VCLI Release 2.2.8.4 Release Notes

The Virtual Command Line Interface (VCLI) is a management application that runs on UNIX. It manages the MGX 8240 switches in the network. All 8240 features are supported from the VCLI. The VCLI is independent of all other management applications that Cisco provides.

VCLI Software Release 2.2.8.4 has all the functionality of the previous VCLI software releases. The last official release of the VCLI was Release 2.1.3. There is a beta release of VCLI software that was given release 2.2.8.

Release 2.2.8.4 fixes problems with the SW upgrade for IMC cards. Those problems are described below in the list of Caveats.

Hardware Supported

Software Compatibility

There are no compatibility problems between this VCLI release and previous ones. This release should replace all earlier releases.

Upgrading to a New Software Release

The VCLI software is distributed on the VCLI CD and contains three files listed below. The files that have the `.tar.Z' suffix are compressed UNIX archive files. These files are uncompressed using the UNIX "uncompress <filename>" command, and un-archived using the "tar xvf <filename>" command.

The vcli-install.txt file contains instructions on how to install the VCLI from scratch (a new install) or upgrade an existing VCLI release.

New and Changed Information

New Software Features in Release 2.2.8.4

Two major items new to this release are support for the newly introduced IMC card in the Cisco MGX 8240 switch, and significant enhancement to the background polling task functionality. There have also been bug fixes to the previous 2.1.3 Release.

The IMC card is the management card in the chassis, and compared to the CES cards has very few features to be managed. The VCLI supports the IMC redundancy feature, the MIB II system group table, and software upgrade. The IMC card cannot be managed in-bandin release 2.2.X of the Cisco MGX 8240 switch software. The IMC card replaces the CIM product that was shipped with all Cisco MGX 8240 switches.

The background polling feature is referred to as BladeMonitor. In previous releases, background polling was done as part of the VCLI task process. Starting with this release, the VCLI will spawn a BladeMonitor sub-process. As a separate process, one BladeMonitor process will support all VCLI sessions that are started. The BladeMonitor process will continue to poll all cards and switches in the network while at least one VCLI session is active. The BladeMonitor process terminates itself after a few seconds when it detects all VCLI processes have been terminated. New features for the BladeMonitor are more efficient network polling, the ability to see how the BladeMonitor is interpreting network connectivity, and the BladeMonitor's own performance statistics.

This release of the VCLI will manage an Cisco MGX 8240 switch with or without the presence of an IMC card. If the Cisco MGX 8240 is still connected to a CIM, the VCLI will not have a problem managing the CES cards.

This release of the VCLI is also backward compatible; it supports all CES and IMC card software releases at or below 2.2.X. The software releases of the CES cards can be mixed in a chassis, and still be supported by the VCLI. The VCLI continues to support the in-bandor out-of-band IP management route discovery for the CES cards. When the in-bandroute is up and operational, in-bandmanagement continues to be the preferred route of all management traffic between the VCLI and the CES cards.

This release builds upon all other features of the VCLI. Features that existed in previous releases of the VCLI have not been removed. Please consult previous release notes and user guides for the list of features.

New Software Features in Release 2.1.3

The features in VCLI Release 2.1.3 are described here, and still apply. These descriptions remain as part of the VCLI 2.2.8.4 release notes to continue to describe all the new features since the last major VCLI release which was 2.0.X.

New in Release 2.1.3 of the VCLI is support for both CES card hardware types. The two types of CES cards that this release of the VCLI will support are

The original CES card type that supports the original I/O card with 3 channelized DS3s, and two OC3 ports.

The new CES (called the CS3) card type which can support the original I/O card type, as well as the new I/O card type with 4 OC3 ports (the DS3 ports are contained within the OC3 port).

Caveats

There is a known problem with the VCLI: it allows users to change the redundancy role of primary card to a role of `none', while the primary card is in the process of being forced back into service. The VCLI should not allow this change while the card is in this redundancy state. Changing the redundancy role of the primary card while in this state could cause a problem with the configuration database of the primary card. The DDTS number for this problem is CSCdm71570. There is no work around for this problem.

The VCLI has a problem with a switched out primary card when the primary card is not responding to SNMP PDUs. The VCLI should divert all user queries to the switched in backup card in this scenario. But instead the VCLI reports that it cannot communicate with the switched out primary. This is most likely to occur when the primary card is pulled out of the switch. The DDTS number for this problem is CSCdp39816. The work around for this is to specify the switched in backup card for all VCLI queries.

There is a problem for the VCLI creating Private Line circuits between two CES cards in two different switches when one card is running Release 1.1.2.10, and the other is running Release 2.X. The order of how the two endpoints are specified is important. When creating a circuit with the described scenario, the user must specify the Release 1.x release as endpoint 1. There is no problem if the two endpoints are on the same switch. DDTS CSCdp35740 identifies this problem.

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Table 1 Resolved Caveats , Release 2.2.8.4
	VCLI 2.2.8.4
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCdp36225	High	Ascend provisioning	The stored ascend uplink string was truncated if the Cisco MGX 8240 slot was greater than 9. This caused the ascend provisioning server to fail to create the ATM connection in the ascend cloud.
CSCdp38898	High	BladeMon	Illegal characters in a switch name cause the BladeMonitor to cease working properly. The VCLI now checks for legal characters in switch name when users add new switches to the VCLI database.
CSCdp38890	Medium	BladeMon	BladeMonitor was reporting the OutOfBand link to be down when the in-bandLink was up. The OutOfBand link status should be reported regardless of the in-bandlink state.
CSCdp38871	Medium	BladeMon	The command `show blademon info' displayed the in-bandcommunication state to a card down twice if the OutOfBand and in-bandlink were down

Open Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Table 2 Open Caveats, Release 2.2.8.4
	VCLI 2.2.8.4			Comments
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCdp39816	High	Redundancy	Unable to communicate to switched out primary and switched in backup when the primary card is not responding to SNMP PDUs.
CSCdm73811	High	Connection creation	Cannot make connection between CES cards running different SW releases. Turns out this wasn't a defect. Release 1 CPE SW can't handle EPIDs as large as Rel 2 SW.
CSCdp35740	Medium	Connection creation	VCLI cannot create a PL circuit from a CES card running Rel 2.x SW to card on a different switch running Rel 1.x SW.
CSCdm90826	High	OC3 status	The Sonet path operational status of the Access side as reported by the VCLI can be incorrect if the Access OC3 port is APS protection switched to the protection line.	Should be fine if APS is not enabled or the working line is active.
CSCdm71570	High	Redundancy	VCLI allows configuration changes to CES cards while their redundancy state is FBP (Force Back in Progress).
CSCsn05508	Medium	APS	VCLI displays an error if def card is invalid for command `change cescard aps?'	Only occurs when help requested
CSCdp40572	Medium	Sonet Path Thresholds	VCLI cannot change the Error thresholds values for the Sonet Path level on the Channelized Access OC3 ports.
CSCdp34882	Medium	Ckt Bert	VCLI cannot set the transmit and receive bit inversion attributes for PL and SegPL type circuit BERT tests. These attributes only apply to User data pattern configured BERT tests.
CSCdp35483	Medium	IMC	The command `show imc info' doesn't check if backup IMC is present in the switch. Consequently if the backup card is not present the command takes several seconds to complete.
CSCdp35469	Medium	IMC	The VCLI doesn't report the SW version of the backup IMC card from backup IMC. It displays the SW Version of the Primary card for the backup too.
CSCsn05671	Low	Performance	Request to increase VCLI performance when creating a pl type connection	Not a bug, it's just slow.
CSCdm70079	New feature	Show connections	Add feature to show what the default physical ports are when listing the connections on a card	Feature request
CSCsn05455	Low	Show cmds	Some show commands don't recognize that the user has entered invalid options. The VCLI ignores these options because they are not needed rather than tell the user that they gave options that are illegal.
CSCsn04479	New feature	usability	Curses doesn't work - need real terminal mode for line editing. An enhancement will allow true cursor controlled line edits.	Have to use the built in vcli line editing.
CSCsn04947	New feature	Config files	Enhancements: Add capability to backup and restore config files.
CSCsn04974	New feature	Sw upgrade	Download related code should display info about user, time downloaded, downloaded from etc. for record keeping.
CSCsn05072	Low	Switch database	For -network 1 options it would be nice if switch names are alphabetically ordered.
CSCsn05073	New feature	Trap handling	Need to integrate VCLI's trap handling with redundancy related code. This way VCLI knows when to switch between in-bandand out-of-band.
CSCsn05492	New feature	Ces card info	VCLI's "sh ces inf" should display both SW as well as FW active and inactive releases so a user knows what he/she is switching to.
CSCdm30982	Medium	Background polling	When BladeMon process dies, the redundancy status of the Cisco MGX 8240 cards in the network gets stale without the VCLI being aware of it.	Quick fix is to remove the file `blade.db' and restart a VCLI.
CSCsn05494	Low	CES card addition	If two or more users make changes database changes to the VCLI database (e.g. add/delete cards, add/delete switches), then changes can be overwritten in the VCLI database.	Users should have a single user making database changes.
CSCdp28944	High	SW upgrade	VCLI `download' command doesn't check for file types when downloading files to Cisco MGX 8240 card. It blindly FTPs files that are found in the directories specified by the value of the `imagedir' attribute.	This should not occur if the upgrade procedures are followed.
CSCdp08025	Medium	Redundancy	When the CES software has a I/O card incompatibility problem, the CES card reports a redundancy role value of '3'. This is not a legal value according to the SNMP definition of the redundancy Role. When the CPE card returns this value, the VCLI displays a `-` for role.	When the I/O card is incompatible, this is a serious CPE problem, and the vcli display of a `-`is minor in comparison.
CSCdp37110	Low	Connection creation	The VCLI will create a local PL type connection without having the second endpoint specified on the command line. Both endpoints should be specified on the command line for any type of PL circuit.
CSCdp40302	Low	Output display	The `q' to quit command to cease the output of data to the screen doesn't work the first time for the command `show physical oc3 stat'.
CSCdp23296	Low	Chassis cmd	When a Chassis level command is given on the vcli, the vcli will only go so far before prompting user "Hit Return to Continue, `q' and return to quit". For chassis commands, the vcli should not stop to query user.
CSCsn05714	Low	Change cmd	When a required command line argument is not given, the vcli should display the argument that is missing, not a generic message stating such
CSCdm88355	Medium	Bert	The vcli doesn't display any digits after the decimal point for the attribute PercentErrorFreeSeconds when viewing Bert Status for DS1 or Circuit Bert tests.
CSCdp33107	Low	Download Help	Help for the command `download -card?' doesn't inform user that IMC is card 1, and CPE are cards 2-16
CSCdp33137	Low	Download cmd	In the `download' cmd, the VCLI doesn't give an informative error message, when the cardtype argument doesn't match the slot of the card.

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.2

Table 3 Resolved Caveats, Release 2.2.8.2
	VCLI 2.2.8.2
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCdp33196	High	IMC SW upgrade	The VCLI isn't waiting long enough for the IMC redundancy situation to settle after the backup IMC has rebooted, and is ready to become primary. The VCLI is proceeding with the upgrade of the second IMC too soon.
CSCdp02650	Medium	IMC redundancy	If the IMC card with a Cisco MGX 8240 chassis is not available for IP communication, then the VCLI command `show switch redundancy' shows that it is. All other IMC commands fail.
CSCdp33191	High	IMC SW upgrade	When the VCLI initiates the upgrade on the backup IMC, if the backup IMC returns an error to the SNMP_SET request, the VCLI didn't cease the upgrade, and continued on with by attempting to upgrade the other IMC card in the chassis.

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.1

Table 4, Part 1 Resolved Caveats , Release 2.2.8.1
	VCLI 2.2.8.1
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCdp02650	Medium	IMC redundancy	If the IMC card with a Cisco MGX 8240 chassis is not available for IP communication, then the VCLI command `show switch redundancy' shows that it is. All other IMC commands fail.
CSCdp00218	Low	CES redundancy	In `show switch redundancy' command, VCLI does not differentiate between configured cards that cannot be communicated with and empty slots when it cannot communicate to these cards. The vcli will show a `-`in both these cases. It should display `unknown' for configured cards.
CSCdm73051	Medium	Connection deletion	VCLI does not delete far end endpoint of a pl type connection, when only the near end endpoint of the connection is given. But the converse is not true: both endpoints will be deleted if the farend endpoint is given on the command line Work Around was to delete farend, or to delete both endpoints separately.
CSCdp01075	Low	CES card addition	When a CES card is added to a switch, and that card already exists, the VCLI returns an uninformative error message.
CSCdm73801	High, Status is Closed	M13 IP address	Cmd `change system cescard -m13?ip 0' doesn't work. This was never a bug. Changing IP addresses requires a few seconds for the CPE card to make the change visible to the VCLI. Setting `0.0.0.0' always works.
CSCdp00556	Low	PL ckt config	The loopback state of a PL type circuit is not shown anywhere in the VCLI. This state should be displayed in the output of the command `show conn pl config'

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8

Table 5 Resolved Caveats, Release 2.2.8
	VCLI 2.2.8
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCsn05808	Medium	Show conn	VCLI used to display the incorrect circuit type on a backup CES card with the command "show conn all sum" when a backup was switched in for a primary.
CSCdm73146	Medium	Change BERT	User was unable to tell a circuit that was currently running a bert test to invert the transmit pattern. The command was "change connection segpl -txpattinv on -epid <endPointid>"
CSCdm77694	High	Show CES info	In release 2.1.X of the VCLI, it didn't read the manufacturing related information attributes correctly for CES cards for the command "show cescard info".
CSCdm77832	High	ATM Port stats	VCLI returned error when trying to retrieve the stats for the command "show logicalport atm stat"
CSCdm77686	Medium	Show phy ds1	The row label for DS1 Frame errors didn't say that Frame Errors are measured as any second that contained a frame error. Instead it led the user to believe that the count displayed was the actual number of frame errors.
CSCsn05790	High	Redundancy	In certain situations the VCLI used to give an error when the user attempted to put a CES card in the primary role from a role of None. A second attempt seemed to work.
CSCdm75085	High	Show OC3 sum	VCLI shows the operational state of the Sonet Path layer on the Access OC3 to be up when either the Sonet Section, Sonet Line Layers are operational down.
CSCdm82392	Medium	Change sys switch	Using the command "change system switch -sname <new_name>" didn't update the VCLI database files.
CSCsn05541	Medium	BladeMon	VCLI takes a long time to establish communication with CES card after the card reboots. Now it communicates within seconds after the CES card is available for communication.
CSCsn05684	Medium	BladeMon	Duplicate problem of CSCsn05541
CSCsn05781	Low	BladeMon	Exit and restart of vcli causes delay in communicating with the CES cards in the network. Now the BladeMon process keeps in contact for the VCLI.
CSCsn05736	Low	BladeMon	Need to make BladeMonitor a stand alone application

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.1.3

Table 6 Resolved Caveats, Release 2.1.3
	VCLI 2.1.3
DDTS Number	Severity	Functional Area	Problem Description
CSCsn05743	High	Connection creation	Connection created on switched out primary card, shows type Remote-Pl
CSCsn05744	High	Show command	Inconsistent or misleading information with cmd `show cescard info'
CSCsn04734	High	Connection deletion	When not able to delete connection, the EPID is not given
CSCdm60856	Medium	Switch names	Switch names cannot take the underline char.
CSCdm59553	High	Change OC3	Missing feature to change the AIS to RDI flag
CSCsn05811	High	Switch names	Only 3 chars of switch name are displayed on error
CSCsn05846	High	Ds3 summary	Missing check for container down state in cmd `show phy ds3 summary'
CSCsn05864	High	Connection deletion	Can't always delete partially created circuits
CSCsn05771	High	Redundancy	Loss of communication when redundancy state of the CES cards is in unknown state
CSCsn05715	Medium	Connection creation	Can't delete an invalid connection
CSCdm72267	Medium	Connection creation	Vcli doesn't show the name of the cktid when a connection is created
CSCsn05815	Medium	User response	Acceptance of Y/y and N/n instead of complete word when user acceptance is required

Table Of Contents

Release Notes for VCLI Version 2.2.8.4

for Cisco MGX 8240

Contents

Introduction

Hardware Supported

Software Compatibility

Upgrading to a New Software Release

New and Changed Information

New Software Features in Release 2.2.8.4

New Software Features in Release 2.1.3

Caveats

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Open Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.2

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.1

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.1.3

Related Documentation

Hardware Documents

Software Document

Cisco Connection Online

Documentation CD-ROM

This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

Copyright � 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Table Of Contents

Release Notes for VCLI Version 2.2.8.4

for Cisco MGX 8240

Contents

Introduction

Hardware Supported

Software Compatibility

Upgrading to a New Software Release

New and Changed Information

New Software Features in Release 2.2.8.4

New Software Features in Release 2.1.3

Caveats

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Open Caveats - Release 2.2.8.4

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.2

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8.1

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.2.8

Resolved Caveats - Release 2.1.3

Related Documentation

Hardware Documents

Software Document

Cisco Connection Online

Documentation CD-ROM

This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

Copyright � 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc.All rights reserved.

Copyright � 1999, Cisco Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.