Cisco Systems® announces the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates of the Cisco® CNS NetFlow Collection Engine (NFC) software 4.0. The last day to order the Cisco NFC is April 1, 2005. Customers will continue to receive support from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) until April 1, 2008.
Table 1 describes the end-of-life milestones, definitions, and dates for the Cisco NFC. Table 2 lists the product numbers affected by this announcement.
NFC 5.0 was released in January 2004 and is fully backward compatible with NFC 4.0. Customers currently running NFC4.0 can upgrade to NFC5.0.
Table 1. End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco CNS NetFlow Collection Engine
Milestone
Definition
Date
End-of-Life Announcement Date
The date the document that announces the end of sale and end of life of a product is distributed to the general public.
October 1, 2004
End-of-Sale Date
The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale after this date.
April 1, 2005
Last Shipment Date
The last-possible ship date that can be requested of Cisco and/or its contract manufacturers. Actual ship date is dependent on lead-time.
July 1, 2005
End of Software Maintenance Releases Date
The last date that Cisco Engineering may release any final software maintenance releases or bug fixes. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the product software.
April 1, 2006
End of New Service Attachment Date
For equipment and software that is not covered by a service-and-support contract, this is the last date to order a new service-and-support contract or add the equipment and/or software to an existing service-and-support contract.
April 1, 2006
End of Service Contract Renewal Date
The last date to extend or renew a service contract for the product. The extension or renewal period cannot extend beyond the last date of support.
April 1, 2007
Last Date of Support
The last date to receive service and support for the product. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete.
April 1, 2008
Table 2. Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement Cisco CNS NFC
End-of-Sale Product Part Number
Product Description
CNS-NFC-LNX-4.0
NetFlow Collector LINUX
CNS-NFC-HPUX-4.0
NetFlow Collector HPUX
CNS-NFC-HP-40-UPG
NetFlow Collector Upgrade-HP-UX
CNS-NFC-SL-40-UPG
NetFlow Collector Upgrade-Solaris
CNS-NFC-SOSU-4.0
NetFlow Collector V4.0-Solaris
PROCUCT MIGRATION OPTIONS
Customers are not required to migrate from NFC 4.0 to 5.0. NFC 5.0 is fully backward compatible with NFC 4.0.
Table 3. Product Comparisons
Feature
Cisco EOL Product
Cisco Replacement Product
Key Features:
NetFlow V9 Format
The version 9 format is an enhancement to support flexibility within the format & different technologies such as Multicast, Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS).
The NFC 4.0 is compatible with the previous NF data format (NFC 3.6). NFC 4.0 shall recognize flows that contain V1, V5, V7 and V8 data formats, and make their data available to the NFC 4.0 filters and user configurable aggregation schemes.
"Cafeteria-style" Aggregation
Users can define aggregation schemes by choosing keys values supported for NF v1->9 formats.
XML/CNS Configuration and Control API
NFC 4.0 integrates with CNS using the CNS Integration Bus. This interface allows CNS applications to configure and manage CNS NetFlow Collection Engine and uses XML to format application-specific messages.
Linux Platform-Redhat v7.2
NFC 4.0 can be deployed on a Linux platform using RedHat Linux 7.2.
The Appliance-IE2115 Hardware Platform
Solaris and HPUX
Cisco NetFlow Collection Engine Version 4.0
Cisco NetFlow Collection Engine Version 5.0-Fully backward compatible and it includes the following key features:
Web Based Interface
NFC 5.0 will have a web-based user interface for configuration, control, and simple reporting.
VPN PE-PE Module
A light weight version of CNS-PERFE-The NetFlow Mediator (NFM) will pull aggregation results from the NFC hosts and correlate them with the customer data obtained from the VPNSC.
DNS and Interface Name Look Up
The user will be able to configure whether or not NFC output contains IP addresses or DNS names.
Max Burst Rate
Provide a thread option to record a maximum burst rate with NFC output records.
Self-Describing NFC Output
Self-describing aggregation results that contain the data type definition of all fields.
QOS
NFC 5.0 is able to output the entire Type of Service (ToS) byte; DSCP and EXP field. EXP is a 3-bit field in the MPLS header that indicates the class of service of the MPLS packet.
Top N Summary Report
Reporting allows the user to view the top X records, according to a selected field, that were used to generate a previous top X report.
