Versa Networks

Release Notes
Product Name Versa Director 20.1.0
Release Date September 25th, 2018
Document revision 1.0
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Index of Release Notes

Release notes provide information about a specific release of Versa Director

software. This document provides feature descriptions, enhancements, and fixes
contained in a specific release. Known issues and limitations are listed
separately.

Table of Contents
Index of Release Notes ....................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 2
1. Versa Director 20.1.0 General Reference ............................................................... 3
2. Versa Director 20.1.0 New Features ....................................................................... 3
2.1. Provisioning and ZTP Workflow Support for Routing and Security Use-Cases.... 3
2.2. Service Templates Association moved to Device-Groups from Post-staging
Templates ............................................................................................................................ 5
2.3. uCPE Cloudinit Support ......................................................................................... 8
2.4. AMQP Filters for Notifications .............................................................................. 8
2.5. Downgrade to Preferred FlexVNF Software Version during ZTP ......................... 9
2.6. OpenID Connect based SSO ................................................................................. 10
2.7. OpenID Connect based SSO ................................................................................. 12
2.8. Support Compressed uCPE VNF images ............................................................. 12
2.9. Public Cloud Integration Enhancements ............................................................... 13
3. FlexVNF Versions supported ............................................................................... 13
4. Versa Director 20.1.0 Bug Fixes........................................................................... 14
5. Known issues ........................................................................................................ 14

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1. Versa Director 20.1.0 General Reference

This section applies to all Versa Director 20.1 releases.
Product Documentation
The Product documentation for Versa Director can be downloaded from this location:
https://versanetworks.box.com/v/20.1.0
Software Upgrade Information
Please refer to the Versa Director Installation Guide for installing the Versa Director
software.
Instructions for upgrading Versa Director instances from 16.1R2 S5 to 20.1.0 FRS
version
1. Copy the appropriate bin package file to the Versa Director node
/var/versa/packages/vnms directory. Alternatively, you can use the below
command to transfer the file which will get copied to the above directory
automatically or from UI.
Administrator@versa-director> request system package fetch uri <URI>
2. Install the new software package from the CLI shell. For example:
Administrator@versa-director> request system package upgrade <.bin>

Installing software license for Versa Director

In 20.1 release, Versa Director is controlled by a software license. It is required for the
customer/partner to obtain a valid license file by contacting Versa Networks (please see
support contact information below).
Note: 20.1 release software will cease to run after the default time of 15 days. User must
obtain the license key within the 15-day trial period.
NOTE: Please note that it is mandatory to run the Versa Director start-up script in
/opt/versa/vnms/scripts/vnms-startup.sh to configure the Director network interfaces
correctly per their intended function, for example: interface eth1 for Northbound
communications towards OSS systems and for UI access; and eth2 for Southbound
communications towards FlexVNF appliances.
Support
For all support queries, please send email to support@versa-networks.com or contact
Versa Networks’ Sales Account team.

2. Versa Director 20.1.0 New Features

Please refer to Versa-FlexVNF-16.1R2-Feature-Description document provided along

with this release note document for a brief explanation of new features. Below is the
summary of new and enhancements to Director in 16.1R2 release.

2.1. Provisioning and ZTP Workflow Support for Routing

and Security Use-Cases

In SD-WAN topology, the controller is introduced in the architecture to provide 3

specific functionalities:

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- Enable authentication of the branch devices irrespective of whether the branch has
static IP address, dynamic IP address, or private IP address.
- Enable secure channel for control plane signaling, including Netconf and IPFix
communication.
- Enable MP-BGP route reflector functionality to exchange the LAN reachability
information.
The controller functionality enables Zero Touch Provisioning for the devices irrespective
of the access link. Zero Touch Provisioning for device onboarding and branch
deployment reduces the lead time of branch deployment and reduces the operational
expense incurred. Thus, ZTP is a valuable feature for a customer irrespective of SD-
WAN or non-SD-WAN deployment model.
From 20.1.0 onwards, customers can make use of the controller when deploying CPEs in
non-SDWAN use cases. For example, a router or SD-Security (acting as a FW or a UTM
device) device deployment can benefit from ZTP by using the controller in the architecture.
The controller allows the branch to authenticate with the network, perform Zero Touch
Provisioning by downloading the configuration automatically, and provide secure
connectivity to branch from Versa Director/Analytics.

To create template for non-SDWAN CPEs using workflows, select Deployment Type as
“vCPE”.

If all the CPEs of an organization going to be non-SDWAN, select “CPE Deployment

Type” of organization to be vCPE when deploying organization through workflow. This
will turn off BGP route-reflection on the controllers for the organization and allows only
Device Type to be “vCPE” when deploying templates through workflow.

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2.2. Service Templates Association moved to Device-

Groups from Post-staging Templates

Versa Director provides an innovative single pane of glass management portal with
templates and workflows, allowing automation of device provisioning, deployment, and
management. Based on the feedback and usage patterns, release 16.1R1 had introduced
service templates. While service templates were defined independently, the templates
could be created and yet reused for service configuration (for branches with different
connectivity options but similar service configuration). Associating service templates to
Post-Staging templates created limitations in deployments where different Device Groups
can be associated with same Post-Staging template but require different Service
Templates for service configuration part. This requirement forces user to clone main
post-staging template for different groups.

From 20.1.0 onwards, service templates association is moved from post-staging template
to device-group. When 16.1R2.x Versa Director is upgraded to 20.1.0, upgrade scripts

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will automatically migrate the association of service templates to corresponding Device

Groups.

Association of service templates to Post Staging templates is deprecated from 20.1.0

release onwards. Northbound orchestrators should use the new association APIs captured
in the REST API changes section of this document.

Using the Post Staging Templates, Device Groups and Service Templates, the customers
can incorporate various ‘modules’ as and when required.

From 20.1.0 onwards, Templates workflow Service tab will not have service template
selection as shown below.

Service templates association is now part of Device Group configuration page. Order in
which the templates should be applied on the device can be set in this list. Order can be
changed by dragging and dropping the templates in the list under templates association
edit page.

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2.3. uCPE Cloudinit Support

Versa’s Universal CPE functionality is used by the customers to host third party Virtual
Network Functions hosted over the virtual infrastructure provided by Versa FlexVNF.
Third party VNFs provide network services in conjunction with FlexVNF services.
Service chaining allows the IP flows to be processed by FlexVNF services as well as
third party VNFs.

Versa’s Universal CPE allows simplified branch network by hosting services provided by
multiple vendors over a single hardware. Additionally, the Versa Director provides a
single pane of glass management by providing VM lifecycle management for the third
party VNFs.

In the virtual deployment, Cloudinit capability of Versa uCPE solution provides the VM
Lifecycle Manager with an automated mechanism to insert parameters to the VM while
booting. Cloudinit is typically used to configure the IP address and other service
parameters for efficient automation of the VM instantiation.
From 20.1.0 onwards, the Cloudinit parameters can be uploaded as a file to the service
chain configuration. The Cloudinit parameters can also be parameterized. When the
Cloudinit data is parameterized, the VM specific information can be uploaded during the
VM configuration.

2.4. AMQP Filters for Notifications

Versa Director is enhanced with a selective configuration option to define what type of
AMQP messages to be send to the AMQP server.
In Versa Director, there are two types of AMQP notification message:
- Event Notifications
- Object Notifications
Event Notification: These are Director/Appliance events generated by Director. E.g.
Appliance status/sync/ping status changes, HA enabled/disabled, Master arrived, Slave
arrived etc.

Object Notification: This is a notification for any change in the device/template or other
objects in configuration database. A notification is generated with the path when change
data in the configuration.

Besides sending these notifications to the AMQP server, Versa Director also logs all
notification in the following file:
16.1R2: /var/log/vnms/karaf/vnms-notif.log
20.1: /var/log/vnms/spring-boot/vnms-amqp.log

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“Event notifications” have the specific event name like :

- versa-director-evt:appliance-sync-state-change
- versa-director-evt:ha-enable
- versa-director-evt:create-object
- versa-evt:ztp_branch_connected
- etc.
-
All “object notifications” have the type:
- versa_director:object_change_event.

20.1 adds UI enhancement to selectively enable disable notifications:

Administration->Connectors->AMQP

2.5. Downgrade to Preferred FlexVNF Software Version

during ZTP

Prior to 20.1.0 release, the Versa Director has support to automatically upgrade CPE
during ZTP process. Using minimum Software Version in device template workflow.
From 20.1.0 onwards, this process is enhanced, not only upgrade CPE to a desired
software version during ZTP, but also to downgrade if the CPE is running higher
software version than desired during ZTP process.
To accommodate this change, the SDWAN workflow has been enhanced to specify the
Preferred Software Version.

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Also provided a system wide Preferred Software Version. All templates created on this
Versa Director will follow the system setting under Administration->SDWAN->Settings-
>Device Settings. If both a global preferred software version AND a template preferred
software version is specified, template level version takes precedence.

2.6. OpenID Connect based SSO

In IDP, create an OpenID application and add Versa Director details to it.

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Configure Versa Director SSO with SSO details

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2.7. OpenID Connect based SSO

Versa Director API supports external OAuth tokens for REST APIs.
External OAuth server userInfo endpoint needs to be configured in the Versa Director. If
the bearer token is not present locally, Director uses userInfo endpoint to fetch the user
details and caches the token and user details to serve the subsequent requests.

2.8. Support Compressed uCPE VNF images

Versa Director now supports compressed uCPE images. Users can choose to compress
the ucPE image while uploading on Vendor catalog page. During ZTP, compressed
images will be pushed to device and gets uncompressed on uCPE. VNF will be created

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using uncompressed image on uCPE. Select Compression option if the VNF image size is
large or WAN link speed is low.

2.9. Public Cloud Integration Enhancements

Following enhancements are made to Public Cloud integration in Versa Director.

• CMS Connector added can be validated if entered credentials are valid or not.
This is applicable for both AWS and Azure. This helps user to make sure entered
credentials are valid before deploying Branch in Cloud.

• For Azure integration, Director displays valid Instance Types for a given location
and option is added to spin up SDWAN Gateway in an existing Azure Resource
Group instead of always getting created in new Resource Group.

3. FlexVNF Versions supported

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Versa Director running 20.1.0 will support FlexVNFs running 20.1.0 and 16.1R2S5. All
other FlexVNF versions are not compatible with 20.1.0 Director software.

4. Versa Director 20.1.0 Bug Fixes

The table below lists all the critical and major defects that were fixed in this release.
Bug Description
26521 Fallback to local user authentication should work only when external
TACACS server becomes unreachable.
26971 Using @System for admin users is optional and if the external server is
configured and marked as default auth-connector then Director will
allow the user to login without having @System.
34085 Predefined application list does not show any sometime until new
SPACK is upgraded or services are restarted.

5. Known issues

1. Versa Director GUI support is not currently available for Internet Explorer.
2. Upon failover, executing tasks will not switch-over to the redundant Versa
Director.
3. Administrator must add the hostname/IP address of peer Versa Director in
/etc/hosts file before enabling High Availability.

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