 55
USA: 1 800 553-2447

For a complete list of Cisco TAC contacts, go to this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport/contacts

Definitions of Service Request Severity

To ensure that all service requests are reported in a standard format, Cisco has established severity definitions.

Severity 1 (S1)—Your network is "down," or there is a critical impact to your business operations. You and Cisco will commit all necessary resources around the clock to resolve the situation.

Severity 2 (S2)—Operation of an existing network is severely degraded, or significant aspects of your business operation are negatively affected by inadequate performance of Cisco products. You and Cisco will commit full-time resources during normal business hours to resolve the situation.

Severity 3 (S3)—Operational performance of your network is impaired, but most business operations remain functional. You and Cisco will commit resources during normal business hours to restore service to satisfactory levels.

Severity 4 (S4)—You require information or assistance with Cisco product capabilities, installation, or configuration. There is little or no effect on your business operations.

Obtaining Additional Publications and Information

Information about Cisco products, technologies, and network solutions is available from various online and printed sources.

Cisco Marketplace provides a variety of Cisco books, reference guides, and logo merchandise. Visit Cisco Marketplace, the company store, at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/marketplace/

Cisco Press publishes a wide range of general networking, training and certification titles. Both new and experienced users will benefit from these publications. For current Cisco Press titles and other information, go to Cisco Press at this URL:

http://www.ciscopress.com

Packet magazine is the Cisco Systems technical user magazine for maximizing Internet and networking investments. Each quarter, Packet delivers coverage of the latest industry trends, technology breakthroughs, and Cisco products and solutions, and network deployment and troubleshooting tips, configuration examples, customer case studies, certification and training information, and links to scores of in-depth online resources. You can access Packet magazine at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/packet

iQ Magazine is the quarterly publication from Cisco Systems designed to help growing companies learn how they can use technology to increase revenue, streamline their business, and expand services. The publication identifies the challenges facing these companies and the technologies to help solve them, using real-world case studies and business strategies to help readers make sound technology investment decisions. You can access iQ Magazine at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/iqmagazine

Internet Protocol Journal is a quarterly journal published by Cisco Systems for engineering professionals involved in designing, developing, and operating public and private internets and intranets. You can access the Internet Protocol Journal at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/ipj

World-class networking training is available from Cisco. You can view current offerings at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/learning/index.html