Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router Overview

Introduction

Virtual Routers

The Cisco CSR 1000v Cloud Services Router provides a cloud-based virtual router deployed on a virtual machine (VM) instance on x86 server hardware. It supports a subset of Cisco IOS XE software features and technologies, providing Cisco IOS XE security and switching features on a virtualization platform.

The Cisco Integrated Services Virtual Router (Cisco ISRv) is very similar to the Cisco CSR 1000v. It provides a virtual IOS XE operating system for routing and forwarding on the Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS) platform.

When the Cisco CSR 1000v is deployed on a VM, the Cisco IOS XE software functions just as if it were deployed on a traditional Cisco hardware platform.

Features

The Cisco CSR 1000v includes a virtual Route Processor and a virtual Forwarding Processor (FP) as part of its architecture. It supports a subset of Cisco IOS XE software features and technologies.

The Cisco CSR 1000v can provide secure connectivity from an enterprise location, such as a branch office or data center, to the public or private cloud.

The Cisco CSR 1000v is deployed as a virtual machine on a hypervisor. Optionally, you can use a virtual switch (vSwitch), depending on your deployment. You can use selected Cisco equipment for some components. The supported components will depend on your software release.

Benefits of Virtualization Using the Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router

The Cisco CSR 1000v Series uses the benefits of virtualization in the cloud to provide the following:

  • Hardware independence

    Because the Cisco CSR 1000v runs on a virtual machine, it can be supported on any x86 hardware that the virtualization platform supports.

  • Sharing of resources

    The resources used by the Cisco CSR 1000v are managed by the hypervisor, and resources can be shared among VMs. The amount of hardware resources that the VM server allocates to a specific VM can be reallocated to another VM on the server.

  • Flexibility in deployment

    You can easily move a VM from one server to another. Thus, you can move the Cisco CSR 1000v from a server in one physical location to a server in another physical location without moving any hardware resources.

Software Configuration and Management Using the Cisco IOS XE CLI

You can perform software configuration and management of the Cisco CSR 1000v using the following methods:

  • Provision a serial port in the VM and connect to access the Cisco IOS XE CLI commands.

  • Use the virtual VGA console or the console on the virtual serial port to access the Cisco IOS XE CLI commands.


Note
A serial port can be used to manage a Cisco CSR 1000v VM only if the underlying hypervisor supports associating a serial port with a VM. For example, the Citrix XenServer environment does not support serial port association. See your hypervisor documentation for details.

  • Use remote SSH/Telnet to access the Cisco IOS XE CLI commands.

The Cisco CSR 1000v also supports management and configuration using the following products:

  • Cisco IOS XE REST API

  • Cisco Prime Network Services Controller

For more information, see "Management Support", from Managing the Router Using Cisco Configuration Professional onwards.

Router Interfaces

The Cisco CSR 1000v router interfaces perform the same functionality as those on hardware-based Cisco routers. The Cisco CSR 1000v interfaces function as follows:

  • Interfaces are logically named as the Gigabit Ethernet (GE) interfaces.
  • The available interface numbering depends on the Cisco CSR 1000v version.

(Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S and later, and Denali 16.2 and later) The interface numbering is as follows:

    • Interface port numbering is from 1 and up to the number of interfaces supported.
    • GigabitEthernet interface 0 is no longer supported beginning with this release.
    • You can designate any interface as the management interface. You can change the management interface when deploying the OVA template on first-time installation.

(Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S and earlier) The interface numbering is as follows:

    • Interface port numbering is from 0 and up to the number of interfaces supported.
    • Gigabit Ethernet interface 0 is reserved for the management interface used for obtaining the licenses and upgrading software.
  • At first boot, the Cisco CSR 1000v router interfaces are mapped to the vNIC interfaces on the VM based on the vNIC enumeration to the Cisco CSR 1000v; on subsequent boot, the Cisco CSR 1000v router interfaces are mapped to the vNIC MAC address

Caution

If upgrading to Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S from an earlier release, we recommend you update your configuration to remove the GigabitEthernet 0 management interface before upgrading. Because the GigabitEthernet 0 interface is no longer supported beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S, you will receive system errors if the upgraded configuration includes this interface.

For more information, see the “Mapping Cisco CSR 1000v Network Interfaces to VM Network Interfaces” section on page 11-1 .

Virtual Machine Requirements

The Cisco CSR 1000v runs only on a virtual machine. This section describes the virtual machine requirements for the router.

Virtual Machines

A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a computing environment in which an operating system (OS) or program can be installed and run. The VM typically emulates a physical computing environment, but requests for CPU, memory, hard disk, network and other hardware resources are managed by a virtualization layer which translates these requests to the underlying physical hardware.

You can deploy an Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) file. The OVA file package simplifies the process of deploying a VM by providing a complete definition of the parameters and resource allocation requirements for the new VM.

An OVA file consists of a descriptor (.ovf) file, a storage (.vmdk) file and a manifest (.mf) file.

  • ovf file—Descriptor file which is an xml file with extension .ovf which consists of all the metadata about the package. It encodes all the product details, virtual hardware requirements and licensing.
  • vmdk file—File format that encodes a single virtual disk from a VM.
  • mf file—Optional file that stores the SHA key generated during packaging.

You can also install the Cisco CSR 1000v using an .iso file and manually create the VM in the hypervisor.

For more information, see the “Installation Overview” section on page 3-1 .

Hypervisor Support

A hypervisor enables multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host machine. While each operating system appears to have the dedicated use of the host's processor, memory, and other resources; the hypervisor controls and allocates only needed resources to each operating system and ensures that the operating systems (VMs) do not disrupt each other.

Supported Hypervisor Types

Installation of the Cisco CSR 1000v is supported on selected Type 1 (native, bare metal) hypervisors. Installation is not supported on Type 2 (hosted) hypervisors, such as VMware Fusion, VMware Player, or Virtual Box.

Amazon Cloud Marketplace

The Cisco CSR 1000v is available in the Amazon Cloud Marketplace. (For use with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S through 3.16.2S, and Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later.) For more information, see the Cisco CSR 1000V Series Cloud Services Router Deployment Guide for Amazon Web Services.

Microsoft Azure Marketplace

The Cisco CSR 1000v is available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace . For more information, see the Cisco CSR 1000V Series Cloud Services Router Deployment Guide for Microsoft Azure .

Hypervisor Versions for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later

The following hypervisors/versions are supported by Cisco CSR 1000v on Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later. If you are using older versions of Cisco IOS XE, see Hypervisor Versions—Cisco IOS XE 3.x.

VMware ESXi

Server 6.0 update2 (instance running vm11)—recommended. F.ully tested and meets performance benchmarks

Server 5.5 update3 (instance running vm10)

Although 5.5 update 3 is supported for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later, we recommend using VMware ESXi Server 6.0 update 2 instead.

Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

RHEL 7.2—recommended

RHEL 7.1

Citrix XenServer

6.5—recommended

6.2

Microsoft Hyper-V

Windows Server 2012-R2, Hyper-V Mgr 6.3.9600.16384—recommended

Amazon Web Services

C4 and T2 instance types—recommended

C3 instance types—supported (in Cisco IOS XE 3.11 to IOS XE 3.17)

See "Amazon Web Services" in Hypervisor Support.

Microsoft Azure

Standard D2 and Standard D3—recommended

Standard D4—supported

See "Microsoft Azure" in Hypervisor Support.

Hypervisor Versions—Cisco IOS XE 3.x

The following table lists the supported hypervisor versions for older software releases (Cisco IOS XE 3.x).


Note
For recent hypervisor versions see the Hypervisor Versions for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later section.
Table 1. Support Matrix for Hypervisor Versions

Cisco CSR 1000v IOS XE Release

VMwareESXi

Citrix XenServer

Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Microsoft Hyper-V

Amazon Web Services

3.9S

5.0

Not supported

Not supported

Not supported

Not supported

3.10S

5.05.1

6.0.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.31

  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1

Not supported

Not supported

3.11S

5.05.1

6.02

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.31

  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1

  • Ubuntu 12.04.03 LTS Server 64 Bits2

Not supported

Supported

3.12S

5.05.15.53

6.1

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.31

  • Ubuntu 12.04.03 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Supported

3.13S

5.05.15.54

6.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.31

  • Ubuntu 12.04.03 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Supported

3.14S

5.05.15.55

6.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5

  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Supported

3.15S

5.05.15.56

6.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6

  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Supported

3.16S

5.05.15.576.08

6.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6

  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Supported until Cisco IOS XE 3.16.2

3.17S

5.05.15.56.0

6.2

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.19

  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64 Bits 2

Windows Server 2012 R2

Not supported

For later versions of Cisco IOS XE, see Hypervisor Versions for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later

1 Requires Kernel version 2.6.3.2 and QEMU 0.12.
2 Requires QEMU-x86_64 version 1.0 (qemu-kvm-1.0), Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard.
3 VMware ESXi 5.5 update 3 is not supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.12S..
4 VMware ESXi 5.5 update 3 is not supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.13S..
5 VMware ESXi 5.5 update 3 is not supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.14S.
6 VMware ESXi 5.5 update 3 is not supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.15S.
7 VMware ESXi 5.5 update 3 is supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.16.1S and later.
8 VMware ESXi 6.0 supported on Cisco IOS XE 3.16.1S and later (and 3.17S and later).
9 Requires Kernel version 3.10.0 and QEMU 1.5.3.

Hypervisor features may differ depending on the hypervisor, and not all features in a given hypervisor version may be supported. The hypervisor versions listed are those officially tested and supported by the Cisco CSR 1000v. See the following sections for more information:


Note
For information about deploying the Cisco CSR 1000v in an Amazon Web Services environment, see the

Note
For information about deploying the Cisco CSR 1000v in a Microsoft Azure environment, see the Cisco CSR 1000v Deployment Guide for Microsoft Azure.

Hypervisor vNIC Requirements

Depending on the Cisco CSR 1000v release version, each of the hypervisors supports different virtual network interface card (vNIC) types. The Cisco CSR 1000v also supports a different maximum number of vNICs depending on the hypervisor. Some versions and hypervisors also support the ability to add and remove vNICs without powering down the VM (for example, vNIC Hot Add/Remove).

The VMXNET3, VIF and Virtio NIC types listed in the table are para-virtualized NICs.

See also Supported I/O Modes and Drivers.

Note: PCI Passthrough: enic is not supported in Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and higher.

The following sections list the supported vNICs and the minimum and maximum number of vNICs supported for each VM instance. Choose a section, depending on the release of Cisco IOS XE which you are using.

Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 17.1 Release
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver), ixgbevf, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support Yes  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.10, 16.11 and 16.12 releases
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver), ixgbevf, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.9
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver), ixgbevf, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.8
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver), ixgbevf, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.7
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver), ixgbevf, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe, i40evf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support Yes  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
vNIC Two-Step Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.5
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.4
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe(Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 4  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3
vNIC Requirements for VMware ESXi Value
NIC Types Supported VMXNET3 ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 10  
vNIC Hot Add Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Citrix XenServer Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap)  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 7  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for KVM Value
NIC Types Supported Virtio, ixgbevf, ixgbe  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 26  
vNIC Hot Add Support Yes  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Yes  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Microsoft Azure Value
NIC Types Supported NetVSC  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 4  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
vNIC Requirements for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Value
NIC Types Supported VIF-netfront(pmap), ixgbevf  
Max. number of vNICs per VM instance 8 (See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#AvailableIpPerENI)  
vNIC Hot Add Support No  
vNIC Hot Remove Support No  
Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support No  
     
Hypervisor vNIC Requirements for Cisco IOS XE 3S Releases
Table 2. Cisco CSR 1000v vNIC Support for Cisco IOS XE 3S Releases

Cisco IOS XE Release:

3.9S

3.10S, 3.11S

3.12S

3.13S, 3.14S, 3.15S

3.16S, 3.17S

VMware ESXi

NIC Types Supported

VMXNET3

VMXNET3

VMXNET3

VMXNET3 ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver)

VMXNET3 ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver) enic

Max. number of vNICs per VM instance

10

10

10

10

10

vNIC Hot Add/Remove Support(Prior to release 3.15S, vNIC Hot Remove requires reloading the Cisco CSR 1000v. This is applicable only when using the VMXNET3 driver.)

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support

—

—

No

No

No

Citrix XenServer

NIC Types Supported

—

VIF

VIF

VIF ixgbevf

ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver)

VIF ixgbevf

ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver)

Max. number of vNICs per VM instance

—

7

7

7

7

vNIC Hot Add/Remove Support

—

No

No

No

No

Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support

—

—

Yes (from release 3.12.1S)

Yes

Yes

KVM

NIC Types Supported

—

Virtio

Virtio

Virtio

ixgbevf

ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver)

Virtio

ixgbevf

ixgbe (Intel 10Gb PCI Express NIC Driver)enic

Max. number of vNICs per VM instance

—

10

26

26

26

vNIC Hot Add/Remove Support

(Prior to release 3.15S, vNIC Hot Remove requires reloading the Cisco CSR 1000v. This is applicable only when using the Virtio driver)

—

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support

—

—

Yes (from release 3.12.1S)

Yes (Requires the host hardware to support the Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU specification. SR-IOV is not supported with Virtual LANs (VLANs))

Yes(Requires the host hardware to support the Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU specification. SR-IOV is not supported with Virtual LANs (VLANs))

Microsoft Hyper-V

NIC Types Supported

—

—

HV NetVSC

HV NetVSC

HV NetVSC

Max. number of vNICs per VM instance

—

—

3

3

3

vNIC Hot Add/Remove Support

—

—

No

No

No

Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support

—

—

No

No

No

Amazon Web Services

NIC Types Supported

—

(For Cisco IOS XE 3.11 and later), aws-vif(pmap)

aws-vif(pmap)

aws-vif(pmap)

(Up until Cisco IOS XE 3.16.2) aws-vif(pmap), aws-ixgbevf(SRIOV)

Max. number of vNICs per VM instance

—

(For Cisco IOS XE 3.11 to 3.16.2, number depends on instance type. For more information, see the AWS User Guide.

vNIC Hot Add/Remove Support

—

No

No

No

No

Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) Support

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

The vNIC requirements for later versions of Cisco IOS XE are available in the respective sections in this guide.

Supported I/O Modes and Drivers

The Cisco CSR 1000v operates within a virtualization environment. Data I/O involves communication between one or more vNICs of the guest OS in which the CSR is operating, and the physical NIC accessed by the host OS.

Modes

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE 3.16S and also including Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later, the Cisco CSR 1000v supports several modes of communication between the vNICs and the physical hardware:

  • Para Virtual

  • PCI Passthrough

  • Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

  • Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX)

The figure below, "Cisco CSR 1000v I/O Routing Between vNIC of Guest OS and Hardware NIC of Host", shows the I/O routing options.

Figure 1. Cisco CSR 1000v I/O Routing Between vNIC of Guest OS and Hardware NIC of Host
Drivers

The following table indicates the drivers required to support various I/O modes.


Note
See the Hypervisor vNIC requirements to determine the drivers supported for a particular release. PCI Passthrough: enic is not supported in Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and higher.
Table 3. Driver Support for I/O Modes

Mode

Cisco CSR1000v Drivers

Para Virtual

  • VMXNET3 (ESXi)

  • Virtio (KVM)

  • VIF-netfront (Xen)

  • NetVSC (Hyper-V)

PCI Passthrough

  • ixgbe (for Intel 10 gig NIC)

  • enic (for Cisco VIC)

SR-IOV

  • ixgbevf

  • i40evf

VM-FEX

Only applicable to Cisco VIC

There are 2 modes:

  • ESXi DirectPath IO: VMXNET3

  • PCI Passthrough: enic

Note: For releases Cisco IOS XE 3.16 or later, and Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3 or later, the boot up process may take a long time (5 minutes) when using passthrough drivers. This is due to performing DHCP during a PXE boot. This issue can be resolved (as mentioned in resolved caveat CSCvd45286) by turning off rom bar for Ethernet PCI devices in the Cisco CSR 1000v xml file; for example: 

<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
     <source>
       <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x85' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
     </source>
     <rom bar='off'/>     <------ Add this line to xml file
     <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/>
</hostdev>
Limitations

Note
See the Hypervisor vNIC requirements to determine the drivers supported for a particular release.

The following table describes the limitations that apply to I/O modes.


Note
PCI Passthrough: enic is not supported in Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and higher.
Table 4. I/O Mode Limitations

Mode/Driver

Limitations

PCI passthrough (enic)

  • Interoperability with another NIC: If enic is connected to other NIC (for example, Intel NIC) and then that NIC is used for other CSR VM (Para virtual or Passthrough), traffic will not pass through if enic is configured with VLAN.

  • If a VLAN is configured, the other NIC receives a VLAN packet with VLAN id of 0.

  • Jumbo packet support: In this release, jumbo packet (MTU > 1518) is not supported.

  • CDP is not supported.

  • HSRP standby cannot ping the HSRP group address

SR-IOV (ixgbevf)

  • MTU change: (Intel limitation) First change the VF MTU on the host PF using the ip link set command. Then change the corresponding interface MTU on the VM. Otherwise, no traffic will pass. (Intel limitation)

  • MAC address change: After changing the MAC address, it is necessary to change the MAC address of the VF on the host PF using the ip link set command. Otherwise, no traffic will pass. (Intel limitation.)

  • Maximum VLANs: The maximum number of VLANs supported on PF is 64. Together, all VFs can have a total of 64 VLANs. (Intel limitation.)

  • Maximum Multicast filtering: Intel VF supports registering a maximum of 30 multicast addresses. (Intel limitation.)

  • Layer2 Learning: The Intel SR-IOV VF does not support promiscuous mode, so Layer 2 functionality, such as EVC, does not work. (Intel limitation.)

SR-IOV (i40evf)

  • MTU change: (Intel limitation) First change the VF MTU on the host PF using the ip link set command. Then change the corresponding interface MTU on the VM. Otherwise, no traffic will pass. (Intel limitation.)

  • MAC address change: After changing the MAC address, you must change the MAC address of the VF on the host PF using the ip link set command. Otherwise, no traffic will pass. (Intel limitation.)

  • Maximum VLANs: The maximum number of VLANs supported on PF is 512. Together, all VFs can have a total of 512 VLANs. (Intel limitation.) Per-VF resources are managed by the PF (host) device driver.

  • Maximum Multicast filtering: The maximum number of mac addresses supported on the PF is 1024. (Intel limitation.) Per-VF resources are managed by the PF (host) device driver.

  • Layer2 Learning: The Intel SR-IOV VF does not support promiscuous mode, so Layer 2 functionality, such as EVC, does not work. (Intel limitation.)

This information about SR-IOV (i40evf) has partly been obtained from Table 7-132. "710 series Versus 82599 Virtualization Support" and Table 7-134. "VF resource allocation" in the Intel Ethernet Controller 710 Series Datasheet.

VM-FEX ESXi DirectPath IO (VMXNET3)

  • VLAN is not supported in high-performance mode.

Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations

This section describes performance limitations due to how the Cisco CSR 1000v integrates with supported hypervisors.

Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later

In these releases, the Cisco CSR 1000v does not support the hot removal of interfaces and does not have the ability to modify vNIC MTU.

Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations for Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.2

Note
Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later is recommended instead of Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.2.
Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations for Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12S
  • When the Cisco CSR 1000v is installed on Microsoft Hyper-V, the interface numbers can change after Microsoft Hyper-V fails over to a new server, or restarts after a live migration.
    • If the server is set to perform ungraceful failover, there is no workaround.
    • If the server is set to perform graceful failover or restart, enter the clear platform software vnic-if nvtable command before executing the failover or restart.

This issue is not seen if the maximum number of interfaces is configured.

  • When the Cisco CSR 1000v is installed on Microsoft Hyper-V, if you want to configure a VLAN, you must configure the VLAN interfaces on Microsoft Hyper-V using the Hyper-V Power Shell CLI.
  • When the Cisco CSR 1000v is installed on Microsoft Hyper-V and an NSF-based virtual hard disk is used, if there is a network connectivity issue between the Cisco CSR 1000v and the NSF server, the Cisco CSR 1000v is unable to use the virtual hard disk even if the network connection is restored. You must reboot the Cisco CSR 1000v to restore access to the virtual hard disk.
  • The Microsoft Hyper-V GUI only allows one VLAN to be specified for a Virtual Machine interface. This limits deployments where multiple VLANS for a Virtual Machine interface are used.
  • When the MAC address of a Cisco CSR1000v interface is changed from the address assigned by the hypervisor, then traffic to and from external devices is unsuccessful. This occurs even when MAC address spoofing is enabled on the Microsoft Hyper-V vSwitch. Operation of protocols like FHRP, CLNS, and Etherchannel that use their own MAC address may be unsuccessful.
  • In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, the following limitations apply when the Windows Power Shell CLI is used to configure VLANs:
    • The power shell CLI commands must be reapplied each time the Cisco CSR1000v is reloaded.
    • When a large AllowedVlanIdList is configured, only lower numbered VLANS may successfully pass traffic. For example, when the following Power Shell CLI command is used:

Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -VMName dr-vm-6-1 -Trunk -AllowedVlanIdList 1-2000 -NativeVlanId 0

Only VLANS lower than 300 may successfully pass traffic.

Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations for Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S
  • Configuring Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR), or Application Visibility and Control (AVC) support on the Cisco CSR 1000v requires a minimum of 4GB of DRAM on the VM, even when using the one vCPU configuration on the VM.
  • On the Cisco CSR 1000v, all the NICs are logically named as the Gigabit Ethernet interface. The Cisco CSR 1000v does support the 10G IXGBE vNIC in passthrough mode; but that interface also is also logically named as a Gigabit Ethernet interface. Note that with emulated devices like VMXNET3/PV/VIRTIO from the hypervisor, the Cisco CSR 1000v is not aware of the underlying interfaces. The vSwitch may be connected to a 10-GB physical NIC or 1-GB physical NICs or multiple NICs (with NIC teaming on the hypervisor) as well.
  • The Cisco CSR 1000v supports an MTU range from 1500 to 9216 bytes. However, the maximum MTU supported on your hypervisor version may be lower. The MTU value configured on the Cisco CSR 1000v should not exceed the maximum MTU value supported on the hypervisor.
Cisco CSR 1000v and Hypervisor Limitations for Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S

The following are the Cisco CSR 1000v and VMware ESXi limitations for Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S:

  • The Cisco CSR 1000v interface bandwidth defaults to 1 GB, irrespective of the hypervisor’s physical NIC bandwidth. The routing protocols (OSPF, EIGRP) use the Cisco CSR 1000v interface bandwidth values for calculating the costs, not the physical NIC bandwidth.
  • When a Cisco CSR 1000v interface is directly connected to a physical router, and that physical router’s connecting interface goes down, the change is not reflected on the Cisco CSR 1000v. This is because the Cisco CSR 1000v is actually connected to the hypervisor’s vSwitch and the vSwitch uplink port is connected to the physical interface of the router. This behavior is expected.
  • The Cisco CSR 1000v provides an MTU range from 1500 to 9216 bytes. However, ESXi 5.0 supports only a maximum value of 9000 bytes.

Server Requirements

The server and processor requirements are different depending on the Cisco CSR 1000v release.

Table 5. Server Requirements

Cisco CSR 1000v Release

Intel

AMD

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S

Intel Nehalem and later generation processors

Not supported

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S and later

64-bit processors with VT extensions

64-bit processors with VT extensions

Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later

64-bit Intel Core2 and later generation processors with VT extensions and support for Streaming SIMD instructions: SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3.

The equivalent of 64-bit Intel Core2 and later generation processors with VT extensions and support for Streaming SIMD instructions: SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3.

For more information, see the release notes: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/routers/cloud-services-router-1000v-series/products-release-notes-list.html.

(For Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S) the Cisco CSR 1000v uses instructions not supported on Intel pre-Nehalem generation processors. The existence of the required Nehalem or later processor instruction set is determined at boot time. If the required instructions are not present, the following message is displayed: 
%IOSXEBOOT-4-BOOT_HALT: (rp/0): Halted boot due to missing CPU feature 
requirement(s)

(For Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3 and 16.4) the Cisco CSR 1000v uses instructions supported on Intel Core 2 and later generation processors including Streaming SIMD: SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3. The existence of the required instruction set is not verified and the deployment of the Cisco CSR 1000v in an environment that does not meet these processor requirements may result in random system reloads.

(For Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.5 and later) the Cisco CSR 1000v uses instructions supported on Intel Core 2 and later generation processors including Streaming SIMD SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3. The existence of the required streaming SIMD instruction sets is determined at boot time. If the required instructions are not present, a message similar to following is displayed:
%CPPDRV-3-FATAL_CPU_FEATURE: F0: cpp_driver: CPP0: CPU lacks feature 
(Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSSE3)). Packet forwarding disabled.

Cisco Software Licensing (CSL)

The Cisco CSR 1000v supports two types of license: Cisco Software Licensing and Cisco Smart Licensing. This section summarizes Cisco Software Licensing. For more details of both licensing methods, see Activating Cisco CSR 1000v Licenses

The Cisco CSR 1000v supports the following types of Cisco Software License, depending on the software release:

  • Perpetual and subscription term licenses for 1, 3, and 5 years based on the following attributes:

    • (Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and later, and Denali 16.3.1 and later) Technology packages: IPBase , Security , AX and APPX (supported by Cisco Smart Licensing beginning with Cisco IOS XE 3.15S)

    • Maximum supported throughput level for the AX package: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 Mbps; 1, 2.5, or 5 Gbps

    • Maximum supported throughput level for the Security and APPX packages: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 Mbps; 1, 2.5, or 5 Gbps

    • Maximum supported throughput level for the IPBase package: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 Mbps; 1, 2.5, 5, or 10 Gbps

  • Memory upgrade licenses (selected technology packages and throughput levels only)

  • Evaluation licenses (see Evaluation Licenses for Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and Later and Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later).


Note
Three legacy technology packages—Standard , Advanced , and Premium —were replaced in Cisco IOS XE Release 3.13 with the IPBase, Security, and AX technology packages.

The following table lists the available license types for your release.

Table 6. Cisco CSR 1000v Software Licenses

Cisco CSR 1000v Version

License Type

License Term

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S

(Legacy)

Base subscription technology package licenses (Standard , Advanced , and Premium ) for the following throughput maximums: 10 Mbps, 25 Mbps, 50 Mbps

  • 1, 3, and 5 years

  • 60-day evaluation license

Cisco IOS XE Releases 3.10S, 3.11S

(Legacy)

Base subscription Standard technology package licenses for the following throughput maximums: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps

Base subscription Advanced and Premium technology package licenses for the following throughput maximums: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps

Feature Add-on License:

  • License to add 8 GB of memory with route reflector support.

This is available for the Premium or AX packages only. The additional memory is allocated to IOSD processes on the router only. The memory upgrade license does not add available memory on the VM.

Note 
Selected licenses are available through a Cisco service representative only.

  • 1 and 3 years

  • Perpetual

  • 60-day evaluation license

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12S

(Legacy)

Base subscription Standard technology package licenses for the following throughput maximums: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps

Base subscription Advanced and Premium technology package licenses for the following throughput maximums: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 1 Gbps

Feature Add-on License:

  • License to add 8 GB of memory with route reflector support.

This is available for the Premium or AX packages only. The additional memory is allocated to IOSD processes on the router only. The memory upgrade license does not add available memory on the VM.

Selected licenses are only available through a Cisco service representative.

  • 1 and 3 years

  • Perpetual

  • 60-day evaluation license

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12.1S

New technology package licenses are supported:

  • IPBase package license, with the same feature set as the Standard package

  • Security package license, with the same feature set as the Advanced package

  • AX package license, with the same feature set as the Premium package

We recommend using these technology packages for compatibility with future releases. All technology packages support the same throughput maximums as feature sets in earlier releases.

  • 1 and 3 years

  • Perpetual

  • 60-day evaluation license

Cisco IOS XE Releases 3.13S, 3.14S, 3.15S, 3.16S, 3.17

Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and later

Base subscription IPBase technology package licenses for the following maximum throughputs: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps.

(IPBase replaces the Standard package.)

Base subscription Security technology package licenses for the following maximum throughputs: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 Mbps; 1, 2.5, or 5 Gbps

(Security replaces the Advanced package.)

Base subscription AX technology package licenses for the following maximum throughputs: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 Mbps; 1 or 2.5 Gbps

(AX replaces the Premium package.)

Base subscription Application Experience (APPX) technology package licenses for the following maximum throughputs: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps

  • 1 and 3 years

  • Perpetual

  • 60-day evaluation license available through Cisco licensing portal

The supported performance indicates the maximum throughput supported by the Cisco CSR 1000v for the license. If the throughput exceeds the supported performance, the router may experience dropped packets and you will receive notification that the supported performance has been exceeded. The Cisco CSR 1000v uses a performance limiter to regulate the throughput level. For example this applies when using 10 Gbps throughput as part of the IPBase technology package licenses. For more information, see the Configuring an Interface for 10 Gbps Maximum Throughput.

If additional performance is required, an additional license for a separate Cisco CSR 1000v VM must be purchased. The Cisco CSR 1000v supports only one router instance per VM.

The Cisco CSR 1000v software licenses operate as follows:

  • Each software license can be used for only one VM.

  • You can install more than one license on a VM, but the multiple licenses can only apply to that VM.

  • Similar to Cisco hardware products, the software license is node-locked to the unique device identifier (UDI) of that product. The Cisco CSR 1000v generates a Virtual UDI (vUDI) when first installed on the VM, and licenses are node-locked to that vUDI. One license per VM instance is required. Instances that are cloned from a repository must generate a new vUDI.


Note
When you clone the Cisco CSR 1000v, you will automatically get a new vUDI, and all the licenses from the original VM should be removed.

  • You must purchase and install a new technology package license if you want to upgrade or downgrade the technology level. For example, if you have a Premium technology package license and you want to downgrade to the Standard technology package, you must purchase a new Standard technology package license.

  • In Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S, the default license will not enable advanced IPsec features and MPLS.

  • The Cisco CSR 1000v does not provide or support Right-to-Use performance licenses.

  • You will receive warning notices that the subscription term license will expire beginning eight weeks before license expiration.

The licenses must be activated in order for the Cisco CSR 1000v network ports to provide the supported throughput.

When the Cisco CSR 1000v is first booted, the router operates in evaluation mode, and provides limited feature support and limited throughput. To obtain the full feature support and throughput provided by your license, you must install the license using the license install command. The configuration requirements depend on the release version:

  • In Cisco IOS XE 3.12S and earlier, to access the features supported in your license, you must enter the license boot level command and set it to the level supported by your license. The Cisco CSR 1000v must be rebooted for the new license level to take effect and to have the new license applied.

  • In Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and later, the Cisco CSR 1000v first boots up in the AX technology mode by default, so all features in this package are supported. Installing an AX technology license applies the AX license immediately, and the throughput is increased to the maximum throughput of the installed license. Rebooting the router is not required.

If you install a different technology license (IPBase, Security or APPX), the corresponding license boot level command setting is automatically added to the running configuration, but you must reboot the router for the new license technology level to take effect and to have the license applied.

The installed license technology package must match the router’s current technology level (as shown with the show version command). If the license package does not match the current license level the throughput is limited to 100kbps. To apply a license belonging to a different technology package level, you must update the license level using the license boot level command and reboot the Cisco CSR 1000v for the new license level to take effect.

If the throughput license expires or becomes invalid, the maximum throughput of the router reverts to 2.5 Mbps (Cisco IOS XE 3.12S and earlier), or 100 Kbps (Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and later), upon reload.

The subscription term begins on the day the license is issued.

For more information about license activation, see the Activating Cisco CSR 1000v Licenses.

If you rehost the Cisco CSR 1000v to a VM on another server, the following rules apply:

  • You must purchase a new rehost software license that lasts for the period remaining on the original license.

  • If the original license was renewed, the rehosted software license will last for the period remaining on the renewed license.

  • You have a 60-day grace period to remove the software license from the original server hardware and activate it on the rehosted server hardware.

The Cisco CSR 1000v also supports Cisco License Manager and Cisco License Call Home. For more information about the standard Cisco IOS XE software activation procedure, and information about Cisco License Manager and Cisco License Call Home, see the Software Activation Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3S .

Evaluation Licenses for Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and Later and Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 and Later

Evaluation licenses are available to try out Cisco CSR 1000v features. Evaluation licenses are obtained differently depending on the Cisco IOS XE release version. This section describes versions Cisco IOS XE 3.13S or later and Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 or later.

Default

Beginning with the Cisco IOS XE 3.13S release, the CSR 1000v boots by default with the following features:

  • AX technology package features

  • 100 Kbps maximum throughput

Evaluation License Options

Evaluation licenses valid for 60 days are available at the Cisco licensing portal.

http:/www.cisco.com/go/license

The evaluation license options enable test driving additional technology packages and higher throughputs. (The throughputs available through evaluation licenses are the highest supported throughput levels for the package type.)

  • IPBase Technology package, 10 Gbps

  • SEC Technology package, 5 Gbps

  • APP Technology package, 5 Gbps

  • AX Technology package, 2.5 Gbps

  • 1000 broadband sessions

  • 12 GB memory upgrade

Testing a Lower Maximum Throughput

To test a lower throughput license type not listed here, use the platform hardware throughput level MB <throughput> command to set the throughput to a supported level below that provided by the installed license. This has the same effect as installing a license for that throughput level. For example, on a CSR 1000v with a 5 Gbps license installed, the following command sets the throughput level to 250 Mbps: 


platform hardware throughput level MB 250

The supported throughput levels are: 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps

For any additional questions, contact your Cisco sales representative.

Obtaining an Evaluation License from the Cisco Licensing Portal

To obtain a 60-day evaluation license for the Cisco CSR 1000v, follow the instructions below.

When the 60-day evaluation license expires, the maximum throughput becomes limited to 100 Kbps upon reload. For more information, see Installing CSL Evaluation Licenses for Cisco IOS XE 3.13S and Later.


Note
These instructions are subject to change.

Before you begin

Procedure

Step 1

Navigate to https://www.cisco.com/go/license and log in.

Step 2

Navigate to the Product License Registration Portal.

Step 3

On the Product License Registration page, select “Continue to Product License Registration.”

Step 4

Click “Get Other Licenses” and select “Demo and Evaluation” from the dropdown menu.

Step 5

In the Product Family section, select “Routers & Switches.” In the Product section, select “Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v.” Click Next.

Step 6

Select the desired license type. Enter the UDI Serial number, then click Next to generate the license. You can display the UDI Serial number on your router by entering the show license udi command.

Evaluation Licenses for Cisco IOS XE 3.12S and Earlier

Evaluation licenses are available to try out Cisco CSR 1000v features. Evaluation licenses are obtained differently depending on the IOS XE release version. This section describes versions Cisco IOS XE 3.12S or earlier.

Prior to the Cisco IOS XE 3.13S release, the Cisco CSR 1000v came bundled with a 60-day evaluation license included with the software image, providing:

  • Premium technology package features

  • 50 Mbps maximum throughput

The license is activated by entering the license boot level command and rebooting the router.

When the 60-day evaluation license expires, the maximum throughput reverts to 2.5 Mbps and to the Standard feature set upon reload.

Cisco Smart Licensing

The Cisco CSR 1000v supports two types of license: Cisco Software Licensing and Cisco Smart Licensing. This section summarizes Cisco Smart Licensing. For details, see Cisco Smart Licensing

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.15S, the Cisco CSR 1000v supports activation using Cisco Smart Licensing (CSL). To use Cisco Smart Licensing, first configure the Call Home feature and obtain Cisco Smart Call Home Services. For details, see Cisco Smart Licensing.

The Cisco CSR 1000v supports the following license types (Cisco IOS XE 3.14S and later):

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

Differences Between Cisco CSR 1000v Series and ASR 1000 Series

Unlike traditional Cisco hardware router platforms, the Cisco CSR 1000V Series is a virtual router that runs independently on an x86 machine. As a result, the Cisco CSR 1000v Series architecture has unique attributes that differentiate it from hardware-based router platforms.

For example, the table below lists a comparison of some key areas where the Cisco CSR 1000v Series differs from the Cisco ASR 1000 series routers.

Table 7. Cisco CSR 1000v Series Architecture Differences with Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers

Feature

Cisco ASR 1000 Series

Cisco CSR 1000v Series

Hard Disk

Supported.

The Cisco CSR 1000v does not include a hard disk. The software image is stored on bootflash only (8 GB).

Physical resources

Managed by architecture of the hardware platform.

Managed by the hypervisor. Physical resources are shared among VMs.

Console types supported

Physical serial port.

  • Virtual VGA console

  • Virtual serial port network option (virtual terminal server)

  • Named pipe option

  • Physical serial port on the ESXi or KVM host

ROMMON

Supported.

The Cisco CSR 1000v does not include ROMMON, but uses GRUB to provide similar but more limited functionality.

Break Signal

Supported.

Not supported.

Port numbering

See the Cisco ASR1000 documentation .

Gigabit Ethernet x ports only.

ISSU

Supports In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU).

Not supported.

Subpackage upgrades

Supports installation of subpackages for specific SPAs and SIP SPAs.

Subpackages not supported. The Cisco CSR 1000v does not support SPAs.

Diagnostic mode

Supported.

Not supported.

Dynamic addition/deletion of ports

Supported.

Supported. (Requires reload of the VM.)

Supported Cisco IOS XE Technologies

The Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router supports selected Cisco IOS XE technologies. The Cisco CSR 1000v supports a more limited set of functionality compared to other router platforms.

The table below lists the major Cisco IOS XE technologies the Cisco CSR 1000V supports. Technologies not listed are not currently supported on the Cisco CSR 1000v. Not all features in a given technology may be supported. To verify support for specific features, use the Cisco Feature Navigator.

The information listed in this table applies only if using the Cisco IOS XE CLI. Support for Cisco IOS XE technologies is more limited in the following scenarios:


Note
The IPBase, Security, and AX license technology packages became available beginning with Cisco IOS XE 3.12.1.
Table 8. Cisco IOS XE Technologies Supported on the Cisco CSR 1000v Cloud Services Router

Technologies Supported

Technology Package Licenses Supported in Cisco IOS XE Releases 3.12S and Earlier (Legacy)

Technology Package Licenses Supported in Cisco IOS XE Releases 3.13S and Later, and Denali 16.3.1 and Later

See the Following Documentation:

IP:

  • IPv4 Routing

  • IPv4 Fragmentation and Reassembly

  • IPv6 Forwarding

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • IPv6 Routing

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • LISP

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Connectionless mode network service (CLNS)

—

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

Basic Routing:

  • BGP

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • EIGRP

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • ISIS

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • OSPF

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Performance Routing

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

IP Multicast:

  • IGMP

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • PIM

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

IP Switching:

  • Cisco Express Forwarding

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

Wide Area Networking:

  • OTV

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.10S.)

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

  • VxLAN

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.11S.)

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

  • WCCPv2

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

VPN:

  • IPsec VPN

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • DMVPN

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • Easy VPN

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • FlexVPN

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • GETVPN

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6.1)

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • SSL VPN

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.12.1S.)

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

MPLS:

  • MPLS

  • Premium

  • APPX

  • AX

See the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) guides in the CSR 1000v Configuration Guides.

  • EoMPLS

  • Premium

  • APPX

  • AX

  • VRF

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • VPLS

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.10S.)

  • Premium

  • APPX

  • AX

Network Management:

  • SNMP

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Flexible NetFlow

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Secure Shell (SSH)

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

QoS:

  • QoS

  • Standard (Cisco IOS XE 3.12S)

  • Advanced(Cisco IOS XE 3.10S and later)

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

Services:

  • NAT

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

Access Control:

  • AAA

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Access Control Lists

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • IP SLA

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

  • RADIUS

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • TACACS+

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

  • Layer3 Firewall

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • Zone-Based Firewall

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Security

  • AX

  • Zone-Based Firewall Multi-tenancy for Cloud Integrated Security Solution

    (Supported starting with Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.4.1.)

  • NA

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • Cloud Integrated Security Solution Guide

Application Services:

  • Application Visibility and Control (AVC)

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

  • NBAR2

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

Download the NBAR2 protocol pack for your release on the Cisco CSR 1000V software download page. For more information, see the NBAR2 Protocol Library.

Broadband:

  • Broadband Network Gateway

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.13S.)

NA

  • APPX

(Requires broadband add-on feature license (L-CSR-BB-1K=).

  • Intelligent Services Gateway

(Supported beginning in Cisco IOS XE 3.13S.)

NA

  • APPX

(Requires broadband add-on feature license (L-CSR-BB-1K=).

Redundancy:

  • HSRP

  • Standard

  • Advanced

  • Premium

  • IPBase

  • Security

  • AX

  • APPX

WAAS:

  • Integrated AppNav-XE

  • Premium

  • AX

  • APPX

Management Support

Managing the Router Using Cisco Configuration Professional

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12S, the Cisco CSR 1000v supports managing the router using Cisco Configuration Professional. The minimum version required is Cisco Configuration Professional 2.8. For more information, see the Cisco Configuration Professional documentation.

Managing the Router Using the Cisco IOS XE REST API

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S, and including Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.2, a REST API is available as an alternative method for managing the Cisco CSR 1000v router.


Note
The Cisco CSR 1000v currently does not fully support IPv6 for the REST API.

The following requirements apply to the Cisco IOS XE REST API (formerly called the Cisco CSR 1000v REST API):

  • The Cisco IOS XE REST API supports only selected features and technologies compared to the Cisco IOS XE command-line interface.

  • The REST API is supported over HTTPS only.

  • (Cisco IOS XE releases 3.13.2, 3.14.1, 3.15 and later, and Denali 16.3.1 and later) REST API (and PNSC) support is limited to TLS.

  • The Cisco CSR 1000v Amazon Machine Image (AMI) does not support management of the router using the REST API.

For more information about configuring the router to support management using the REST API, see Enabling Management by REST API. For more information about using the Cisco IOS XE REST API, see the Cisco IOS XE REST API Management Reference Guide .

Managing the Router Using Cisco Prime Network Services Controller

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S, you can use the Cisco Prime Network Services Controller to provision, manage, and monitor the Cisco CSR 1000v. Cisco Prime Network Services Controller can be used to streamline configuration when you are provisioning and managing many Cisco CSR 1000v VMs.

If deploying the Cisco CSR 1000v on ESXi, support for remote management using PNSC can be configured while deploying the OVA template. If deploying the Cisco CSR 1000v on other hypervisors, or if launching the Cisco CSR 1000v on an AWS instance, the PNSC configuration settings are performed using the Cisco IOS CLI.

For more information about remote management using Cisco Prime Network Services Controller, see:

Configuring the Management Interface to Support Remote Management by the Cisco Prime Network Services Controller

Enabling Remote Management by the Cisco Prime Network Services Controller Host

Disabling Remote Management by the Cisco Prime Network Services Controller Host

For more information about configuring Cisco Prime Network Services Controller and using the GUI for remote management, see the following documentation:

The table below lists the Cisco Prime Network Services Controller versions that are compatible with the Cisco CSR 1000v.

Table 9. Cisco CSR 1000v Compatibility with Cisco Prime Network Services Controller

Cisco IOS XE Release for Cisco CSR 1000V

Cisco Prime Network Services Controller Version

Hypervisors Supported for Implementation

Feature Support

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S

Version 3.2.1Version 3.2.2

  • VMware ESXi

  • KVM

Baseline features:

  • Hostname, DNS, User Credentials

  • Interfaces: cloud-facing, external- facing

  • Interface types: Gigabit Ethernet, loopback

  • NAT, NTP

  • ACL, Firewall

  • Routing: BGP, OSPF, static routes

  • Syslog

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12S and later

Version 3.2.1

Version 3.2.2

  • VMware ESXi

  • KVM

Features added in this release:

  • Sub-interface

  • IPSec VPN

  • DHCP Server/Relay

  • Routing: EIGRP

  • SNMP

  • NAT: Overload, PAT

  • VPN Tunnel interface

  • Site-to-Site VPN

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Products

Table 10. Cisco CSR 1000v Compatibility with Cisco UCS Servers

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S and later:

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Products

The Cisco UCS server requirements are:

  • VMware-certified
  • 4 or more cores configured
  • 6 GB or more memory
  • VMware vCenter or standalone VMware vSphere client installed to manage the ESXi server

See http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html to determine the UCS hardware and software that is compatible with the supported hypervisors.

Finding Support Information for Platforms and Cisco Software Images

Cisco software is packaged in feature sets consisting of software images that support specific platforms. The feature sets available for a specific platform depend on which Cisco software images are included in a release. To identify the set of software images available in a specific release or to find out if a feature is available in a given Cisco IOS XE software image, you can use Cisco Feature Navigator, the Software Advisor, or the Cisco CSR 1000v Release Notes.

Using Cisco Feature Navigator

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which Cisco IOS XE software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn . An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Using the Software Advisor

To see if a feature is supported by a Cisco IOS XE release, to locate the software document for that feature, or to check the minimum Cisco IOS XE software requirements with your router, Cisco maintains the Software Advisor tool on Cisco.com at:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/Fusion/FusionHome.do

You must be a registered user on Cisco.com to access this tool.

Using the Software Release Notes

Cisco IOS XE software release notes provide the following information:

  • Platform support

  • Memory recommendations

  • New features

  • Open and resolved severity 1 and 2 caveats

Release notes are intended to be release-specific for the most current release, and the information provided in these documents may not be cumulative in providing information about features that first appeared in previous releases. See Cisco Feature Navigator for cumulative feature information.

For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/routers/cloud-services-router-1000v-series/products-release-notes-list.html.