Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator Release Notes, Release 2.2(3)

Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator Release Notes, Release 2.2(3)

This document describes the features, issues, and limitations for the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Multi-Site Orchestrator software.

Cisco ACI Multi-Site is an architecture that allows you to interconnect separate Cisco APIC cluster domains (fabrics), each representing a different availability zone, all part of the same region. This helps ensure multitenant Layer 2 and Layer 3 network connectivity across sites and extends the policy domain end-to-end across the entire system.

Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator is the intersite policy manager. It provides single-pane management that enables you to monitor the health of all the interconnected sites. It also allows you to centrally define the intersite policies that can then be pushed to the different Cisco APIC fabrics, which in term deploys them on the physical switches that make up those fabrics. This provides a high degree of control over when and where to deploy those policies.

For more information, see Related Content.

Contents

■        New Software Features

■        New Hardware Features

■        Changes in Behavior

■        Open Issues

■        Resolved Issues

■        Known Issues

■        Usage Guidelines

■        Compatibility

■        Scalability

■        Related Content

■        Legal Information

New Software Features

Cisco ACI Multi-Site, Release 2.2(3) supports the following new features.

New Hardware Features

This release of Cisco ACI Multi-Site adds support for N9K-C9364C-GX as leaf switches.

The complete list of supported hardware is available in the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Hardware Requirements Guide.

Changes in Behavior

If you are upgrading to this release, you will see the following changes in behavior:

■        Starting with Release 2.2(3j), the template deployment screen has been updated to show additional details about the objects and policies being deployed. You can now see precisely what is being added, removed, or updated for each object and policy on each APIC site.

The following screenshot shows an example of initial Schema deployment where all objects will be created on two APIC sites:

If you then modify one of the objects and re-deploy the schema, the action changes from “Created” to “Modified” and you can mouse over it to display specific changes:

■        Additional External EPG subnet flags have been exposed through the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI.

Prior to Release 2.2(3), only the following subset of external EPG subnet flags available on each site’s APIC was managed by the Multi-Site Orchestrator:

—      Shared Route Control—configurable in the Orchestrator GUI

—      Shared Security Import—configurable in the Orchestrator GUI

—      Aggregate Shared Routes—configurable in the Orchestrator GUI

—      External Subnets for External EPG—not configurable in the GUI, but always implicitly enabled

Starting with Release 2.2(3), all subnet flags available from the APIC can be configured and managed from the Orchestrator:

—      Export Route Control

—      Import Route Control

—      Shared Route Control

—      Aggregate Shared Routes

—      Aggregate Export (enabled for 0.0.0.0 subnet only)

—      Aggregate Import (enabled for 0.0.0.0 subnet only)

—      External Subnets for External EPG

—      Shared Security Import

When upgrading to this release from Release 2.2(2) or earlier, any subnet flags previously unavailable in the Orchestrator GUI will be imported from the APIC and added to the Orchestrator configuration. All imported flags will retain their state (enabled or disabled) with the exception of External Subnets for External EPG, which will remain enabled post-upgrade. If you had previously explicitly disabled the External Subnets for External EPG flag directly in the APIC (for example, in Cloud APIC use case) you will need to disable it again through the Orchestrator GUI.

When downgrading from this release to Release 2.2(2) or earlier, the subnet flags not available in those releases will be cleared and set to disabled in the sites’ APICs. You can then manually enable them directly in each site’s APIC if necessary.

For additional information on these flags, see the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide.

■        When upgrading from a release prior to Release 2.2(1), a GUI lockout timer for repeated failed login attempts is automatically enabled by default and is set to 5 login attempts before a lockout with the lockout duration incremented exponentially every additional failed attempt.

■        If you configure read-only user roles in Release 2.1(2) or later and then choose to downgrade your Multi-Site Orchestrator to an earlier version where the read-only roles are not supported:

—      You will need to reconfigure your external authentication servers to the old attribute-value (AV) pair string format. For details, see the "Administrative Operations" chapter in the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide.

—      The read-only roles will be removed from all users. This also means that any user that has only the read-only roles will have no roles assigned to them and a Power User or User Manager will need to re-assign them new read-write roles.

■        Starting with Release 2.1(2), the 'phone number' field is no longer mandatory when creating a new Multi-Site Orchestrator user. However, because the field was required in prior releases, any user created in Release 2.1(2) or later without a phone number provided will be unable to log into the GUI if the Orchestrator is downgraded to Release 2.1(1) or earlier. In this case, a Power User or User Manager will need to provide a phone number for the user.

■        If you are upgrading from any release prior to Release 2.1(1), the default password and the minimum password requirements for the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI have been updated. The default password has been changed from ‘We1come!” to “We1come2msc!” and the new password requirements are:

—      At least 12 characters

—      At least 1 letter

—      At least 1 number

—      At least 1 special character apart from * and space

You will be prompted to reset your passwords when you:

—      First install Release 2.2(x)

—      Upgrade to Release 2.2(x) from a release prior to Release 2.1(1)

—      Restore the Multi-Site Orchestrator configuration from a backup

■        Starting with Release 2.1(1), Multi-Site Orchestrator encrypts all stored passwords, such as each site’s APIC passwords and the external authentication provider passwords. As a result, if you downgrade to any release prior to Release 2.1(1), you will need to re-enter all the passwords after the Orchestrator downgrade is completed.

To update APIC passwords:

a.       Log in to the Orchestrator after the downgrade.

b.      From the main navigation menu, select Sites.

c.       For each site, edit its properties and re-enter its APIC password.

To update external authentication passwords:

a.       Log in to the Orchestrator after the downgrade.

b.      From the navigation menu, select Admin à Providers.

c.       For each authentication provider, edit its properties and re-enter its password.

Open Issues

This section lists the resolved issues. Click the bug ID to access the Bug Search tool and see additional information about the issue. The "Fixed In" column of the table specifies the relevant releases.

Resolved Issues

This section lists the resolved issues. Click the bug ID to access the Bug Search tool and see additional information about the issue. The "Fixed In" column of the table specifies whether the bug was resolved in the base release or a patch release.

Known Issues

This section lists known behaviors. Click the Bug ID to access the Bug Search Tool and see additional information about the issue. The "Exists In" column of the table specifies the relevant releases.

Usage Guidelines

This section lists usage guidelines for the Cisco ACI Multi-Site software.

■        In Cisco ACI Multi-Site topologies, we recommend that First Hop Routing protocols such as HSRP/VRRP are not stretched across sites.

■        HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS and there is no HTTP support globally or per user basis.

■        Up to 12 interconnected sites are supported.

■        Proxy ARP glean and unknown unicast flooding are not supported together.

Unknown Unicast Flooding and ARP Glean are not supported together in Cisco ACI Multi-Site across sites.

■        Flood in encapsulation is not supported for EPGs and Bridge Domains that are extended across ACI fabrics that are part of the same Multi-Site domain. However, flood in encapsulation is fully supported for EPGs or Bridge Domains that are locally defined in ACI fabrics, even if those fabrics may be configured for Multi-Site.

■        The leaf and spine nodes that are part of an ACI fabric do not run Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). STP frames originated from external devices can be forwarded across an ACI fabric (both single Pod and Multi-Pod), but are not forwarded across the inter-site network between sites, even if stretching a BD with BUM traffic enabled.

■        GOLF L3Outs for each tenant must be dedicated, not shared.

The inter-site L3Out functionality introduced on MSO release 2.2(1) does not apply when deploying GOLF L3Outs. This means that for a given VRF there is still the requirement of deploying at least one GOLF L3Out per site in order to enable north-south communication. An endpoint connected in a site cannot communicate with resources reachable via a GOLF L3Out connection deployed in a different site.

■        While you can create the L3Out objects in the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI, the physical L3Out configuration (logical nodes, logical interfaces, and so on) must be done directly in each site's APIC.

■        VMM and physical domains must be configured in the Cisco APIC GUI at the site and will be imported and associated within the Cisco ACI Multi-Site.

Although domains (VMM and physical) must be configured in Cisco APIC, domain associations can be configured in the Cisco APIC or Cisco ACI Multi-Site.

■        Some VMM domain options must be configured in the Cisco APIC GUI.

The following VMM domain options must be configured in the Cisco APIC GUI at the site:

—      NetFlow/EPG CoS marking in a VMM domain association

—      Encapsulation mode for an AVS VMM domain

■        Some uSeg EPG attribute options must be configured in the Cisco APIC GUI.

The following uSeg EPG attribute options must be configured in the Cisco APIC GUI at the site:

—      Sub-criteria under uSeg attributes

—      match-all and match-any criteria under uSeg attributes

■        Site IDs must be unique.

In Cisco ACI Multi-Site, site IDs must be unique.

■        To change a Cisco APIC fabric ID, you must erase and reconfigure the fabric.

Cisco APIC fabric IDs cannot be changed. To change a Cisco APIC fabric ID, you must erase the fabric configuration and reconfigure it.

However, Cisco ACI Multi-Site supports connecting multiple fabrics with the same fabric ID.

■        Caution: When removing a spine switch port from the Cisco ACI Multi-Site infrastructure, perform the following steps:

a.       Click Sites.

b.      Click Configure Infra.

c.       Click the site where the spine switch is located.

d.      Click the spine switch.

e.       Click the x on the port details.

f.        Click Apply.

■        Shared services use case: order of importing tenant policies

When deploying a provider site group and a consumer site group for shared services by importing tenant policies, deploy the provider tenant policies before deploying the consumer tenant policies. This enables the relation of the consumer tenant to the provider tenant to be properly formed.

■        Caution for shared services use case when importing a tenant and stretching it to other sites

When you import the policies for a consumer tenant and deploy them to multiple sites, including the site where they originated, a new contract is deployed with the same name (different because it is modified by the inter-site relation). To avoid confusion, delete the original contract with the same name on the local site. In the Cisco APIC GUI, the original contract can be distinguished from the contract that is managed by Cisco ACI Multi-Site, because it is not marked with a cloud icon.

■        When a contract is established between EPGs in different sites, each EPG and its bridge domain (BD) are mirrored to and appear to be deployed in the other site, while only being actually deployed in its own site. These mirrored objects are known as "shadow” EPGs and BDs.

For example, if one EPG in Site 1 and another EPG in Site 2 have a contract between them, in the Cisco APIC GUI at Site 1 and Site 2, you will see both EPGs. They appear with the same names as the ones that were deployed directly to each site. This is expected behavior and the shadow objects must not be removed.

For more information, see the Schema Management chapter in the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide.

■        Inter-site traffic cannot transit sites.

Site traffic cannot transit sites on the way to another site. For example, when Site 1 routes traffic to Site 3, it cannot be forwarded through Site 2.

■        The ? icon in Cisco ACI Multi-Site opens the menu for Show Me How modules, which provide step-by-step help through specific configurations.

—      If you deviate while in progress of a Show Me How module, you will no longer be able to continue.

—      You must have IPv4 enabled to use the Show Me How modules.

■        User passwords must meet the following criteria:

—      Minimum length is 8 characters

—      Maximum length is 64 characters

—      Fewer than three consecutive repeated characters

—      At least three of the following character types: lowercase, uppercase, digit, symbol

—      Cannot be easily guessed

—      Cannot be the username or the reverse of the username

—      Cannot be any variation of "cisco", "isco", or any permutation of these characters or variants obtained by changing the capitalization of letters therein

■        If you are associating a contract with the external EPG, as provider, choose contracts only from the tenant associated with the external EPG. Do not choose contracts from other tenants. If you are associating the contract to the external EPG, as consumer, you can choose any available contract.

■        Policy objects deployed from ACI Multi-Site software should not be modified or deleted from any site-APIC. If any such operation is performed, schemas have to be re-deployed from ACI Multi-Site software.

■        The Rogue Endpoint feature can be used within each site of an ACI Multi-Site deployment to help with misconfigurations of servers that cause an endpoint to move within the site. The Rogue Endpoint feaure is not designed for scenarios where the endpoint may move between sites.

Compatibility

This release supports the hardware listed in the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Hardware Requirements Guide.

Multi-Site Orchestrator releases have been decoupled from the APIC releases. The APIC clusters in each site as well as the Orchestrator itself can now be upgraded independently of each other and run in mixed operation mode. For more information, see the Interoperability Support section in the  “Infrastructure Management” chapter of the Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide.

Scalability

For the verified scalability limits, see the Cisco ACI Verified Scalability Guide.

Related ContentNOTE: Available paragraph styles are listed in the Quick Styles Gallery in the Styles group on the Home tab. Alternatively, they can be accessed via the Styles window (press Alt + Ctrl + Shift + S).

See the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) page for ACI Multi-Site documentation. On that page, you can use the "Choose a topic" and "Choose a document type" fields to narrow down the displayed documentation list and find a desired document.

The documentation includes installation, upgrade, configuration, programming, and troubleshooting guides, technical references, release notes, and knowledge base (KB) articles, and videos. KB articles provide information about a specific use cases or topics. The following tables describe the core Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Multi-Site documentation.

Documentation Feedback

To provide technical feedback on this document, or to report an error or omission, send your comments to apic-docfeedback@cisco.com. We appreciate your feedback.

Legal Information

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

© 2019 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.