Release Notes for Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router, IOS XR Release 24.3.1

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router is a cloud-based router that is deployed on a virtual machine (VM) instance on x86 server hardware running 64 bit IOS XR software. Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router provides traditional Provider Edge (PE) services in a virtualized form factor, as well as virtual Route Reflector (vRR) capabilities.

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Overview

The Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router is based on Cisco IOS XR software, so it inherits and shares the wide breadth of routing functionality available on other IOS XR platforms. The IOS XR features available on the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router are discussed in Supported Cisco IOS XR Technologies section.

When the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router virtual IOS XR software is deployed as a VM, the Cisco IOS XR software functions just as if it were deployed on a traditional Cisco IOS XR hardware platform. The Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router combines Route Processor, Line Card, and virtualized forwarding capabilities into a single, centralized forwarding instance. The Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router has a fully featured, high speed virtual x86 data plane.

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router supports the same look and feel as Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers and North-bound APIs. Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router does not support hardware specific configurations. The configuration commands for control plane and data plane features follow the same syntax as the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers. See Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers command references for more information on configuration commands.

What's New in Cisco IOS XR Release 24.3.1

For more details on the Cisco IOS XR release model and associated support, see Software Lifecycle Support Statement - IOS XR.

Software Features Enhanced and Introduced

Feature Description

Segment Routing

Delay Measurement Using Software Timestamp

You can now use software timestamp on your router to measure the delay and loss of each network path, when the existing hardware lacks timestamp support, which aids in identifying performance issues caused by the network, disk I/O, processing, or other factors. Software timestamping for delay measurement measures the time it takes for data to travel within a network or system.

You can implement it across various platforms and operating systems without needing specialized hardware, making it a flexible solution to easily deploy.

The feature introduces these changes:

CLI:

Routing

Enhanced BGP BFD Strict-Mode Capabilities for Improved Interoperability

You now have the capability of upgrading your network with Cisco's "BGP BFD strict-mode negotiate" and "override" modes, which enhance stability and device cooperation between Cisco IOS XR and Cisco XE systems. These modes ensure BGP sessions initiate only if BFD sessions are active, with the override option enforcing this even if a peer device lacks strict-mode support. This feature resolves interoperability issues, secures route propagation, and adheres to IETF standards, leading to a more reliable network.

This feature introduces these changes:

CLI:

YANG Data Models:

  • New XPaths for Cisco-IOS-XR-um-router-bgp-cfg.yang

(See GitHub, YANG Data Models Navigator)

System Requirements

Appliance Model

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Appliance is the pre-installed Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router software that is sent from the factory on a bare metal UCS server hardware. It supports hyper scalability as it can scale to 70 Million route prefixes when run as a Virtual Route Reflector. Therefore, the extra layer of software (hypervisor) is not required.

The Appliance also supports Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) which allows easier insertion into existing networks.

Hypervisors

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.

Installation of the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router 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. The following table lists release specific supported hypervisor versions.

Table 1. Support Matrix for Hypervisor Versions

Cisco IOS XR Version

VMWare ESXi

Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Release 24.3.1

version 6.5, 6.7,7.0

Linux KVM based on

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, and 8.0

  • Ubuntu 14.04.03 LTS

  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

  • CentOS 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, and 7.7

  • Openstack 10

Virtual Machines

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router virtual machines must meet the following requirements:

Table 2. VM Requirement for VMware Environment

Parameters

Supported

VMware ESXi

Version 6.5, 6.7, 7.0

Virtual CPU cores

1 socket with a minimum of 2 cores

Note

 

For production environment minimum of 4 cores is recommended.

Note

 

For multicast heavy deployments we recommend to configure 8 cores (with 4 assigned for control plane and 4 assigned for data plane).

Virtual Machine memory size

12GB minimum, 19GB recommended for 10G interfaces

Virtual Machine hard disk size

64GB minimum for vPE and vRR image variants

Virtual Interfaces

  • E1000

  • VMXNET3 for traffic interfaces only

Physical NICs

For pass-through:

  • Intel X710

SR-IOV supported for:

  • Intel E810 XXV (Trunk VFs Only)

Number of interfaces

Maximum of 11 NICs where:

  • 1 for management

  • 2 are reserved

  • 8 for traffic

Default video, SCSI controller set

Required

SCSI controller not required for IDE disk.

Virtual CD/DVD drive installed

Virtual CD/DVD is required when installing the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router on the VM using ISO template.

IDE hard disk

Single IDE hard disk

Note

 

Multiple hard disk drives on a VM are not supported.


Note

The maximum traffic performance with pass-through NIC interfaces in ESXi is lower than the performance that can be achieved in KVM environments. This is because it is not possible to configure 1G huge-pages in the ESXi hypervisor (as of VMware ESXi 6.0).

Table 3. VM Requirement for KVM Environment

Parameters

Supported

KVM versions

  • Linux KVM based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4

  • Ubuntu 14.04.03 LTS Server 64 Bits

  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

  • Openstack Release 5 (Icehouse), Openstack Juno/Icehouse (RHEL 7), Kilo (RHEL 7.1), Liberty (RHEL 7.2), Openstack 10 (Newton)

  • CentOS 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, and 7.7

Virtual CPU cores

1 socket with minimum of 2 cores.

Note

 

For multicast heavy deployments we recommend to configure 8 cores (with 4 assigned for control plane and 4 assigned for data plane).

Virtual Machine memory size

12GB Minimum, 19GB recommended for 10G interfaces

Virtual Machine hard disk size

64GB minimum

Virtual Interfaces

E1000, VirtIO and

VMXNET3 for traffic interfaces only

Physical NICs

For pass-through:

  • Intel X710

Number of interfaces

Minimum of 4 NICs where:

  • 1 is for management

  • 2 are reserved

  • 1 is for traffic

Maximum of 11 NICs where:

  • 1 is for management

  • 2 are reserved

  • 8 is for traffic

Virtual CD/DVD drive installed

Virtual CD/DVD drive is required for ISO installation


Note

In the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router, some CPU cores are dedicated to the control plane while others are dedicated to the data plane. Each data plane's core runs a single thread that performs packet forwarding. To achieve maximum performance, these threads constantly look for data packets to process. As a result, the OS records that these cores run at 100% utilization. This is expected behavior and not an indication that packet forwarding has reached its threshold limit.

10G Optic Support

Product

Product Code

Supplier Part Number

Cisco 10GBASE SFP+, Short Range

Cisco SFP-10G-SR

Cisco SFP-10G-SR

Note

 

This optic is recommended for the better performance and interoperability with IOS XRv 9000.

Cisco 10GBASE SFP+, Long Range

Cisco SFP-10G-LR

Cisco SFP-10G-LR

Note

 

This optic is recommended for the better performance and interoperability with IOS XRv 9000.

Intel Ethernet SFP SR Optics

Dual Rate 10GBASE-SR/1000BASE-SX

E10GSFPSR

FTLX8571D3BCVIT1 or

AFBR-709DMZ-IN2

Server

The server must support:

  • Intel Westmere or later CPU versions with clock frequency of 2.0GHz for instances with Gigabit or paravirtualized interfaces

  • Intel Ivy Bridge or later CPU versions for instances with 10Gb or higher interfaces

  • Intel CPU must support the sse4_2 capability flag. This can be checked in KVM by looking for the sse4_2 flag in the flags section of /proc/cpuinfo. For example: 
    cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep sse4_2
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon nopl xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq vmx ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm ida arat epb pln pts dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi ept vpid fsgsbase smep

Note
To use passthrough interfaces in KVM, you must set the option intel_iommu=on command in the grub configuration.

Licensing

Starting with Cisco IOS XR Release 24.1.1, Smart Licensing Using Policy (SLP) is the default Licensing model. When you upgrade to the Cisco IOS XR Release 24.1.1 release or later, the Smart Licensing Using Policy is enabled by default.

You can migrate your devices to Smart Licensing with Policy model, see Migrating from Smart Licensing to Smart Licensing Using Policy, Smart Licensing Using Policy on Cisco IOS XR Routers.

We recommend that you update to the latest version of SSM On-Prem or Cisco Smart Licensing Utility.


Note

SSM On-Prem and CSSM both support SLP devices and SL devices. SLP devices and SL devices can coexist in a network. The Smart Licensing (SL) model is available in releases Cisco IOS XR Release 7.11.1 and earlier.

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Licensing Model

The Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router supports activation using Cisco Smart Licensing. By default the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router (without license) is rate limited to 200 Kbps.

For more information on licensing model supported on Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router, see the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Smart Licensing chapter in the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Installation and Configuration Guide.

See Cisco Smart Software Licensing Overview for more information on Cisco Smart Licensing.

License Ordering Information

The Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router offers a flexible licensing scheme, with multiple tiers to choose from, such as Scale, and Throughput. This table lists details of Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router's pool of software licenses or entitlements, arranged according to licensing PIDs.


Note

The XRv9000 router only consumes and reports VPE licenses. VRR licenses are not consumed or reported.
Table 4. Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Licensing PIDs

PIDs

Description

R-IOSXRV-SUBSCRIP

Bundle PID for IOS XRV SBP

R-VROUTER-SUB

Subscription license for Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Software

R-IOSXRV-SUB-IMG

ATO for XRv SUB

S-XRV-SUB-RR-1M

Subscription license for virtual Route Reflector (vRR) functionality with 1 million routes

S-XRV-SUB-RTU

IOS XRv 9000 license for one virtual router instantiation

S-XRV-SUB-RR-4M

Subscription license for virtual Route Reflector (vRR) scale upgrade from 4 million routes

S-XRV-SUB-RR-10M

Subscription license for virtual Route Reflector (vRR) scale upgrade from 4 to 10 million routes

S-XRV-SUB-RR-20M

Subscription license for virtual Route Reflector (vRR) scale upgrade from 10 to 20 million routes

S-XRV-SUB-XTC

Billing PID for SBP XRV9K -SR-PCE (XTC) RTU

S-XRV-B-SUB-1G

IOS XRv 9000 1G throughput license for IP MPLS base package

S-XRV-P-SUB-1G

IOS XRv 9000 1G throughput license for IP MPLS premium package

S-XRV-L3-B-SUB-1G

IOS XRv 9000 1G throughput license for IP MPLS L3VPN base package

S-XRV-L3-P-SUB-1G

IOS XRv 9000 1G throughput license for IP MPLS L3VPN premium package

S-XRV-LI-SUB-RTU

IOS XRv 9000 Advance software license for Lawful Intercept

S-XRV-HQOS-SUB-1G

IOS XRv 9000 1G Advance software license for HQoS

SVS-XRV-SUPT-BA

XRV Support - Basic

Supported Cisco IOS XR Technologies

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router supports selected Cisco IOS XR technologies.

This table lists the major Cisco IOS XR technologies Cisco IOS XRv 9000 supports. Not all features in a given technology may be supported. To verify support for specific features, use Cisco Feature Navigator.

Table 5. Cisco IOS XR Technologies Supported on the Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router

Feature

See the Following Documentation

Introduced in Release

  • Application Hosting

Release 6.1.2

  • BFD over Logical Bundle

Release 6.1.2

  • Bi-directional Policing and Marking

Release 5.4.0

  • BGP Persistence

Release 6.2.1

  • BGP Optimal Route Reflector

Release 6.0.1

Customize Installation using Golden ISO

Customize Installation using Golden ISO

 Release 7.3.1

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Deployment on AWS

Release 6.3.1

Create User Profiles and Assign Privileges

System Setup and Software Installation Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers

Release 7.1.1

  • Early Fast Discard

Release 5.4.0

  • Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) over IPv4

Release 6.3.1

  • HSRP

  • VRRP

Release 6.2.1

  • Hierarchical Policers (including conform aware)

Release 6.0.1

  • IPv4 Routing

  • IPv6 Routing

  • OSPF

  • ISIS

Release 5.4.0

  • IPSLA

  • Platform Automated Monitoring

Release 6.0.0

  • IPv4 and IPv6 ACL

Release 5.4.0

  • IPv4 L3VPN

  • 6PE, 6VPE

Release 5.4.0

L2VPN VPWS

Release 6.4.1

  • Link Aggregation Group (LAG)

Release 6.1.2

  • Lawful Intercept

Release 5.4.0

  • LDP

Release 5.4.0

  • LPTS

Release 5.4.0

Multicast features:

  • IPv4/IPv6 L3 Native Multicast: IGMP, MLD, PIM SM/SSM in default VRF

  • IPv4 MVPN Rosen GRE with IGMP, PIM SM/SSM in Non-Default VRF

    • Profile 0: Rosen MVPN GRE

    • Profile 3: Rosen MVPN GRE with BGP-AD

    • Profile 11: Rosen MVPN GRE with BGP C-Multicast routing

Release 6.4.1

  • MPLS

Release 5.4.0

  • MP-BGP, EBGP PE-CE

Release 5.4.0

  • Network Service Header (NSH)

Release 6.1.2

  • NSH Proxy Mode

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Specific Features

Release 6.2.1

  • RT Constriant

Release 6.2.1

  • Segment Routing over IPv6

Release 6.6.1

  • Telemetry

Release 6.0.0

  • The Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)

Release 6.0.1

  • Virtualised Local Mobility Anchor (vLMA)

Release 6.3.1

  • VRF Support on Docker and LXC Containers

Release 6.3.1

  • SRv6 Traffic Engineering

Release 7.3.2

gNMI Bundling of Telemetry Updates

Cisco IOS XRv 9000 Router Installation and Configuration Guide

Release 7.8.1

Auto-Save and Copy Router Configuration Using Public Key Authentication

General Administration on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers

Release 7.10.1

Smart Licensing Using Policy

Cisco IOS XR Smart Licensing Using Policy

Release 24.1.1

Multi-Factor Authentication for SSH

System Security Configuration Guide for Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers

Release 24.1.1

Caveats

Cisco XRv 9000 Series Router Specific Bugs

There are no caveats in this release.

Other Important Information

  • For the XRv 9000 platform, minimum transmission period supported for the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is 200 milliseconds.

Upgrading Cisco IOS XR Software

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


Note

The FPD related commands are not supported on IOS XRv 9000 Appliance. That includes fpd auto-upgrade command.

Cisco IOS XR Error messages

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

Cisco IOS XR MIBs

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