Ultra Cloud Clore Subscriber Management Infrastructure

Introduction

This Release Notes identifies changes and issues related to this software release.

Release Lifecycle Milestones

Release Lifecycle Milestone

Milestone

Date

First Customer Ship

FCS

31-Jan-2024

End of Life

EoL

31-Jan-2024

End of Software Maintenance

EoSM

31-Jul-2025

End of Vulnerability and Security Support

EoVSS

31-Jul-2025

Last Date of Support

LDoS

31-Jul-2026

These milestones and the intervals between them are defined in the Cisco Ultra Cloud Core (UCC) Software Release Lifecycle Product Bulletin available on cisco.com.

Release Package Version Information

Software Packages

Version

smi-install-disk.20.04.0-20240120.iso.SPA.tgz

20.04.0-20240120

cee.2024.01.1.13.SPA.tgz

2024.01.1.13

cluster-deployer-2024.01.1.13.SPA.tgz

2024.01.1.13

Descriptions for the various packages provided with this release are provided in the Release Package Descriptions section.

Verified Compatibility

UCS Server

CIMC Firmware Version

Cisco UCS C220 M6

4.2(2a) or later

Cisco UCS C220 M5

4.1(3f) or later


Note


For UCS C220 M6 deployment, it is mandatory to use secure boot for installing only Cisco signed firmware images on the servers.


What's New in this Release

New in Documentation

This version of Release Notes includes a new section titled What’s New in this Release comprising all new features, enhancements, and behavior changes applicable for the release.

This section will be available in all the 5G release notes and will supersede content in the Release Change Reference (RCR) document. Effective release 2024.01, the RCR document will be deprecated.

Features and Enhancements

This section covers a brief description of the features and enhancements introduced in this release. It also includes links to detailed documentation, where available.

Feature Description

Configurable Cluster Access for OS Users

SMI supports the access of OS users to SMI cluster upon login using the addons secure-access { enabled | disabled } CLI command in the Cluster Configuration mode. By default, this command is disabled to reduce resource usage in the K8s cluster.

The helm chart is created to deploy Daemonsets onto master nodes. Only the access controller pod on the active master will run and manage user access.

Default Setting: Disabled – Configuration required to enable

Inception Deployer Support using Ubuntu

To simplify the maintenance of the host server running the Inception Deployer, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS can be used as a replacement for the smi-install-disk.iso image. The users are allowed to install their own Ubuntu servers to manage security updates and install new releases of the cluster-deployer as required.

Default Setting: Disabled – Configuration required to enable

Kubernetes Version Upgrade

With this release, the Kubernetes version is upgraded from 1.26 to 1.27.

Default Setting: Enabled – Always On

Optimizing Parallel Cluster Sync Time for Multiple Clusters

SMI supports parallel cluster sync triggered from the same inception deployer or cluster manager.

Note

 

This functionality is currently supported only on Bare Metal and not fully supported on VMware.

The following enhancements optimize time while downloading artifacts:

  • Only the individual files will be locked to allow subsequent syncs parallely

  • Only the software required to be synced will be downloaded and verified

  • Each sync will perform SHA256 or SHA512 validation on each package

  • For clusters that require different packages, the downloads will happen concurrently

Note

 

The download process creates file locks that must be persisted for the life of the file. You must not delete or modify the files under any conditions.

Optimizing SMI Cluster Sync Time

During SMI base image upgrade, the sync time for KVM cluster is reduced to approximately 40 minutes per node.

This is achieved by setting the other nodes in maintenance mode to true , desyncing the cluster for the active node, and repeating the same process for other nodes.

SNMP Trap Changes for Equipment Alarms

SMI supports the following SNMP trap changes in this release:

  • The server-alert trap will now send unique values for hardware alerts from CEE in the CISCO-CNEE-MIB::cneeFaultId field.

    The trap definition includes the affectedDN SNMP element. The MIB is also updated with CISCO-CNEE-MIB::cneeAffectedDn to provide a direct object reference.

  • The server-not-reachable-alert trap is updated to include the trap descriptions for the equipment faults.

Updated Versions for Third Party Software

SMI supports updated versions for the following third party software in this release:

  • Calico—3.26

  • Docker—24.0.4

Default Setting: Enabled – Always On

Installation and Upgrade Notes

This Release Note does not contain general installation and upgrade instructions. Refer to the existing installation documentation for specific installation and upgrade considerations.

Software Integrity Verification

To verify the integrity of the software image you have from Cisco, you can validate the SHA512 checksum information against the checksum identified by Cisco for the software.

Image checksum information is available through Cisco.com Software Download Details. To find the checksum, hover the mouse pointer over the software image you have downloaded.

At the bottom you find the SHA512 checksum, if you do not see the whole checksum you can expand it by pressing the "..." at the end.

To validate the information, calculate a SHA512 checksum using the information in the following table and verify that it matches with the one provided on the software download page.

To calculate a SHA512 checksum on your local desktop, refer to the following table please.

Table 1. Checksum Calculations per Operating System

Operating System

SHA512 Checksum Calculation Command Examples

Microsoft Windows

Open a command line window and type the following command:

> certutil.exe -hashfile <filename>.<extension> SHA512 

Apple MAC

Open a terminal window and type the following command:

$ shasum -a 512 <filename>.<extension> 

Linux

Open a terminal window and type the following command:

$ sha512sum <filename>.<extension> 

Or

$ shasum -a 512 <filename>.<extension> 

NOTES:

<filename> is the name of the file.

<extension> is the file extension (e.g. .zip or .tgz).

If the SHA512 checksum matches, you can be sure that no one has tampered with the software image, or the image has not been corrupted during download.

If the SHA512 checksum does not match, we advise you to not attempt upgrading any systems with the corrupted software image. Download the software again and verify the SHA512 checksum again. If there is a constant mismatch, please open a case with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center.

Certificate Validation

SMI software images are signed via x509 certificates. Please view the .README file packaged with the software for information and instructions on how to validate the certificates.

Open Bugs for this Release

The following table lists the open bugs in this specific software release.


Note


This software release may contain open bugs first identified in other releases. Additional information for all open bugs for this release are available in the Cisco Bug Search Tool.


Bug ID

Headline

CSCwi79394

Postgres coredump seen on Cluster Manager during SMI Upgrade

CSCwi79409

Python coredump seen on Cluster Manager during upgrade

CSCwi79646

Fluentd coredump seen on remote NF clusters during SMI upgrade

Resolved Bugs for this Release

The following table lists the resolved bugs in this specific software release.

Bug ID

Headline

Behavior Change

CSCwi15801

After fluentd memory issue NF ops centers failed to recover

No

Operator Notes

Cloud Native Product Version Numbering System

The show helm list command displays detailed information about the version of the cloud native product currently deployed.

The appropriate version number field increments after a version has been released. The new version numbering format is a contiguous sequential number that represents incremental changes between releases. This format facilitates identifying the changes between releases when using Bug Search Tool to research software releases.

Release Package Descriptions

The following table lists the descriptions for packages that are available with this release.

Table 2. Release Package Information

Software Packages

Description

base.<version>.iso.SPA.tgz

The application-level POD ISO image signature package for use with bare metal deployments. This package contains the base ISO image as well as the release signature, certificate, and verification information.

cee.<version>SPA.tgz

The SMI Common Execution Environment (CEE) offline release signature package. This package contains the CEE deployment package as well as the release signature, certificate, and verification information.

cluster-deployer-<version>.SPA.tgz

The SMI Deployer image signature package for use with bare metal deployments. This package contains the Deployer v image as well as the release signature, certificate, and verification information.

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, using the Cisco Bug Search Tool (BST), submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/index.html.