First Published: December 18, 2023

Last Updated: March 26, 2024

About Cisco Enterprise NFVIS


Note
To achieve simplification and consistency, the Cisco SD-WAN solution has been rebranded as Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. In addition, from Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Release 17.12.1a and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Release 20.12.1, the following component changes are applicable: Cisco vManage to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, Cisco vAnalytics to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics, Cisco vBond to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator, Cisco vSmart to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, and Cisco Controllers to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Control Components. See the latest Release Notes for a comprehensive list of all the component brand name changes. While we transition to the new names, some inconsistencies might be present in the documentation set because of a phased approach to the user interface updates of the software product.

Find all the information you need about this release—new features, known behavior, resolved and open bugs, and related information.

What's New

New and Enhanced Features for Cisco Enterprise NFVIS Release 4.13.1

Feature

Description

Cisco NFVIS Support For Cisco UCS C M6 Rack Servers

Starting from Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1, Cisco NFVIS software is supported on Cisco UCS C-Series M6 Rack Servers as a term-based license. Order Cisco NFVIS software smart license along with the Cisco UCS C-Series M6 Rack Servers product purchase.

Resolved and Open Bugs for Cisco Enterprise NFVIS Release 4.13.1

Open Bugs for Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1

Identifier

Headline

CSCwi21221

QuickConnect UI fail to import, export and Create New site-id. Pop-up is not shown.

CSCwi21272

Password fields are not masked in Add and Review Device Configuration page

CSCwi04590

Secondary gateway configuration is accepted and show up in the configuration without route

CSCwi41226

Speed/duplex in showpnic,ethtool are UP for ENCS and Cisco Catalyst Edge uCPE 8200, DOWN for Cisco Catalyst Edge uCPE 8300/Cisco UCS C-Series M6 for same config

CSCwh55989

The vrrp/hsrp does not work due to packets sent by the vm over sriov interface using IGB driver

Important Notes

  • Starting from Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1, install Cisco NFVIS using a smart license on Cisco UCS C M6 Rack Servers.

  • Starting from Cisco NFVIS Release 4.10.1, the guest VNF settings are automatically preserved from the previous release version, when you upgrade to a newer release version. You don't have to reinstall NFVIS to update the guest VNF settings. For more information see, Upgrade Cisco NFVIS.

  • Starting from Cisco NFVIS Release 4.10.1, Cisco NFVIS is based on open source AlmaLinux distribution. In Cisco NFVIS Release 4.9.x and earlier releases, Cisco NFVIS was based on CentOS Linux distribution which is now end-of-life. The support for CentOS Linux distribution will be discontinued in June 2024.

  • If you are using I-350 based Network Interface Cards (NICs) that use IGB drivers, the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is not supported due to a limitation of MAC addresses that can be used in your network.

System Requirements

The following resources are required for a standalone Cisco Enterprise NFVIS:

  • For a system that has 16 or less CPU cores, one CPU core is reserved for NFVIS. For a system that has more than 16 CPU cores, 2 CPU cores are reserved for NFVIS.

  • For a system that has 32 GB or less of RAM, 3 GB is reserved for NFVIS. For a system that has more than 32 GB of RAM, 4 GB is reserved for NFVIS.

  • 20 GB storage.

  • For NFVIS portal, the minimum supported version of browsers are:

    • Mozilla Firefox 66

    • Google Chrome 71

    • Windows 10 Edge

    • MacOS 10.15 Safari


Note

More memory and disk space are required to be added to the system, depending on VM deployments.

Supported Programs and Platforms

Supported Programs

The Cisco Meraki vMX solution is supported on Cisco's Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software (NFVIS). For more information see, vMX Setup Guide for NFVIS.

Supported Platforms

The following table lists the only supported platforms and firmware for Cisco ENFV

Table 1.

Platform

Firmware

Version

C8200-UCPE-1N8

BIOS

C8200-UCPE_1.04.103020201614

MCU

240.52

ENCS 5406, ENCS 5408, and ENCS 5412

BIOS

ENCS54_BIOS_3.06.SPA

CIMC

CIMC_3.2.14.14.bin

WAN Port Driver

5.4.0-5-k CISCO

LAN Port Driver

1.4.22.7-11-ciscocsx

C8300-UCPE

BIOS

C83uCPE_BIOS_1.03.SPA

CIMC

CIMC_4.12.0.296R.bin

UCS C-Series M6 Rack Servers

BIOS

C240M6.4.3.2c.0.0726232000

CIMC

HUU version 4.3(2.230207)

Guest VNFs

This section provides support statements for different guest Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) that you can run on Cisco Routing virtual platforms that are enabled by the Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1.

Cisco Router VNFs


Note

  • Cisco provides deployment and configuration support for the VNF versions listed below, when these VNFs are deployed on Cisco Routing virtual platforms that are enabled by Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1.

  • Cisco provides support on a case-by-case basis for unlisted combinations of Cisco NFVIS releases and VNF version combinations.
Table 2. Software Download Links

Product Homepage

Software Download

Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software

17.13.1

17.12.1

17.11.1

17.10.1

17.9.3

17.9.1

17.8.1

17.7.1

17.6.3

Cisco vEdge

20.9.1

20.9.3

20.6.5

20.3.7

20.8.1

20.7.1

20.6.3

20.3.5
Table 3. Supported Linux Drivers for SR-IOV Acceleration

Platform

NIC Type

VM OS Kernel Driver Version

VM OS DPDK Version

Cisco ENCS

Intel 1350 for GEO-0 and GEO-1

2.3.9.6 or higher (igbvf)

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Intel XL710

iavf 4.5.3 or higher

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Edge uCPE

Intel 1350 for GEO-2 and GEO-5

2.3.9.6 or higher (igbvf)

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Intel-l X553 1GbE for GEO-0 and GEO-1

4.9.3 or higher version (ixgbevf)

 DPDK 19.11 or higher

Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series Edge uCPE

Intel E810 GEO-0 to GEO-6

iavf 4.18.7 or Higher

DPDK 21.11.2 or higher

Cisco UCS C M6 Rack Servers

Intel X550 LOM

GE0-0 & GE0-6

4.9.3 or higher version (ixgbevf)

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Cisco UCS C M6 Rack Servers

UCSE-PCIE-1D 10GF (Intel X710-DA4 Quad port 10 GB)

iavf 4.5.3 or higher

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Cisco UCS C M6 Rack Servers

Intel i350 Quad Port 1 GB Adapter

2.3.9.6 or higher (igbuf)

DPDK 19.11 or higher

Other Cisco Owned VNFs


Note

  • Limited testing is done to ensure you can create a guest VM instance using the software download image for these versions, as posted on Cisco Software download page.

  • For full-support statement see the individual product release documentation.

The following section provides information about generic Linux Distro Images (Ubuntu 22.10 & Alma 8.6 or similar) that can be deployed on Cisco NFVIS Release 4.13.1. See the above table for details on the SRIOV driver that is required on the guest Linux VM based on the platform.

Table 4. Software Download Links

Product Homepage

Software Download

Security VNFs

Cisco NGFW (FTDv)

6.6.1-91

6.6.0-90

Cisco ASAv

9.14.2

9.14.1

WAN Optimization VNFs

Cisco vWAAS

6.4.5a-b-50

6.4.5-b-75

6.4.3c-b-42

Non-Cisco Vendor Owned VNFs

You can run VNFs owned by various vendors on Cisco’s NFV platforms enabled by NFVIS . Formal support for these VNFs requires a joint effort between Cisco and the VNF vendor.

Cisco offers VNF vendors a "for-fee" NFVIS 3rd-party certification program to test and certify their VNFs on Cisco’s virtualized platforms. After testing and certification is complete, the results are published on this page- Cisco Enterprise NFV Open Ecosystem and Qualified VNF Vendors.

For more specific support details about VNF versions and test compatibility matrix with NFVIS releases, see the VNF release documentation on the vendor support site.

As a NFVIS customer, if you need a unique combination of NFVIS release and a specific VNF version, you may submit your certification request to Cisco at nfv-ecosystem@cisco.com or reach out to the VNF vendor support team asking them to initiate a certification on the Cisco platform.

Related Documentation