Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Release Notes, Release 3.0(2)

Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Release Notes, Release 3.0(2)

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.

The Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Fundamentals guide provides complete details about the Cisco ACI, including a glossary of terms that are used in the Cisco ACI.

This document describes the features, bugs, and limitations for the Cisco APIC.

Note: Use this document with the Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 13.0(2), which you can view at the following location:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/products-release-notes-list.html

Release notes are sometimes updated with new information about restrictions and bugs. See the following website for the most recent version of this document:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-apic/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

You can watch videos that demonstrate how to perform specific tasks in the Cisco APIC on the Cisco ACI YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CiscoACIchannel

For the verified scalability limits (except the CLI limits), see the Verified Scalability Guide for this release.

For the CLI verified scalability limits, see the Cisco NX-OS Style Command-Line Interface Configuration Guide for this release.

You can access these documents from the following website:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-apic/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

Note: The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product.

Table 1 shows the online change history for this document.

Table 1 Online History Change

Contents

This document includes the following sections:

■        New and Changed Information

■        Upgrade and Downgrade Information

■        Bugs

■        Compatibility Information

■        Usage Guidelines

■        Related Documentation

New and Changed Information

This section lists the new and changed features in this release and includes the following topics:

■        New Software Features

■        New Hardware Features

New Software Features

Table 2 lists the new software features in this release:

Table 2 New Software Features, Guidelines, and Restrictions

New Hardware Features

For new hardware features, see the Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 13.0(2) at the following location:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/products-release-notes-list.html

Upgrade and Downgrade Information

For upgrade and downgrade considerations for the Cisco APIC, see the Cisco APIC documentation site at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-apic/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

See the "Upgrading and Downgrading the Cisco APIC and Switch Software" section of the Cisco APIC Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide.

Bugs

This section contains lists of open and resolved bugs and known behaviors.

■        Open Bugs

■        Resolved Bugs

■        Known Behaviors

Open Bugs

This section lists the open bugs. 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 3.0(2) releases in which the bug exists. A bug might also exist in releases other than the 3.0(2) releases.

Table 3 Open Bugs in This Release

Resolved Bugs

This section lists the resolved bugs. 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 whether the bug was resolved in the base release or a patch release.

Table 3 Resolved Bugs in This Release

Known Behaviors

This section lists bugs that describe known behaviors. 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 3.0(2) releases in which the known behavior exists. A bug might also exist in releases other than the 3.0(2) releases.

Table 5 Known Behaviors in the 3.0(2h) Release

 

■        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.

■        Some Cisco APIC GUI screens were modified and relocated in this release, and they are not accurately reflected in the corresponding GUI Online Help. The GUI Online Help pages will be fixed in the next major release.

Compatibility Information

The following sections list compatibility information for the Cisco APIC software.

Virtualization Compatibility Information

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

■        For a table that shows the supported virtualization products, see the ACI Virtualization Compatibility Matrix at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/Website/datacenter/aci/virtualization/matrix/virtmatrix.html

■        This release supports VMM Integration and VMware Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS) 6.5.x. For more information about guidelines for upgrading VMware DVS from 5.x to 6.x and VMM integration, see the Cisco ACI Virtualization Guide, Release 3.0(1) at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-apic/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

■        For information about Cisco APIC compatibility with Cisco UCS Director, see the appropriate Cisco UCS Director Compatibility Matrix document at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-director/products-device-support-tables-list.html

■        If you use Microsoft vSwitch and want to downgrade to Cisco APIC Release 2.3(1) from a later release, you first must delete any microsegment EPGs configured with the Match All filter.

Hardware Compatibility Information

This release supports the following Cisco APIC servers:

 

The following list includes general hardware compatibility information:

■        For the supported hardware, see the Cisco NX-OS Release Notes for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches, Release 13.0(2) at the following location:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/products-release-notes-list.html

■        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.

■        Connecting the Cisco APIC (the controller cluster) to the Cisco ACI fabric requires a 10G 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-negotiate to 10G without requiring any manual configuration.

■        The Cisco N9K-X9736C-FX (ports 29 to 36) and Cisco N9K-C9364C-FX (ports 49-64) switches do not support 1G SFPs with QSA.

■        Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 fabric modules must be physically removed before downgrading to releases earlier than Cisco APIC 3.0(1).

■        The fifth Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 (also defined as FM-25) is not supported.

■        The Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 and N9K-X9736C-FX locator LED enable/disable feature is supported in the GUI and not supported in the Cisco ACI NX-OS Switch CLI.

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

■        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 N9K-C9348GC-FXP 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.

■        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."

Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Compatibility Information

This section list ASA compatibility information for the Cisco APIC software.

■        This release supports Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) device package version 1.2.5.5 or later.

■        If you are running a Cisco Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASA) version that is prior to version 9.3(2), you must configure SSL encryption as follows:

                  (config)# ssl encryption aes128-sha1

Miscellaneous Compatibility Information

This section list miscellaneous compatibility information for the Cisco APIC software.

■        This release supports the hardware and software listed on the ACI Ecosystem Compatibility List document and the software listed as follows:

—      Cisco NX-OS Release 13.0

—      Cisco AVS, Release 5.2(1)SV3(3.11)

For more information about the supported AVS releases, see the AVS software compatibility information in the Cisco Application Virtual Switch Release Notes at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/application-virtual-switch/products-release-notes-list.html

—      Cisco UCS Manager software release 2.2(1c) or later is required for the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect and other components, including the BIOS, CIMC, and the adapter.

See the ACI Ecosystem Compatibility List document at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/solution-overview-listing.html

■        This release supports the following firmware:

—      2.0(3i) CIMC HUU ISO

—      2.0(9c) CIMC HUU ISO

—      2.0(13i) CIMC HUU ISO

■        This release supports the partner packages specified in the L4-L7 Compatibility List Solution Overview document at the following URL:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/solution-overview-listing.html

■        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.

■        For compatibility with OpenStack and Kubernetes distributions, see the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller OpenStack and Container Plugins, Release 3.0(2), Release Notes.

Usage Guidelines

The following sections list usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

Virtualization Compatibility Guidelines

This section lists virtualization-related usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        Do not separate virtual port channel (vPC) member nodes into different configuration zones. If the nodes are in different configuration zones, then the vPCs’ modes become mismatched if the interface policies are modified and deployed to only one of the vPC member nodes.

■        If you are upgrading VMware vCenter 6.0 to vCenter 6.5, you should first delete the following folder on the VMware vCenter: C:\ProgramData\cisco_aci_plugin.

If you do not delete the folder and you try to register a fabric again after the upgrade, you will see the following error message:

      Error while saving setting in C:\ProgramData\cisco_aci_plugin\<user>_<domain>.properties.

The user is the user that is currently logged in to the vSphere Web Client, and domain is the domain to which the user belongs. Although you can still register a fabric, you do not have permissions to override settings that were created in the old VMware vCenter. Enter any changes in the Cisco APIC configuration again after restarting VMware vCenter.

■        If the communication between the Cisco APIC and VMware vCenter is impaired, some functionality is adversely affected. The Cisco APIC relies on the pulling of inventory information, updating VDS configuration, and receiving event notifications from the VMware vCenter for performing certain operations.

■        When creating a vPC domain between two leaf switches, both switches must be in the same switch generation. Switches not in the same generation are not compatible vPC peers. The generations are as follows:

—      Generation 1—Cisco Nexus 9200 and 9300 platform switches without "EX" on the end of the switch name; for example, Cisco Nexus 93120TX.

—      Generation 2—Cisco Nexus 9300-EX and FX platform switches; for example, Cisco Nexus 93108TC-EX.

GUI Guidelines

This section lists GUI-related usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        The  icon in Cisco APIC opens the menu for Show Me How modules, which provide step-by-step help through specific configurations.

—      If you deviate while in progress of a Show Me How module, you will no longer be able to continue.

—      You must have IPv4 enabled to use the Show Me How modules.

■        The Cisco APIC GUI includes an online version of the Quick Start Guide that includes video demonstrations.

■        To reach the Cisco APIC CLI from the GUI: choose System > Controllers, highlight a controller, right-click, and choose "launch SSH". To get the list of commands, press the escape key twice.

■        The Basic GUI mode is deprecated. We do not recommend using Cisco APIC Basic mode for configuration. However, if you want to use Cisco APIC Basic mode, use the following URL:

APIC_URL/indexSimple.html

CLI Guidelines

This section lists CLI-related usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        The output from show commands issued in the NX-OS-style CLI are subject to change in future software releases. We do not recommend using the output from the show commands for automation.

■        The CLI is supported only for users with administrative login privileges.

■        If FIPS is enabled in the Cisco ACI setups, then SHA256 support is mandatory on the SSH Client. Additionally, to have the SHA256 support, the openssh-client must be running version 6.6.1 or higher.

Layer 2 and Layer 3 Configuration Guidelines

This section lists Layer 2 and Layer 3-related usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        For Layer 3 external networks created through the API or GUI and updated through the CLI, protocols need to be enabled globally on the external network through the API or GUI, and the node profile for all the participating nodes needs to be added through the API or GUI before doing any further updates through the CLI.

■        When configuring two Layer 3 external networks on the same node, the loopbacks need to be configured separately for both Layer 3 networks.

■        All endpoint groups (EPGs), including application EPGs and Layer 3 external EPGs, require a domain. Interface policy groups must also be associated with an Attach Entity Profile (AEP), and the AEP must be associated with domains. Based on the association of EPGs to domains and of the interface policy groups to domains, the ports VLANs that the EPG uses are validated. This applies to all EPGs including bridged Layer 2 outside and routed Layer 3 outside EPGs. For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 2 Networking Configuration Guide.

Note: When creating static paths for application EPGs or Layer 2/Layer 3 outside EPGs, the physical domain is not required. Upgrading without the physical domain raises a fault on the EPG stating "invalid path configuration."

■        In a multipod fabric, if a spine switch in POD1 uses the infra tenant L3extOut-1, the TORs of the other pods (POD2, POD3) cannot use the same infra L3extOut (L3extOut-1) for Layer 3 EVPN control plane connectivity. Each POD must use its own spine switch and infra L3extOut.

■        You do not need to create a customized monitoring policy for each tenant. By default, a tenant shares the common policy under tenant common. The Cisco APIC automatically creates a default monitoring policy and enables common observable. You can modify the default policy under tenant common based on the requirements of your fabric.

■        The Cisco APIC does not provide IPAM services for tenant workloads.

IP Address Guidelines

This section lists IP address-related usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        For the following services, use a DNS-based hostname with out-of-band management connectivity. IP addresses can be used with both in-band and out-of-band management connectivity.

—      Syslog server

—      Call Home SMTP server

—      Tech support export server

—      Configuration export server

—      Statistics export server

■        The infrastructure IP address range must not overlap with other IP addresses used in the fabric for in-band and Out-of-band networks.

■        If an IP address is learned on one of two endpoints for which you are configuring an atomic counter policy, you should use an IP-based policy and not a client endpoint-based policy.

■        A multipod deployment requires the 239.255.255.240 system Global IP Outside (GIPo) to be configured on the inter-pod network (IPN) as a PIM BIDIR range. This 239.255.255.240 PIM BIDIR range configuration on the IPN devices can be avoided by using the Infra GIPo as System GIPo feature. The Infra GIPo as System GIPo feature must be enabled only after upgrading all of the switches in the Cisco ACI fabric, including the leaf switches and spine switches, to the latest Cisco APIC release.

■        Cisco ACI does not support a class E address as a VTEP address.

Miscellaneous Guidelines

This section lists miscellaneous usage guidelines for the Cisco APIC software.

■        User passwords must meet the following criteria:

—      Minimum length is 8 characters

—      Maximum length is 64 characters

—      Fewer than three consecutive repeated characters

—      At least three of the following character types: lowercase, uppercase, digit, symbol

—      Cannot be easily guessed

—      Cannot be the username or the reverse of the username

—      Cannot be any variation of "cisco", "isco", or any permutation of these characters or variants obtained by changing the capitalization of letters therein

■        In some of the 5-minute statistics data, the count of ten-second samples is 29 instead of 30.

■        The power consumption statistics are not shown on leaf node slot 1.

■        If you defined multiple login domains, you can choose the login domain that you want to use when logging in to a Cisco APIC. By default, the domain drop-down list is empty, and if you do not choose a domain, the DefaultAuth domain is used for authentication. This can result in login failure if the username is not in the DefaultAuth login domain. As such, you must enter the credentials based on the chosen login domain.

■        A firmware maintenance group should contain a maximum of 80 nodes.

■        When contracts are not associated with an endpoint group, DSCP marking is not supported for a VRF with a vzAny contract. DSCP is sent to a leaf switch along with the actrl rule, but a vzAny contract does not have an actrl rule. Therefore, the DSCP value cannot be sent.

■        The Cisco APICs must have 1 SSD and 2 HDDs, and both RAID volumes must be healthy before upgrading to this release. The Cisco APIC will not boot if the SSD is not installed.

■        In a multipod fabric setup, if a new spine switch is added to a pod, it must first be connected to at least one leaf switch in the pod. Then the spine switch is able to discover and join the fabric.

Caution: If you install 1-Gigabit Ethernet (GE) or 10GE links between the leaf and spine switches in the fabric, there is risk of packets being dropped instead of forwarded, because of inadequate bandwidth. To avoid the risk, use 40GE or 100GE links between the leaf and spine switches.

■        For a Cisco APIC REST API query of event records, the Cisco APIC system limits the response to a maximum of 500,000 event records. If the response is more than 500,000 events, it returns an error. Use filters to refine your queries. For more information, see Cisco APIC REST API Configuration Guide.

■        Subject Alternative Names (SANs) contain one or more alternate names and uses any variety of name forms for the entity that is bound by the Certificate Authority (CA) to the certified public key. These alternate names are called "Subject Alternative Names" (SANs). Possible names include:

—      DNS name

—      IP address

■        Fabric connectivity ports can operate at 10G or 25G speeds (depending on the model of the APIC server) when connected to leaf switch host interfaces.  We recommend connecting two fabric uplinks, each to a separate leaf switch or vPC leaf switch pair.

For APIC-M3/L3, virtual interface card (VIC) 1445 has four ports (port-1, port-2, port-3, and port-4 from left to right). Port-1 and port-2 make a single pair corresponding to eth2-1 on the APIC server; port-3 and port-4 make another pair corresponding to eth2-2 on the APIC server. Only a single connection is allowed for each pair. For example, you can connect one cable to either port-1 or port-2 and another cable to either port-3 or port-4, but not 2 cables to both ports on the same pair. Connecting 2 cables to both ports on the same pair creates instability in the APIC server. All ports must be configured for the same speed: either 10G or 25G.

■        When you create an access port selector in a leaf interface rofile, the fexId property is configured with a default value of 101 even though a FEX is not connected and the interface is not a FEX interface. The fexId property is only used when the port selector is associated with an infraFexBndlGrp managed object.

Related Documentation

The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) documentation can be accessed from the following website:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-apic/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

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.

The following links provide release notes and verified scalability documentation:

—      Verified Scalability

—      Cisco ACI Simulator Release Notes

—      Cisco NX-OS Release Notes for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches

—      Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller OpenStack and Container Plugins Release Notes

—      Cisco Application Virtual Switch Release Notes

New Documentation

There are no new Cisco APIC product documents for this release.

 

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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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