Guidelines and Limitations
The guidelines and limitations for installing and upgrading Cisco DCNM are as follows:
General Guidelines and Limitations
-
Adhere to the following password requirements. If you do not comply with the requirements, the DCNM application might not function properly:
-
It must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one alphabet and one numeral.
-
It can contain a combination of alphabets, numerals, and special characters.
-
Do not use any of these special characters in the DCNM password: <SPACE> " & $ % ' ^ = < > ; : ` \ | / , .*
-
From Cisco DCNM Release 11.0(1), the characters that are allowed in the Administrative password is restricted for OVA and ISO installations. Therefore while upgrading, the old password used in DCNM 11.0(1) or 11.1(1) is not valid. However, different passwords are allowed during Upgrade.
The new Administrative password that is entered is used in the following scenarios.
—accessing the DCNM appliance via its console.
—accessing the appliance via SSH
—for applications running on the appliance, e.g. Postgres DBMS
However, after the upgrade, since Postgres DBMS is restored from the backup that is taken on DCNM 10.4(2), you must logon to the Cisco DCNM Web UI using the password used on DCNM Release 10.4(2) appliance.
-
-
Do not interrupt the boot process (such as pressing the Ctrl+ALT + DELETE keys) when installing DCNM. If you interrupt, you must restart the installation process.
-
Ensure that you configure the timezone after installation or upgrade, before performing any other operations on the Cisco DCNM Appliance. Use the NTP server for configuring timezones.
-
To check the status of the running Postgres database in Native HA setup, use pg_ctl command. Do not use the systemctl command.
-
Do not begin the password with Hash (#) symbol. Cisco DCNM considers the password as an encrypted text if it begins with # symbol.
-
We recommend that you do not upgrade any underlying third-party software separately. All the necessary software components will be updated during the inline upgrade procedure. Upgrading the components outside of DCNM upgrade will cause performance issues.
Fresh Installation
-
For Virtual Appliances (OVA/ISO), the installer installs the Operating system and Cisco DCNM components.
-
The DCNM OVA cannot be deployed by connecting the vSphere client directly to the ESXi server.