Introduction

Cisco Elastic Services Controller (ESC) is a Virtual Network Functions Manager (VNFM), which performs lifecycle management of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).

The Cisco Elastic Services Controller (ESC) promotes agility, flexibility, and programmability in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) environments, and offers comprehensive automated lifecycle management capabilities. By design, Cisco ESC is built as an open and a modular system. It provides a single point of control to manage all aspects of VNF lifecycle for generic virtual network functions (VNFs) in a dynamic environment. Drawing on industry standards and open APIs, you can control the full lifecycle of all of your virtualized resources, whether using Cisco or third-party VNFs, allowing you to choose best-of-breed industry solutions.

As part of the Cisco Orchestration Suite, ESC is packaged with Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) and Cisco NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) bundle. This is available within Cisco Solutions such as Cisco Managed Services Accelerator (MSX).
As a Specialized Virtual Network Function Manager (SVNFM), ESC tightly integrates with the Cisco Mobility VNFs.
ESC can also be utilized as a Generic Virtual Network Function Manager (GVNFM) to provide lifecycle management for both Cisco and third-party VNFs.

Supported Virtual Infrastructure Managers (VIM)

ESC supports lifecycle management of VNFs on OpenStack, VMware vCenter, vCloud Director, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and so on. For more details, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Install and Upgrade Guide.

New Features and Enhancements in 5.4

This section describes the features added in Cisco Elastic Services Controller Release 5.4:

SNMP Enhancements
- Supports SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 protocols
- Enables SNMPv3 traps and notifications
- Supports encryption and authentication
- SNMP MIBs support monitoring the VIM and NFVO Connectivity Status
- Provides additional OIDs for previous status and code
- Enables the SNMP agent to split traps into individual ESC components and events
For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Administration Guide.
ESC NETCONF CLI Authentication—ESC supports invoking the esc_nc_cli command with username and password. For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Install and Upgrade Guide.
ConfD CLI—The confd_cli command is replaced. For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Install and Upgrade Guide.
Encrypting Day-0 Variables—ESC allows encrypting variables within the day-0 configuration. For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller User Guide.
Terminology Changes—The ESC software and documentation reflects bias-free terminologies. For more information, see the Cisco User Documentation.
D-MONA support for CSP—ESC supports deploying D-MONA on Cloud Services Platform (CSP).
For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller User Guide.
PAM Health User Authentication—The ESC health user group is added to the PAM authentication service configurations and user groups. For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Administration Guide.
Specifying PCI Device—ESC allows specifying the PCI device for a vm group using the PCI address through the vCenter API. For more information, see the Cisco Elastic Services Controller Administration Guide.
Specifying MAC Address—The ESC ETSI interface supports specifying the MAC address for VM ports.

Deprecated Features

Starting ESC Release 5.4, some of the functionalities are deprecated. The table below lists the deprecated functionalities, and the new functionalities replacing them in ESC:

Table 1. Deprecated Functionalities
Deprecated Functionality	New Functionality	New in Release	Deprecation Notice	Retired in (future) Release
The following Cisco-specific extensions on which serve as placeholders for the definition of fixed addresses and static IP pools in the SOL001 VNFD: `nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute` `(vdu_profile.static_ip_address_pools)`	Use `InstantiateVnfRequest` for IP addressing requirements, using `cpProtocolData` data structures, as per the standards.	ESC 5.3	ESC 5.4	ESC 6.0
The Cisco-specific extensions on `tosca.datatypes.nfv.` `VnfHealOperationConfiguration` .	Moved to a standardised extension point: `cisco.datatypes.nfv.` `VnfcAdditionalConfigurableProperties`	ESC 5.4	ESC 5.4	ESC 6.0
The Cisco-specific extensions on `tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.VirtualBlockStorage` to specify the external volume UUID in the resource_id.	Moved to a standardised data structure: `tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.VirtualBlockStorage.` `virtual_block_storage_data.vdu_storage_requirements`	ESC 5.4	ESC 5.4	ESC 6.0
Some of the Cisco-specific extensions on `tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp` .	All but allowed_address_pairs have moved to standardised data structures on `tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp.` `virtual_network_interface_requirements` and `tosca.nodes.nfv.VnfVirtualLink.` `virtual_link_protocol_data`	ESC 5.4	ESC 5.4	ESC 6.0
The Cisco-specific extensions on `tosca.policies.nfv.SecurityGroupRule` to specify an out-of-band Security Group.	Moved to a standardised data structure: `tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp.` `metadata.security_group`	ESC 5.4	ESC 5.4	ESC 6.0

Starting with Cisco ESC Release 5.3, support for the following may end in any of the future releases without additional notice:

The deprecated VMware vCenter versions 5.5 and 6.0.
The deprecated VMware vCloud Director (vCD) version 8.2.
The deprecated D-MONA 1:1 mapping

For more information, see the release documents available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/elastic-services-controller-esc/tsd-products-support-series-home.html.

Cisco Elastic Services Controller Bugs

For a complete list of open and resolved bugs for this release, use the Cisco Bug Search tool.

Open Bugs

The table below lists the open issues in the Cisco Elastic Services Controller 5.4 release.

Table 2. Open Bugs in Cisco Elastic Services Controller 5.4
Bug ID	Description
CSCvw66956	CSP service migration fails when VNF image is not present on destination CSP
CSCvw78696	Deleting an unauthenticated VIM connector can stall up to 4min before DELETE_VIM_CONNECTOR received
CSCvx18901	Successful Retry of a failed instantiate VNF request is not overriding the custom port names
CSCvx23268	ESC AA: VIM Connector state returned via opdata can mismatch health API state
CSCvx14759	ESC VIM connector to CVIM does not re-establish after connection dropout clears (stays disconnected)

Resolved Bugs

The table below lists the resolved issues in the Cisco Elastic Services Controller 5.4 release.

Table 3. Resolved Bugs in Cisco Elastic Services Controller 5.4
Bug ID	Description
CSCvx08690	Instantiate VNF fails if static IP pools defined in VNFD and fixed IP in payload
CSCvx02902	ESC Health Monitor incorrectly shows stage "INIT" when all services are healthy
CSCvw28283	ESC AA: Deleted VIM connectors on follower nodes are not cleaned-up (reconfiguration can fail)
CSCvv80458	ETSI monitoring migration can get stuck in PROCESSING state when leader owning destination faults

Cisco Bug Search Tool

Bug Search Tool (BST), the online successor to Bug Toolkit, is designed to improve our customers' effectiveness in network risk management and device troubleshooting.

BST allows partners and customers to search for software bugs based on product, release, and keyword, and aggregates key data such as bug details, product, and version. The service has provision to filter bugs based on credentials to provide external and internal bug views for the search input.

To use the BST to search for a specific bug or to search for all bugs in a release:

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:

In the Search For field, enter a keyword and press Return. (Leave the other fields empty).

When the search results are displayed, use the filter tools to find the types of bugs you are looking for. You can search for bugs by modified date, status, severity, and so forth.

Tip

To export the results to a spreadsheet, click the Export All to Spreadsheet link.

See Bug Search Tools & Resources on Cisco.com. For more details on the tool overview and functionalities, check out the help page, located at http://www.cisco.com/web/applicat/cbsshelp/help.html

Accessibility Features in Cisco ESC

For a list of accessibility features in Cisco ESC 5.4, see Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) on the Cisco website, or contact accessibility@cisco.com.

All product documents are accessible except for images, graphics, and some charts. If you would like to receive the product documentation in audio format, braille, or large print, contact accessibility@cisco.com.

Cisco Elastic Services Controller 5.4 Release Notes

Available Languages

Download Options

Bias-Free Language