Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Release Notes, Release 6.1(2)

December 13, 2024

Release 6.1(2g) became available.

December 4, 2024

Release 6.1(2f) became available.

Base functionality

Port channel dynamic load balancing

Port channel dynamic load balancing (DLB) is a networking technique that distributes traffic across multiple links in a port channel based on the load of each link. Port channel DLB adjusts traffic distribution on the links of a port channel based on the current load of the links. The switch monitors the egress traffic load on each link and selects the link with the least utilization to distribute the traffic. Port channel DLB results in efficient traffic distribution and improved network performance.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 2 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Cisco ACI border gateways

With the Cisco ACI border gateway (BGW) solution, you can classify policies on the Cisco ACI border gateways for the Layer 2 or Layer 3 prefixes that are advertised from the VXLAN EVPN domain.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.1(x)

Support for warm standby

The warm standby functionality enables you to synchronize data when the pod or data center site is healthy. The same healthy pod or data center site is used when the pod or data center site is lost. When a disaster occurs, the warm standby has the data, and can recover the cluster without data loss.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Custom throttle group

The custom throttle group feature enables prioritization of different clients and applications and adjusts the throttle rates for the applications.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC support for NGINX Rate Limit document.

ERSPAN Destination on ACI access span L3Out

Use the SPAN destination group feature to direct ERSPAN traffic to a remote endpoint behind an L3Out.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Basic Configuration Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Interoperability

Common policy enhancements

Integrating Cisco ISE with Cisco ACI enables the exchange of group information between Cisco APIC and ISE and is part of the Common Policy architecture, which supports the sharing of group context among various controllers connected to ISE as a central context exchange hub. In this release, support has been extended for VRF ingress policy and shared services.  

For details about the Cisco APIC and ISE integration, see the Cisco APIC and Cisco ISE Integration document.

Ease of use 

BPS and PPS in egress direction

Both Bit policer mode (Bits-Per-Seconds: BPS) and Packet Policer mode (Packet-Per-Seconds: PPS) modes are supported in egress direction.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Security Configuration Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Enhanced APIC GUI

Enhanced APIC GUI for better look-and-feel, and customer experience.

For details about the GUI enhancements, see the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Base Functionality

Support for Embedded Logic Analyzer Module (ELAM) Assistant

The Embedded Logic Analyzer Module (ELAM) Assistant is integrated with the APIC GUI.

For details, see the ELAM Assistant User Guide.

Role changes from leaf to spine for Nexus -GX switches

You can change the default role for the Cisco Nexus -GX switches before they are discovered by the fabric.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.1(x)

Device Connector as a service in APIC

The Nexus Insights Cloud Connector is supported as an APIC internal component.

For more information, see the Cisco APIC and Intersight Device Connector.

Security

Security certificate compliance for OSPFv3

For enhanced security, support for encryption and authentication for OSPFv3 sessions.  

For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide, Release 6.1(x).

Performance and scalability

Support for eBGP multipath

With the eBGP multipath and add path functionalities you can now stretch eBGP peering directly to forwarding nodes and all the next-hops for an IP prefix publish all unique next-hops within the ACI fabric.

For more information, see the Simplify Outside Network Connections Using Floating L3Outs.

CSCwm38976

EP behind a Remote Leaf accessing the server behind a non anchor node in floating L3out in the main pod. It fails because the BL in the main pod uses PTEP for non anhor nodes instead of Routable TEP. We do not allocate a Routable TEP for a leaf if it is configured as a nonanchor node in floating L3out and does not have a regular L3out.

This is a baseline issue.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwn21313

snmptrapd service runs only on the leader APIC. If snmp is not enabled in snmp policy attached to pod containing leader apic, snmp traps will not get forwarded to the external server.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvt99966

A SPAN session with the source type set to "Routed-Outside" goes down. The SPAN configuration is pushed to the anchor or non-anchor nodes, but the interfaces are not pushed due to the following fault: "Failed to configure SPAN with source SpanFL3out due to Source fvIfConn not available".

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvy40511

Traffic from an endpoint under a remote leaf switch to an external node and its attached external networks is dropped. This occurs if the external node is attached to an L3Out with a vPC and there is a redistribution configuration on the L3Out to advertise the reachability of the external nodes as direct-attached hosts.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwf48875

When using two different host profiles (for example UCS C-Series and UCS B-Series) to deploy NSX, the uplink policy will be different for the host profiles. In this case, using one uplink profile with two policies might cause traffic disruption for a non-default teaming policy.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwm67578

BL to BL traffic for Campus-l3out, policy applies at ingress BL but in certain can for shared-transit Campus l3out we apply policy at engress BL.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwm61872

VDS policy is modified in Multciast Filtering Mode from IGMP / MLD Snooping to Basic (Legacy) if any vSwitch Policy from the APIC its modified and then pushed in to the vCenter.

6.1(2f)

CSCwk29928

Stale prefix entries are left behind for bindings that are no longer associated with the service graph template.

When the bindings are learned from other service graph template, prefix entries failed to get installed due to the stale entries.

6.1(2f)

CSCwi28712

Additional entries of svcredirRsBackupDestAttMo and svcredirRsDestAttMo are created in a leaf switch. This can impact the traffic hash and can lead to traffic drop.

6.1(2f)

CSCwj94689

In a high scale scenario, ISE is missing some of the Cisco ACI endpoints.

6.1(2f)

CSCwk62539

Service graph template subnets (resolved managed object type: fvSubnetHost256) are mistakenly removed in the Cisco APIC and policy engine, and the corresponding prefix entries are also uninstalled.

6.1(2f)

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The AAA Providers GUI page does not display.

6.1(2f)

CSCwk35828

In the IS-IS Domains table, the IS-IS Databases column shows the number of databases. However, if you click the number to see more information about the IS-IS databases, the quantity of databases shown in the dialog to does not match the number shown in the IS-IS Domains table.

6.1(2f)

CSCwj82851

In LA, ISE can't subscribe to the uSeg (micro-segmentation) EPG.

6.1(2f)

CSCwi85801

In-Band Management Access, the Next button not clickable on the first try if the In-Band IPv4 Gateway input box is set to focus.

6.1(2f)

CSCwf99067

Deleting and re-adding RedirectDest with a different IP address, but the same MAC address, generates the following error: "Same virtual MAC is provided for different RedirectDest".

6.1(2f)

CSCwk79672

The Cisco APIC upgrade status is stuck in the "Post Upgrade Pending" state.

6.1(2f)

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The Cisco APIC upgrade or downgrade time has increased.

6.1(2f)

CSCwk37514

An external EPG in an L3Out that is used to connect to the campus is missing even though the corresponding service graph in the outbound filter still exists.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwj60150

The configuration (EPGs, Contracts, External EPGs etc) is out-of-sync between APIC and ISE.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwi86409

SGT bindings missing on ACI.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwf78521

A GOLF spine switch advertises the bridge domain prefixes to a GOLF peer in multiple VRF instances.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwn30213

If user configures a ongoing atomic counter policy, they may see faults related to packet loss (F1545 and F1547) raised against nodeToVpc paths involving Border Gateways.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvj26666

The "show run leaf|spine <nodeId>" command might produce an error for scaled up configurations.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvj90385

With a uniform distribution of EPs and traffic flows, a fabric module in slot 25 sometimes reports far less than 50% of the traffic compared to the traffic on fabric modules in non-FM25 slots.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvq39764

When you click Restart for the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) agent on a scaled-out setup, the service may stop. You can restart the agent by clicking Start.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvq58953

One of the following symptoms occurs:

App installation/enable/disable takes a long time and does not complete.

Nomad leadership is lost. The output of the acidiag scheduler logs members command contains the following error:

Error querying node status: Unexpected response code: 500 (rpc error: No cluster leader)

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvr89603

The CRC and stomped CRC error values do not match when seen from the APIC CLI compared to the APIC GUI. This is expected behavior. The GUI values are from the history data, whereas the CLI values are from the current data.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvs19322

Upgrading Cisco APIC from a 3.x release to a 4.x release causes Smart Licensing to lose its registration. Registering Smart Licensing again will clear the fault.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvs77929

In the 4.x and later releases, if a firmware policy is created with different name than the maintenance policy, the firmware policy will be deleted and a new firmware policy gets created with the same name, which causes the upgrade process to fail.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvx75380

svcredirDestmon objects get programmed in all of the leaf switches where the service L3Out is deployed, even though the service node may not be connected to some of the leaf switch.

There is no impact to traffic.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvx78018

A remote leaf switch has momentary traffic loss for flushed endpoints as the traffic goes through the tglean path and does not directly go through the spine switch proxy path.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvy07935

xR IP flush for all endpoints under the bridge domain subnets of the EPG being migrated to ESG. This will lead to a temporary traffic loss on remote leaf switch for all EPGs in the bridge domain. Traffic is expected to recover.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvy10946

With the floating L3Out multipath recursive feature, if a static route with multipath is configured, not all paths are installed at the non-border leaf switch/non-anchor nodes.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvy34357

Starting with the 6.1(1) release, the following apps built with the following non-compliant Docker versions cannot be installed nor run:

6.1(2f) and later

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The file size mentioned in the status managed object for techsupport "dbgexpTechSupStatus" is wrong if the file size is larger than 4GB.

6.1(2f) and later

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In the "Visibility and Troubleshooting Wizard," ERSPAN support for IPv6 traffic is not available.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvz84444

While navigating to the last records in the various History sub tabs, it is possible to not see any results. The first, previous, next, and last buttons will then stop working too.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCvz85579

VMMmgr process experiences a very high load for an extended period of time that impacts other operations that involve it.

The process may consume excessive amount of memory and get aborted. This can be confirmed with the command "dmesg -T | grep oom_reaper" if messages such as the following are reported:

         oom_reaper: reaped process 5578 (svc_ifc_vmmmgr.)

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwa78573

When the "BGP" branch is expanded in the Fabric > Inventory > POD 1 > Leaf > Protocols > BGP navigation path, the GUI freezes and you cannot navigate to any other page.

This occurs because the APIC gets large set of data in response, which cannot be handled by the browser for parts of the GUI that do not have the pagination.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwe18213

The logical switch created for the EPG remains in the NSX-T manager after the EPG is disassociated from the domain, or the logical switch does not get created when the EPG is associated with the domain.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwf71934

Multiple duplicate subnets are created on Nutanix for the same EPG.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwh74888

With the addressing of CSCwe64407, a release that integrates that bug fix can the reference of a static VLAN pool in a VMM domain, which before was not possible. However, if the VMM domain is used by Layer 4 to Layer 7 virtual services and the VMM domain is referencing a static VLAN pool, the services do not work and a fault is raised.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwh92539

After upgrading a Cisco APIC from a release before 5.2(8) to release 6.1(1) or later, there is a loss of out-of-band management connectivity over IPv6 if the APIC has dual stack out-of-band management. However, IPv4 connectivity remains intact. This issue does not occur if the out-of-band management is only IPv4 or only IPv6.

6.1(2f) and later

CSCwk21572

License manager occasionally cores after image upgrade.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

Beginning in Cisco APIC release 4.1(1), the IP SLA monitor policy validates the IP SLA port value. Because of the validation, when TCP is configured as the IP SLA type, Cisco APIC no longer accepts an IP SLA port value of 0, which was allowed in previous releases. An IP SLA monitor policy from a previous release that has an IP SLA port value of 0 becomes invalid if the Cisco APIC is upgraded to release 4.1(1) or later. This results in a failure for the configuration import or snapshot rollback.

The workaround is to configure a non-zero IP SLA port value before upgrading the Cisco APIC, and use the snapshot and configuration export that was taken after the IP SLA port change.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

If you use the REST API to upgrade an app, you must create a new firmware.OSource to be able to download a new app image.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

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.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

With a non-english SCVMM 2012 R2 or SCVMM 2016 setup and where the virtual machine names are specified in non-english characters, if the host is removed and re-added to the host group, the GUID for all the virtual machines under that host changes. Therefore, if a user has created a micro segmentation endpoint group using "VM name" attribute specifying the GUID of respective virtual machine, then that micro segmentation endpoint group will not work if the host (hosting the virtual machines) is removed and re-added to the host group, as the GUID for all the virtual machines would have changed. This does not happen if the virtual name has name specified in all english characters.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

A query of a configurable policy that does not have a subscription goes to the policy distributor. However, a query of a configurable policy that has a subscription goes to the policy manager. As a result, if the policy propagation from the policy distributor to the policy manager takes a prolonged amount of time, then in such cases the query with the subscription might not return the policy simply because it has not reached policy manager yet.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

When there are silent hosts across sites, ARP glean messages might not be forwarded to remote sites if a leaf switch without -EX or a later designation in the product ID happens to be in the transit path and the VRF is deployed on that leaf switch, the switch does not forward the ARP glean packet back into the fabric to reach the remote site. This issue is specific to transit leaf switches without -EX or a later designation in the product ID and does not affect leaf switches that have -EX or a later designation in the product ID. This issue breaks the capability of discovering silent hosts.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

Typically, faults are generally raised based on the presence of the BGP route target profile under the VRF table. However, if a BGP route target profile is configured without actual route targets (that is, the profile has empty policies), a fault will not be raised in this situation.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

MPLS interface statistics shown in a switch's CLI get cleared after an admin or operational down event.

6.1(2f) and later

N/A

MPLS interface statistics in a switch's CLI are reported every 10 seconds. If, for example, an interface goes down 3 seconds after the collection of the statistics, the CLI reports only 3 seconds of the statistics and clears all of the other statistics.

6.1(2f) and later

Microsoft Hyper-V

N/A

VMM Integration and VMware Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS)

6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0.

Note: vSphere 8.0 does not support the vCenter Plug-in and Cisco ACI Virtual Edge (AVE). If you need to continue to use the vCenter Plug-in and Cisco AVE, use vSphere 7.0.

Cisco ACI Virtualization Guide, Release 6.0(x)

APIC-L2

Cisco APIC with large CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (more than 1000 edge ports)

APIC-L3

Cisco APIC with large CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (more than 1200 edge ports)

APIC-L4

Cisco APIC with large CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (more than 1200 edge ports)

APIC-M2

Cisco APIC with medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (up to 1000 edge ports)

APIC-M3

Cisco APIC with medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (up to 1200 edge ports)

APIC-M4

Cisco APIC with medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory configurations (up to 1200 edge ports)

Cisco UCS M4-based Cisco APIC

The Cisco UCS M4-based Cisco APIC and previous versions support only the 10G interface. Connecting the Cisco APIC to the Cisco ACI fabric requires a same speed 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-negotiates to 10G without requiring any manual configuration.

Cisco UCS M5-based Cisco APIC

The Cisco UCS M5-based Cisco APIC supports dual speed 10G and 25G interfaces. Connecting the Cisco APIC to the Cisco ACI fabric requires a same speed 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-negotiates to 10G without requiring any manual configuration.

N2348UPQ

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.

N9K-C9348GC-FXP

This 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.

N9K-C9364C-FX

Ports 49-64 do not support 1G SFPs with QSA.

N9K-C9508-FM-E

The Cisco N9K-C9508-FM-E2 and N9K-C9508-FM-E fabric modules in the mixed mode configuration are not supported on the same spine switch.

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

The Cisco 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 locator LED enable/disable feature is supported in the GUI and not supported in the Cisco ACI NX-OS switch CLI.

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

This fabric module must be physically removed before downgrading to releases earlier than Cisco APIC 3.0(1).

N9K-X9736C-FX

The locator LED enable/disable feature is supported in the GUI and not supported in the Cisco ACI NX-OS Switch CLI.

N9K-X9736C-FX

Ports 29 to 36 do not support 1G SFPs with QSA.

Cisco NX-OS

16.1(2)

Cisco UCS Manager

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

CIMC HUU ISO

Network Insights Base, Network Insights Advisor, and Network Insights for Resources

For the release information, documentation, and download links, see the Cisco Network Insights for Data Center page.

For the supported releases, see the Cisco Data Center Networking Applications Compatibility Matrix.

Cisco Nexus 9000 ACI-Mode Switches Release Notes, Release 16.1(2)

The release notes for Cisco NX-OS for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches.

Verified scalability guide, Release 6.1(2)

This guide contains the maximum verified scalability limits for Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) parameters for Cisco APIC and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches.

APIC REST API Configuration Procedures

This document resides on developer.cisco.com and provides information about and procedures for using the Cisco APIC REST APIs. The new REST API procedures for this release reside only here and not in the configuration guides. However, older REST API procedures are still in the relevant configuration guides.