Table of Contents
Release Notes for Cisco Network Registrar 2.5R1
December 1, 1998
These release notes describe the caveats and new features for Cisco Network Registrar 2.5R1 (Network Registrar 2.5). This document contains the following sections:
The release of Network Registrar 2.5 contains the following components:
- CD-ROM containing the software
- Getting Started with Network Registrar publication
- Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide
- Network Registrar CLI User's Guide
- Network Registrar GUI User's Guide
- Release Notes for Network Registrar 2.5
Network Registrar includes Windows® NT servers, CLI, and GUI, and Solaris® servers, CLI, and a Motif® GUI.
You can run the servers and the associated user interfaces on the appropriate platform, or you can run the servers on one platform and the user interfaces on another.
Network Registrar 2.5 runs on Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Solaris 2.5.1, and Solaris 2.6. Network Registrar's 2.5 GUI also runs on Windows 95.
For all OS platforms, Cisco recommends that you install the current service pack (Windows) or recommended patch cluster (Solaris).
- Windows NT 3.51 has been tested with service pack 5.
- Windows NT 4.0 has been tested with service pack 3.
- Solaris 2.5.1 has been tested with the recommended patch cluster that was current on February 11, 1998. In particular, it was tested with these patches installed:
Table 1: Solaris 2.5.1 Patches
103461-20
| 103558-11
| 103566-25
|
103582-15
| 103594-13
| 103603-06
|
103612-38
| 103622-09
| 103630-09
|
103640-17
| 103663-09
| 103680-01
|
103686-02
| 103690-05
| 103696-03
|
103738-05
| 103743-01
| 103817-02
|
103866-05
| 103879-04
| 103900-01
|
103901-08
| 103934-06
| 103959-06
|
104010-01
| 104166-03
| 104212-09
|
104246-05
| 104266-01
| 104283-03
|
104317-01
| 104331-04
| 104334-01
|
104338-02
| 104433-06
| 104516-03
|
104533-03
| 104613-01
| 104650-02
|
104654-03
| 104692-01
| 104708-09
|
104736-03
| 104776-02
| 104795-02
|
104893-01
| 104935-01
| 104956-04
|
104958-01
| 104960-01
| 104968-02
|
104976-03
| 105004-09
| 105050-01
|
105092-01
| 105251-01
| 105299-01
|
105344-01
| 105352-01
| 105520-01
|
- Solaris 2.6 has been tested with the recommended patch cluster that was current on February 11, 1998. In particular, Solaris 2.6 was tested with these patches installed:
Table 2: Solaris 2.6 Patches
105216-01
| 105393-01
| 105518-01
|
105615-02
| 105621-01
| 105665-01
|
105667-01
| 105379-01
| 105786-01
|
105669-02
| 105558-01
| 105375-03
|
105357-01
| 105356-01
| 105407-01
|
Network Registrar 2.5 is compatible with the following:
- DHCP clients---All RFC 1954, 2132, and 2133 compliant DHCP and BOOTP clients
- DNS servers---Any DNS server compliant with RFC 2136 Dynamic DNS Updates and RFC 1995 and 1996 (IXFR and NOTIFY)
- LDAP servers---Any LDAP v2 or v3 server, including servers from Netscape, Sun Microsystems, and Lucent Technologies
There is a known problem on Solaris that may cause the DHCP server to hang during initialization. The problem is described by Sun RFE 4071167. The deadlock in the Solaris name resolver client can be encountered by installing a linked set of patches from Sun, including 103663-08, and disabling host name caching in "nscd" (to improve name resolver client performance), which is recommended by Sun in RFE 1243174.
To avoid this problem, do one of the following:
- Do not install the linked patch set.
- Do not disable "nscd" host name caching.
- Install patch 103663-11 (Solaris 2.5.1) or 105755-01 (Solaris 2.6).
The following table describes the typical outcome when you run different versions of the user interface and the servers:
Table 3: Network Registrar Interoperability
| GUI and CLI
| Server
| Outcome
|
|---|
2.5
| 2.0 or 2.1
| Network Registrar runs successfully.
|
2.0 or 2.1
| 2.5
| Network Registrar UI displays the error message "Unsupported version number." The server is unaffected.
|
Network Registrar 2.5 is based on Network Registrar 2.1, which was a limited release. Therefore, the new features of Network Registrar 2.1 are listed here, as well as those of Network Registrar 2.5. They are divided into the following categories:
- DNS features
- DHCP features
- User Interface features
The following DNS features are new for Network Registrar 2.5:
The following DHCP features are new for Network Registrar 2.5:
- DHCP custom option facility---You can assign names and types to dhcp options that are not defined by an RFC. These are called custom options. For more information, see "Defining Advanced Parameters" in the DHCP chapter of either user's guide or the custom-option command in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Support for Novell NetWare DHCP client options that are defined in RFCs 2241 and 2242---You can specify values for the NetWare options 62, 63, 85, 86, and 87. For more information, see the "Support for Novell NetWare DHCP Options" section.
- IOS DHCP proxy support---You can specify whether the DHCP server uses the source address of the packet, if it is non-zero, in lieu of the giaddr field. You might want to use this feature, if you have an IOS DHCP proxy that unicasts a packet directly to the DHCP server and expects that server to use the source address of the packet as the giaddr if no giaddr appears in the packet. For more information, see "Defining Advanced Parameters" in the Configuring DHCP chapter of either user's guide or the dhcp cisco-dhcp-proxy feature in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Token Ring support---When you create lease reservations by specifying MAC addresses you can now separately enter all three components of the MAC address: type, length, and address. Previous versions of Network Registrar assumed that the type was 1 (Ethernet), and the MAC length was 6.
- DHCP broadcast support---You can select the use of broadcast OFFERS and ACKs on a server-wide basis in the DHCP properties. For more information, see "Defining Advanced Parameters" in the Configuring DHCP chapter of either user's guide or the dhcp hardware-unicast feature in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Lease extension deferral---You can specify whether or not the DHCP server extends leases that are less than half expired. You might want to use this feature to reduce the number of writes to the Network Registrar database. These writes can have a performance impact if the server is on a busy network. For more information, see "Defining Advanced Parameters" in the Configuring DHCP chapter of either User's manual or the dhcp defer-lease-extensions feature in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Added processing time to log messages---Every log message that reports sending a DHCP reply in response to a DHCP request from a DHCP client includes a field containing the processing time. This time, in milliseconds, is calculated to be the time from when the server received the packet off of the UDP input queue until the server returned from sending the packet to the UDP output queue. You should consider these times as approximate, and useful primarily as a signal of the server load and/or data access.
- DHCP Server Queue---The DHCP server keeps a queue of all pending DNS updates. Under normal circumstances, this queue does not become large. If, however, the DHCP server is under sustained, extreme load, or if a DNS server that the DHCP server is updating is unavailable for a very long time, the queue may grow so large that it prevents the server from operating properly. If this occurs, the DHCP server stops responding to client requests, and logs a message that a failure has occurred. If you see this message, contact Technical Support for assistance.
RFCs 2241 and 2242 define new DHCP options for use by Novell NetWare DHCP client systems. Various unique features of these new options complicate the task of supporting them. New options include:
RFC 2241
- Option 85 NDS Server---Is a list of one or more IP addresses of NetWare Directory Servers.
- Option 86 NDS Name Tree---Specifies the name of the NDS tree the client will be contacting. NDS tree names are 16-bit Unicode strings. For transmission in the NDS Tree Name Option, an NDS tree name is transformed into octets using UTF-8. No previous DHCP option uses either Unicode or UTF-8. For ASCII characters, the ASCII and UTF-8 representations of the character are the same. Therefore, the character sets are likely to be an issue only in non-English environments.
- Option 87 NDS Context, also UTF-8---An NDS context may be longer than 255 characters, the longest possible DHCP option. Therefore, the RFC states that option 87 may appear multiple times in a single packet. Option 87 is the first and only multi-instanced DHCP option.
RFC 2242
- Option 62 NetWare/IP Domain Name---This is an "NVT ASCII" value, not UTF-8.
- Option 63 NetWare/IP Information---This option contains subsections, with each suboption having a tag, a length, and a data field. Option 63 is the first administrator-configurable DHCP option to have suboptions.
Network Registrar 2.5 allows you to assign values to NetWare options and to include those options in DHCP policies. The RFC 2241 and 2242 options are supported, subject to the following limitations:
- Multi-instanced attributes are not supported. This means that an NDS context can have a maximum of 255 characters.
- Non-ASCII characters are not supported.
Suboptions are not directly supported. For option 63, you must define the option as having the data type byte array, and then determine the binary values for all suboption tags, lengths, and data, and input these as one long sequence of bytes either decimal (0-255) or hex (0-FF) notation.
The following user interface features are new for Network Registrar 2.5:
- Address utilization report---You can run a report that provides cross-cluster, static and dynamic IP address, and subnet-level aggregation in a comma-separated format suitable for database import. For more information, see the report command in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Configurable lease notification report---You can configure Network Registrar to email you a report when the number of available addresses in a scope falls below a minimum. For more information, see the lease-notification command in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- DHCP option categories in GUI---Network Registrar groups options into categories to help you in identifying options that require setting in various usage contexts. The categories are: Basic, Lease Information, WINS/NetBIOS, HOST IP, Interface, Servers, BootP Compatible, DHCP Packet Fields, Microsoft DHCP Client, NetWare Clients, and optionally, Custom. For more information, see the "Setting DHCP Options" section in the Configuring DHCP chapter of the Network Registrar GUI User's Guide.
- Specification of forward and reverse zones on different servers for dynamic DNS update---You can now use the GUI to specify different servers. In previous releases you could only specify this through the CLI. For more information, see the "Configuring Dynamic DNS for the Scope" section in the Configuring DHCP chapter of the Network Registrar GUI User's Guide.
- Resource record maintenance tool---You can delete unused or obsolete resource records. For more information see the zone cleanRR command in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
- Whole-word deletion---When you use the nrcmd program interactively, you can use control-w to erase whole words of typed input.
- Installation improvements---When you run the uninstall procedure, all files are removed, including database and log files, and on NT, registry files.
- Replaced GUI grids with dialogs---These include a new name servers dialog, new subzones dialogs, and a new reservations dialog. For more information, see the "Specifying Authoritative Names Servers," "Delegating Subzones," and "Reserving a Lease" chapters in the Network Registrar GUI User's Guide.
The following DNS features were new for Network Registrar 2.1:
- Dynamic DNS---Improved performance
- Incremental transfer---Improved performance
The following DHCP features were new for Network Registrar 2.1:
- Configurable release-grace-period property---Allows the server to postpone the effects of RELEASE messages from clients. You might use the release-grace-period property if your network has a large numbers of Macintosh clients with the MAC/TCP software. This property is not normally accessible, therefore, contact Technical Support if you need instructions about using it.
- Initializing Scopes---In some cases reduced the period of time required to initialize new scopes.
- Added the server-based lease export command---Reduces network traffic and offers significant performance improvement. For more information, see the lease export command in the Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide.
The following user interface features were new for Network Registrar 2.1:
- Improved performance---Performance was improved for most operations when using the CLI including starting the CLI and making configuration changes. The performance, however, when accessing large lists of configuration items, such as lists of scopes and lists of zones, is unchanged.
Network Registrar supports two types of installations:
- Initial installations of Network Registrar 2.5---Installing on a system that has no previous versions of Network Registrar installed. For information about initial installations, follow the instructions see Getting Started with Network Registrar publication.
- Upgrade installations---Upgrading from any version of Network Registrar 2.0 or 2.1 to Network Registrar 2.5.
To prevent your old database from being overwritten when you upgrade from a previous release of Network Registrar, you must preserve your database, that is, retain all the information about your zones, scopes, and leases.
When upgrading from Network Registrar 2.0 or 2.1 to Network Registrar 2.5 on Solaris follow these steps:
Step 1 Login as root.
Step 2 Run the /etc/init.d/aicservagt stop program to stop the AIC Server Agent:
/etc/init.d/aicservagt stop
Step 3 Run the pkgparam program to list the variable settings. Copy down the settings of the DATADIR, LOGDIR, and TEMPDIR.
If you are upgrading from Network Registrar 2.0R0, type:
pkgparam -v AICnwreg2 | grep DIR
If you are upgrading from Network Registrar 2.0R1, 2.0R2 or 2.1, type:
pkgparam -v nwreg2 | grep DIR
Step 4 Run the pkgrm program.
If you are upgrading from Network Registrar 2.0R0, type:
pkgrm AICnwreg2
If you are upgrading from Network Registrar 2.0R1, 2.0R2 or 2.1, type:
pkgrm nwreg2
Step 5 Install Network Registrar, as described in the Getting Started with Network Registrar.
Step 6 When the installation program asks where to put the files, specify the settings you noted in step 3.
(a) Put the data files in the DATADIR setting.
(b) Put the log files in the LOGDIR setting.
(c) Put the temporary files in the TEMPDIR setting.
Step 7 When the installation program asks whether to overwrite the database, answer No. If you answer yes, the installation program overwrites your database with a clean copy.
Successfully completing the installation automatically starts Network Registrar's services.
To prevent your old database from being overwritten when upgrading on Windows NT, follow these steps:
Step 1 Run SETUP.EXE.
Step 2 Follow the instructions displayed on your screen.
Answer Yes to the prompt about upgrading your existing installation.
If you answer no, the setup program informs you that you must either upgrade or uninstall the existing installation. The setup program then exits.
If you do not want to upgrade your database, you must exit the installation, run uninstall, and then perform an initial installation.
Network Registrar 2.5 includes the following documents:
- Getting Started with Network Registrar
- Network Registrar CLI Reference Guide
- Network Registrar CLI User's Guide
- Network Registrar GUI User's Guide
- Release Notes for Network Registrar 2.5
Cisco Connection Online (CCO) is Cisco Systems' primary, real-time support channel. Maintenance customers and partners can self-register on CCO to obtain additional information and services.
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, CCO provides a wealth of standard and value-added services to Cisco's customers and business partners. CCO services include product information, product documentation, software updates, release notes, technical tips, the Bug Navigator, configuration notes, brochures, descriptions of service offerings, and download access to public and authorized files.
CCO serves a wide variety of users through two interfaces that are updated and enhanced simultaneously: a character-based version and a multimedia version that resides on the World Wide Web (WWW). The character-based CCO supports Zmodem, Kermit, Xmodem, FTP, and Internet e-mail, and it is excellent for quick access to information over lower bandwidths. The WWW version of CCO provides richly formatted documents with photographs, figures, graphics, and video, as well as hyperlinks to related information.
You can access CCO in the following ways:
For a copy of CCO's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), contact cco-help@cisco.com. For additional information, contact cco-team@cisco.com.
Note If you are a network administrator and need personal technical assistance with a Cisco product that is under warranty or covered by a maintenance contract, contact Cisco's Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at 800 553-2447, 408 526-7209, or tac@cisco.com. To obtain general information about Cisco Systems, Cisco products, or upgrades, contact 800 553-6387, 408 526-7208, or cs-rep@cisco.com.
Cisco documentation and additional literature are available in a CD-ROM package, which ships with your product. The Documentation CD-ROM, a member of the Cisco Connection Family, is updated monthly. Therefore, it might be more current than printed documentation. To order additional copies of the Documentation CD-ROM, contact your local sales representative or call customer service. The CD-ROM package is available as a single package or as an annual subscription. You can also access Cisco documentation on the World Wide Web at http://www.cisco.com, http://www-china.cisco.com, or http://www-europe.cisco.com.
If you are reading Cisco product documentation on the World Wide Web, you can submit comments electronically. Click Feedback in the toolbar and select Documentation. After you complete the form, click Submit to send it to Cisco. We appreciate your comments.
Posted: Thu Jul 13 12:01:53 PDT 2000
Copyright 1989-2000©Cisco Systems Inc.
