New Features and Enhancements

New Features and Enhancements

Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) includes the new features, enhancements, and hardware support that are described in the following section:

New Features and Enhancements in Cisco DCNM Release 11.5(3a)

These following sections include information about the new features, enhancements, and hardware support introduced in the Cisco DCNM Release 11.5(3a).

LAN Fabric Deployment Enhancements

The following features are new in Cisco DCNM Release 11.5(3a) for the LAN Fabric Deployment.

Inband POAP

DCNM Release 11.5(3a) allows you to enable Inband POAP for External Fabrics and LAN Classic fabrics. Inband POAP is supported with the DCNM internal packaged DHCP server or an external DHCP server. The Inband POAP selection is a per fabric knob. You can enable Out-of-band POAP on Easy Fabrics and simultaneously have Inband POAP enabled on other External/LAN Classic fabrics.

RMA for Pre-provisioned Switches (Serial Number Swap)

DCNM Release 11.5(3a) allows you to change serial numbers for pre-provisioned switches. You can build data center fabrics with dummy serial numbers including all underlay/overlay configurations. After the switch information is available, the serial number swap API is called to update the dummy serial numbers with actual serial numbers, so that the relevant configuration is pulled by the switches on boot-up for touchless provisioning.

While pre-provisioning devices, you can provide dummy values for the Serial number of the switch. After you configure the network successfully, DCNM Release 11.5(3a) provides a new API to swap the serial number with the correct serial number of the device. Launch APIs for DCNM using the following URL: https://%3Cdcnm-mgmt0-ip%3E/api-docs.

Navigate to Control > Fabrics > swapSN or launch REST API using the direct URL: https://%3Cdcnm-mgmt0-ip%3E/api-docs/#/Control%20-%20Fabrics/swapSN

Enter appropriate values in the fabricName and oldSN fields. Enter the correct Serial Number for the device in the newSN field. Click Execute to apply the changes.

Custom Template for eBGP p2p Peering

A new template ebgp_dci_underlay is introduced that allows easy provisioning of eBGP P2P peering configuration of the Inter-Site Network (ISN) across devices that connect two fabrics in different DCNM instances.

SVI Interface Enhancements

DCNM Release 11.5(3a) allows you to configure SVIs in the underlay for Easy Fabrics deployments.

Custom EVPN/MVPN Route Target Support

DCNM Release 11.5(3a) allows you to configure custom Route-Targets for Overlay VRFs in a VXLAN EVPN fabric. Per VRF knobs is provided to disable auto Route Target generation for EVPN address family and the ability to specify different EVPN/MVPN import and export Route Targets. This workflow is also integrated with the corresponding Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator workflow in Release 3.5(2) and later).

VRF Lite Support with SVI Interfaces

DCNM Release 11.5(3a) allows you to configure VRF Lite for Layer-3 connectivity out of the border devices over eBGP using SVIs. This is supported for both VXLAN EVPN and External fabrics.

Modifying DCNM In-Band (eth2) Interface IP Address

From Release 11.5(3a), you can modify DCNM In-Band IP address on DCNM server and re-register the sites on Nexus Dashboard when onboarded to Cisco Multi-Site Orchestrator.

Nexus Dashboard IP address change

When DCNM is onboarded to Nexus Dashboard via Cisco Multi-Site Orchestrator, DCNM stores Nexus Dashboard information such as cluster name, serial number, and data IP address of the nodes. If these parameters are modified while migrating a cluster on Nexus Dashboard, DCNM Release 11.5(3a) provides a set of APIs that you can call to update information about the new cluster.