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December 1999
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
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 Documents
Cisco Connection Online
Documentation CD-ROM
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.
All released hardware components of the MGX 8240 are supported.
There are no compatibility problems between this VCLI release and previous ones. This release should replace all earlier releases.
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.
vcli-install.txt
vcli-new-VERSION-2.2.8.4.tar.Z
vcli-upgrade-UPGRADE-2.2.8.4.tar.Z
The vcli-install.txt file contains instructions on how to install the VCLI from scratch (a new install) or upgrade an existing VCLI release.
Files included in the new install tar file are
vcli
bladeMon
snmp.mgr
vpasswd
ftpImage
image
vcliSetup
vpasswd
Files included in the upgrade tar file are
vcli
bladeMon
snmp.mgr
ftpImage
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.
New VCLI commands were added to support the IMC, including:
VCLI>> show imccard info
VCLI>> show imccard config
VCLI>> change imccard config
VCLI>> show imccard redundancy
VCLI>> change imccard redundancy
VCLI>> change imccard image
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.
New VCLI commands that were added to support the BladeMonitor, including:
VCLI>> show blademon statistics
VCLI>> show blademon information
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.
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
1. The original CES card type that supports the original I/O card with 3 channelized DS3s, and two OC3 ports.
2. 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).
These are known problems and cautions with this release of the VCLI.
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.
To accommodate two card types in the same switch chassis, the upgrade procedure was changed from the previous releases of the VCLI. Previous releases of the VCLI updated the CPE card Software only. This release upgrades the Software for both IMC and CPE card types. This requires that the contents of the tar files, which contain the Software upgrades, have a new directory format. VCLI release 2.2.8.4 cannot use a Tar file built with the old directory format. All CPE and IMC card Software upgrade Tar files, beginning with release 2.2.0.3 of CPE and 2.2.0.11 of IMC, have this new format.
In this release of the VCLI, the background polling process is a separate task from the VCLI process. The background polling process is called the BladeMon. The BladeMon process updates a file called `blade.db'. All VCLI processes read this file to get switch and blade connection information (e.g. whether to use the in-bandor OutOfBand interface to a CPE card). The BladeMon process can die. It doesn't happen unless it was explicitly terminated, or there was a UNIX related system problem. When it dies, the VCLI processes can't detect that it has died if the file `blade.db' remains. The VCLI processes continue to operate as before using whatever old information is in the `blade.db' file. This can remain for days, and not cause a problem. The symptom that is most common when this scenario occurs is that network additions/deletions or redundancy changes will not be reflected in the VCLI. The VCLI will continue to read the information that was present in the `blade.db' file when the BladeMon process died. DDTS CSCdm30982 chronicles this defect.
Fixing the problem is easy. When this occurs, the `.blade.pid' file must be manually removed using the UNIX command "rm .blade.pid", and the VCLI restarted. When the VCLI restarts, it will restart the BladeMon process, which will read the VCLI switch database. Upon startup of the BladeMon process it will query all CPE and IMC cards in the network to quickly rebuild the `blade.db' file with fresh information. Old VCLI processes need not be terminated while this is going on. If they are terminated there is no problem.
| VCLI 2.2.8.4
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| 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 |
| VCLI 2.2.8.4
| Comments | ||
| DDTS Number | Severity | Functional Area | Problem Description |
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CSCdp39816 | High | Redundancy | Unable to communicate to switched out primary and switched in backup when the primary card is not responding to SNMP PDUs. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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CSCsn04974 | New feature | Sw upgrade | Download related code should display info about user, time downloaded, downloaded from etc. for record keeping. |
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CSCsn05072 | Low | Switch database | For -network 1 options it would be nice if switch names are alphabetically ordered. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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'. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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| VCLI 2.2.8.2
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| 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. |
| VCLI 2.2.8.1
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| 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' |
| VCLI 2.2.8
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| 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 |
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 |
| VCLI 2.1.3
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| 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 |
Cisco MGX 8240 Hardware Installation Guide, DOC-7810084=. Gives information on installing the MGX 8240 chassis, including physical connectivity, logical connectivity, and cabling.
Cisco MGX 8240 Hardware User's Guide, DOC-7810083=. Gives theory of operations and usage information on the MGX 8240. Details physical description, traffic management, and FDOS.
Cisco MGX 8240 VCLI User's Guide, DOC-7810082=. Gives information on installation and use of Virtual Command Line Interface (VCLI) for MGX 8240. Details installation, provisioning, and specific commands for the VCLI.
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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.
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All rights reserved.
Posted: Mon Feb 7 15:07:19 PST 2000
Copyright 1989 - 2000©Cisco Systems Inc.