Cisco® Network Registrar® 6.2 is a full-featured Domain Name System/Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DNS/DHCP) system that provides scalable naming and addressing services for enterprise and service provider networks. It significantly improves the reliability of naming and addressing services for enterprise networks. For cable providers, Cisco Network Registrar provides scalable DNS and DHCP services for hundreds of thousands of devices and forms the basis of a DOCSIS® cable modem provisioning system. For telecom service providers, it continues to play an important role in service activation for data, voice over IP (VoIP), and mobile services.
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 includes a standards-compliant DNS server that offers the most advanced feature set in the industry, including support for incremental zone transfers, dynamic updates, and notifications. The Cisco Network Registrar DHCP server supports DHCP failover with redundant DHCP servers, dynamic DNS updates, DOCSIS cable modems, and integration with directory services using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Version 3 (LDAPv3). Moreover, tight integration with Cisco IOS® Software devices further elevates the value of the Cisco Powered Network solution.
The Cisco Network Registrar scalable deployment architecture consists of several local clusters and one regional cluster. The local cluster is deployed in the network to handle DNS and DHCP services, whereas the regional cluster is usually deployed at the data center or the network operations center (NOC) to centrally manage the local clusters.
The regional cluster implements many IP Address Management (IPAM) features to help users reduce operational costs. With IPAM, Cisco Network Registrar administrators can control and monitor DNS and DHCP servers from a centralized location. This capability eliminates many manual, repetitive, and error-prone tasks configuring the local servers deployed in the network, and allows for a single point of data aggregation and delegation.
Address-space management simplifies the task of managing address blocks and can be exercised from the regional cluster. An address block can contain static or dynamic addresses, and can have any number of child address blocks culminating in one or more subnets. An administrator can break an address block into small units and put the smaller blocks in a local cluster. Similarly, the administrator can also roll up address blocks in the local cluster under their parent to provide a unified view of the address space. Instead of traversing every local cluster to gather subnet usage and lease history information, Cisco Network Registrar administrators can achieve the same result from the regional cluster, thus making the task of collecting usage data simple and virtually effortless. Without an automated solution, management of address blocks can be very complex, tedious, and time-consuming.
The regional cluster manages and monitors the local clusters through its cluster management capability. Cluster management allows central management of address space and global protocol server configuration, such as policies, client classes, and scope templates. Using the Web user interface, the administrator at the regional cluster can add and manage a list of Cisco Network Registrar local clusters and their credentials. With this capability, administrators can create and manage a list of local clusters using the Web user interface on the regional cluster. In addition, administrators can centrally manage the local clusters, such as creating, pulling, and pushing VPNs, DHCP client classes, scope templates, and policies; managing failover pairs; and handling zone distribution. Through the Web user interface, administrators can also pull subnet usage and IP lease history data from the local clusters.
NEW FEATURES
New features in Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 include the following:
• DHCPv6 and DNSv6 to enable users to test and deploy IPv6 services-DHCPv6 provides basic address assignment, prefix delegation, and stateless autoconfiguration using IPv6 addressing. Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 supports DHCPv6 for clients, client classes, static reservations, policies, and options-and it supports prefixes and links. The DHCPv6 service was added to the existing DHCP server, not to comprise a separate server, but to take better advantage of the DHCP functions and infrastructure where possible. The solution provides a DNS server that supports AAAA and pointer (PTR) resource records and ip6.arpa reverse zones, and DNS client query resolution over IPv6 transport, in the Web user interface and command-line interface (CLI).
• High-Availability DNS main and backup (standby) server configurations-The High-Availability DNS solution introduces a primary DNS standby server that shadows the primary active server, providing failover redundancy for DNS updates whenever there is a server outage or any disruption in communication. The DHCP server was also enhanced to support updates to either the active or standby server. Without High-Availability DNS, users could deploy only one primary DNS, a potential single point of failure.
• Dynamic scope management-Dynamic scope management allows the Cisco Network Registrar administrator to make dynamic changes to the scopes and have the changes become effective immediately without a server reload. This feature increases the Cisco Network Registrar DHCP server uptime to handle critical applications that are intolerable to slow response. The feature can also help increase operational efficiency, especially in the case where changes to scopes are frequently made. The reload time compounded over a period of time can become significant and result in low customer satisfaction.
• DHCP load-balancing failover-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 supports DHCP load-balancing failover deployment in which the backup DHCP server can offload a percentage of the DHCP request population. With this support, users can take better advantage of the CPU resources on both servers; this support also can result in shorter response time when processing DHCP requests.
• Extended lease reservation-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 allows users to configure lease reservation using information other than MAC address. If the device breaks down and has to be replaced, users can replace the broken device with a new one without having to reconfigure the lease reservation for the new device.
• Full DNS administrative operations from the regional cluster-This feature includes complete management of forward and reverse zone, resource records, host records, and full access to the local cluster DNS server. Although DNS administration is possible from the regional cluster, the local administrator can still have custom configuration of the DNS for specific zones. This feature gives the regional cluster administrator full access to configure the DNS servers deployed in the network and provides the administrator a more efficient way to manage DNS servers from a central location, hence reducing operational cost.
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) manageability-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 helps users manage the DNS and DHCP servers through a built-in SNMP agent. Users can retrieve solicited information in addition to traps from DHCP and DNS servers. With a single console to manage various applications, users see a dashboard displaying the health of all the critical applications and resources.
• Enhanced option handling-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 reduces the complexity of creating the user's own DHCP option definition by allowing the user to easily add, modify, and delete option and suboption definitions from the base DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 specification using the Web interface.
• Flexible DNS update policy-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 provides a policy-based mechanism to update resource records. Rather than solely relying on access control lists (ACLs), the solution helps the user create a policy to specify the criteria used to process update requests. In each policy, the user indicates the type of resource record, ACL, grant or deny access, and additional information used to match the resource records.
• Central backup and restoration of configuration-To help users protect the configuration information maintained on the local cluster, Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 helps users back up the configuration data and archive this information in the regional cluster database. If a catastrophic incident occurs, users can recover the configuration data from the regional cluster. If the configuration is common across the local clusters, users can quickly configure a new server by replicating the archived configuration data on the new server.
• Shared WHOIS (SWIP) report for American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)-Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 provides tools for users to generate address space reports and submit these reports to regional Internet Registries that govern the allocation and use of IP address space. The report support format is mandated by the SWIP process. Each report contains the following:
• Information to identify the organization using the subdelegated address blocks
• Registration information for each IP address block
UPGRADE PATHS
Existing Cisco Network Registrar customers currently can upgrade to the Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 local cluster. Customers deploying a Cisco Network Registrar 6.1 regional cluster can also upgrade to the Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 regional cluster to take advantage of the new features. When migrating to Release 6.2, customers can use a utility available with the solution that can import information from the current Cisco Network Registrar database to make Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 operational in a short time.
Customers with an active Software Application Support plus Upgrades (SASU) contract can request a new local cluster license and a product kit at no cost through the Product Upgrade tool available at http://tools.cisco.com/gct/Upgrade/jsp/index.jsp. When accessing this tool, customers need to provide the SASU contract number and then request the Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 upgrade kits, which are shipped from manufacturing in 5 to 10 days after receipt of the request. Because the regional cluster was not covered by the SASU entitlements, customers need to purchase these optional features separately through additional product licenses.
ORDERING INFORMATION
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2 products are available for order from Cisco Systems® sales representatives or online at http://www.cisco.com.
To run Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, customers need to order the base product that includes a media kit and right-to-use licenses to manage 1000 IP nodes. Customers can buy additional licenses needed to cover their network size.
Customers deploying the new optional features need to purchase the regional cluster license, which includes cluster-management and address-management capability. This license is also required if a customer wants to activate the router-interface-configuration (RIC) server features. Note that both the regional cluster and RIC licensing are based on the number of IP nodes. Customers need to buy the appropriate number of licenses to cover the IP nodes in their network.
Table 1 gives ordering information, Table 2 gives information about new optional features, and Table 3 lists new upgrade part numbers for Cisco Network Registrar 6.2.
Table 1. Ordering Information for Cisco Network Registrar 6.2
Part Number
Description
CNR-6.2-BASE1K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, base license and kit, all platforms, 1000 IP nodes
CNR-6.2-ADD10K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 10,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-ADD25K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 25,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-ADD50K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 50,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-ADD100K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 100,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-ADD500K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 500,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-ADD1M
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, add 1 million IP nodes, license-only kit
Table 2. New Optional Features
Part Number
Description
CNR-6.2-RCM-BASE
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, Central Manager base license, all platforms, 2000 IP nodes
CNR-6.2-RCM-A50K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, Central Manager, add 50,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-RCM-A100K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, Central Manager, add 100,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-RCM-A500K
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, Central Manager, add 500,000 IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-RCM-A1M
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, Central Manager, add 1 million IP nodes, license-only kit
CNR-6.2-RIC-BASE
Cisco Network Registrar 6.2, RIC server, base license, all platforms, 2000 IP nodes
