Cisco: ACI PowerPack Release Notes, version 112

Version 112 of the Cisco: ACI PowerPack includes a new execution environment and updates to Dynamic Applications.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 11.2.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 11.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing "Cisco: ACI" PowerPack version 112.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Before you upgrade to this version, you must disable or delete the "Discovery" snippet in the "Cisco: ACI Device Reclassification" Dynamic Application.

To disable the "Discovery" snippet:

  1. Go to the Dynamic Applications Manager page (System > Manage > Applications).
  2. Locate the "Cisco: ACI Device Reclassification" Dynamic Application and click its wrench icon ().
  3. In the Snippets tab, click the wrench icon () for the "Discovery" snippet.
  4. In the Active State drop-down, select Disabled.
  5. Click the Save button.

To delete the "Discovery" snippet:

  1. Go to the Dynamic Applications Manager page (System > Manage > Applications).
  2. Locate the "Cisco: ACI Device Reclassification" Dynamic Application and click its wrench icon ().
  3. In the Snippets tab, locate the "Discovery" snippet and click the bomb icon () next to it.
  4. Click OK when asked if you are sure you want to delete the snippet.
  5. Click the Save button.

Installing the PowerPack

To install version 112 of the Cisco: ACI PowerPack, perform the following steps:

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 11.2.0 or later release.
  3. Download the "Cisco: ACI" version 112PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import "Cisco: ACI" version 112.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

For more information about using the PowerPack, see the Monitoring Windows Systems with PowerShell manual.

Upgrading the PowerPack

To upgrade from a previous version of the PowerPack, perform the following steps:

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

If you are currently on a version of the Cisco: ACI PowerPack that is earlier than 110, you must upgrade to version 110 before upgrading to "Cisco: ACI" version 112.

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to 11.2.0 or a later release.
  3. Download "Cisco: ACI" version 112 from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Determine the best HTTP timeout value and apply it to the current ACI SOAP/XML credential in the Timeout (seconds) field. We recommend a timeout value of 5 seconds.

Expect a gap in data collection for a 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your environment.

Expect to see an import error come up once the new version of the PowerPack is installed. This error should disappear within one to two poll intervals.

  1. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import "Cisco: ACI" version 112.
  2. After importing the PowerPack, you will be prompted to install the PowerPack. Click the Install button to install the PowerPack.
  3. If you have a multi-collector environment, perform a manual sync in the Appliance Manager page (System > Settings > Appliances).
  1. Verify that data collection is occurring and that no device is appearing as unavailable.
  2. See the manual Monitoring Cisco ACI for instructions on using the PowerPack.

Features

This release includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications that discover and collect data from Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) devices
  • Event Policies that are triggered when Cisco ACI devices meet certain status criteria
  • Device Classes for each type of Cisco ACI device monitored
  • Sample credentials for discovering Cisco ACI devices
  • Device Dashboards that display information about Cisco ACI devices
  • Run Book Actions that automate some aspects of the device discovery and creation process
  • ScienceLogic Libraries that are utilized by this PowerPack:
  • content
  • silo_aci
  • silo_apps
  • silo_vmware
  • vmware

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "Cisco: ACI" PowerPack:

  • The "Cisco: ACI 2.0" execution environment was added to the PowerPack.
  • The use of Basic/Snippet credentials is no longer supported by the PowerPack.
  • An issue was addressed in which the "Cisco: ACI APIC Communications Manager" Dynamic Application was being aligned to non-APIC devices. (Support Case: 00228331; JIRA ID: SOL-18282)
  • The "Cisco: ACI Authentication Counts" Dynamic Application was updated to address an issue in which a name error was displayed when running the Dynamic Application.
  • The following Dynamic Applications were updated to address an issue with device availability flapping: (Support Case: 00207019; JIRA ID: SOL-11592)
  • Cisco: ACI Pod Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI APIC Controller Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Fabric Leaf Switch Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Fabric Spine Switch Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Application Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Endpoint Group Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Service Cluster Discovery
  • Cisco: ACI Service Device Discovery

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 112 of the Cisco: ACI PowerPack:

  • The "Cisco: ACI Contract Configuration" Dynamic Application is experiencing an issue in which it is not collecting data about Contract Information. This will be addressed in a future version of the PowerPack.
  • If the credentials for your account have been changed, the PowerPack will not recognize the new credentials. To recognize new credentials, you must manually delete the existing session from your Cisco ACI system. To do this, log in to your ACI system and go to System > Active Sessions. There are typically two sessions created by the Data Collector for each monitored APIC. Right-click on the existing sessions and select Delete. When the confirmation dialog box appears, confirm that you want to delete the session. Once all of the sessions are deleted, a new session is automatically established the next time your ACI Dynamic Applications run and your new credential will be recognized.
  • Users running "Cisco: ACI" version 112 may see a "no object found" error appear from the "Cisco: ACI Vitals" Dynamic Application. To stop the error, give the user an admin role with readPriv, as well as a read-all role with readPriv.