Cisco Application Hosting (Catalyst 2960 Series Switch) User Guide PDF (EN)

Restrictions for Application Hosting

Application Hosting A hosted application is a software as a service (SaaS) solution, and it can be run remotely using commands. Application hosting gives administrators a platform for leveraging their own tools and utilities. Application hosting supports only Docker applications. Note This module describes the Application Hosting feature and how to enable it.

Prerequisites for Application Hosting, on page 1 Restrictions for Application Hosting, on page 1 Information About Application Hosting, on page 2 How to Configure Application Hosting, on page 14 Verifying the Application-Hosting Configuration, on page 32 Verifying the Application-Hosting Configuration, on page 35 Configuration Examples for Application Hosting, on page 38 Additional References, on page 42 Feature Information for Application Hosting, on page 43 Prerequisites for Application Hosting • Applications hosted by Catalyst 9000 Series Switches must be configured in the underlay Switch Virtual Interface (SVI). This applies to Cisco Software-Defined Access deployments as well.

Restrictions for Application Hosting • Application hosting is not virtual routing and forwarding aware (VRF-aware). • Application hosting is not supported on Cisco Catalyst 9200, 9200CX, and 9200L platforms. • In releases prior to Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3.3, application hosting requires dedicated storage allocations, and is disabled on the bootflash. In Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3.3 and later releases, application hosting is enabled on the bootflash, however, only Cisco-signed applications are hosted. Application Hosting 1

Стр. 1

Cisco IOx Overview

• The front-panel Universal Serial Bus (USB) stick is not supported. Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches support only back-panel Cisco-certified USB. • Cisco Catalyst 9500-High Performance Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches do not support front-panel USB for application hosting. • Cisco Catalyst 9500 and 9500-High Performance Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches do not support AppGigabitEthernet interfaces. • Cisco Catalyst 9410R Switches do not support application-hosting in release prior to Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.5.1. Configure the enable command on the AppGigabitEthernet interfaces to enable application hosting on Cisco Catalyst 9410R Switches.

This restriction is applicable only to Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Supervisor 1, 1XL, and 1XL-Y 25G Modules (C9400-SUP-1, C9400-SUP-1XL, and C9400-SUP-1XL-Y). You do not need to configure the enable command on Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Supervisor 2 and 2XL Modules (C9400X-SUP-2 and C9400X-SUP-2XL). Information About Application Hosting This section provides information about Application Hosting. Need for Application Hosting The move to virtual environments has given rise to the need to build applications that are reusable, portable, and scalable. Application hosting gives administrators a platform for leveraging their own tools and utilities.

An application, hosted on a network device, can serve a variety of purposes. This ranges from automation, configuration management monitoring, and integration with existing tool chains. In this document, container refers to Docker applications. Note Cisco IOx Overview Cisco IOx (IOs + linuX) is an end-to-end application framework that provides application-hosting capabilities for different application types on Cisco network platforms. The Cisco Guest Shell, a special container deployment, is one such application, that is useful in system deployment.

Cisco IOx facilitates the life cycle management of applications and data exchange by providing a set of services that helps developers to package prebuilt applications, and host them on a target device. IOx life cycle management includes distribution, deployment, hosting, starting, stopping (management), and monitoring of applications and data. IOx services also include application distribution and management tools that help users discover and deploy applications to the IOx framework. Cisco IOx application hosting provides the following features: • Hides network heterogeneity. Application Hosting Information About Application Hosting Application Hosting 2

Стр. 2

Application Hosting Overview

• Cisco IOx application programming interfaces (APIs) remotely manage the life cycle of applications hosted on a device. • Centralized application life cycle management. • Cloud-based developer experience. Application Hosting Overview The Cisco application-hosting framework is an IOx Python process that manages virtualized and container applications that run on devices. Application hosting provides the following services: • Launches designated applications in containers. • Checks available resources (memory, CPU, and storage), and allocates and manages them. • Provides support for console logging. • Provides access to services through REST APIs. • Provides a CLI endpoint.

• Provides an application-hosting infrastructure referred to as Cisco Application Framework (CAF). • Helps setup platform-specific networking (packet-path) through management interfaces. Data ports are supported on platforms that have AppGigabitEthernet port functionality. The application-hosting container that is referred to as the virtualization environment is provided to run a guest application on the host operating system. The Cisco IOS-XE virtualization services provide manageability and networking models for running a guest application. The virtualization infrastructure allows an administrator to define a logical interface that specifies the connectivity between the host and the guest.

Cisco IOx maps the logical interface into a Virtual Network Interface Card (vNIC) that the guest application uses. Applications that are to be deployed in the containers are packaged as TAR files. The configuration that is specific to these applications is also packaged as part of the TAR files. The management interface on the device connects the application-hosting network to the Cisco IOS management interface. The Layer 3 interface of the guest application receives the Layer 2-bridged traffic from the Cisco IOS management interface. The management interface connects to the container interface through the management bridge.

The IP address of the application must be on the same subnet as the management interface IP address. Note On all Cisco Catalyst stack and stackwise virtual models (all software versions), Guest Shell and the AppGigabitEthernet interface operate only on the active switch in the stack. Therefore, the AppGigabitEthernet interface configuration must be applied to the AppGigabitEthernet interface on all the switches in the stack. If the configuration is not applied to all the switches, the AppGigabitEthernet interface on the switch will not work after a switchover. Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches support multiple applications when hosted on the SSD.

The applications must meet the following criteria: Application Hosting Application Hosting Overview Application Hosting 3

Стр. 3

Front-Panel App Hosting on Cisco Catalyst 9300X Series Switches

• Cisco-signed • Meet the switching infrastructure requirements: • Network configuration on AppGigabitEthernet ports does not create a conflict between the applications. • Enough resources are available to run the applications. Multiple applications cannot be deployed if an application consumes all the available App-hosting resources. For example, if one application consumes all the compute and run time resources, other applications are prevented from getting installed on the device. Application Hosting on Front-Panel Trunk and VLAN Ports Front-panel VLAN and trunk ports are supported for application hosting.

Layer 2 traffic is delivered through these ports to software components that run outside of the Cisco IOS daemon. For application hosting, you can configure the front-panel port as either a trunk interface or a VLAN-specific interface. When using as a trunk interface, the front-panel port is extended to work as a Layer 2 trunk port, and all the traffic received by the port is available to the application. When using the port as a VLAN interface, the application is connected to a specific VLAN network. When using a back-panel USB or an M2 SATA drive for application hosting, the storage medium should be formatted as an ext4 file system.

Note Application Hosting on Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches This section describes application-hosting on Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches. For application hosting, Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches support the management interface and front-panel ports. The USB 3.0 SSD is enabled on Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches. The USB 3.0 SSD provides an extra 120 GB storage for application hosting. For more information, see the "Configuring USB 3.0 SSD" chapter in the Interfaces and Hardware Configuration Guide . The following two types of networking applications are supported: • Control plane: Applications that access the management interface. • Data plane:

Applications that access the front-panel ports. Front-Panel App Hosting on Cisco Catalyst 9300X Series Switches Front-panel application hosting is enabled on Cisco Catalyst 9300X Series Switches in Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.6.1. Applications can use dedicated front-panel ports for hosting. Use the app-vnic AppGigabitEthernet port command to specify the port to be used for application hosting. Both the front-panel ports can be attached to the same Layer 2 application. Application Hosting Application Hosting on Front-Panel Trunk and VLAN Ports Application Hosting 4

Стр. 4