First Published: November 12, 2021

Last Updated: March 29, 2022

Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.1.0 Release Notes

This document provides an overview of Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine, new features, and any limitations for this release.

Change History

The following table describes information that has been added or changed since the initial release of this document.

Date

Description

March 29, 2022

A Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.1.0 software update has been released to address a security vulnerability (CSCwb27437).

Note 

All related Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.0 documentation remains relevant to the Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.1.0 release.

Overview of Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine

Network operators are facing challenges to support the exponential growth of network traffic while addressing the pressure to efficiently run network operations. They need a toolset to help automate bandwidth optimization and efficiently steer traffic with little operator intervention. Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine fulfills this need by providing real-time network optimization capabilities that allow operators to effectively maximize network utility as well as increase service velocity.

Looking at the following figure, Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine is built to fulfill the need for a closed-loop optimization loop as described under “Near Real-Time Feedback Loop”. Through Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine, the operator would be able to define the optimization intent, implement the intent, and continuously monitor, track, and react to maintain the original intent.

Figure 1. Network Resolution Lifecycle
Network Resolution Lifecycle

Real-time Visibility

To run their network effectively, end-to-end visibility is important to any network operator. Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine not only provides this visibility, but also the ability to visualize the network across different layers (optical to IP) and the relationship between each layer. Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine leverages IETF-standard BGP-LS protocol to discover IP network automatically, including the following features:

  • Real-time visibility: Provides the network operator with a true representation of the actual topology

  • Hierarchical topology view: Enables operators to define the different levels of granularity in the topology visualization

Simplified SR-TE Policy and RSVP-TE Tunnel Lifecycle Management

Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine also provides an easy to use UI and API to manage and monitor the TE tunnel lifecycle. The UI and API enables the network operator to perform the following tasks:

  • Visualize SR-TE (SR-MPLS and SRv6) policies and RSVP-TE tunnels.

  • Create, modify, and remove SR-MPLS policies and RSVP-TE tunnels using an intuitive workflow

  • Continuously track SR-MPLS policies and RSVP-TE tunnels and use dynamic path computations to maintain SLA objectives

  • Preview an SR-MPLS policy or RSVP-TE tunnel before deploying it to the network

Extensibility through Feature Packs

Crosswork Optimization Engine feature packs (available with correct licensing) provide congestion mitigation and closed loop bandwidth optimization. A user defines the optimization intent and the tools implement the intent, and continuously monitor, track, and react to maintain the original intent.

Due to licensing or the configuration of the role associated with your user account, you may not be able to access all of the features and functions. For licensing and ordering information, work with your Cisco Partner or Cisco Sales representative to review options described in the "Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine Ordering Guide".

What's New

This section lists new features and changes delivered in this release of Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine. For system requirements information, see the Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure and Applications Installation Guide.

Table 1. New Features and Functionality in Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine

Feature

What's New?

Segment Routing Over IPv6 (SRv6) Visualization

Starting with this release, SR-TE policies are now separated into either SRv6 or SR-MPLS policies. SRv6 and SR-MPLS policies (including link details) are shown separately in the UI.

SRv6 visualization supports the following:

  • SRv6 topology

  • ISIS IGP

  • Flexible Algorithm information and topology

  • PCC-initiated SRv6 policies (including IGP paths)

In addition to previously supported IPv4 policy data, the following SRv6 policy data is also supported:

  • SRv6 Binding SID

  • Computed and reported SR paths (SRv6 adjacency and node SIDs)

For limitations and more information see:

Flexible Algorithm Visualization

The ability to view up to two Flexible Algorithm IDs in your network can be enabled in the Traffic Engineering topology view (Traffic Engineering > Display Preferences icon). For more information, see Visualize Flexible Algorithms.

Maximum SID Depth (MSD) Enforcement

Crosswork Optimization Engine now learns from SR-PCE the MSD for each platform advertising the hardware limit in the IGP and BGP-LS. The specific MSD referred to here is the Base MPLS Imposition (BMI) as defined in IETF RFC 8491. It represents the hardware limit that can be imposed exclusive of any service/transport/special labels. Therefore, the effective MSD available for SR-TE policies may be less depending on these other factors. The MSD for each node is available under device details and is used in path computation for both Bandwidth on Demand (BWoD) and Local Congestion Mitigation (LCM) where Crosswork Optimization Engine computes bandwidth constrained paths.

To view the MSD value for a device, navigate to the Traffic Engineering topology map and click on the device. From the Device Details page, click SR-MPLS > Prefixes tab to view the MSD value. For more information, see View Traffic Engineering Device Details.

Note 

SR-PCE already enforces MSD in SR-TE policy path computation it is delegated, including PCE-initiated dynamic path SR-TE policies provisioned from Crosswork Optimization Engine.

Local Congestion Mitigation (LCM)

  • Updated architecture to support higher scalability by breaking up the network into different domains. Each domain can be configured and handled by LCM separately.

  • New landing page that displays each domain and last recommendation timestamp. Each domain provides quick menu access to available LCM pages.

  • A timestamp of when the last recommendation was made is displayed on the landing page and dashboard. A solution timestamp is also displayed in the dashboard.

  • A new Urgency field displayed in the Operational Dashboard indicates the severity of the issue to be addressed.

  • Ability to enable automatic repair of degraded LCM policies.

  • Improved handling of network failures.

  • Enforcement of MSD restriction.

  • Ability to use protected adjacency SIDs in LCM policies.

  • Detection of inactive LCM policies from unrouted active LCM policies.

This feature is only available as part of the Advanced RTM license package. For more information, see Use Local Congestion Mitigation (LCM) to Mitigate Network Congestion Locally.

Visualize Link Aggregation Group (LAG) link details

Ability to enable LAG discovery (Administration > Settings > System Settings tab > Discovery > LAG checkbox) and click on LAG links to drill down to see members and details. For more information, see View Device and Link Details.

SR-TE Policy Delay Metric Visualization

There is a new Delay value in each SR-TE policy Details page. It provides end to end path delay information for SR-TE policies. The Delay value is calculated for all policies every 10 minutes. Hover your mouse over the "i" icon (next to the Delay value) to view the last time the value was updated.

SR-TE Multiple Path Candidate (MCP) Visualization

MCP visualization for SR-MPLS and SRv6 policies supports the following:

  • Visualization of active dynamic and explicit candidate paths.

  • Visualization of inactive dynamic candidate paths.

For more information, see Find Multiple Candidate Paths.

Binding SID (B-SID) Policy Visualization

Visualize underlying paths of a defined B-SID hop that you have manually configured on a device.

For more information, see Visualize Underlying Paths Associated with a Defined Binding-Segment ID (B-SID) Label.

Native Segment Routing Path Over Inter-AS Option C Visualization

Visualize the actual physical paths (native SR LSPs) which carry traffic on the topology map.

For more information, see Visualizing Native Paths.

Events

Events for Crosswork Optimization Engine has been moved to Administration > Alarms > Events tab.

Cisco SR-PCE HA Pairs

Six SR-PCE HA pairs are now supported.

For more information, see Multiple Cisco SR-PCE HA Pairs in the Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure and Applications Administration Guide.

APIs

  • IEFT compliance

  • New LCM RESTCONF API functions:

    • GET_DOMAINS - Returns a list of domain IDs and status.

    • REMOVE_DOMAIN - Allows for removal of domains that are no longer in network.

    • GET_RECOMMENDATIONS - Returns information seen in the UI Operational Dashboard.

    • RECOMMENDATIONS_NOTIFICATIONS - Sends a notification when a new recommendation is available.

For more information, see the Cisco Crosswork Network Automation API Documentation on Cisco DevNet.

Cisco IOS Software Version Support

The following tables list what Cisco IOS software versions Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine supports:
Table 2. Cisco IOS XR Software Versions (Cisco ASR 9000, NCS 5500, NCS 540, NCS 560, and XRv 9000)

SR-PCE Software Version1

PCC Software Version2

(Headend Routers)

Cisco ASR 9000 (32 bit)

Cisco ASR 9000 (64 bit)

Cisco XRv 90003

Cisco NCS 5500 series

Cisco NCS 540 series 4

Cisco NCS 560 series

7.3.2

  • 6.5.3 + SMU

  • 6.6.3 + SMU

  • 6.5.3 + SMU

  • 6.6.3 + SMU

  • 7.2.1

  • 7.3.2

  • 7.4.1

  • 6.5.3 + SMU

  • 6.6.3 + SMU

  • 7.2.1

  • 7.3.2

  • 7.4.1
1 It is recommended that the SR-PCE should be an equal or higher software version than the PCC.
2 PCC 7.3.2 is recommended and has been validated to work with Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.0 features. Other listed PCC versions are supported, but may not support all Crosswork Optimization Engine features because of PCC version limitations.
3 The SR-PCE may be deployed on XRv9000 (VM or appliance).
4 The SMU is available via the Cisco NCS 540-ACC-SYS Router or Cisco NCS 540x-ACC-SYS Router Software Download Center.
Table 3. Cisco IOS XR & XE Software Versions (Cisco ASR 920 and ASR 903)

SR-PCE Cisco IOS XR Software Version

PCC Cisco IOS XE Software Version

(Headend Routers)

Cisco ASR 920

Cisco ASR 903

RSP 3

7.3.2

  • 17.4.1 5

  • 17.5.1

  • 17.6.1

 17.5.1
5 Supports only PCE initiated SR-TE policy deployment.

Note

  • Segment Routing Traffic Matrix (SRTM) is only available in Cisco ASR 9000 devices.

  • RSVP-TE tunnel PCE deployment (HA) is not supported on IOS XR 6.5.3 + SMU.

  • SRv6 and Visualizing Native Path (Path Query) features are supported from PCC IOS XR 7.3.2.

  • Local Congestion Mitigation is supported from:

    • PCC IOS XR 7.3.2 (ASR 9000, NCS 5500, NCS 560, NCS 540)

    • PCC IOS XR 7.4.1 (ASR 9000)

    • PCC IOS XE 17.05.1 and 17.05.1 (ASR 920 and ASR 903 RSP 3)

  • Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs) are required for both PCC/Headend and SR-PCE versions indicated in the table. To download the Cisco IOS XR versions and updates, see the IOS XR Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs) document. The correct SMUs to download will have "Optima" or the bug ID appended to the filename. For example: asr9k-x64-6.6.3.Optima.tar or xrv9k-7.3.1.CSCvy63506.tar.

Compatibility Information

The following table lists software versions that have been tested and are known to be compatible with Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine. For complete installation requirements, see the Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure 4.1 and Applications Installation Guide.

Hardware/Software Supported Version

Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure

Version 4.1

Cisco Crosswork Data Gateway

Version 3.0

Function Packs

Browsers

  • Google Chrome—70 or later

  • Mozilla Firefox—60 or later

Scale Support

The following number of devices, and SR-TE policies (SR-MPLS and SRv6) and RSVP-TE tunnels are supported.


Note

These scale numbers have been qualified on a 3 node cluster system setup with 4 CDG VMs (each with 2.5 K) and 6 SR-PCE pairs (12 SR-PCEs total).

Table 4. Scale Support

Feature

Scale Support

Devices

10,000

Total Interfaces (including IGP)

650,000

Provision of SR-TE policies and RSVP-TE tunnel (PCE initiated)

60,000

Visualization of IGP links

100,000

Upgrade Crosswork Optimization Engine Feature Packs

If you have enabled feature packs (LCM, Bandwidth Optimization, or BWoD) in Crosswork Optimization Engine 2.0 and want to upgrade to Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.0, you must perform the following tasks prior to upgrading:

LCM and Bandwidth Optimization (BWOpt)

  • From the LCM or Bandwidth Optimization Configuration page:

    1. Set the Delete Tactical SR Policies when Disabled option to False. This task must be done prior to disabling LCM or BWOpt so that tactical polices deployed by LCM or BWOpt remain in the network after the upgrade.

    2. Set the Enable option to False. If LCM or BWOpt remains enabled, there is a chance that tactical policies may be deleted after the upgrade.

    3. Note all options (Basic and Advanced) in the LCM or BWOpt Configuration page so that you can confirm the same configuration has been migrated after the upgrade.

  • If available, export the current list of interfaces managed by LCM or BWOpt (Traffic Engineering > Local Congestion Mitigation or Bandwidth Optimization > Link Management > Export icon). Confirm the interfaces are valid by reimporting the CSV file without errors. For more information, see "Add Individual Interface Thresholds" in the Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.0 User Guide.

  • After the upgrade, wait until the Traffic Engineering page shows all the nodes and links before enabling LCM or BWOpt.

Note:

After the system is stable and before enabling domains for LCM, confirm that the migration of previously monitored interfaces has completed and that each domain has the expected configuration options.

  1. Navigate to Administration > Alarms > All > Events and enter LCM to filter the Source column.

  2. Look for the following event: "Migration complete. All migrated LCM interfaces and policies are mapped to their IGP domains". If this message does not appear wait for the Congestion Check Interval period (set in the LCM Configuration page), then restart LCM (Administration > Crosswork Manager > Optimization Engine > optima-lcm > ... > Restart).

  3. Wait until the optima-lcm service changes from Degraded to Healthy state.

  4. For each domain, navigate to the Configuration page and verify the options have been migrated successfully. If the domain configurations are incorrect, restart LCM (Administration > Crosswork Manager > Optimization Engine > optima-lcm > ... > Restart).

  5. Check the Events page for the event mentioned above and the Configuration page to verify the options.


Note

  • If the confirmation message does not appear or domain configuration options are incorrect, then contact Cisco Technical support and provide them with showtech information and the exported Link Management CSV file.

  • You can also manually add missing interfaces that were previously monitored or update domain configuration options after the system is stable.

BWoD

  • Set the Enable option to False. If BWoD remains enabled, there is a chance that tactical policies may be deleted after the upgrade.

  • Note all options (Basic and Advanced) in the BWoD Configuration page so that you can confirm the same configuration has been migrated after the upgrade.

  • After the upgrade, wait until the Traffic Engineering page shows all the nodes and links before enabling BWoD.

Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine Documentation

The following table lists the guides that Cisco provides for Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine. You can access all Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine end user documentation at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/crosswork-optimization-engine/model.html.


Note

We sometimes update the documentation after original publication. Therefore, you should always review the documentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

Table 5.

Documentation Title

What is Included

Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.1.0 Release Notes

This document

Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure 4.1 and Applications Installation Guide

Shared installation guide for all the Cisco Crosswork applications and their common infrastructure. Covers:

  • System requirements

  • Installation prerequisites

  • Installation instructions

  • Upgrade instructions

Cisco Crosswork Infrastructure 4.1 and Applications Administrator Guide

Shared administration guide for all the Cisco Crosswork applications and their common infrastructure. Covers:

  • Managing clusters and data gateway

  • Data collection

  • High availability

  • Backup and restore

  • Onboard and manage devices

  • Zero touch provisioning

  • Set up maps

  • Managing users, access and security

  • Maintain system health

Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine 3.0 User Guide

  • Getting started

  • Setting up and monitoring the network

  • Monitoring SR-TE (SRv6 and SR-MPLS) policies and RSVP-TE tunnels

  • Provisioning SR-MPLS policies and RSVP-TE tunnels

  • Mitigating network congestion

  • Defining and maintaining intent-based bandwidth requirements

Open Source Software Used in Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine

Lists of licenses and notices for open source software used in Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine.

Cisco Crosswork Network Automation API Documentation

Advanced users can integrate other Crosswork applications and third-party applications with Crosswork Optimization Engine functions by using application programming interfaces (APIs) delivering new capabilities into their network operations.

For more information, see the Cisco Crosswork Network Automation API Documentation on Cisco DevNet.

Open Bugs in Cisco Crosswork

If you encounter problems while working with Cisco Crosswork, please check this list of open bugs. Each bug ID in the list links to a more detailed description and workaround.

You can use the Cisco Bug Search Tool to search for a specific bug.

  1. Go to the Cisco Bug Search Tool.

  2. Enter your registered Cisco.com username and password, and click Log In.

    The Bug Search page opens.


    Note

    If you do not have a Cisco.com username and password, you can register here.

  3. To search for a specific bug, enter the bug ID in the Search For field.