Network Convergence System 5000 Series Routers

The Network Convergence System 5000 Series offers a high-density, small-form-factor MPLS aggregation router for metro aggregation. It is designed to economically scale large enterprise, over-the-top (OTT), and service provider Data Center networking architectures.

The Cisco NCS 5000 Series is an extension to Cisco’s routing platform portfolio enabling Service Providers and MPLS enabled data center architectures to offer elastic networks with improved business agility and simplified operations to deliver high-bandwidth mobile, video, and cloud services.

The Cisco NCS 5000 series routers are small form factor dense aggregation systems. Powered by industry leading routing operation system, IOS-XR, the system also offers rich functions such as third party application hosting, machine-to-machine interface, telemetry and flexible package delivery.

The Cisco NCS 5000 series router is not supported in the standalone mode in IOS XR Release 7.10.1. It is only supported as a satellite to the ASR 9000 Router. For information on satellite features, see Release Notes for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers, IOS XR Release 7.10.1.

Release 7.10.1 Packages

This table lists the Cisco IOS XR Software feature set matrix (packages) with associated filenames.

Table 1. Release 7.10.1 Packages for Cisco NCS 5000 Series Router

Composite Package

Feature Set

Filename

Description

Cisco IOS XR IP Unicast Routing Core Bundle

ncs5k-mini-x.iso

Contains base image contents that includes:

  • Host operating system

  • System Admin boot image

  • IOS XR boot image

  • Alarm co-relation

Individually-Installable Optional Packages

Feature Set

Filename

Description

Cisco IOS XR Manageability Package

ncs5k-mgbl-3.0.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

 XML, Parser, HTTP Server, Telemetry, and gRPC.

Cisco IOS XR MPLS Package

ncs5k-mpls-3.1.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), MPLS forwarding , MPLS operations , Administration and maintenance (OAM), Layer3-vpn, layer-2 vpn.

Cisco IOS XR MPLS RSVP TE package

ncs5k-mpls-te-rsvp-1.1.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

Supports MPLS RSVP-TE (Resource Reservation Protocol with Traffic Engineering extensions)

Cisco IOS XR Security Package

ncs5k-k9sec-3.2.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

 Support for Encryption, Decryption, and Secure Shell (SSH)

Cisco IOS XR Multicast Package

ncs5k-mcast-2.2.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

Multicast routing protocols (PIM, IGMP, Auto-rp, BSR) and infrastructure (Multicast routing information Base), Multicast forwarding (mfwd)

Cisco IOS XR ISIS package

ncs5k-isis-2.2.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

Supports ISIS

Cisco IOS XR OSPF package

ncs5k-ospf-2.0.0.0-r7101.x86_64.rpm

Supports OSPF

Caveats

Table 2. Cisco NCS 5000 Series Router Specific Bugs

Bug ID

Headline

CSCwf89722

EVPN VPWS down post migrating from Multi-homing to Single-Homing.

CSCwf81475

Netflow IPv6: The record-ipv6 reports incorrect interfaces with outbundlemember or outphysint options

Behavior Changes

Starting with Cisco IOS XR Software Release 7.10.1, you must configure a name server for Smart Licensing deployment options that use HTTPS for communication with Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM). If the system cannot validate that the Common Name (CN) in the X.509 server certificate is a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), communication with CSSM results in an Error during SSL communication. See the Smart Licensing Chapter in the System Management Configuration Guide for NCS 5000 Series Routers for more information and options to bypass the name server configuration.

Important Notes

Upgrading Cisco IOS XR Software

Cisco IOS XR Software is installed and activated from modular packages, allowing specific features or software patches to be installed, upgraded, or downgraded without affecting unrelated processes. Software packages can be upgraded or downgraded on all supported card types, or on a single card (node).

Before starting the software upgrade, use the show install health command in the admin mode. This command validates if the statuses of all relevant parameters of the system are ready for the software upgrade without interrupting the system.


Note

  • If you use a TAR package to upgrade from a Cisco IOS XR release prior to 7.x, the output of the show install health command in admin mode displays the following error messages: 

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP0# show install health
. . .
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rw-r--r--. 1 8413 floppy 3230320 Mar 14 05:45 <platform>-isis-2.2.0.0-r702.x86_64
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rwxr-x---. 1 8413 165 1485781 Mar 14 06:02 <platform>-k9sec-3.1.0.0-r702.x86_64
ERROR /install_repo/gl/xr -rw-r--r--. 1 8413 floppy 345144 Mar 14 05:45 <platform>-li-1.0.0.0-r702.x86_64

You can ignore these messages and proceed with the installation operation.

Production Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs)

A production SMU is a SMU that is formally requested, developed, tested, and released. Production SMUs are intended for use in a live network environment and are formally supported by the Cisco TAC and the relevant development teams. Software bugs identified through software recommendations or Bug Search Tools are not a basis for production SMU requests.

For information on production SMU types, refer the Production SMU Types section of the IOS XR Software Maintenance Updates (SMUs) guide.

Cisco IOS XR Error messages

To view, search, compare, and download Cisco IOS XR Error Messages, refer to the Cisco IOS XR Error messages tool.

Cisco IOS XR MIBs

To determine the MIBs supported by platform and release, refer to the Cisco IOS XR MIBs tool.