The delayed switchback feature is primarily useful when switchback needs to be delayed after a host has reloaded and its various modules are still initializing. Also, in a scenario where the satellite is discovered by one host for which another host acts as the active host and successfully forwards traffic, delayed switchback helps ensure that the redundancy mechanism of dual host failover does not end up causing traffic outages by a premature failover.

Note

Even when the partner device is unable to forward traffic and cannot continue as an active host, a switchover can still occur. For ICL partitioned systems, the delayed switchback is guaranteed to consider only one partition. Issues in forwarding path for remaining partitions may not be considered for the hold timer. Currently, the feature applies only at a per-satellite level.

You can use the show nv satellite redundancy command to check if host is active or standby, figure out priorities for the local and partner device and understand different priority levels.

For details of this command, see the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router nV System Command Reference .

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Satellite system supports these redundancy modes:

• Non-redundant inter-chassis links mode - In this mode, there is no link level redundancy between inter-chassis links of a satellite.

• Redundant inter-chassis links mode - In this mode, the link level redundancy between inter-chassis links are provided using a single link aggregation (LAG) bundle.

In the redundant ICL mode, the host device load-balances the host to satellite traffic between the members of the ICL bundle using a simple modulo of access port number and number of active ICL bundle member links.

The satellite devices use a similar hashing function to load-balance satellite to host traffic between the members of the ICL bundle.

Each device independently implements the hash function to pin the access ports to the ICL member links for a traffic direction. L2 or L3 header contents from the packet are not used for flow based hashing of the access-port to the ICL bundle member links. This ensures that all packets use a single ICL for a given satellite access-port per direction. Although, each device might pick a different member for egress as they independently implement the hash function. As a result, the actions applied for QoS and other per-direction features still consider all the packets as belonging to a single physical port.

In order to find out the ICL bundle member link to which a given satellite access port is pinned to, check the Base Interface in the show command, show sits interface satellite-access-port

Router# show sits interface tenGigE 600/0/0/70

Interface Name           : TenGigE600/0/0/70
Interface IFHandle       : 0x00002ce0
Base Interface           : HundredGigE0/3/0/4
Base Interface IFHandle  : 0x0a0003c0
LAG Hash Index           : 72
Published Base interface : HundredGigE0/3/0/4
Published Base ifh       : 0x0a0003c0
Published LAG Hash       : 72
Sat Interface State in DB: Caps Publish Success

Note	If a satellite system is operating in redundant ICL mode, then Ethernet OAM features are not supported on the access ports of that satellite.

For more details on QoS application and configuration on ICLs, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router Modular Quality of Service Configuration Guide .

Cisco's proprietary discovery and control protocols are used between the satellite switches and the host Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router devices, to handle discovery, provisioning, and monitoring of the satellite devices from the host Cisco ASR 9000 Series Satellite System in-band over the ICLs. The Satellite Discovery And Control (SDAC) Protocol provides the behavioral, semantic, and syntactic definition of the relationship between a satellite device and its host.

The connectivity for the SDAC protocol is provided through a normal in-band IP routed path over the ICLs using private and public IP addresses appropriate for the carrier's network.

You can configure a management IP address on the host CLI for each satellite switch and corresponding IP addresses on the ICLs. You can select addresses from the private IPv4 address space (for example, 10.0.0.0/8 or 192.1.168.0/24) in order to prevent any conflict with normal service level IPv4 addresses being used in the IPv4 FIB. You can also configure a private VRF that is used for only satellite management traffic, so that the IP addresses assigned to the satellites can be within this private VRF. This reduces the risk of address conflict or IP address management complexity compared to other IP addresses and VRFs that are used on the router.

Note	Auto-IP is the recommended mode of configuration. For more information on Auto-IP mode, see Auto-IP.

This feature enables the host to create virtual fabric port interfaces locally to represent each of the fabric facing interfaces on the satellite.

Interfaces are created when either:

• Candidate fabric port configuration is applied to the satellite.

• The satellite informs the host that the port exists on the candidate fabric port channel.

• The satellite informs the host that the port exists and is in Active state on the topology channel.

This allows you to monitor the information related to the links within fabric ports and get their Layer 1 and Layer 2 parameters from the host. The satellite sends the ICL interface details to the host through the topology channel messages. You can run SNMP queries on these interfaces. The show interface nvFabric-TenGigE/GigE interface provides L1 details and L2 statistics for these interfaces. The host uses the information received on the topology channel to create the virtual fabric port interfaces locally. The topology channel TLVs are modified such that they provide the detail port definition in the format of slot/subslot/port. Currently, there is no TLV in Layer 1 and Layer 2 channel for MTU to be exchanged from host to satellite. Hence, the host just hard codes it to 9212.

Note

In the case of Cisco ASR 9000v, nVFabric-TenGigE interface is created irrespective of whether 1 GE or 10GE ICL is used. For Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellites nVFabric-HundredGigE and nVFabric-TengGigE interfaces are created for 100GE and 10GE ICLs. For Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellites nVFabric-HundredGigE interface is created irrespective of whether 40GE or 100GE ICL is used. And nVFabric-TengGigE interface is created for 10GE ICLs.

The virtual interfaces are deleted if they are not configured via the candidate fabric port configuration and:

• If the satellite informs the host that the port is no longer used as a fabric link.

• If the satellite is removed from the network topology.

• If the topology channel moves to “Down” state for other reasons, such as authentication failing due to an incorrect serial ID.

Interfaces created due to candidate fabric port configuration will never be deleted and will persist over the above conditions.

Note	The show nv satellite topology command is updated to use the name of the Satellite nV Fabric interface.

RP/0/0/CPU0:Router#show nv satellite topology

GigabitEthernet0/1/0/11
-----------------------
  Redundancy-Group: 10
  Ring Whole: False
  Discovery status: Running
  Satellites:
    Satellite 200 (BVID 2)
    ----------------------
      Received Serial Number: CAT1709U06V
      MAC address: 7cad.7404.6028
      Satellite fabric links:
        GE/0/0/11 (nVFabric-GigE200/0/0/11) (Remote ID: 0xb):
          Host (GigabitEthernet0/1/0/11)
        GE/0/0/10 (nVFabric-GigE200/0/0/10) (Remote ID: 0xa):
          Remote port not yet identified

----------

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:vkg1#sh nv sat topology
TenGigE0/3/1/2
--------------
  Redundancy-Group: 10
  Ring Whole: False
  Discovery status: Running
  Satellites:
    Satellite 100 (BVID 2)
    ----------------------
      Received Serial Number: CAT1721U0ED
      MAC address: 8478.ac03.6404
      Satellite fabric links:
        TenGE/0/0/46 (nVFabric-TenGigE100/0/0/46) (Remote ID: 0x3):
          Host (TenGigE0/3/1/2)
        TenGE/0/0/44 (nVFabric-TenGigE100/0/0/44) (Remote ID: 0x1):
          Remote port not yet identified

The Dynamic ICL feature allows you to configure ICL on the 1 GigE satellite ports 42 and 43 apart from the designated four 10GigE ports on the Cisco ASR 9000v and Cisco ASR 9000v2 satellites. The Cisco ASR 9000v satellites can have, by default, up to 6 potential ICLs. These are the four 10 GigE ports(44-47) and two 1 GigE ports (42-43) and 42 fixed 1 GigE access ports (0-41). The two 1 GigE ports (42-43) that are considered as potential ICLs are special ports that can be used either as ICLs or as access ports. When these two ports (42-43) are configured as access ports, they are not considered as potential ICLs thereafter and therefore behave like any other 1 GigE access ports till the next reload. When the satellite reloads and comes back up, those two ports again become as potential ICLs. When the satellite gets discovered and connects back to the host and if the host cross-link configuration still has the ports 42 and 43 as access ports, then these ports again switch to the access port mode and exhibit the behavior like any other 1 GigE access ports. This feature is supported on all the existing satellite topologies.

In case of dual head satellite mode, if any of these ports (42-43) is configured as access port in at least one of the host and if that host becomes active, then that port are not considered as potential ICLs anymore till next satellite reload. Also, the two ports (42 and 43) when used as access ports, lose the link integrity when the satellite reloads. The remote devices connected to these two ports stay up momentarily just after the satellite reload and till the satellite gets connected to the host and receives the cross-link configuration again.

You cannot bundle Dynamic ICL ports that are of dissimilar types. For example, you cannot bundle 1GigE and 10GigE ports.

Dynamic ICL is supported on 10G ports on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite either as an access port or an ICL fabric port based on user configurations done through the configurable fabric port functionality. By default, the highest 2x10G ports on both Cisco NCS 5001 (38 and 39) and Cisco NCS 5002 (78 and 79) are turned on as the ICL ports in the satellite mode (only the highest 10G port turns on for plug and play in factory reset / default mode). When the links come up over these default fabric ports and the satellite is connected, you can configure a list of candidate fabric ports. This gives the flexibility of using ports other than the default fabric ports as additional ICLs.

The default fabric ports (highest 2x10G ports) and the configured fabric ports lose link-integrity even if they are later configured as access ports until the satellite discovery goes down next. The default fabric ports permanently lose link integrity as they come up as potential ICLs every time the cross-link mapping to an ICL goes away. This is a necessary trade off to have certain ports available for zero touch plug and play. Therefore, at instances where link integrity is crucial, the default fabric ports, either must not be connected to such peers or must be connected over non-revertive switch-over topologies.

Configurable fabric ports

All satellite hardware variants have default set of fabric ports (permanent as well as dynamic) that can be used to connect them as ICLs. These include 4x10G ports and the highest 2x1G ports (port 42,43) for Cisco ASR 9000v. For Cisco NCS 5000 series satellites, these include 4x100G ports and the highest 2x10G ports. The highest 1G/10G ports are dynamic ICLs that can either be used as access ports or as ICLs based on whether they have an active mapping to another ICL at a given time or not.

Apart from these ports, the host also allows additional 10G ports on Cisco NCS 5000 series satellites to be configured as fabric ports. These are configurable as Candidate Fabric Ports on the host under the nV satellite global configuration. When the configured list is accepted, the satellite reports these interfaces to the host (including the default/permanent candidate fabric ports) and subsequently sends change notifications when that set changes or during re-synchronization with the host. The satellite might choose to reject some of these configured candidate fabric ports if they are already being used as active access ports. As in the case of the normal Satellite nV System fabric ports, these interfaces are deleted if they have no configuration presence and become inactive in the fabric topology, either as notified by the satellite over the topology channel, or if the satellite is entirely undiscovered by the host. The information about the nV fabric port, and specifically fabric port statistics, does not persist across deletion and re-creation of an nV Fabric interface with the same name.

An overlapping configuration using the same port as both access port and candidate fabric port is not recommended. However, when such a configuration is used, the behavior depends on the chronological ordering of whether the port was first discovered as an ICL or whether it got mapped as an access port to another active ICL. While a configuration is rejected to map the port in one mode when the port is already active in the other mode, there might be cases where the candidate fabric port is configured and is waiting to be discovered. If it is also mapped as an access port to another ICL, then the port becomes an active access port and cannot be discovered thereafter, until the access port mapping goes away.

The list of permanent and configured fabric ports, including their acceptance status is displayed in the status of show commands under Monitoring the Satellite Software section.

Note

With respect to the existing dynamic ICLs, link integrity is not supported for ports configured as fabric ports. Therefore, if they are also used as access ports, the ports will come up as soon as the access port mapping goes away. This is required for listening to discovery when they act as dynamic fabric ports.

The Multiple ICCP group feature allows you to configure multiple redundancy groups on a single host. These redundancy groups function completely independently of each other. The primary function of this feature is to support multiple satellites that are dual-homed to different but overlapping pairs of Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers.

In a multiple ICCP redundancy group setup, failovers can happen similar to the case of a basic Dual Home setup. See the Dual Home Mode for information on support for seamless split brain handling.

This feature provides redundancy for Inter-Chassis Links (ICLs) along with redundancy for satellite access ports. These are different deployment models for this feature:

• Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL links as non-redundant links.

• Satellite interfaces with ICL links as redundant links (ICL links in a bundle).

• Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL links as redundant links (ICL links in a bundle).

These are the topologies and features supported when bundles of satellite interfaces exist with redundant ICL bundles:

1. Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL redundant links to single host.

2. Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL redundant links to two hosts, which are connected by ICCP to provide node redundancy.

3. Bundles of Satellite interfaces with many ICL redundant links to single host.

4. Sub-interfaces over Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL redundant links to single host.

5. Sub-interfaces over Bundles of Satellite interfaces with ICL redundant links to two hosts.

6. LACP over virtual Satellite access member interfaces.

7. BFD configuration of BLB.

8. L2VPN support for both VPWS and VPLS connectivity.

9. IPv4 and IPv6 protocols with and without L3VPNs.

10. Netflow, ACL, and routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, ISIS.

11. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol(DHCP).

12. Host QoS and QoS offload are supported.

13. PBB-EVPN (Provider Backbone Bridging Ethernet Virtual Private Network) is supported with single homed, single active, and all active topologies with satellite access.

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Satellite system allows you to split or partition the satellite ethernet ports across multiple ICL interfaces. You can split the satellite ports between 4 ICLs in Cisco ASR 9000v satellite.You can split the satellite ports between upto 10 ICLs that can be either 100G or 10G ICLs in Cisco NCS 500x Series satellites. See Support of 10x10G ICLs on Cisco NCS500x satellites section for additional information.

Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) over satellite interfaces feature enables BFD support on satellite line cards. Satellite interfaces are known as virtual (bundle) interfaces. BFD uses multipath infrastructure to support BFD on satellite line cards. BFD over satellite is a multipath (MP) single-hop session and is supported on IPv4 address, IPv6 global address, and IPv6 link-local address. BFD over Satellite is supported on Cisco ASR 9000 4th Generation QSFP28 based dense 100GE line cards, Cisco ASR 9000 5th Generation High-Density Multi-Rate line cards. BFD over satellite is not supported in echo mode.

Note	The nV Satellite access port bundles do not support BFD over bundles (BoB) over physical or bundle ICLs The bfd multipath include location node-id command is required for all the line cards that host ICL links towards the Satellite.

Important points about BNG interoperability with nV system:

• The only topology that BNG supports with nV Satellite is bundle access on the CPE side with non-bundle ICL links, as shown below:

  CPE --- Bundle --- [Satellite] --- Non Bundle ICL --- ASR9K

• BNG does not support nV Satellite with bundle ICL and bundle access links, as shown below:

  CPE --- Bundle --- [Satellite] --- Bundle ICL --- ASR9K

All L2 and L2VPN features that are supported on physical ethernet or bundle ethernet interfaces are also supported on Satellite Ethernet interfaces, except L2TPv3 over IPv4 and L2TPv3 over IPv6. The maximum number of bundles supported by Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router is increased to 510.

For more details on L2VPN features supported on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Satellite System, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router L2VPN and Ethernet Services Configuration Guide.

All MPLS L3VPN features supported on ethernet interfaces are also supported on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Satellite nV System.

For more information on these features, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router MPLS Layer 3 VPN Configuration Guide and Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router Netflow Configuration Guide.

The nV Satellite interfaces support edge and access functionalities of Layer-2 and Layer-3 multicast features, similar to the support on normal Ethernet and Bundle Ethernet interfaces.

For more information on these features, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers Multicast Configuration Guide.

Most Layer-2, Layer-3 QoS and ACL features are supported on Satellite Ethernet interfaces that are similar to normal physical Ethernet interfaces, with the exception of any ingress policy with a queuing action. However, for QoS, there may be some functional differences in the behavior because, in the Cisco IOS XR Software Release 4.2.x, user-configured MQC policies are applied on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router, and not on the satellite switch interfaces.

For more detailed information on QoS offload and QoS policy attributes, features, and configuration, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router Modular Quality of Service Configuration Guide .

Note

User-configured QoS policies are independent of any default port level QoS that are applied in order to handle IC link congestion and over-subscription scenarios. In addition to the default port-level QoS applied on the satellite system ports, default QoS is also applied on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router Host side, to the ingress and egress traffic from and to the Satellite Ethernet ports.

The Time of Day parameter on the satellite switch is synchronized with the time of day on the host. This ensures that time stamps on debug messages and other satellite event logs are consistent with the host, and with all satellite switches across the network. This is achieved through the SDAC Discovery Protocol from the host to the satellite switch when the ICLs are discovered.

The chassis level management of the satellite is done through the host because the satellite switch is a logical portion of the overall virtual switch. This ensures that service providers get to manage a single logical device with respect to all aspects including service-level, as well as box-level management. This simplifies the network operations. These operations include inventory management, environmental sensor monitoring, and fault/alarm monitoring for the satellite chassis through the corresponding CLI, SNMP, and XML interfaces of the host Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router.

Note	The satellite system hardware features, support for SFPs, and compatible topologies are described in the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router Hardware Installation Guide.

Note	All the SNMP features supported on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series router is supported for satellite, provided the SystemOwner permissions are assigned to the snmp-server community. For more information, see Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router MIB Specification Guide.

The Address Resolution Protocol(ARP) redundancy support feature allows you to synchronize the ARP table entries between the active and standby hosts in a dual home mode. In the Dual Head mode, all satellite traffic flows to one host router (active host) and therefore all ARP entries reside on the active host. When the active host goes down, the standby host needs to rebuild the ARP table. But with a large number of devices, this can take a significant amount of time, impacting the network uptime. The process of synchronizing the ARP database between the active and standby hosts can reduce this downtime. The synchronization happens as and when a new entry is learnt or when the active host goes down. There is no specific frequency for synchronization. You can also pause or restart the synchronization process whenever required.

The ARP database is distributed across all the nodes (RP/LC) in the router. The ARP entries are programmed for an interface only in the node where the data plane is replicated. In case of virtual interfaces (like Bundle-Ether, BVI and so on), where the control plane is located in RP, the ARP entries are programmed only in the line cards wherever the data plane is replicated. The RP would have entries only for the physical interfaces that have its control plane in RP like Management interfaces. The Txlist infrastructure library facilitates the ARP table entries synchronization process to happen. The ARP table has three key entries, which are the IPv4 address, MAC address, and the corresponding interface.

The current architecture can support only two host nodes in a redundancy group. But a specific host router can be part of multiple redundancy groups. This is a sample configuration for ARP synchronization.

 
group <id-number>
    peer <neighbor ipv4 address>
    source-interface <interface-name>
    interface-list
      interface <interface-name to be synced> id <unique-id>
    !
  !
!

You can use the show arp redundancy summary location command to display the summary of entries.

The Satellite nV system Ethernet interfaces support Ethernet Link OAM feature when ICL is a physical interface. Cisco IOS XR Software also supports Ethernet Link OAM feature over Satellite Ethernet interfaces when the ICL is a bundle interface.

The 802.3ah loopback feature allows you to loopback all the non OAMPDU packets from the remote subordinate node. The primary port is the one that controls the loopback status on the remote node. You can conduct various performance and quality testing on the remote subordinate port using this feature. This loopback mode is disruptive because the traffic does not flow through the router in subordinate state. The Loopback function is supported on the satellite nV system ports both in over protected and unprotected ICL modes. You can define the loopback function on the primary node using the remote-loopback command in the ethernet oam interface configuration mode.

You can use the ethernet oam loopback enable <interface> and ethernet oam loopback disable <interface> commands from the primary node to enable and disable the loopback respectively on the subordinate node.

Note	You cannot loopback the Layer 2 protocol packets such as CFM, OAM, and LACP.

This configuration snippet shows how to configure loopback.

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:router(config)# interface gigabitEthernet 0/1/0/9         
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:router(config-if)# ethernet oam
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:router(config-if-eoam)# remote-loopback
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:router(config-if-eoam)# commit

This is a sample output of the show ethernet oam discovery command, which indicates that loopback is supported.

RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:router# show ethernet oam discovery

Local client
------------
  Administrative configuration:
    PDU revision:                         9
    Mode:                            Active
    Unidirectional support:               Y
    Link monitor support:                 Y
    Remote loopback support:              Y <<Indicates loopback is supported
    MIB retrieval support:                Y
    Maximum PDU size:                  1500
Operational status:
    Port status:                Operational
    Loopback status:                 Remote  <<Indicates primary
    Interface mis-wired:                  N

For more information on Ethernet OAM configuration and commands, see the chapters Configuring Ethernet OAM and Ethernet OAM Commands on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router modules in the Interface and Hardware Component Configuration Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers and Interface and Hardware Component Command Reference for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers respectively.

The Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite runs virtualized IOS XR software and mainly consists of three Virtual Machines (VM), the XR VM, the System Admin VM and the Host VM.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host supports the capability to push native Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite XR VM images and SMU fixes from the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host similar to satellite nV pie image upgrades from Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.1.2 onwards.

This capability is expanded to native Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite System Admin VM and Host VM images and SMU fixes from Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.3.1 onwards.

This provides the flexibility of managing the software images and pies on the satellite and also offers the zero touch provisioning model of nV satellites. The commands can be run on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host for addition and activation of both upgrade images and mandatory SMUs and this allows a fast turnaround time for any critical fixes on Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite.

A maximum of 10x10G ICL ports can be connected from the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite to each of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host in a Layer 1 Hub and Spoke topology (both single and dual head modes) using this feature. The ICLs could be either a 10G ICL or one of the 4x100G ICLs, amounting to a maximum of 10 physical links with each of the hosts.

The 10G ICLs have to be configured using the configurable fabric port feature. The 10x10G ICL links can be configured as members of a Bundle ICL or Physical ICL. If they are used as members of a Bundle ICL, then members must be distributed across NPs or line cards to achieve redundancy and overcome access port scale constraints. Furthermore, the bundle ICL can take up to 10x10G members and still have 100G links as ICLs in a mixed bundle and physical ICL connectivity for 10G to 100G fabric transitions for each of the hosts.

• Qos offload

• Fabric CFM for both physical and bundle ICLs and dual head modes.

Similarly, fabric CFM on bundle ICLs in Layer 1 Hub and Spoke topology is supported for Cisco ASR 9000v Satellites.

40G ICL ports can be connected from the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite to the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router in a single host hub and spoke topology. This feature is supported only with the A9K-8X100G-SE and A9K-8X100G-TR variants of the Cisco ASR 9000 High Density 100GE Ethernet line cards and specifically with the optics CPAK-100G-SR10 breaking out to 2xQSFP-40G-SR4 ports. The breakout configuration will have to be applied to the CPAK in order to provision the 40G ports on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host. For details on the breakout configuration, see Managing the Router Hardware chapter in Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router System Management Configuration Guide.

ICL bundles can also be configured with 40G ICL links.

MACsec encryption is an IEEE 802.1AE standards based layer 2 hop-by-hop encryption that provides data confidentiality and integrity for media access independent protocols. MACsec Key Agreement Protocol (MKA) developed as part of 802.1X allows for peer discovery, confirmation of mutual authentication, and agreement of secret keys that may be used by MACsec to protect any data exchanged between peers. For details, see Implementing MACsec Encryption chapter in the System Security Configuration Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers.

MACsec sessions are supported on 1G access interfaces over 10G ICL on the Cisco ASR 9000v Satellite and on both 1G and 10G access interfaces over either 10G candidate ICL or 100G ICL on the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite.

These are the restrictions and limitations of the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite:

Hardware Limitations

• Since A99-10X400GE-X-TR/SE line cards have 400G ports and satellites have only 100G ICL ports, use QSFP-100G-SR4 optics on the satellite side and the optic QDD-2X100G-SR4-S, configured to breakout into 2 100GE ports, on the host side. For information on breakout configurations, see Managing Router Hardware chapter in System Management Configuration Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers

• Satellite hosting line cards must be second or third generation Ethernet cards on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router. The line card can be –TR or –SE. If –TR, each satellite access gets 8 TM queues and overall nV and other scale limitations persist.

• The native Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite SMU push feature, supported from Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.1.1, stores Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite images and pies on the disk.

• 100G ICLs are only supported on the 8x100G or 4x100G Cisco ASR 9000 High Density 100GE Ethernet line cards and the 1x100GE and 2x100GE MPAs..

• On the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host, 40GE ICL is supported only on the A9K-8X100GE-SE and A9K-8X100GE-TR variants of the Cisco ASR 9000 High Density 100GE Ethernet line cards with the optic pluggable CPAK-100G-SR10 breaking out into 2xQSFP-40G-SR4.

• Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites require manual disk cleanup of inactive packages to continue having space for subsequent software upgrades. You can get the inactive package list from the output of show nv satellite install package on the host and then, remove the inactive/old packages through install nv satellite <satellite id> remove package <package name> .

General Limitations

• Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite is supported as a satellite on Layer 1 Hub and Spoke topology in both single and dual host connectivity. The other advanced topologies are not supported.

• Unlike Cisco ASR 9000v satellite, Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite does not reboot on being disconnected from the Host for more than 30 minutes as there are internal mechanisms to auto correct/recover the driver issues without reloads on this device.

• Auto QoS on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite follows a trusted CoS model and only differentiates incoming frames based on their CoS/DSCP values. No specific bandwidth reservation is done for any other protocol packets implicitly.

• Auto QoS on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite cannot classify incoming frames on the access ports based on MPLS exp. So, any tunneled high priority packet based on just MPLS exp may not get the right scheduling weights.

• Fan RPM thresholds are adaptive and driven using algorithms for optimum speed thresholds. Only fan tray online insertion and removal and fan failure alarms are reported.

• 10GE ports can operate at restricted speeds of 10/100/1000 M on qualified optics. While the software does not support changing the speed and auto negotiation parameters for such ports using the configuration commands, the port will always auto negotiate to the maximum peer capability. Hence, the restricted speed operations are only supported with peers which can also auto negotiate. The interfaces continue to be named as 10GE interfaces with 10/100/1000 M only reflecting in the operating speed, bandwidth, and route metrics

• Due to the remote port configuration being mapped to a satellite id rather than a specific satellite type internally, 1G remote port configuration from legacy satellites may also be allowed for Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite id. However, this is a misconfiguration and the satellite ports must always be configured as 10G ports even when 1G optics are used. This is in line with the previous restriction on 10G ports being used for 1G optics but still being 10G ports operating at restricted speeds. 1G remote port configuration is rejected by the satellite otherwise.

• Existing caveats for the features – on loaded on the Host and offloaded, if any to the satellite remain. The addition of this new satellite variant does not implicitly add enhanced capabilities. None of the offload features on Cisco ASR9000v are supported on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites unless explicitly stated.

• Only a maximum of 40 Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites for each Cisco ASR 9000 Series Host are allowed.

• Scale restrictions for QoS offload are same as regular QoS on the Cisco NCS 5000 Series routers.

• When upgrading the Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite from an older image to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.1.x or later, the auto FPD upgrade feature has a caveat which requires a one time manual upgrade of FPD images during this upgrade on each of the Cisco NCS 500x satellite. This upgrade procedure is similar to that of a standalone Cisco NCS 500x device where an upgrade hw-module fpd <> CLI is used in the admin mode of the satellite console. For more details on the standalone procedure, refer the Upgrading FPD chapter in the System Management Configuration Guide for Cisco NCS 5000 Series Routers.

• QoS offload on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites cannot support multiple marking action. For more details on remaining action support, please see the QoS offload supported capability matrix in the Supported Platform-Specific Information for QoS Offload section of Modular QoS Configuration Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers.

• While Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites can support up to 10 members in a bundle ICL, the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Host has hardware restrictions on the number of access ports that can be supported for each NP. As the access ports are instantiated for each member of a bundle ICL, the maximum number of access ports supported in Layer 1 Hub and Spoke topology(200), can be easily exceeded if the bundle ICL members are on the same NP. For example, in a case where all 80 ports of a Cisco NCS 5002 satellite are mapped to a bundle ICL, only two members would consume up to 160 access port resources. Hence, the expectation would be to spread out such members across NPs and line cards to achieve the maximum supported scale as well as redundancy benefits.

• For the native SMU push feature, combo SMUs, tar balls, and non-XR SMUs are not supported. Only Cisco IOS XR SMUs(process restart or reload) in rpm format is supported by this infrastructure.

• When 40G ports are used as 40G ICLs on the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite, the 40G ports are nothing but the 100G ports operating at restricted speed with no auto negotiation. The interfaces will continue to be named as HundredGigE interfaces and just the operating speed, bandwidth and route metrics will be reflected as 40G. The corresponding fabric ports created on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host will also be displayed as nVFabric-HundredGigE ports even though they operate at 40G speed.

• Only Hub and Spoke single host topology is supported with 40G ICL ports.

• We do not recommend you to perform an RSP switchover in between a satellite install operation through reference lists or the file option (For more information on these install operation variants, see the topic Install Reference Command). This is because the install operation remains incomplete even after the RSP switchover is over. To recover from this condition, you should terminate the incomplete install operation manually after the RSP switchover and then start a new install operation.

nV satellite auto image upgrade feature introduces support for automated upgrade of the satellite image in these two scenarios:

• Following the Cisco IOS XR software release upgrade

• Satellite is connected to a host and the image on the satellite is not matching the one packaged in Cisco IOS XR software

To configure the nV satellite auto image upgrade feature, use the upgrade on-connect command in nV satellite configuration.

Note	Starting with Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.6.1, the command for configuring nV satellite auto image upgrade feature is upgrade [on-connect | on-first-connect] <reference ref_name >.

Note

For dual-head satellite systems, the auto upgrade configuration must only be applied on one host, that is, the host that the satellite will install from. There is currently no checking for this, and if the user applies the configuration on both hosts and the hosts have different satellite versions installed, then the satellite may go into a loop of installing, until either: the configuration is removed from one host OR the satellite version activated on both hosts is the same

Note

The auto upgrade feature downgrades the satellite image automatically if the host software is downgraded to a release that still supports this feature. This is unintentional as the downgrade of some of the satellite firmware like ROMMON is not supported. It is recommended to turn off the auto upgrade feature before such downgrade operations.

Auto Upgrade Behavior

Auto upgrade on-connect variant means that a satellite is auto upgraded to the current version installed on the host the next time the TCP connection to the satellite is established. On establishing the TCP connection, the configuration is checked, and an upgrade is started if the version is not the latest and the user has configured auto upgrade on-connect.

Note

Starting with Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.3.1, auto upgrade on-first-connect variant is similar but the configuration check and upgrade happens only during the first time when the TCP connection is established. If the satellite is in a discovered state, TCP connection may reset but auto upgrade will not take place.

on-connect or on-first-connect does not trigger an auto upgrade at the time of applying the configuration (and so does not impact a satellite that is already connected). However, given that a satellite upgrade impacts traffic, a notification syslog is generated any time the configuration is applied to a connected satellite that currently does not have the latest software version installed.

Note	The auto upgrade feature stops a satellite from progressing further into the control state machine, until the operation is complete.

Note

Due to the above mentioned behavior of auto upgrade and because the Cisco ASR 9000v satellite does not support ROMMON downgrade, a downgrade to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.x based releases on the host will end up with the satellites being stopped until the downgrade completes, which would never happen because the ROMMON cannot be downgraded. This can result in the Cisco ASR 9000v satellites stuck in auto upgrade and not coming up. The recommendation is to turn off auto upgrade for any downgrade to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.x on the host from any other future release that has a higher ROMMON version for Cisco ASR 9000v.

Note

For the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite, auto upgrade to a reference list of software packages is possible with an optional reference keyword and reference name along with upgrade [on-connect | on-first-connect] configuration. For more details on defining a named reference list, refer to the section Install Reference Command. On Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host running IOS XR 64 Bit operating system, auto upgrade for the Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite is only possible with the reference list due to restrictions in supporting the satellite nV pie.

The provision of new variants to the telnet command simplifies the process of accessing satellites. These new variants of the telnet command make it easier to the users with specific task groups to be able to telnet to the satellite.

There are two methods of using the command:

• If the satellite is connected, the user can specifically use the satellite ID to connect.

  Example: telnet satellite 100 ----> telnet to satellite with ID 100.

  An error message is generated if this method does not work.

• If the satellite is not connected, the user can use the VRF and IP address of the satellite to connect.

  Example: telnet satellite vrf default 1.2.3.4 ----> telnet to a satellite in the default VRF with IP address 1.2.3.4

  Note	The VRF must always be specified by the user. If the user has configured any IP address configuration, then the VRF is either default or the configured VRF name. Else, the VRF is the hidden satellite VRF name (**nVSatellite). The VRF is visible in the status command when applicable.

The Management Plane Protection (MPP) feature in Cisco IOS XR software provides the capability to restrict the interfaces on which network management packets are allowed to enter a device.

User MPP configuration requiring to allow Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) if any other MPP configuration is present on the router, is complicated, especially when users do not know the protocol being used to download image for nV Satellites. The upgrade of the satellite image fails unless an entry is added to MPP configuration for the satellite VRF (if any) to allow TFTP through the Inter-Chassis Link (ICL) interface .

The enhancement to skip MPP checks for nV satellites configured with auto IP, automatically allows TFTP over the satellite ICL interface (for satellite image download) by skipping MPP checks for authenticated satellites. TFTP is only allowed under the hidden satellite VRF name (**nVSatellite). So, any satellites configured with manual IP or VRF will still need MPP configuration to be modified to allow TFTP for the configured VRF on the ICL .

The Auto IP feature improves the plug-and-play set up of an nV satellite system. With the Auto IP feature, IP connectivity to the satellite is automatically provisioned. As a result:

• The nV Satellite Loopback interface is created on the host

• Loopback interface is given an IP address from a private satellite VRF

• Satellite fabric links are unnumbered to the loopback interface

• The IP address assigned to satellite is auto-generated from the satellite VRF

In the case of Auto IP, you need not specify any IP addresses (including the IP address on the Satellite itself, under the satellite submode), and the nV Satellite infrastructure assigns suitable IP addresses, which are taken from the 10.0.0.0/8 range within a private VRF to both the satellites and the satellite fabric links. All such Auto IP allocated satellites are in the same VRF, and you must manually configure IP addresses, if separate VRFs are required.

Note	You cannot combine auto-configured Satellites with manually configured Satellites within the same satellite fabric.

The auto-IP feature assigns an IP address in the format 10.x.y.1 automatically, where:

• x is the top (most significant) 8 bits of the satellite ID

• y is the bottom 8 bits (the rest) of the satellite ID

Note	The Auto-IP configuration is the recommended mode of configuration over the manual Host IP address configuration. You can also override the Auto IP feature by using the standard IP configuration.

For examples on configuration using the Auto-IP feature, see Configuration Examples for Satellite nV System.

The access 1Gigabit Ethernet/10GigE interfaces on the satellite are represented locally in Cisco IOS XR Software using interfaces named Gigabit Ethernet similar to other non-satellite 1Gigabit Ethernet/10GigE interfaces. The only difference is that the rack ID used for a satellite access 1Gigabit Ethernet/10GigE interface is the configured satellite ID for that satellite.

These interfaces support all features that are normally configurable on 1Gigabit Ethernet/10GigE interfaces (when running over a physical ICL), or Bundle-Ether interfaces (when running over a virtual ICL).

Note

With respect to the dual home mode, the satellite access port configuration needs to be done on both the active and standby hosts. The administrator needs to make sure that the same configuration is applied for a particular access port on both the active and standby hosts. In addition, any feature configurations on satellite-access ports needs to be configured identically on both the hosts. Also, the configuration synchronization between the hosts is not currently supported. See Satellite Interface Configuration.

1. Unpack the satellite rack, stack, and connect to the power cord.

2. Plug in the qualified optics of correct type into any one or more of the SFP+ slots and appropriate qualified optics into SFP+ or XFP slots on the host. Connect through the SMF/MMF fiber.

   When Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite is used as satellite, plug in the Cisco NCS 5002/NCS 5001 qualified 100G optics into the first QSFP28 slot (100GigE 0/0/1/0) and a qualified CPAK optics on the host. Connect through a regular SMF fiber. Only one time bootstrap requires the 1st port. Otherwise, any of the 100GigE ports on the satellite can be used.

   For 10G and 40G ICLs, a similar bootstrap on fixed ports is needed for plug and play operation in case of first time boot up after a factory reset. The highest 10G port turns on for plug and play in factory reset mode.

   Note

   The Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite is shipped in a factory mode. When the satellite is discovered for the first time, it would automatically detect itself as a satellite on receiving probes from the host and would go for a reset and come up in satellite mode. This would be transparent to the user and happens only on a first time discovery of a Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite. Subsequent reloads or image upgrades will not trigger or require an extra reload.

   Note	The nV system can use Cisco ASR 9904, Cisco ASR 9006, Cisco ASR 9010, Cisco ASR 9901, Cisco ASR 9906, Cisco ASR 9910, Cisco ASR 9912 and Cisco ASR 9922 Series Routers as hosts. The Cisco ASR 9000v Satellite or the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite can be used as satellite devices.

   To configure wavelength on DWDM SFP+, use the following CLI command on satellite console:

   test dwdm wavelength set ppmId wavelength_channel_number

   Note	ppmId = port number -1

   The following example shows how to configure wavelength channel 20 on port 45.

   Satellite#test dwdm wavelength set 44 20

   To see the configured wavelength, use the following CLI command on satellite console:

   • show satellite dwdm-dump ppmId

   • show satellite inventory port 45

   Note	It is mandatory to configure the same wavelength on both hosts and satellite, you can follow the same steps above on the hosts.

3. Configure the host for nV operations as described in the sections Defining the Satellite nV System, Configuring the Host IP Address and Configuring Inter-Chassis Links and IP Connectivity. Configure the satellite nV system through CLI or XML on the host on 100GigE ports for Cisco NCS 5002 Satellite.

4. Power up the chassis of the satellite device.

   Note	For power supply considerations of ASR 9000v, refer to the Appendix C, Cisco ASR 9000 and Cisco CRS Satellite Systems of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router Hardware Installation Guide online.

5. You can check the status of the satellite chassis based on these chassis error LEDs on the front face plate.

   • If the Critical Error LED turns ON, then it indicates a serious hardware failure.

   • If the Major Error LED turns ON, then it indicates that the hardware is functioning well but unable to connect to the host.

   • If the Critical and Major LEDs are OFF, then the satellite device is up and running and connected to the host.

   • You can do satellite ethernet port packet loopback tests through the host, if needed, to check end to end data path.

Note	When the satellite software requires an upgrade, it notifies the host. You can do an inband software upgrade from the host, if needed. Use the show nv satellite status on the host to check the status of the satellite.

Note

For the satellite image upgrade to work, you must ensure that the management-plane CLI is not configured on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router. If it is configured, then you need to add this exception for each of the 10GigE interfaces, which are the satellite ICLs. This is not required for auto IP configurations from Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.2.

The following are some of the restrictions of Synchronous Ethernet offload within an nV system:

• Only limited syncE offload support is provided to customers in release 5.2.0.

• ASR9000v and NCS 5000 are the supported satellites.

• Hub-and-spoke (Dual-home) is the only supported topology.

• Physical and Bundle ICLs are supported.

• Host cannot synchronize to the satellite.

• Minimal configuration support.

• Minimum show command support.

• Only supported for directly connected satellites in hub-and-spoke topologies.

• Commands to configure the host's fabric interfaces as syncE inputs are not permitted, as synchronizing the host to one of its sites is not supported.

• Application of Frequency Synchronization configuration commands on the satellite access ports is not permitted.

• SyncE offload features will not work on Copper SFPs and GLC-GE-100FX SFPs.

• SyncE offload is supported only on 10G ICL ports of ASR9000v1/v2 satellites operating in 10G mode.

• SyncE offload is not supported on 1G ICL ports and 10G ICL ports operating in 1G mode of ASR9000v1/v2 satellites.

The following are some of the restrictions of syncE offload on Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite:

• SyncE offload on Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite is only supported for a directly connected Hub-and-Spoke topology with no intermediate devices between the host and the satellite. The mode can either be a single or a dual head nV system.

• EDC ports cannot be used to receive SyncE signals on Cisco NCS 5000 series satellite. There should be at least one 100G ICL or a 10G ICL other than the EDC ports to receive SyncE from the Host. On Cisco NCS 5002 satellite, EDC ports are from ports 40-79 and on Cisco NCS 5001 satellite, they are from ports 16-39.

• There is no support to receive clocking from the satellite or satellite access towards the host. While the host side configuration for receive isn’t blocked, only transmit is supported.

• Clock selection is done only based on the best QL value. Priority is not considered. If two clock sources are received with same QL value, then one clock source is selected arbitrarily.

• Logs from Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite frequency synchronization event changes or errors will not be sent to the host logging buffers.

• SyncE input configuration options, such as selection input or quality receive, are not supported on satellite nV access-interfaces.

• The only syncE offload configuration options that are available on the satellite ICL ports are enable and disable .

• SyncE offload is not supported with 40GE ICL ports between the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host and the Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite.

A hub-and-spoke topology is the simplest topology where a centralized hub is connected to the peripherals called "spokes" and it can be used for syncE offload in an nV system. In this topology, the satellites are directly connected to the host by using several links or a single link bundle. The methods are as follows:

• Satellite connected with several devices—The satellites are connected to the host through several links.

• Satellites connected with a link bundle— The satellites are connected to the host through a single link bundle.

The Inter-Chassis Links (ICLs) appear as point-to-point links for the host and the satellite. When you set up a dual-host satellite, ensure that you apply identical configuration on each host to avoid synchronizing the configuration between the two hosts.

To implement syncE offload:

• The host is configured to derive a frequency signal from the external clock source and to provide frequency synchronization to the satellites using the host's fabric interfaces.

• Satellite based configuration is not required. The user must configure the syncE offload feature considering the host as a standalone or non-nV device. The user must configure syncE offload on the fabric interfaces using the existing syncE configuration.

  Note	In a dual host system, the syncE offload configuration on both the hosts must be identical to ensure consistency if one of the hosts fail.

• After receiving the valid SyncE signal and the Quality Level (QL) that the associated Ethernet Synchronization Message Channel Synchronization Status Messages (ESMC SSMs) over one or more of its fabric links, the satellite selects one of the fabric links to synchronize to, and uses this timing stream to drive SyncE output on its access interfaces.

  Note	There is no configuration that controls the behavior of the satellite device and synchronization is enabled automatically on both its fabric interfaces and access interfaces after SyncE information is received.

• You can configure any downstream device to synchronize with this syncE signal.

Basic Configuration:

• Configuration of syncE offload on the host(s) includes:

  • Configuring external clock source as frequency input.

  • Configuring ICL interfaces as syncE outputs, with ESMC output.

• SyncE is disabled by default. It will be automatically enabled on the satellite after ESMC packet is received.

• Use syncE specific show commands on the host to verify the state of the satellite. The show frequency synchronization interfaces command is extended to show satellite access port information.

The Soft minimum active links feature for dual home mode allows you to configure a minimum number of active links in a bundle satellite-fabric-link. Hence, in a Dual Home setup, if the number of active links to the active host is less than the configured minimum due to any failure on member links, then the satellite failover to the standby host. When soft minimum active links is configured, failover is executed if another suitable host is available or else the traffic is left unaffected. In the case where both the active and standby hosts have less active links than the configured values, then no switch over occurs.

Note	If a split brain event occurs followed by the number of active links on the active host dropping below the configured amount, then the satellite does not failover unless there are no active links remaining.

The Hard Minimum Active links feature for Single Host mode allows the user to configure the number of bundle members which must be active in order for traffic to go through that route. This is achieved by shutting down the access ports on the satellite should the threshold not be satisfied. This allows the Customer Edge devices connected to the satellite to immediately detect the degradation and reroute traffic accordingly.

Detection of active links falling below the configured value is done on both the host and the satellite.

• Host Side Detection

  The host monitors the state of bundle members and when the number of active links falls below the configured value, it requests the satellite to bring down the access ports, over the L1 channel. This is implemented on both Cisco ASR 9000v Satellite and Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite.

  

  In the above figure, the traffic can pass through 2 possible routes from the Core router to the Customer Edge (CE) device. The route taken by the initial traffic flow is indicated in the above figure. Host A has a hard minimum active links configuration of 3 on its bundle ICL with Satellite A. If one of the bundle members of the Bundle ICL goes down, the following sequence of events take place:

  1. Host A detects that the bundle member of the bundle ICL has gone down. Now, the number of active links are below the hard minimum active links configuration.

  2. Host A updates Satellite A and the satellite brings down the satellite nV access-interfaces.

  3. Loss of signal is detected on the CE device and the traffic takes the alternate route as indicated by the "rerouted traffic flow" in the above figure.

• Satellite Side Detection

  The host sends the hard minimum active links configuration to the satellite. The satellite monitors the state of the ICL bundle member links and brings down access ports on crossing threshold for the number of hard minimum active links. Access port state is then sent to the host. This improves convergence times, and ensures that the access ports are still shut down on the satellite if the TCP connection is down. The satellite side detection is implemented only on the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite.

  

  For example, in the same topology as before, these events take place during the satellite side detection.

  1. Host A informs the Satellite A of the hard minimum active links configuration when the satellite is in connected state.

  2. When the bundle member goes down, Satellite A detects it. Now, the number of ICL bundle member links is below the hard minimum active links value.

  3. Satellite A immediately brings down the satellite nV access interfaces and updates the Host A.

  4. Host A detects that the satellite nV access interfaces have gone down and makes the routing update. Though it may have already done this during the host side detection. And as in host side detection, when the satellite nV access interfaces are down, the interfaces on the CE device also go down.

Note

In the event that the number of ICL bundle members links becomes lower than the hard minimum active links value, the satellite side detection is faster compared to the host side detection. And thus satellite side detection results in faster traffic convergence. Since Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite supports satellite side detection, the traffic convergence will be faster than with a Cisco ASR 9000v Satellite where only host side detection is supported.

Image Upgrade for Cisco ASR 9000v Satellite

The asr9k-asr9000v-nV-px.pie contains two sets of binaries, namely, the intermediate binaries and the final binaries. When a Satellite nV system running Cisco IOS XR Software prior to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.1.1 is upgraded to Cisco IOS XR Release 5.1.1, the satellite downloads the intermediate binaries and reloads as per the instructions of the operator. These intermediate binaries include the logic to request the file name from the host rather than hard coding the file name. Also, they automatically trigger the second download (final binaries) without requiring manual intervention. When a Satellite nV system running Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.1.1 or later is upgraded to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.x, the satellite does not require intermediate image transfers and reloads once with the latest image.

Note

The show nv satellite status command does not display the intermediate version. However, it displays the final Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.1.1 and prompts for any further upgrade. But, internally two reloads happen. On the other hand, when you upgrade from Cisco IOS XR Release 5.1.x to future releases, two reloads do not occur. When you downgrade, the system does not downgrade two releases. CFM needs to be disabled if image upgrade is done over Bundle ICL for Cisco ASR9000v satellite.

Note	An auto transfer internal message comes up when the second software reload happens, which requires no explicit user-intervention.

Note	For upgrading from a release prior to Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.1.1, the Satellite nV System must be connected in the Hub and Spoke topology as the previous releases do not support the dual head mode.

Image Upgrade for Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite

The existing nV pie based satellite image packaging model is extended to Cisco NCS 5000 series satellites from Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.0.1. The image binary including all device FPD upgrade is done through asr9k-ncs500x-nV-px.pie as in the case of Cisco ASR9000v. The upgrade image for Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellites including firmware is available as an nV pie on the Cisco ASR 9000, which once activated can be used to push images to the relevant satellites in the connected state.

Note

A message indicating a successful image upgrade is displayed in show nv satellite status command even if the image upgrade has failed on the satellite. However the show nv satellite status command will show that satellite does not have the latest image even after the upgrade. Whereas, in Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.0, in case of a failure, the host tries to transfer the image indefinitely; the upgrade will recover with subsequent retries if the failure is transient. A syslog message on the host indicates that retry is in progress. On the other hand, for Cisco IOS XR Software Release 5.3.1 and later, in case of a failure, the host tries to transfer the image indefinitely. Additionally, install nv satellite <sat-id> abort command can be used to stop any active image upgrade operations on a particular satellite.

Note

For the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite, the native satellite image cannot be added and activated on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host running the IOS XR 64 bit operating system due to its large size. Hence for loading a new image on the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite, the procedure mentioned in the section Installing native images and SMUs for Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite needs to be followed. Transfer and activation of the Cisco NCS 5000 Series Satellite image can be initiated either directly from the TFTP or from the hard disk of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router host.

These are the port-level parameters that can be configured on a satellite nV system:

• Admin state (shut and no shut)

• Ethernet MTU

  Note	For Cisco ASR 9000v access ports, the maximum MTU is 9212 for a hub and spoke topology. For Cisco NCS 5000 series satellite access ports, the maximum MTU is 9158.

• Ethernet MAC Address.

• Ethernet link auto-negotiation that includes,

  • Half and full duplex

  • Link speed

  • Flow control

• Static configuration of auto-negotiation parameters such as speed, duplex, and flow control

• Carrier-delay

  Note

  The Cisco ASR 9000v satellite does not support asymmetric carrier-delay values for access ports. If the host side configuration includes asymmetric values, the satellite applies the minimum of the two for both the up and down carrier-delay values. If any of the carrier-delay values from the host side is less than 100ms, then the satellite applies the value of 100ms, as that is the smallest supported value for carrier-delay. The Cisco NCS 5000 Series satellite supports both symmetric and asymmetric carrier-delay values for access ports.

• Layer-1 packet loopback which includes,

  • Line loopback

  • Internal loopback

• All satellite access port features on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router.

There are two types of loopback interfaces that can be configured on satellite ports. They are,

• Line Loopback

• Internal Loopback

These illustrations show how the loopback interface types function on a satellite.

You can specify the type of loopback to be used, as specified in this example:

Interface GigabitEthernet 100/0/0/0

loopback line | internal