Skylight orchestrator 23.12 Release Notes

Accedian is pleased to announce release 23.12 of Skylight orchestrator.

The following topics are covered in this document:

• Accedian Technology Support
  Covers the applicable Accedian product information.
• Upgrade Paths
  Details the supported upgrade paths for this release.
• New Features
  Covers the new features introduced in this release.
• Deployment Considerations
  Covers general limitations of the current release and any upcoming changes to product availability and support.
• Skylight orchestrator 23.12 Lifecycle
  Lists the planned lifecycle dates of this software release. Includes table with milestones.

For more information, see the Skylight orchestrator Features and User Material section.

Accedian Technology Support

These release notes apply to the following Accedian products:

The following table lists key functionality of Accedian Skylight sensor elements, sensor control, modules, SFP compute and Flex supported by Skylight orchestrator 23.12.

Supported in Skylight orchestrator Version 23.12

Functionality	AT	TE	GE	10 GE	GT/GX	LT/LX	Modules	SFP Compute	Sensor control	FS & FS10G	FSX	Flex 100	Flex 25
Device Management
Device Commissioning	*											*	*
Y.1564/RFC2544												**	**
Metrics Collection
Alarms
Inventory
Performance Session Management

* CLI step support for Device Commissioning
** Y.1564 with flow template support

Upgrade Paths

The upgrade to Skylight orchestrator version 23.12 requires that you are running a system with one of these previously-installed software versions:

Virtual appliance running:

• 22.10 5K profile
• 22.10 15K profile
• 22.10 30K profile
• 22.10 60K profile
• 23.04 5K profile
• 23.04 15K profile
• 23.04 30K profile
• 23.04 60K profile
• 23.04.1 5K profile
• 23.04.1 15K profile
• 23.04.1 30K profile
• 23.04.1 60K profile

Docker running:

• 22.10 5K profile
• 22.10 15K profile
• 22.10 30K profile
• 22.10 60K profile
• 23.04 5K profile
• 23.04 15K profile
• 23.04 30K profile
• 23.04 60K profile
• 23.04.1 5K profile
• 23.04.1 15K profile
• 23.04.1 30K profile
• 23.04.1 60K profile

Detailed procedures for upgrading to this release are provided in the article titled Upgrading Skylight orchestrator 23.12 for virtual machine and Upgrading Skylight orchestrator Docker 23.12 for Docker.

IMPORTANT: You cannot upgrade hardware appliances to version 23.12.

For customers running SkyLIGHT Director software on hardware appliances, a rehoming procedure is available that allows the transfer of the software and its configuration to a new virtual appliance.

Detailed procedures for rehoming on a virtual appliance are provided in the Features and User Material subcategory titled Virtual Machine Rehoming for Releases Prior to 20.05.

New Features

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 introduces the following enhancements.

User Interface Updates

• Removed Internal license server key and SDLS
• Removed ‘Licensing’ tab in Admin
• Ability to create, edit, and delete sessions as well as Export CSV files for the session

Support for Skylight Flex 25

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 supports the following for Skylight Flex 25:

• Discovery:
• Manage, unmanage, and delete Flex 25 via orchestrator GUI
• Resync Flex 25 manually or automatically
• Manage or delete Flex 25 via REST API
• Manage Flex 25 via IPv4 MGMT address
• Discovery Flex 25 via Skylight performance elements through traffic port

• Commissioning:
• CLI configuration job (Backup, FW upgrade, Service creation management, SAT- Y.1564, etc.)

• Inventory:
• Retrieve managed object data (add, delete, edit) via Flex Interface and Flex Port
• Inventory export

• Alarms:
• Skylight orchestrator can receive and send traps from Flex 25 via SNMP Trap receiver and Resync Flex 25

Session Graph Removal and Pie Chart Replacement

Session graphs have been removed and pie charts have been replaced with text for summary data in Skylight orchestrator 23.12. All items in the text summary are sorted by percentage value; the highest percentage is shown at the top.

Reduced Memory Footprint and Increased Deployment Density for Skylight elements

Density of Skylight performance elements for mediation nodes has been increased and the number of mediations has been decreased. This allows deployments to use less resources.

Database Connector Update

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 presents the following updates to the database connector:

• MySQL Connector has been replaced by MariaDB Connector
• The ptexport tool has been removed
• The Payara connection pool configurations are changed by using MariaDbDataSource.

Discovery Trigger for Remote Devices

Similar to performance elements, Skylight orchestrator 23.12 supports discovery trigger for remote devices, for both configuration jobs and flow profiles. Enhancements include:

• Modules & SFPs tab has been renamed Managed Modules & SFPs. Main functions include adding, editing, resyncing, unmanaging remote devices.
• Unmanaged Modules & SFPs tab. Main functions include managing and deleting remote devices.
• Inventory polling of Skylight sensor: control.
• Module Discovery Trigger tab. This is where you can configure configuration jobs and flow profiles.

Trigger Flow Executor on Discovery of a Skylight element

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 supports triggering a flow profile executor on discovery of a Skylight performance element. Enhancements include:

• Variables available to triggered profile that are assigned based on the values picked up from the advertisement. These variables include element name, IP, serial number, firmware, model, MAC address.
• Ability to filter out which elements cause a trigger.
• Ability to create several trigger configurations that can each have their own configuration settings. For example, you can create a profile that triggers on discovery of a Skylight element: GT and a second profile that triggers on discovery of a Skylight Flex 100.
• Ability to input flow executor data as ME ref and dataset

Skylight Flex Service Activation Test and Reporting

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 introduces Flex 100 and Flex 25 service activation test (SAT) and reporting functions for Y.1564 layer 2 test suites. Functions include:

• Ability to create, edit, and delete Y.1564 tests from Skylight orchestrator via flow template

Export and Transfer Support for Executors

An Executor Export tab has been implemented in the Commission page. This tab is used to enable export and configure transfer settings.

• Automatic export full message when the job is complete
• Cannot adjust export interval
• Able to enable or disable export mode
• Each executor has a CSV file
• Export applies to Job Executors and Flow Executors

Moreover, an Export Status field has been added to both Job Executors and Flow Executors tabs. The possible statuses are:

• Not start
• In progress
• Success
• Export failed
• Transfer failed

CLI Command to Handle Split-Brain Issue

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 supports a CLI command, on the Appliance Monitor for virtual machines and socli for Docker, to handle data not being synchronized between two sites.

Syntax:
redundancy control handle-split-brain

Enable TLS on Demand for Reverse Proxy

Use the Command Line Interface (CLI) of the Appliance Monitor to enable or disable Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 or 1.1 configuration for reverse proxy.

Syntax:
tls <enable|disable> value <TLSv1|TLSv1.1>

For Docker, the Skylight orchestrator services must be running before enabling or disabling the TLS configuration.

Consumption-Based Model for Licensing

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 removes feature licenses and uses a consumption-based model for licensing.

• Session licenses remain:
• This is counted for the current session manager
• Sessions configured on Skylight sensor: control are counted in Skylight sensor: control and reported to Skylight orchestrator
• Service activation tests (SAT) conducted with Session Performance require an enhanced license

• Enhancements for sessions and service activation tests include:
• CLI support to show usage data per object types
• NBAPI to count usage data

CLI Command to Retrieve Usage Data per Object Type

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 supports a custom CLI command, on the Appliance Monitor for virtual machines and socli for Docker to retrieve usage data counts from NBAPI using the HTTP protocol by providing optional unit, user, and password to query.

Syntax:
usage-data show statistics user < user > password < password > unit < unit >

For Docker, the Skylight orchestrator services must be started.

Red Hat Docker Environment

With release 23.12, the Red Hat operating system can deploy a Skylight orchestrator Docker container. Previously, Ubuntu operating system was the exclusive option.

See the Skylight orchestrator Docker Deployment for more information.

The redeployment script only supports fresh installation and must be run before deploying Skylight orchestrator Docker version 23.04 or 23.12.

Removed Deprecated XML Interface

The XML interface is deprecated and has been phased out as of Skylight orchestrator 23.12. Consequently, there is no XML Export Manual for this release. Northbound systems must migrate to the CSV file format for PM data reception.

Skylight Elements Compatibility

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 has been enhanced to be backward compatible with Skylight elements, including release 7.9.6.

Skylight sensor: control Compatibility

Skylight orchestrator has been enhanced to operate with Skylight sensor: control releases 22.12, 22.12.1, and 22.12.2. Please note that Skylight orchestrator releases prior to release 23.04 are unable to provide RTT values for TWAMP and ETH-DM using Skylight sensor: control releases 22.12 or later.

If you intend to deploy Skylight sensor: control 22.12 or later to your network, please ensure you have upgraded to Skylight orchestrator release 23.04 or later.

See the Skylight sensor: control 22.12 Release Notes for more information.

Deployment Considerations

Hypervisor Guidelines

Skylight orchestrator has been tested against KVM and VMware hypervisors. The following guidelines should be used when deploying to these environments:

• The engineering guidelines of the product must be respected. The product ships with a minimal configuration that in most cases needs to be adjusted to meet the requirements stated in Deployment Profile Configuration. Failure to respect these engineering settings can lead to application downtime and possible data loss.
• The product was designed assuming MAC addresses and UUIDs assigned on installation of the virtual appliance will persist for the lifetime of the virtual appliance. Licensing functions are tied to these identifiers and unexpected behavior can occur if they are changed. This is especially important when installing the virtual appliance in a cluster. These assignments must be static.
• When using hypervisor functions that involve dynamic load balancing of guest virtual appliances in a hypervisor cluster (i.e. VMware DRS), the balancing policy should limit rebalancing operations to be done on virtual appliance startup and/or hypervisor host failures.
• When the Skylight orchestrator VM is deployed on the KVM host, ensure to enable all ports after they are added to Skylight orchestrator.

Docker Environment Guidelines

The engineering guidelines of the product must be respected. The Docker host must meet the requirements stated in Skylight orchestrator Docker Deployment.

Failure to respect these engineering settings can lead to application downtime and possible data loss.

The Docker host configuration related to interface IP addresses, hostname, NTP server, additional disks (add, format, mount), is configured via standard command of Ubuntu without any procedure or script to support them.

Device Interoperability

The following section details the firmware releases that are known to interoperate with this release of Skylight orchestrator. Please refer to the Skylight orchestrator Administration documentation for a listing of supported functions for each firmware version.

Support for sensor element software releases 4.7.x, 5.4.x and 5.5.x is deprecated. Plans should be put in place to upgrade your performance elements to more recent versions.

For the releases mentioned below, support for maintenance releases is also included.

ESXi Support

Skylight orchestrator release 20.05 and later will not support ESXi hypervisors running release 5.5 and 6.0. Systems running ESXi 6.5 can be upgraded to release 20.05 and later. ESXi 7.0 is supported for release 22.10 and later.

HTTP Interface

The HTTP interface of Skylight orchestrator is no longer supported for GUI operations. HTTP operations are still supported for the REST and XML APIs, but web service clients are urged to switch to the more secure HTTPS protocol.

Customers using browsers with HTTP protocol on port 6080 will automatically be redirected to HTTPS protocol on the same port (6080). This means no firewall changes are required as part of this change.

Disk Sizing for New Installations

The default image size for Skylight orchestrator is now 150 GiB. This image is large enough to support small networks of under 100 network elements and 1,000 performance sessions. For larger networks, the disk size of the image must be increased. This can be achieved via VMware and KVM management tools.

Example disk sizing:

• For 5,000 elements and 20,000 performance sessions with Round trip delay mode disabled: 370 GiB is recommended
• For 5,000 elements and 20,000 performance sessions with Round trip delay mode enabled: 430 GiB is recommended
• For 52,000 performance sessions with Round trip delay mode disabled: 482 GiB is recommended
• For 52,000 performance sessions with Round trip delay mode enabled: 638 GiB is recommended

Please consult the Skylight orchestrator documentation for sizing guidelines and for procedures on how to increase the disk size.

IPv4 Addresses for Hot Standby

The hot standby feature requires the use of IPv4 addresses for its configuration. For planning purposes, it should also be noted that hot standby configuration requires three (3) distinct subnets for the management, data replication, and heartbeat functions.

IPv6 addresses can be used in addition to these IPv4 interfaces for connectivity to the application interfaces (web and REST APIs) and devices being managed. IPv4 addresses are only required strictly for the hot standby functions.

If you wish to make use of this feature, please contact your Solution Engineering representative to initiate network planning activities.

XML Interface Deprecated

The XML interface is deprecated and has been phased out. Northbound systems are urged to migrate to the CSV file format for PM data reception.

Manager Module Interoperability

Conflicts will arise if both Manager Module and Skylight orchestrator are configured to manage the same Skylight sensor: control. Skylight orchestrator will effectively take over all management of the performance sessions for the Skylight sensor: control, and leave the Manager Module with un-acquired supervision endpoint.

Using this release to add Manager Modules as managed elements is not recommended.

Manager API

The performance session management calls defined at the /nbapi REST endpoint were introduced in SDV 1.6 to duplicate the calls present in the Skylight Director Manager Module. This endpoint was preserved in a backwards compatible fashion to allow REST API clients of the Manager Module to seamlessly switch to the Skylight orchestrator.

This endpoint is to be considered capped. Any new features pertaining to performance session management will be implemented using the /nbapiemswsweb REST endpoint in future releases.

CLI Additions and Changes

The CLI command set of the appliance monitor interface was enhanced to duplicate the mgr-commands that are present in the SkyLIGHT Director Manager module.

These commands were preserved in a backwards compatible fashion to allow customers familiar with the Manager Module command set to migrate to the Skylight orchestrator.

This command set is to be considered capped; no new features will be developed on the CLI functionality.

Browser Support Limitations

The minimum recommended screen resolution to operate Skylight orchestrator is 1360 x 768. Lower resolutions will not provide an optimal experience.

Performing a zoom on your display is not recommended due to incompatible implementations with browsers. If a zoom must be applied, please use a Firefox browser as it has the most standard support for this function.

Due to issues with browser compatibility mode and web sockets, Internet Explorer is no longer supported. Please use Google Chrome (version 70 or higher) or Firefox (version 52 or higher) to access the Skylight orchestrator web interface.

For Windows users, it is also recommended to leave the scale and layout option of the Display settings at a value of 100%.

Restoring Virtual Appliance Configuration Backups

Configuration backups of the virtual appliance (done via the configuration export command) are not portable from release to release. That is to say, a configuration backup from a 1.6 system should not be used to restore a 19.12 system. Unexpected behavior may occur.

Please ensure that configuration backups are restored on systems running the same release from which the backup was taken.

Metrics Collection CSV Filename Timestamp

In order to align with the CSV filename convention of all other Accedian products (Skylight sensor: control and Skylight elements), this naming strategy is changed in Skylight orchestrator. The timestamp in the CSV filename represents the time when the file was created.

In all cases, the timestamps of the metrics themselves (present within the content of the file) represent the time of when the metric was produced. Only the timestamp contained in the CSV filename is impacted by this change.

Vision Collect Streaming Limitations on 6.4.1.2 and 6.4.2

When using release firmware 6.4.1.2 with Vision Collect, a disconnection from Skylight orchestrator may incur data loss. The data retention periods are not respected and data loss can occur after a few seconds of disconnection.

When using firmware release 6.4.2 in Skylight elements in high resolution mode with packet loss greater than 10% of the management network, some reporting periods may be lost. Please ensure a reliable management network is in place.

These issues are corrected in Skylight element firmware releases 6.4.3 and higher.

The First Result Records for a New Session Are Skipped by CSV Export

When the CSV producer detects a new performance session, it marks its data for extract from the first time it views the session. If the CSV producer is configured to run every five (5) minutes, this can mean that the first five minutes of result data for a new session will not be exported.

This is expected behavior; all performance data after this initial detection phase will be captured by the CSV producer.

Number of Acceptable Firmware Loads

Before upgrading or starting app_server on Skylight orchestrator, you must validate the number of acceptable firmware loads based on the specific profile of the system and upgrade version.

Skylight orchestrator Profile and Acceptable Firmware Loads

vMotion Support Limitations

VMWare’s vMotion feature, technology that enables live migration of a virtual appliance from one physical server to another, has certain limitations when used with Skylight orchestrator:

• vMotion should be configured static; no load balancing
• MAC preservation
• Cannot be used in conjunction with Skylight orchestrator HA or standby protection
• If using VSAN disk shared between many hosts, ensure disk IOPs of Skylight orchestrator will meet the minimum requirement.

Result Records for Sync Sessions Are Not Exported in Real Time

Sync sessions are not properly aligned with CSV export. Results are not being exported in real time as Skylight sensor: control is delivering measurement results and Skylight orchestrator is generating CSV files at the exact same time.

If the CSV producer is configured to run every five (5) minutes and sync session has five (5) minute interval, this can indicate that result data for that session will be exported five minutes late.

Memory Limitations

In the event of an excessive number of simultaneous commands being executed, it is recommended that JVM memory be increased.

FTP Support

Support for the FTP transfer method has been removed for the functions below:

• CSV export
• Inventory export

Please ensure the FTP export method is not used on Inventory Export and CSV Export before upgrading.

Skylight orchestrator 23.12 Lifecycle

This section lists the planned lifecycle dates of this software release. See the table below outlining the following milestones: