Release Notes for Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module, Release 1.4.1.x
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Contents
- Release Notes for Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module, Release 1.4.1.x
- Introduction
- What's New in Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x
- Cisco APIC-EM System Requirements
- Cisco APIC-EM Physical Server Requirements
- Cisco APIC-EM VMware vSphere Requirement
- VMware Resource Pools
- Cisco APIC-EM Scale Limits
- Supported Multi-Host Configurations
- Supported Applications
- Cisco APIC-EM Licensing
- Cisco APIC-EM Technical Support
- Supported Platforms and Software Requirements
- Securing the Cisco APIC-EM
- Deploying the Cisco APIC-EM
- Upgrading to Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x
- Caveats
- Open Caveats
- Resolved Caveats
- Using the Bug Search Tool
- Limitations and Restrictions
- General Limitations
- Multi-Host Limitations
- Application Separation Limitations
- Security Limitations
- Software Update Limitations
- Back Up and Restore
- Deployment Limitations
- User Account Limitations
- Service and Support
- Troubleshooting
- Related Documentation
- Cisco APIC-EM Controller Documentation
- Cisco IWAN Application Documentation
- Cisco Network Plug and Play Application Documentation
- Cisco APIC-EM Developer Documentation
- Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request
- Notices
- Trademarks
First Published: April 04, 2017
Release Notes for Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module, Release 1.4.1.x
This document describes the features, limitations, and bugs for this Cisco APIC-EM controller release. For information about the features, limitations, and bugs for the supported applications for this release, see the following:
Introduction
The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (Cisco APIC-EM) is a network controller that helps you manage and configure your network.
The Cisco APIC-EM can support up to the following total number of devices, hosts, and access points:
Network devices (routers, switches, wireless LAN controllers)—10,000
Hosts—100,000
Access Points—10,000
Note
For specific Cisco APIC-EM requirements based upon the number of devices, hosts, and access points within your network, see Cisco APIC-EM Scale Limits.
What's New in Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x
Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x supports the following new features and functionality:
Reintroduction of NIC bonding and VLAN support for the Cisco APIC-EM controller. Enable these features using the Cisco APIC-EM configuration wizard.
Resolution of several pre-existing issues and is designed to enhance your controller’s performance and stability.
The Cisco APIC-EM applications may also have new features for enhancements. For information, see the application's specific release notes at the following URL:
You should upgrade your controller to Cisco APIC-EM release 1.4.1.x to take advantage of the additional features, bug fixes, and performance and stability enhancements. Refer to Upgrading to Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x, in these release notes for the prerequisites and procedure for this upgrade.
Cisco APIC-EM System Requirements
Cisco offers a physical appliance that can be purchased from Cisco with the ISO image pre-installed and tested. The Cisco APIC-EM can also be installed and operate within a dedicated physical server (bare-metal) or a virtual machine within a VMware vSphere environment. The Cisco APIC-EM has been tested and qualified to run on the following Cisco UCS servers:
In addition to the above servers, the Cisco APIC-EM may also run on any Cisco UCS servers that meet the minimum system requirements (see Cisco APIC-EM Physical Server Requirements). We also support running the product in a virtual machine that meets the minimum system requirements on VMware vSphere (see Cisco APIC-EM VMware vSphere Requirement).
Note
The Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit operating system is included in the ISO image and a requirement for the successful installation and operation of the Cisco APIC-EM. Prior to installing the Cisco APIC-EM on your Cisco UCS server, click the following link and review the online matrix to confirm that your hardware supports Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:
http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/server/
Cisco APIC-EM Physical Server Requirements
The following table lists the minimum system requirements for a successful Cisco APIC-EM server (bare-metal hardware) installation. Review the minimum system requirements for a server installation.
Note
For Cisco APIC-EM scale limits based upon the number of devices, hosts, and access points within your network, see Cisco APIC-EM Scale Limits.
The minimum system requirements for each server in a multi-host deployment are the same as in a single host deployment, except that the multi-host deployment requires two or three servers. Two servers are required for software high availability. Three servers are required for both software and hardware high availability. With multiple servers (two or three servers), all of the servers must reside in the same subnet. For additional information about a multi-host deployment, see Supported Multi-Host Configurations.
Caution
You must dedicate the entire server for the Cisco APIC-EM. You cannot use the server for any other software programs, packages, or data. During the Cisco APIC-EM installation, any other software programs, packages, or data on the server will be deleted.
Table 1 Cisco APIC-EM Physical Server (Minimum Requirements) Physical Server Options
Server image format
Bare Metal/ISO
Hardware
CPU (cores)
6
Note 6 CPUs is the minimum number required for your server. For better performance, we recommend using 12 CPUs.
CPU (speed)
2.4 GHz
Memory
32 GB
Disk Capacity
200 GB of available/usable storage after hardware RAID
RAID Level 1
Hardware-based RAID at RAID Level 10
Disk I/O Speed
200 MBps
Network Adapter
1
Networking
Web Access
Required
Browser
The following browsers are supported when viewing and working with the Cisco APIC-EM:
1 For information about RAID configuration on Cisco UCS servers, refer to the Cisco UCS Server Configuration Utility, Release 3.0 User Guide. See http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/ucsscu/user/guide/30/UCS_SCU/bootraid.html#wp1073012%0ACisco APIC-EM VMware vSphere Requirement
You must configure at a minimum 32 GB RAM for the virtual machine that contains the Cisco APIC-EM when a single host is being deployed. The single host server that contains the virtual machine must have this much RAM physically available.
For a multi-host deployment (2 or 3 hosts), only 32 GB of RAM is required for each of the virtual machines that contains the Cisco APIC-EM. Two servers are required for software high availability. Three servers are required for both software and hardware high availability. With multiple servers (two or three servers), all of the servers must reside in the same subnet. For additional information about a multi-host deployment, see Supported Multi-Host Configurations.
Note
For Cisco APIC-EM scale limits based upon the number of devices, hosts, and access points within your network, see Cisco APIC-EM Scale Limits.
Note
As with running an application on any virtualization technology, you might observe a degradation in performance when you run the Cisco APIC-EM in a virtual machine compared to running the Cisco APIC-EM directly on physical hardware.
Table 2 Cisco APIC-EM VMware vSphere (Minimum Requirements) Virtual Machine Options
VMware ESXi Version
5.1/5.5/6.0
Server Image Format
ISO
Virtual CPU (vCPU)
6
Note 6 vCPUs is the minimum number required for your virtual machine configuration. For better performance, we recommend using 12 vCPUs.
Datastores
We recommend that you do not share a datastore with any defined virtual machines that are not part of the designated Cisco APIC-EM cluster.
If the datastore is shared, then disk I/O access contention may occur and cause a significant reduction of disk bandwidth throughput and a significant increase of I/O latency to the cluster.
Hardware Specifications
CPU (speed)
2.4 GHz
Memory
32 GB
Disk Capacity
200 GB
Disk I/O Speed
200 MBps
Network Adapter
1
Networking
Web Access
Required
Browser
The following browsers are supported when viewing and working with the Cisco APIC-EM:
Network Timing
To avoid conflicting time settings, we recommend that you disable the time synchronization between the guest VM running the Cisco APIC-EM and the ESXi host. Instead, configure the timing of the guest VM to a NTP server.
Important:Ensure that the time settings on the ESXi host are also synchronized to the NTP server. This is especially important when upgrading the Cisco APIC-EM. Failure to ensure synchronization will cause the upgrade to fail.
VMware Resource Pools
When installing the Cisco APIC-EM on a VMware virtual machine, then we also recommend that you configure resource pools with the following settings.
For examples on how to create and configure both resource pools and a virtual machine for the Cisco APIC-EM, see Appendix A, "Preparing Virtual Machines for Cisco APIC-EM" in the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Installation Guide.
Cisco APIC-EM Scale Limits
The following table lists the Cisco APIC-EM appliance scale limits for deployment.
Table 3 Cisco APIC-EM Appliance Scale Limits (Single or Multi-Host Cluster) Hardware Appliance2
Cores
RAM
Hard Disk
RAID
Scale Limits
APIC-EM-APL-R-K9
10
64 GB
4 X SAS HDD of 900 GB each
RAID 10
APIC-EM-APL-G-K9
20
128 GB
8 X SAS HDD of 900 GB each
RAID 10
Note
The supported scale numbers do not change if you deploy either a single host appliance or a multi-host cluster (with up to three host appliances). The scale numbers are also the same for either the APIC-EM-APL-R-K9 appliance or the APIC-EM-APL-G-K9 appliance. The reason for installing a larger appliance (APIC-EM-APL-G-K9) with 128 GB RAM is to plan and invest in the future of your network. The smaller appliance (APIC-EM-APL-R-K9) provides 64 GB RAM, which is enough for today's use cases, but the scale and number of applications used by the controller will increase over time.
For a Cisco APIC-EM deployment using Cisco UCS servers, you should match the virtual specifications listed in the following tables: Table 2 and Table 3.
The following table lists the Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine scale limits for deployment.
Table 4 Cisco APIC-EM Virtual Machine Scale Limits Virtual Appliance
Cores
RAM3
Hard Disk
CPU Clock Speed
RAID
Scale Limits
Cisco APIC-EM installed on a Virtual Machine (32 GB)
12
32 GB
200 GB
Internal data store
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Cisco APIC-EM installed on a Virtual Machine (64 GB)
8
64 GB
500 GB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Cisco APIC-EM installed on a Virtual Machine (64 GB)
12
64 GB
1 TB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Cisco APIC-EM installed on a Virtual Machine (128 GB)
20
128 GB
2 TB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
The following table lists the Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine scale limits for a three-host (multi-host) deployment.
Table 5 Cisco APIC-EM Virtual Machine Scale Limits (Three Host Cluster) Virtual Appliance
Cores
RAM
Hard Disk
CPU Clock Speed
RAID
Scale Limits
Three hosts forming a Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine cluster; each host having 32 GB of RAM
6
32 GB for each host
200 GB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Three hosts forming a Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine cluster; each host having 32 GB of RAM
6
32 GB for each host
500 GB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Three hosts forming a Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine cluster; each host having 32 GB of RAM
8
32 GB for each host
1 TB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Three hosts forming a Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine cluster; each host having 64 GB of RAM
10
64 GB for each host
2 TB
Disk speed 15000 RPM
2.9 GHz
RAID 10 (configured on the hardware)
Supported Multi-Host Configurations
The Cisco APIC-EM supports a single host, two host, or three host cluster configuration. With a single host configuration, 32 GB of RAM is required for that host. With a two or three host cluster configuration, 32 GB of RAM is required for each host in the cluster.
Note
Cisco APIC-EM does not support a cluster with more than three hosts. For example, a multi-host cluster with five or seven hosts is not currently supported.
The three host cluster provides both software and hardware high availability. The single or two host cluster only provides software high availability and does not provide hardware high availability. For this reason, we strongly recommend that for a multi-host configuration three hosts be used.
A hardware failure occurs when the physical host malfunctions or fails. A software failure occurs when a service on a host fails. Software high availability involves the ability of the services on the hosts to be restarted and respun. For example, on a single host, if a service fails then that service is respun on that host. In a two host cluster, if a service fails on one host then that service is re-spun on the remaining host. In a three host cluster, if a service fails on one host, then that service is re-spun on one of the two remaining hosts.
When setting up a two host or three host cluster, you should never set up the hosts to span a LAN across slow links. This may impact the recovery time if a service fails on one of the hosts. Additionally, when configuring either a two host or three host cluster, all of the hosts in that cluster must reside in the same subnet.
Supported Applications
Cisco APIC-EM supports the applications listed below.
Table 6 Supported Applications Application
Introduced in Release
Bundled
Enabled by Default
Cisco EasyQoS
1.2.0.x
✓
✓
Cisco Command Runner
41.4.0.x
—
—
Cisco IWAN
1.0.0.x
—
—
Cisco Network PnP
1.0.0.x
✓
✓
Cisco Network Visibility
51.0.0.x
✓
✓
Cisco Path Trace
1.0.0.x
✓
✓
4 Information about this feature is provided in the Cisco Network Visibility documentation.5 Cisco Network Visibility comprises the Discovery, Device and Host Inventory, and Topology features.Cisco APIC-EM Licensing
The following are the licensing requirements for Cisco APIC-EM and its applications (apps):
Cisco APIC-EM controller software and its basic apps (for example, Network PnP, Inventory, Topology, and EasyQoS):
No fee-based license is required. The controller software and basic apps are offered at no cost to the user.
You can download the controller software (ISO Image) and run it on bare-metal Cisco UCS servers or run the ISO image on a virtual machine in a VMware ESXi environment. In both cases, you need to ensure the required CPU, memory, and storage resources are available.
Solution apps (for example, IWAN and any similar Cisco-developed solution app):
A per-device license is required to run the solution apps.
The solution apps licenses can only be acquired by purchasing Cisco® Enterprise Management 3.x device licenses, which also include the Cisco Prime™ Infrastructure licenses. The process for acquiring Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.x device licenses is explained in the Cisco Enterprise Management Ordering Guide:
Cisco Enterprise Management 3.x, Prime Infrastructure 3. x APIC-EM Ordering and Licensing Guides
Note
The same license-acquisition process will also provide you with the right-to-use (RTU) licenses for APIC-EM solution apps. RTU licenses do not involve license files.
Cisco APIC-EM Technical Support
The following Cisco APIC-EM technical support options are provided:
Cisco APIC-EM hardware appliance:
Hardware support is provided through the Cisco SMARTnet® Service.
Cisco APIC-EM controller, basic apps, and services:
Cisco® TAC support is offered at no additional cost, if you have SMARTnet on any Cisco networking device.
Cisco APIC-EM solutions apps and services:
TAC support is offered at no additional cost, if you have a SWSS (maintenance contract) on Cisco® Enterprise Management 3.x device licenses.
Supported Platforms and Software Requirements
For information about the network devices and software versions supported for this release, see Supported Platforms for the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module.
Securing the Cisco APIC-EM
The Cisco APIC-EM provides many security features for the controller itself, as well as the hosts and network devices that it monitors and manages. We strongly suggest that the following security recommendations be followed when deploying the controller.
Deploying the Cisco APIC-EM
You can deploy Cisco APIC-EM using the following methods:
As a dedicated Cisco APIC-EM physical appliance purchased from Cisco with the ISO image pre-installed.
As a downloadable ISO image that you can burn to a dual-layer DVD or a bootable USB flash drive. You then install the ISO image into a server that meets the Cisco APIC-EM physical server system requirements.
As a downloadable ISO image that you can install into a virtual machine within a VMware vSphere environment that meets the Cisco APIC-EM virtual machine system requirements.
Note
The USB flash drive must be bootable. You can use a third-party utility to create a bootable USB flash drive using the ISO image. You cannot boot from the USB flash drive if you copy the ISO to the flash drive.
To deploy the Cisco APIC-EM using any of the above methods, refer to the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Installation Guide. For information about the network devices supported for this release, see Supported Platforms for the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module.
Note
Before you deploy the Cisco APIC-EM, make sure that the time on the controller's system clock is current or that you are using a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server that is keeping the correct time.
Upgrading to Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x
You can upgrade to this Cisco APIC-EM release using the Update functionality of the controller's GUI. This upgrade procedure requires that you upload and update the new release, as described below.
Before You BeginProcedureReview the following list of pre-requisites and perform the recommended procedures before upgrading your Cisco APIC-EM:
You must have administrator (ROLE_ADMIN) permissions and access to all devices (RBAC Scope set to ALL) to perform this procedure.
For information about the user permissions required to perform tasks using the Cisco APIC-EM, see the chapter, Managing Users and Roles in the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
You can only upgrade to the new Cisco APIC-EM release from one of the earlier software or software patch releases listed below. If your current Cisco APIC-EM release version is not one of these releases, then first upgrade to one of these releases before upgrading to this release.
Supported upgrade paths to Release 1.4.1.x:
If you have not already done so, review the system requirements for your Cisco APIC-EM upgrade (see Cisco APIC-EM System Requirements). The system requirements may have changed for this release from a previous release and may require that you make changes to your deployment.
Be aware that Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x, is not backward compatible with previous releases. If Cisco IWAN is installed, upgrading to Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x disables the application. So, after you upgrade to Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.1.x, you need to upgrade to Cisco IWAN, Release 1.4.1.x.
If you have not already done so, review the security recommendations for the Cisco APIC-EM (see Securing the Cisco APIC-EM).
Create a backup of your Cisco APIC-EM database. For information about backing up and restoring the controller, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
Prior to beginning the software update process for the Cisco APIC-EM, we recommend that you configure the idle timeout value in the Auth Timeout GUI window for at least an hour. If a user is logged out due to an idle timeout during the software update process, then this process will fail and need to be re-initiated again. For information about the procedure used to configure an idle timeout value, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
Create a backup of your Cisco APIC-EM database. For information about backing up and restoring the controller, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
Allocate the appropriate time for the upgrade process, upgrading from earlier releases to this Cisco APIC-EM release may take up to an hour to complete.
If the upgrade fails, see the "Recovering from Upgrade Failures" chapter in the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Upgrade Guide for assistance.
Step 1 Download the Cisco APIC-EM upgrade package for this release from the Cisco website at the Download Software link. Step 2 Upload the upgrade package to the controller using the Update functionality of the GUI. For additional information about this step, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Upgrade Guide.
Step 3 Update the controller's software with the upgrade package using the Update functionality of the GUI. For additional information about this step, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Upgrade Guide.
Step 4 After updating the controller's software with the upgrade package in the previous step, proceed to clear your web browser's cache. Step 5 Check the controller’s software version number in the GUI SYSTEM INFO tab, located in the Home window. The SYSTEM INFO tab should display the new software version.
Caveats
Open Caveats
The following table lists the open caveats for the Cisco APIC-EM controller for this release.
Note
For information about open and resolved caveats for a specific application, refer to the release notes for that application.
Caveat ID Number
Headline
VRF filters in Topology and Inventory will not work for Nexus platforms.
Workaround:
There is no workaround at this time.
Any Cisco APIC-EM users who have been authenticated/authorized by an external server and who are locked out of the controller for whatever reason, cannot be manually un-locked.
Note There is no GUI to show that the user is actually locked out.
Workaround:
There are two workarounds available:
After erasing the exiting virtual disk and reconfiguring the RAID, attempts to install the ISO with a USB fail due to a mount issue. This issue is due to the following Ubuntu bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-installer/+bug/1347726.
Note This issue does not occur when using the CIMC for installation.
Workaround:
Unmount the /media and mount /cdrom.
The underlying routing protocol to the cloud needs to be identified in a DMVPN path trace.
Workaround:
There is no workaround at this time.
The scoped admin user cannot delete their own groups. The user can disassociate himself from these groups, but only an admin with a global scope can delete the groups.
Workaround:
There is no workaround at this time.
On a Cisco APIC-EM multi-host cluster, an interruption of network communications between the hosts in the cluster may cause a RabbitMQ network partition. When this happens, the individual hosts may show a high CPU utilization and the cluster may become inaccessible.
To confirm that the RabbitMQ has a network partition, log into the root on each of the hosts in the cluster and run the following command:
sudo rabbitmqctl cluster_status
If the "partitions" field of the command output on any host is not an empty list, then a RabbitMQ network partition has occurred. The following sample output shows the partitions field value with RabbitMQ network partition:
Cluster status of node 'rabbit@grapevine-root-1' ... [{nodes,[{disc,['rabbit@grapevine-root-1', 'rabbit@grapevine-root-2', 'rabbit@grapevine-root-3']}]}, {running_nodes,['rabbit@grapevine-root-3', 'rabbit@grapevine-root-1']}, {cluster_name,<<"rabbit@grapevine-root-1">>}, {partitions,[{'rabbit@grapevine-root-1', ['rabbit@grapevine-root-2']}]}]Workaround:
Run the reset_grapevine command on any one of the hosts in the multi-host cluster. When running this command, do not delete any virtual disks, authentication timeout policies, imported certificates, backups, etc. when presented with the options to delete.
After upgrading to Cisco APIC-EM version 1.3.x, you will still have your discovery credentials available from your previous installation. If you run a legacy job specific discovery, then you may receive an error message.
Workaround:
Perform one of the following:
You can incorrectly configure a user with both the ROLE_INSTALLER role and any other role at the same time. This should not be permitted, since there is no controller GUI access for the installer role.
Workaround:
There is no workaround at this time.
After a network connectivity outage on a multi-host cluster, the "is_alive" status turns to "false" for one or more hosts and the services are harvested on those hosts. To check the host status, run the command grapevine host display on each host and check for the value of the attribute "is_alive" in the command output.
This situation may occur if the network connectivity outage disrupts the RabbitMQ service, where this service is then unable to recover on its own. To further confirm that the symptom is caused by this condition, run the command grapectl status grapevine_dlx_service on each host within the cluster. The status of the grapevine dlx service status should be other than "RUNNING" on one or more hosts.
Workaround:
Run the reset_grapevine command on one of the hosts. When running this command, do not delete any virtual disks, authentication timeout policies, imported certificates, backups, etc. when presented with the options to delete.
CSCvd62335 Inventory service sync failed in a Cisco APIC-EM cluster setup using Cisco APIC-EM, version 1.4.0.1959 and IWAN, version 1.4.1.504. This may be due to a race condition occurring with Grapevine.
Workaround:
In the Cisco APIC-EM GUI, click the SYSTEM HEALTH tab in the Home page. Locate the apic-em-inventory-manager-service and restart it (harvest it and then restore it). For additional information about this procedure, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Troubleshooting Guide.
Resolved Caveats
The following table lists the resolved caveats for this release.
Note
For a list of caveats resolved in an earlier software release, see the Cisco APIC-EM release notes for that specific release.
Caveat ID Number
Headline
Release 1.3.3.x supports VLAN termination and NIC bonding; however, Release 1.4.0.x does not. If you are running Release 1.3.3.x and using VLAN termination and NIC bonding, you cannot upgrade to Release 1.4.0.x.
Key services fail in a multi-host environment.
Postgres and other services are restarting on a GA 1.4.x longevity cluster with GUI inaccessibility.
App compatibility attribute needs to be added for release GA 1.4.1 to be backward compatible with release GA 1.4.
Trustpool bundle not available with signed CA certificate.
Upgrade failed from 1.4.0.1959 to 1.4.1.1088; Error while configuring IP address.
Using the Bug Search Tool
Procedure
Step 1 Go to http://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch. Step 2 At the Log In screen, enter your registered Cisco.com username and password; then, click Log In. The Bug Search page opens.
Note If you do not have a Cisco.com username and password, you can register for them at http://tools.cisco.com/RPF/register/register.do.
Step 3 To search for a specific bug, enter the bug ID in the Search For field and press Return. Step 4 To search for bugs in the current release:
Limitations and Restrictions
Cisco APIC-EM limitations and restrictions are described in the following sections:
Note
For information about the limitations and restrictions for a specific application, refer to the release notes for that application.
General Limitations
Path Trace: Cisco Performance Routing or PfR is not supported with DMVPN tunnels for this release.
The web GUI may take a few seconds to begin after the controller is started.
When working with the Cisco APIC-EM in a network with several thousand supported devices, the Topology window may load slowly. Additionally, filtering within the other controller windows may also proceed slowly.
Up to 4096 IP addresses are supported per discovery scan.
Note
The IP address limit applies for one or more configured IP ranges in the controller’s GUI.
The Cisco APIC-EM does not support duplicate IP addresses across VRFs in this release.
Inventory and Topology VRF filters are only supported for Cisco IOS devices. Cisco non-IOS devices such as the Nexus devices are not supported with VRF filters.
In a deployment with multiple inventory service instances running, re-sharding (rebalancing the devices to a remaining inventory instance when one of the inventory instances fails) occurs if any single inventory service instance fails. During this time, any device controlled by the failed service inventory instance displays in an inventory-collection pending state for a longer time than usual. Eventually, an inventory sync should occur without any issue
We recommend that after deleting a user from the controller's database, that you do not reuse that username when creating a new user for at least 6 hours. This waiting period is required to ensure that the deleted user's access rights and privileges are not inherited when reusing the username.
Cisco APIC-EM uses a master-slave database management system for the multi-host cluster. If the master host fails for any reason, then you will experience a 10 to 11 minute time interval when the controller UI is unavailable. This is due to the other two hosts recovering from that failure and re-establishing communications. If one of the slave hosts fail, there is no impact to the controller UI.
Multi-Host Limitations
If a host fails within a multi-host configuration, the time for the cluster to recover is usually 20 minutes. The time to recover may change depending upon the Cisco APIC-EM disk I/O configuration. The recommended disk I/O speed is 200 MBps for your Cisco APIC-EM configuration.
If you need to replace an existing 10 GB NIC card in a Cisco APIC-EM appliance that is part of a multi-host cluster, you need to first remove that host from the multi-host cluster, then power-off the appliance and replace the 10 GB NIC card, then re-install the Cisco APIC-EM ISO on the appliance. After these steps are finished, then join the host back to the multi-host cluster.
In a multi-host cluster with three hosts, if a single host (host A) is removed from the cluster for any reason, and the second host (host B) fails, then the last host (host C) will also immediately fail. To work around this limitation, perform the following procedure:
Log into the last active host (host C) and run the config_wizard command.
In the configuration wizard display, choose <Remove a faulted host from this APIC-EM cluster>
In the configuration wizard display, choose <Revert to single-host cluster>
The Grapevine services underpinning the original multi-host cluster are then removed and restarted.
Access the displayed IP address with a browser to view the Grapevine developer console and view the progress as each service restarts.
After host C is up and running, then proceed to reconfigure the multi-host cluster.
Note
For information about configuring a multi-host cluster, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Installation Guide.To enable external authentication with a AAA server in a multi-host environment, you must configure all individual Cisco APIC-EM host IP addresses and the Virtual IP address for the multi-host cluster on the AAA server. For additional information about external authentication with the Cisco APIC-EM, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
In certain circumstances, you may only have two operational hosts within a multi-host cluster (three hosts). For example, when in the process of setting up a multi-host cluster, you may only have two hosts set up before configuring the third or if a single host fails in your existing multi-host cluster. In these cases, the following functionality is unsupported for a multi-host cluster (three hosts) consisting of only two operational hosts:
Upgrading the software version
Installing the applications
Restoring a backup file
Restarting the cluster
Removing an active host, when there is an already a faulty host that exists and there is no reachability (IP connectivity) to the multi-host cluster
The reset grapevine command is not supported on a two-host cluster (either a 2 host multi-host cluster or 3 host multi-host cluster with one faulty host)
Note
The above functionality is supported for a multi-host cluster that consists of three hosts.
Simultaneous removal of two hosts from a multi-host cluster (three hosts) at once or a simultaneous addition of two hosts to a multi-host cluster (three hosts) at once is not supported.
Application Separation Limitations
The restore of a controller backup file should only be done on a Cisco APIC-EM controller running the same software version with same set of applications (apps).
When enabling or disabling an application on the controller, user downtime may result. For this reason, we recommend that you only perform these procedures during a maintenance time period.
Once enabled, an application cannot be subsequently revoked and returned to its previous version or disabled status.
- You should not attempt to enable or disable an application on a host within a multi-host cluster, if any one of the hosts within the multi-host cluster is down. If you do attempt to enable or disable an application in this situation, then the attempt will fail and a message will be displayed that the operation cannot be performed until all the hosts are up and running.
As part of the application upgrade process, the controller only deletes the existing application that it successfully upgraded from in the controller's grape application display command output. The controller does not delete the record of any failed application upgrade attempts (stale application entries) in the controller's grape application display command output.
For example, assume the last successful application installation version is 5.10 and attempts have been made to upgrade to other application versions (5.13, 5.14, and 5,15) which all failed due to various reasons. Assume that a successful upgrade was made to version 5.16. The following information will appear in the grape application display command output:
$ grape application display apic-core enable_time "Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:39:37 PM" apic-core enabled true apic-core enabled_by_default true apic-core in_transition false apic-core last_error_code null apic-core last_result "Successfully upgraded application=apic-core from version=5.10.1 to version=5.16" $ grape application status APPLICATION VERSION ENABLED ENABLE TIME ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ apic-core 5.13 No None apic-core 5.14 No None apic-core 5.15 No None apic-core 5.16 Yes Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:39:37 PMYou can remove the stale application entries by using the grape application remove command, but this is not required for controller application separation functionality.
The stale application entries will only appear in the controller's CLI command output. The stale application entries do not appear in the controller's GUI.
Security Limitations
With this release, the default option for intra-host communications is IPSec and not GRE. If you choose not to use the default option and to configure GRE using the configuration wizard, then privacy is not enabled for all of the communications that occur between the hosts. For this reason, we strongly recommend that any multi-host cluster that is not configured with IPSec tunneling be set up and located within a secure network environment.
The Cisco APIC-EM should never be directly connected to the Internet. It should not be deployed outside of a NAT configured or protected datacenter environment. Additionally, when using the IWAN or PNP solution applications in a manner that is open to the Internet, you must configure a white-listing proxy or firewall to only allow incoming connections from your branch IP pools.
The Cisco APIC-EM platform management service (Grapevine) no longer supports port 14141.
Ensure that any external access to the Cisco APIC-EM using SSH (through port 22) is strictly controlled. We recommend that stringent measures be used, such as a segmented subnet as well as strict source address-based access policies in the port's access path.
Ensure that the strict physical security of the Cisco APIC-EM appliance or server is enforced. For Cisco APIC-EM deployed within a virtual machine, ensure that strong and audited access restrictions are in place for the hypervisor management console.
The Cisco APIC-EM backups are not encrypted when they are downloaded from the controller. If you download the backups from the controller, ensure that they are stored in a secure storage server and/or encrypted for storage.
The Update button in the controller's Trustpool GUI window will become active when an updated version of ios.p7b file is available and Internet access is present. The Update button will remain inactive if there is no Internet access.
As with any network management application, it is a general best practice to ensure that the traffic sent from Cisco APIC-EM to the managed devices is controlled in such a way as to minimize any security risks. More secure protocols (such as SSHv2 and SNMPv3) should be used rather than less secure ones (TELNET, SNMPv2), and network management traffic should be controlled (for example via access control lists or other types of network segmentation) to ensure that the management traffic is restricted to devices and segments of the network where it is needed.
If you are currently using the Device PKI certificate management functionality for the network devices (for example, when using the IWAN App) and want to take advantage of the new feature to convert the private (internal) device PKI CA in the Cisco APIC-EM from Root CA mode to a Subordinate CA (or Intermediate CA to an external CA), then you must re-provision any of the Cisco APIC-EM provisioned network devices so they obtain the new PKCS12 bundle issued from this newly subordinated CA. If you later decide to convert the Cisco APIC-EM device PKI CA back to Root CA from Subordinate CA (also referred to as SubCA), then you need to reset the controller in order to accomplish this. Additionally, any devices provisioned with certificates by the Cisco APIC-EM in SubCA mode, need to be reprovisioned. For information about the new Cisco APIC-EM PKI certificate management functionality, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide.
The Cisco APIC-EM controller does not provide a GUI or an API for replacing a subordinate CA certificate. Once SubCA mode is enabled using the controller, then the only way to replace the certificate of the Device PKI CA is to do a complete reset that brings the controller back to default root CA mode. You must then redo the conversion to subordinate CA mode using a new subordinate CA certificate. Before converting the controller back to the SubCA mode, you must also remove all device ID certificates and keys issued to network devices under the previous configuration of the Device PKI CA. The devices must be taken off line before converting the controller to SubCA mode with the new subordinate CA certificate, and then all devices will need to be reprovisioned by the PKI broker service using the new configuration of the Device PKI CA.
Currently, there is no subordinate CA certificate rollover capability available for the Cisco APIC-EM device PKI. This capability is targeted for a near future release. For this reason, we strongly recommend that the subordinate CA certificate lifetime be set to at least two years. This will prevent any disruption to the device PKI due to a CA certificate expiration.
When using the northbound REST API and creating a POST /trust-point request, this request must provide a trustProfileName attribute that has sdn-network-infra-iwan as its value (default). In the current release, no other values are valid for this required attribute.
Due to a Cisco IOS XE crypto PKI import limitation, Cisco devices running certain IOS versions cannot import a PKCS bundle (made up of a device certificate, device key and the subordinate CA certificate) exceeding 4KB size.
Note
Cisco devices running the following Cisco IOS versions or a higher version will not encounter this issue:
This problem occurs when the Cisco APIC-EM device PKI CA is changed to SubCA mode with a subordinate CA certificate that has several and/or lengthy X509 attributes defined, thereby increasing the size of the device PKCS bundle beyond 4KB. To circumvent this issue, get the subordinate CA certificate issued with very minimal attributes. For example, do not include CDP distribution and OCSP settings.
The following command output is provided as an example of content from a subordinate CA certificate that can impact the file size, as well as the fields within the certificate where content should be minimized:
Certificate: Data: Version: 3 (0x2) Serial Number: 2e:00:00:00:0e:28:d7:1f:24:a1:1e:ef:70:00:00:00:00:00:0e Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption Issuer: DC=com, DC=apic-em, CN=apic-em-CA Validity Not Before: Oct 18 19:56:54 2016 GMT Not After : Oct 19 19:56:54 2016 GMT Subject: CN=sdn-network-infra-subca Subject Public Key Info: Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption Public-Key: (2048 bit) Modulus: 00:cd:a7:65:a4:c4:64:e6:e0:6b:f2:39:c0:a2:3b: <snip> 85:a3:44:d1:a2:b3:b1:f5:ff:28:e4:12:41:d3:5f: bf:e9 Exponent: 65537 (0x10001) X509v3 extensions: X509v3 Subject Key Identifier: D2:DD:FA:E4:A5:6A:3C:81:29:51:B2:17:ED:82:CE:AA:AD:91:C5:1D X509v3 Authority Key Identifier: keyid:62:6F:C7:83:42:82:5F:54:51:2B:76:B2:B7:F5:06:2C:76:59:7F:F8 X509v3 Basic Constraints: critical CA:TRUE X509v3 Key Usage: critical Digital Signature, Certificate Sign, CRL Sign 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.21.7: 0-.%+.....7.....#...I......^...Q...._...S..d... Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption 18:ce:5b:90:6b:1d:5b:b4:df:fa:d3:8e:80:51:6f:46:0d:19:Software Update Limitations
The Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.4.0.x does not support VLAN termination and Network Interface Card (NIC) bonding. If you are using Cisco APIC-EM, Release 1.3.3.x with these features, you cannot upgrade to Release 1.4.0.x.
Updating from earlier Cisco APIC-EM releases to this latest release may take up to an hour to complete.
When updating from Cisco APIC-EM release version 1.2.x to 1.3.x and after uploading the upgrade package and starting the update process, you may see an error message in the Update History field of the controller's GUI (Update window). This error message states: "File has not been completed yet - There are missing chunk(s)”. This error message is caused by an accidental double trigger for the update procedure. One of the triggered update operations in this procedure causes this error, and the other triggered update operation proceeds with the update without any problems.
In order to ensure that the second operation has in fact proceeded, you should:
Log into the controller with your Linux credentials and check the /var/log/grapevine_manager_activity.log for the procedure's progress.
If the update procedure is not in progress, then check the Update History field once again in the controller's GUI to ensure that the second operation completed successfully without any other problem.
When updating Cisco APIC-EM in a virtual machine within a VMware vSphere environment, you must ensure that the time settings on the ESXi host are also synchronized to the NTP server. Failure to ensure synchronization will cause the upgrade to fail.
Prior to beginning the software update process for the Cisco APIC-EM, we recommend that you configure the idle timeout value in the Auth Timeout GUI window for at least an hour. If a user is logged out due to an idle timeout during the software update process, then this process will fail and need to be re-initiated again.
In case a failure occurs on a multi-host cluster during any software updates (Linux files) and you have not increased the idle timeout using the GUI, then perform the following steps:
Log into each host and enter the following command: $ sudo cat /proc/net/xt_recent/ROGUE | awk '{print $1}’
Note
This command will list all IP addresses that have been automatically blocked by the internal firewall because requests from these IP addresses have exceeded a predetermined threshold.
If the command in Step 1 returns an IP address, then perform a reboot on the host where the above command has been entered (same host as the user is logged in).
Note
The hosts should be rebooted in a synchronous order and never two hosts rebooted at the same time.
After the host or hosts reboot, upload the software update package file to the controller again using the GUI.
Back Up and Restore
Important:For the IWAN solution application, you must review the Software Configuration Guide for Cisco IWAN on APIC-EM before attempting a back up and restore. There is important and detailed information about how these processes work for the IWAN application that includes what is backed up, what is not backed up, recommendations, limitations, and caveats.
Before attempting a back up and restore with a host in a multi-host cluster, note the following:
When a user restores the controller from a backup file using the Cisco APIC-EM GUI, the password of the user will be reset to what is in that backup file.
You can only restore a backup from a controller that is the same version from which the backup was taken. In addition to the controller version being the same as the backup, the enabled applications and version on the controller also need to be the same as the one on which the backup was taken.
If you have configured a multi-host cluster with two or three hosts and not all of the hosts are running when you initiate a restore operation, then the restore operation will fail. All of the hosts that comprise the cluster must be in the cluster and operational at the time of the restore.
Prior to beginning the backup and restore process for the Cisco APIC-EM, we recommend that you log out and then log back into the controller. This will ensure that the default forced session timeout for the Cisco APIC-EM does not occur during this process.
Prior to beginning the backup and restore process for the Cisco APIC-EM, we recommend that you configure the idle timeout value in the Auth Timeout GUI window for at least an hour. If a user is logged out due to an idle timeout during the restore file upload process, then the restore process will fail and need to be re-initiated again.
Deployment Limitations
For a multi-host deployment, when joining a host to a cluster there is no merging of the data on the two hosts. The data that currently exists on the host that is joining the cluster is erased and replaced with the data that exists on the cluster that is being joined.
For a multi-host deployment, when joining additional hosts to form a cluster be sure to join only a single host at a time. You should not join multiple hosts at the same time, as doing so will result in unexpected behavior.
For a multi-host deployment, you should expect some service downtime when the adding or removing hosts to a cluster, since the services are then redistributed across the hosts. Be aware that during the service redistribution, there will be downtime.
The controller GUI starts up and becomes accessible prior to all the Cisco APIC-EM services starting up and becoming active. For this reason, you need to wait a few minutes before logging into the controller GUI under the following circumstances:
If you are installing the Cisco APIC-EM ISO image on a physical server using local media, you can use either a DVD drive, a bootable USB device, or a mounted VirtualMedia via CIMC (Cisco Integrated Management Controller for a Cisco UCS server). If you use a mounted VirtualMedia via CIMC, the installation process may take up to an hour. If you use a DVD drive or a bootable USB device, the installation process may take approximately 15 minutes.
Press Alt+F2 to access the shell prompt.
Enter the mount command to determine the device that is attached to the /media mount point. This should be your USB flash drive.
Enter the umount /media command to unmount the USB flash drive.
Press Alt+F1 to return to the installation error screen.
Click “Yes” to retry mounting the CD-ROM.
When the configuration wizard is run to deploy the Cisco APIC-EM and the <save & exit> option is selected at the end of the configuration process instead of the proceed>> option, then you should always run the reset_grapevine command to bring the Cisco APIC-EM to an operational state. Failure to run the reset_grapevine command at the end of the deployment process after choosing the <save & exit> option in the configuration wizard will cause certain services to fail. The services that will fail are services that are brought up in the new VMs that are created and that depend upon the PKI certificates and stores. Services that do not depend upon the PKI certificates and stores will function properly.
When you deploy the Cisco APIC-EM using the configuration wizard, you must create passwords that meet specific requirements. These password requirements are enforced for the configuration wizard, but are not enforced when accessing the controller's GUI.
User Account Limitations
We strongly recommend that when creating usernames for the Cisco APIC-EM , that you always use the lowercase. Do not create two usernames that are the same, but have a different case. For example, do not create the following usernames: USER123 and user123.
This version of the Cisco APIC-EM has been tested for external authentication with Cisco ISE based AAA servers, but it may support integration with other types of AAA servers.
An installer (ROLE_INSTALLER) uses the Cisco Plug and Play Mobile App to remotely access the Cisco APIC-EM controller and trigger device deployment and view device status. An installer cannot directly access the Cisco APIC-EM GUI. If an installer needs to change their password, the admin must delete the user then create a new user with the same username and a new password.
Users who are working with the controller's IWAN and PnP applications to monitor and manage devices and hosts must have their Groups values set to All. The IWAN and PnP applications do not support Custom groups. You set both roles and groups when configuring internal users in the Settings | Internal Users GUI window.
Service and Support
Troubleshooting
See the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Troubleshooting Guide, for troubleshooting procedures.
Related Documentation
The following publications are available for the Cisco APIC-EM:
Cisco APIC-EM Controller Documentation
For this type of information...
See this document...
Release information, including new features, system requirements, and open and resolved caveats.
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Release Notes
Installation and configuration of the controller, including post-installation tasks.
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Installation Guide
Introduction to the Cisco APIC-EM GUI and its applications.
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Quick Start Guide 6
Configuration of user accounts, RBAC scope, security certificates, authentication and password policies, and global discovery settings.
Monitoring and managing Cisco APIC-EM services.
Backup and restore.
Cisco APIC-EM APIs.
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Administrator Guide
Troubleshooting the controller, including the installation, services, and passwords.
Developer console.
How to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).
Cisco Application Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Troubleshooting Guide
Tasks to perform before updating the controller to the latest version.
Software update instructions.
Tasks to perform after an update.
Cisco Application Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module Upgrade Guide
6 Available from the APIC-EM controller System Info window.Cisco Network Plug and Play Application Documentation
For this type of information...
See this document...
Release information, including open and resolved caveats for the Cisco Plug and Play application.
Supported Cisco devices for Cisco Network Plug and Play.
Release Notes for Cisco Network Plug and Play
Configuration of devices using Cisco Network Plug and Play.
Configuration Guide for Cisco Network Plug and Play on Cisco APIC-EM
Cisco Open Plug-n-Play Agent Configuration Guide
Cisco Network Plug and Play solution overview.
Main workflows used with the Cisco Network Plug and Play solution.
Deployment of the Cisco Network Plug and Play solution.
Tasks for using proxies with the Cisco Network Plug and Play solution.
Configuration of a DHCP server for APIC-EM controller auto-discovery.
Troubleshooting procedures for the Cisco Network Plug and Play solution.
Solution Guide for Cisco Network Plug and Play
Information about using the Cisco Plug and Play Mobile App.
Mobile Application User Guide for Cisco Network Plug and Play (also accessible in the app through Help)
Cisco APIC-EM Developer Documentation
The Cisco APIC-EM developer website is located on the Cisco DevNet website.
For this type of information...
See this document...
API functions, parameters, and responses.
Tutorial introduction to controller GUI, DevNet sandboxes and APIC-EM NB REST API.
Getting Started with Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (APIC-EM)
Hands-on coding experience calling APIC-EM NB REST API from Python.
Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request
For information on obtaining documentation, using the Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST), submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation at:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
Subscribe to What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation, which lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation as an RSS feed and delivers content directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free service.
Notices
Trademarks
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