Introduction

The Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is an architecture that allows the application to define the networking requirements in a programmatic way. This architecture simplifies, optimizes, and accelerates the entire application deployment lifecycle. Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) is the software, or operating system, that acts as the controller.

This document describes the features, issues, and limitations for the Cisco APIC software. For the features, issues, and limitations for the Cisco NX-OS software for the Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches, see the Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 16.2(1).

For more information about this product, see "Related Content."

Date

Description

January 12, 2026

Release 6.2(1g) became available.

New software features

Product Impact

Feature

Description

Base Functionality

BGP Graceful Restart Helper mode hardening

The Graceful Restart Helper mode deletes all stale routes after a specified time period, which helps routers to maintain routing stability by retaining their forwarding state while the control plane is being restarted.  Graceful Restart is crucial for maintaining network reliability and performance during maintenance activities.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) enhancements

This release includes the following enhancements on DLB:

●  DLB on fabric links and Layer 3 port-channel

●  Customizable utilization threshold - Dynamic Rate Estimator (DRE)

●  Per-packet load balancing in addition to flowlet

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 2 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Enhanced APIC cluster upgrade

This release introduces various enhancements around APIC cluster upgrade. The enhancements include

●  New robust centralized workflow

●  Faster APIC reboot

●  APIC CIMC upgrade through APIC

●  Enhanced pre-upgrade validations

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Installation and ACI Upgrade and Downgrade Guide.

Hybrid APIC cluster

You can now have an APIC cluster with all virtual, all physical, or a mix of physical and virtual APICs (except for virtual APICs on AWS). Prior to this release, the only scenario that allows the mix of physical and virtual APICs was Mini ACI Fabric, which will become a regular ACI Fabric with a hybrid APIC cluster after the upgrade to this release or newer. With the introduction of this feature, the concept of Mini ACI Fabric is considered superseded by hybrid APIC Cluster.

For more information see, the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Dynamic EPG deployment per VMware ESXi cluster with vCenter VMM integration

Dynamic EPG deployment through VMM integration with VMware vCenter can now be aware of VMware ESXi cluster inside the VMware vCenter. This allows APIC to deploy the EPGs only to the ACI leaf switch interfaces connected to VMware ESXi hosts part of the VMware ESXi cluster selected by the user.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Virtualization Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Enhanced mixed version support

Enhanced Mixed Version support allows you to run an ACI fabric with nodes using two different versions with minimum restrictions. If the conditions are fulfilled, everything that is supported on the older version (V1) of the two is supported across the fabric even on the switches running the newer version (V2) of the two.

For more information see, the Cisco APIC Installation and ACI Upgrade and Downgrade Guide.

Interoperability

Any-to-any connectivity between ACI and VXLAN EVPN Fabrics with Policy Extension capability

You can now interconnect ACI sites using the ACI Border Gateway (BGW) path. This release also adds support for connectivity to VXLAN sites. If your environment already uses ACI multi-site inter connectivity with L3Out, you can migrate to the ACI border gateway interconnect.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Serviceability

New fault for proactive warning of internal database with abnormal size

Faults are generated if your database size exceeds a certain threshold.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Basic Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

TCP keep-alive for syslog monitoring connection

APIC sends a KeepAlive packet over the syslog TCP sessions to ensure the connection is not considered idle or expired.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Basic Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Robust handling of ungraceful switch reboot

With this enhancement, ACI switches can retain their configurations locally even after an ungraceful reboot, enhancing overall resiliency.

For more information see, the Cisco APIC Fundamentals Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Local SPAN with the switch CPU as the destination

This feature allows you to send SPAN packets to the CPU port of the leaf switch for packet analysis.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Basic Configuration Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Security

Secure initial admin password for virtual APIC

An extra layer of security has been added for clusters with virtual APICs. After you bring up a new virtual APIC, you will be prompted to change the password.

For more information see, the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.2(x).

Licensing

Premier license enforcement policy

Cisco ACI introduces the premier license enforcement policy. This policy determines which license entitlements are applied based on the types of licenses you have purchased.

For more information see, the Cisco ACI Smart Licensing Using Policy Guide.

Changes in behavior

For the changes in behavior, see Cisco ACI Releases Changes in Behavior.

Resolved issues

Click the bug ID to access the Bug Search tool and see additional information about the bug. The "Fixed In" column of the table specifies the 6.2(1) release in which the bug was first fixed.

Bug ID

Description

Fixed in

CSCwb62454

Bootmgr process on APIC is repeatedly crashing due to out-of-memory condition.

6.2(1g)

Open issues

Click the bug ID to access the Bug Search tool and see additional information about the bug. The "Exists In" column of the table specifies the 6.2(1) releases in which the bug exists. A bug might also exist in releases other than the 6.2(1) releases.

Bug ID

Description

Exists in

CSCws40845

In 6.2.1 release APIC UI workflow for CIMC upgrade applies only changes to the firmware component of CIMC. HUU upgrade is not done as part of this workflow.

6.2(1g)

CSCwr83238

When a cluster is renamed at the vCenter, cluster information for the VMM domain does not get updated right away. Cluster-scoped EPG deployment does not show the new cluster name in the drop down menu while trying to associate the EPG to a VMM domain.

6.2(1g)

Known issues

Click the bug ID to access the Bug Search tool and see additional information about the bug. The "Exists In" column of the table specifies the 6.2(1) releases in which the bug exists. A bug might also exist in releases other than the 6.2(1) releases.

Bug ID

Description

Exists in

CSCwr65747

CIMC upgrade failure for APIC-L3.

6.2(1g)

CSCwf48875

When using two different host profiles (for example UCS C-Series and UCS B-Series) to deploy NSX, the uplink policy will be different for the host profiles. In this case, using one uplink profile with two policies might cause traffic disruption for a non-default teaming policy.

6.2(1g)

CSCwk37514

An external EPG in an L3Out that is used to connect to the campus is missing even though the corresponding service graph in the outbound filter still exists.

6.2(1g)

CSCwn21313

snmptrapd service runs only on the leader APIC. If snmp is not enabled in snmp policy attached to pod containing leader apic, snmp traps will not get forwarded to the external server.

6.2(1g)

CSCvy40511

Traffic from an endpoint under a remote leaf switch to an external node and its attached external networks is dropped. This occurs if the external node is attached to an L3Out with a vPC and there is a redistribution configuration on the L3Out to advertise the reachability of the external nodes as direct-attached hosts.

6.2(1g)

CSCwj60150

The configuration (EPGs, Contracts, External EPGs etc) is out-of-sync between APIC and ISE.

6.2(1g)

CSCwi86409

SGT bindings missing on ACI.

6.2(1g)

CSCwf78521

A GOLF spine switch advertises the bridge domain prefixes to a GOLF peer in multiple VRF instances.

6.2(1g)

CSCvj26666

The "show run leaf|spine <nodeId>" command might produce an error for scaled up configurations.

6.2(1g)

CSCvj90385

With a uniform distribution of EPs and traffic flows, a fabric module in slot 25 sometimes reports far less than 50% of the traffic compared to the traffic on fabric modules in non-FM25 slots.

6.2(1g)

CSCvr89603

The CRC and stomped CRC error values do not match when seen from the APIC CLI compared to the APIC GUI. This is expected behavior. The GUI values are from the history data, whereas the CLI values are from the current data.

6.2(1g)

CSCvs19322

Upgrading Cisco APIC from a 3.x release to a 4.x release causes Smart Licensing to lose its registration. Registering Smart Licensing again will clear the fault.

6.2(1g)

CSCvx75380

svcredirDestmon objects get programmed in all of the leaf switches where the service L3Out is deployed, even though the service node may not be connected to some of the leaf switch.

There is no impact to traffic.

6.2(1g)

CSCvx78018

A remote leaf switch has momentary traffic loss for flushed endpoints as the traffic goes through the tglean path and does not directly go through the spine switch proxy path.

6.2(1g)

CSCvy07935

xR IP flush for all endpoints under the bridge domain subnets of the EPG being migrated to ESG. This will lead to a temporary traffic loss on remote leaf switch for all EPGs in the bridge domain. Traffic is expected to recover.

6.2(1g)

CSCvy10946

With the floating L3Out multipath recursive feature, if a static route with multipath is configured, not all paths are installed at the non-border leaf switch/non-anchor nodes.

6.2(1g)

CSCvy45358

The file size mentioned in the status managed object for techsupport "dbgexpTechSupStatus" is wrong if the file size is larger than 4GB.

6.2(1g)

CSCvz06118

In the "Visibility and Troubleshooting Wizard," ERSPAN support for IPv6 traffic is not available.

6.2(1g)

CSCvz84444

While navigating to the last records in the various History sub tabs, it is possible to not see any results. The first, previous, next, and last buttons will then stop working too.

6.2(1g)

CSCvz85579

VMMmgr process experiences a very high load for an extended period of time that impacts other operations that involve it.

The process may consume excessive amount of memory and get aborted. This can be confirmed with the command "dmesg -T | grep oom_reaper" if messages such as the following are reported:

oom_reaper: reaped process 5578 (svc_ifc_vmmmgr.)

6.2(1g)

CSCwa78573

When the "BGP" branch is expanded in the Fabric > Inventory > POD 1 > Leaf > Protocols > BGP navigation path, the GUI freezes and you cannot navigate to any other page.

This occurs because the APIC gets large set of data in response, which cannot be handled by the browser for parts of the GUI that do not have the pagination.

6.2(1g)

CSCwe18213

The logical switch created for the EPG remains in the NSX-T manager after the EPG is disassociated from the domain, or the logical switch does not get created when the EPG is associated with the domain.

6.2(1g)

CSCwf71934

Multiple duplicate subnets are created on Nutanix for the same EPG.

6.2(1g)

CSCwh74888

With the addressing of CSCwe64407, a release that integrates that bug fix can the reference of a static VLAN pool in a VMM domain, which before was not possible. However, if the VMM domain is used by Layer 4 to Layer 7 virtual services and the VMM domain is referencing a static VLAN pool, the services do not work and a fault is raised.

6.2(1g)

CSCwh92539

After upgrading a Cisco APIC from a release before 5.2(8) to release 6.1(1) or later, there is a loss of out-of-band management connectivity over IPv6 if the APIC has dual stack out-of-band management. However, IPv4 connectivity remains intact. This issue does not occur if the out-of-band management is only IPv4 or only IPv6.

6.2(1g)

N/A

Beginning in Cisco APIC release 4.1(1), the IP SLA monitor policy validates the IP SLA port value. Because of the validation, when TCP is configured as the IP SLA type, Cisco APIC no longer accepts an IP SLA port value of 0, which was allowed in previous releases. An IP SLA monitor policy from a previous release that has an IP SLA port value of 0 becomes invalid if the Cisco APIC is upgraded to release 4.1(1) or later. This results in a failure for the configuration import or snapshot rollback.

The workaround is to configure a non-zero IP SLA port value before upgrading the Cisco APIC, and use the snapshot and configuration export that was taken after the IP SLA port change.

6.2(1g)

N/A

In a multipod configuration, before you make any changes to a spine switch, ensure that there is at least one operationally "up" external link that is participating in the multipod topology. Failure to do so could bring down the multipod connectivity. For more information about multipod, see the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Fundamentals document and the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide.

6.2(1g)

N/A

A query of a configurable policy that does not have a subscription goes to the policy distributor. However, a query of a configurable policy that has a subscription goes to the policy manager. As a result, if the policy propagation from the policy distributor to the policy manager takes a prolonged amount of time, then in such cases the query with the subscription might not return the policy simply because it has not reached policy manager yet.

6.2(1g)

N/A

When there are silent hosts across sites, ARP glean messages might not be forwarded to remote sites if a leaf switch without -EX or a later designation in the product ID happens to be in the transit path and the VRF is deployed on that leaf switch, the switch does not forward the ARP glean packet back into the fabric to reach the remote site. This issue is specific to transit leaf switches without -EX or a later designation in the product ID and does not affect leaf switches that have -EX or a later designation in the product ID. This issue breaks the capability of discovering silent hosts.

6.2(1g)

N/A

Typically, faults are generally raised based on the presence of the BGP route target profile under the VRF table. However, if a BGP route target profile is configured without actual route targets (that is, the profile has empty policies), a fault will not be raised in this situation.

6.2(1g)

N/A

MPLS interface statistics shown in a switch's CLI get cleared after an admin or operational down event.

6.2(1g)

N/A

MPLS interface statistics in a switch's CLI are reported every 10 seconds. If, for example, an interface goes down 3 seconds after the collection of the statistics, the CLI reports only 3 seconds of the statistics and clears all of the other statistics.

6.2(1g)

Virtualization compatibility information

This section lists virtualization compatibility information for the Cisco APIC software.

●     For a table that shows the supported virtualization products, see the ACI Virtualization Compatibility Matrix.

●     For information about Cisco APIC compatibility with Cisco UCS Director, see the appropriate Cisco UCS Director Compatibility Matrix document.

●     This release supports the following additional virtualization products:

Product

Supported Release

Information Location

VMM Integration and VMware Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS)

6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0.

Cisco ACI Virtualization Guide

Nutanix

●  Prism Central (PC) version: 2022.6.0.4;

AOS version 6.5.x

●  Prism Central (PC) version: 2023.1.0.1;

AOS version 6.6.x

●  Prism Central (PC) version: 2024.2.0.1;

AOS version - 6.10.x

N/A

Hardware compatibility information

This release supports the following Cisco APIC servers:

Product ID

Description

APIC-L3

Cisco APIC with large CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (more than 1200 edge ports).

APIC-L4

Cisco APIC with large CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (more than 1200 edge ports).

APIC-M3

Cisco APIC with medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (up to 1200 edge ports).

APIC-M4

Cisco APIC with medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (up to 1200 edge ports).

APIC-G5

Cisco APIC with CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations.

The following list includes general hardware compatibility information:

●     For the supported hardware, see the Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 16.2(1).

●     Contracts using matchDscp filters are only supported on switches with "EX" on the end of the switch name. For example, N9K-93108TC-EX.

●     When the fabric node switch (spine or leaf) is out-of-fabric, the environmental sensor values, such as Current Temperature, Power Draw, and Power Consumption, might be reported as "N/A." A status might be reported as "Normal" even when the Current Temperature is "N/A."

The following table provides compatibility information for specific hardware:

Product ID

Description

Cisco UCS M8-based Cisco APIC

The following PCIe NICs are supported: APIC-O-ID10GC-D, APIC-P-V5Q50G-D (same Cisco VIC 15425). All ports must have the same speed. 10/25G connectivity between the Cisco ACI leaf and Cisco APIC G5 can use either copper or fiber cables with APIC-P-V5Q50G-D/Cisco VIC 15425 network interface card.

Cisco UCS M6-based Cisco APIC

The following PCIe NICs are supported: APIC-P-I8D25GF, APIC-P-ID10GC, APIC-PCIE-C25Q-04 (same Cisco VIC 1455) 10/25GbE ports on APIC-P-I8D25GF can be used as either 10G or 25G ports. All ports must have the same speed. 25G connectivity between Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) leaf and Cisco APIC M4/L4 must use copper cable when APIC-P-I8D25GF network interface cards are used. For example, Cisco SFP-H25G-CU1M. 25G connectivity between the Cisco ACI leaf and Cisco APIC M4/L4 can use either copper or fiber cables when APIC-PCIE-C25Q-04/Cisco VIC 1455 network interface cards are used.

Cisco UCS M5-based Cisco APIC

The Cisco UCS M5-based Cisco APIC supports dual speed 10G and 25G interfaces. Connecting the Cisco APIC to the Cisco ACI fabric requires a same speed interface on the Cisco ACI leaf switch. You cannot connect the Cisco APIC directly to the Cisco N9332PQ ACI leaf switch, unless you use a 40G to 10G converter (part number CVR-QSFP-SFP10G), in which case the port on the Cisco N9332PQ switch auto-negotiates to 10G without requiring any manual configuration.

N2348UPQ

To connect the N2348UPQ to Cisco ACI leaf switches, the following options are available:

Directly connect the 40G FEX ports on the N2348UPQ to the 40G switch ports on the Cisco ACI leaf switches

Break out the 40G FEX ports on the N2348UPQ to 4x10G ports and connect to the 10G ports on all other Cisco ACI leaf switches.

Note: A fabric uplink port cannot be used as a FEX fabric port.

N9K-C9348GC-FXP

This switch does not read SPROM information if the PSU is in a shut state. You might see an empty string in the Cisco APIC output.

N9K-C9364C-FX

Ports 49-64 do not support 1G SFPs with QSA.

N9K-C9508-FM-E

The Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 and N9K-C9508-FM-E fabric modules in the mixed mode configuration are not supported on the same spine switch.

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

The Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 and N9K-C9508-FM-E fabric modules in the mixed mode configuration are not supported on the same spine switch.

The locator LED enable/disable feature is supported in the GUI and not supported in the Cisco ACI NX-OS switch CLI.

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

This fabric module must be physically removed before downgrading to releases earlier than Cisco APIC 3.0(1).

N9K-X9736C-FX

The locator LED enable/disable feature is supported in the GUI and not supported in the Cisco ACI NX-OS Switch CLI.

N9K-X9736C-FX

Ports 29 to 36 do not support 1G SFPs with QSA.

Miscellaneous compatibility information

This release supports the following products:

Product

Supported Release

Cisco NX-OS

16.2(1)

CIMC HUU ISO

Note: Install only the CIMC versions mentioned here in this table. Though other firmware versions may be supported on standard UCS C220/C225 servers, they are not supported on APIC and could lead to issues, including failure to boot.

●  6.0.1.250131 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M8 (APIC-G5)

●  4.3.6.250044 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M8 (APIC-G5)

●  4.3.6.250053 (recommended) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4) (See the related CSCwo74485 software advisory notice before upgrading)

●  4.3.4.252002 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.3.2.250016 (recommended) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.3.4.241063 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.3.2.240077 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.3.2.240009 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3) and UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.3.2.230207 CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3) and UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.2(3e) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3) and UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.2(3b) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C225 M6 (APIC-L4/M4)

●  4.2(3b) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.2(2a) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(3m) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(3f) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(3d) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(3c) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(1g) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.1(1d) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.0(4e) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.0(2g) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220/C240 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  4.0(1a) CIMC HUU ISO for UCS C220 M5 (APIC-L3/M3)

●  2.0(13i) CIMC HUU ISO

●  2.0(9c) CIMC HUU ISO

●  2.0(3i) CIMC HUU ISO

Nexus Dashboard (ND)

See the ND and Services Compatibility Matrix.

●     A known issue exists with the Safari browser and unsigned certificates, which applies when connecting to the Cisco APIC GUI. For more information, see the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide.

●     Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights creates a user in Cisco APIC called cisco_SN_NI. This user is used when Nexus Dashboard Insights needs to make any changes or query any information from the Cisco APIC. In the Cisco APIC, navigate to the Audit Logs tab of the System > History page. The cisco_SN_NI user is displayed in the User column.

Related content

See the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) page for the documentation.

The documentation includes installation, upgrade, configuration, programming, and troubleshooting guides, technical references, release notes, and knowledge base (KB) articles, as well as other documentation. KB articles provide information about a specific use case or a specific topic.

By using the "Choose a topic" and "Choose a document type" fields of the APIC documentation website, you can narrow down the displayed documentation list to make it easier to find the desired document.

You can watch videos that demonstrate how to perform specific tasks in the Cisco APIC on the Cisco Cloud Networking YouTube channel.

Temporary licenses with an expiry date are available for evaluation and lab use purposes. They are strictly not allowed to be used in production. Use a permanent or subscription license that has been purchased through Cisco for production purposes. For more information, go to Cisco Data Center Networking Software Subscriptions.

The following table provides links to the release notes, verified scalability documentation, and new documentation:

Document

Description

Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 16.2(1)

The release notes for Cisco NX-OS for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches.

Verified scalability guide, Release 6.2(1)

This guide contains the maximum verified scalability limits for Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) parameters for Cisco APIC and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches.

APIC REST API Configuration Procedures

This document resides on developer.cisco.com and provides information about and procedures for using the Cisco APIC REST APIs. The new REST API procedures for this release reside only here and not in the configuration guides. However, older REST API procedures are still in the relevant configuration guides.

Documentation feedback

To provide technical feedback on this document, or to report an error or omission, send your comments to apic-docfeedback@cisco.com. We appreciate your feedback.

Legal information

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Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

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