Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 is comprised of these components:

• An Authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) protocol service

• A Caching DNS service

• A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service

Cisco offers these components as individually licensed applications or in a mix of suites.

Before you install Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3, review the system requirements and licensing information available in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

Note

If you are migrating to Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 from an earlier version of Cisco Prime Network Registrar, you must review the release notes for the releases that occurred in between, to fully understand all the changes. Licenses for Cisco Prime Network Registrar 10.x or earlier are not valid for Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.x. You should have a new license for Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.x. For the 11.x regional, if one has 10.x CDNS clusters, the 10.x CDNS licenses must be added on the regional server (10.x CDNS clusters will use 10.x licenses, 11.x CDNS clusters will use 11.x licenses). Smart Licensing is enabled by default in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3. Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.x regional, working in Smart License mode, does not support pre-11.0 local clusters. For more details, see the "Using Smart Licensing" section in "Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide".

Warning

Before upgrading the regional Cisco Prime Network Registrar to version 11.x, ensure that the local clusters are upgraded to version 10.1.1 or later. Do not upgrade the local clusters directly to version 11.0 (or later), as they will not be able to register with the regional version until it has also been upgraded to 11.0 (or later).

The Cisco Prime Network Registrar regional server manages and licenses the DHCP, Authoritative DNS, and Caching DNS components. It licenses all services in the local clusters. Only the regional installation requires a license and can accept new licenses. Afterward, the regional server authorizes individual local clusters according to the available licenses.

The Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 kit contains the following files and directories:

• Linux-CPNR Regional, Local and Client RPM applications for RHEL 8.x/AlmaLinux 8.x/RockyLinux 8.x and RHEL 9.x/AlmaLinux 9.x/RockyLinux 9.x

• OVA-Regional and Local OVA on AlmaLinux 9.4

• QCOW2 - Regional and Local QCOW2 on AlmaLinux 9.4

• Container-Containers for Docker on Red Hat UBI 9.5

• Kubernetes-Sample YAML files for deployment of Cisco Prime Network Registrar container on Kubernetes

• Docs-Bugs and Enhancement List

For more details about Licensing, see the "License Files" section in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 is available as a virtual appliance, which includes all its functionalities along with AlmaLinux 9.4 operating systems. The virtual appliance supports VMware ESXi 7.x and 8.x platforms, as well as OpenStack. For more details, see the "Cisco Prime Network Registrar Virtual Appliance" section in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

Note

The Linux distribution included with the optional pre-built VM downloads for Cisco Prime Network Registrar is open-source software and is not owned or supported by Cisco. Customers needing support for Linux should contact third-party software providers. Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 has been tested with Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 8.10, AlmaLinux 8.10, RockyLinux 8.10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 9.4, AlmaLinux 9.4, and Rocky Linux 9.4. End users are expected to apply patches and maintenance releases to keep their operating systems up to date with bug fixes and security patches. While Cisco does not expect these updates within the same major OS version to cause issues, it is strongly recommended to lab test any updates before applying them to production servers.

Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 supports both Smart Licensing and traditional licensing. However, it does not support the hybrid model, that is, you can use only one of the license types at a time. For a more detailed overview on Cisco Licensing, go to cisco.com/go/licensingguide.

Licensing Overview for Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.x

1. License Components: Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.x is licensed in two parts:

   1. Permanent License: Grants ongoing usage rights.

   2. SIA License: Allows for upgrades to future releases.

2. Upgrade Eligibility: If you have an unexpired SIA license from Cisco Prime Network Registrar 10.x, or an unexpired SWSS contract from version 9.x, you can upgrade until these entitlements expire.

3. Licensing Methods:

   1. PAK-based Licensing: Requires installation of the PAK onto the Cisco Prime Network Registrar regional server.

   2. Smart Licensing: Delivers licenses to your Smart Account and is enabled by default in version 11.3. You can override it after installation.

      Note	Starting with the 11.3 release, communication between the regional server and CSSM using Call Home transport is deprecated.

      To upgrade to version 11.3 while using Call Home Transport, refer to the "Upgrade Considerations" section in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

4. Service-Based Licensing: In version 11.3, licensing is based on the services you require.

For more information, see the "License Files" section in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

Note	Do not delete any individual licenses loaded from the file. If necessary, you may remove older versions of DNS and DHCP licenses after upgrading. However, retain older versions of CDNS licenses if the servers have not been upgraded.

Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 uses individual component licenses. This allows users to purchase and install DHCP services, Authoritative DNS services, and Caching DNS services individually, or as a suite.

If you need additional DNS caching licenses, you should order them based on Server count since DNS caching is a server based license.

To install and manage DHCP, DNS, and Caching DNS licenses, you must deploy a regional server. The regional server, among other things, is used to install, count, and manage licensing for these components.

The synchronization between version 11.3 and pre-11.3 local clusters must be done from a 11.3 regional cluster. Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 protocol servers interoperate with versions 10.1 or later.

The following table lists the new and modified features we documented in the user and installation guides.

For information on additional features and fixes that were committed in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3, see Resolved Bugs and Enhancement Features.

The following commands are modified in the CLI. For more information, see Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 CLI Reference Guide.

For more information on a specific bug or to search all bugs in a particular Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 release, see Using the Bug Search Tool.

This section contains the following information:

• Resolved Bugs

• Enhancement Features

• Using the Bug Search Tool

This section contains the important information related to this software release and information in response to recent customer queries.

Note

Call Home transport is no longer supported in CPNR 11.3. Smart Transport is required to connect to the Cisco Smart License server. Before upgrading to version 11.3, ensure that any regional cluster configured to use Call Home transport for registration with the Smart License server is deregistered from the server. After upgrading to 11.3, update the Smart Transport configurations and then re-register the regional cluster with the Smart License server. For more information see the "Upgrade Considerations" section in Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 Installation Guide.

Note

There is approximately a 30% reduction in DHCPv6 cold performance metrics when running DHCP on the 11.3 OVA as compared to the performance on a RHEL 8.x/AlmaLinux 8.x/RockyLinux 8.x vm or when CPNR is running on other RHEL 9.x/AlmaLinux 9.x/RockyLinux 9.x vms. Cold performance refers to new clients, where the Discover/Offer/Request/Ack cycle involves writing to the disk. Upgrading the VM Compatibility of the deployed 11.3 OVA to "ESXi 7.0 virtual machine"or higher as available using VSphere client or VCenter has been shown to improve the performance. For returning clients, no performance reduction was observed.

See Cisco Prime Network Registrar Documentation Overview for a list of Cisco Prime Network Registrar 11.3 guides.

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