• 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