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IP Fabric v8.1

Unreleased Version

This is an upcoming IP Fabric version, which has not been released yet and is not available for download.

Upgrade Version Policy

We support the following upgrade paths:

  • The latest version in the previous major line → any version in the current major line (for example: 7.12.4 → 8.0.1).
  • Any version in the current major line → any newer version in the current major line (for example: 8.0 → 8.1).
  • An upgrade to 8.0 can be only performed from version 7.12.4 or newer.

Clearing Browser Cache

After upgrading IP Fabric to a newer version, you should see the Your application has been updated and must be refreshed dialog in the main GUI.

It is usually sufficient to just click the Refresh button.

However, in case of issues with the main GUI or if you did not see the mentioned dialog, please force refresh your browser cache.

The key combination for doing this depends on your operating system. In your browser window with your IP Fabric appliance’s URL open, use one of the following key combinations:

  • Windows: Ctrl + F5
  • macOS: Command + Shift + R
  • Linux: Ctrl + F5

This will only affect the browser cache for the IP Fabric appliance.

Known Issues

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Breaking Changes

Stop and Force Stop Merged into Cancel

The separate Stop and Force Stop actions for a running Discovery are now replaced by a single Cancel action:

  • Stop previously halted device discovery gracefully but still ran Topology Calculation and Assurance Engine checks over the partially discovered data.
  • Force Stop previously skipped that step and immediately marked the snapshot error and Force Stopped.
  • Cancel now stops the process immediately. Topology Calculation and Assurance Engine checks do not run for the partially discovered data. The snapshot moves to the canceled state instead of error.

The same Cancel action, with a confirmation dialog worded for the active process, works consistently across Discovery, Snapshot Load, and Topology Calculation. See Canceling a Running Process for details.

Version 8.1 removes the POST /jobs/{key}/force-stop API endpoint. Use POST /jobs/{key}/stop instead, which now provides the immediate-termination behavior previously exclusive to Force Stop.

Migration: Update any automation, scripting, or internal documentation that calls POST /jobs/{key}/force-stop or references the Force Stop action. Also update anything that checks for a Force Stopped/error snapshot after a manual stop. The endpoint no longer exists and the resulting state is now canceled.

v8.1.0 (UNRELEASED)

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Fixes

  • Fixed a regression from v8.0 where canceling a running Topology Calculation process did not work (previously documented as a temporary limitation of Force Stop). Restarting the ipf-api service previously served as a workaround; this is no longer necessary. Canceling Topology Calculation is fully functional again, and cancellation reliably unloads the snapshot instead of occasionally leaving it stuck in a loading state.

New Features

Run Topology Calculation

A new button, available for canceled snapshots from the overflow menu next to Load/Unload Snapshot, lets you manually trigger Topology Calculation and the Assurance Engine checks over partially discovered data without needing a full snapshot reload. See Canceled Snapshots for details.

New Site Separation Rule: Cloud Tags

Site separation now supports a new rule type. It groups cloud resources into sites based on the value of a chosen AWS, Azure, or GCP tag. For example, resources tagged Environment=prod are assigned to the prod site. A rule can include many tag names. If a resource carries more than one matching tag, the first tag name in the list determines the site. See Site Separation for details.

Cloud Licensing (CCU)

Licenses can now use a new CCU (cloud construct unit) licensing strategy for cloud infrastructure discovery. Cloud constructs no longer count against the on-premises device limit.

IP Fabric gives each cloud construct a pricing tier. Tier A costs 1 CCU, Tier B costs 0.5 CCU, and Tier C costs nothing. Each construct then draws CCUs from a dedicated CCU limit on the license. Licenses without a CCU limit keep the previous device-count strategy.

To see CCU usage and the tier of each discovered cloud construct, go to Inventory > License Overview. See Licensing for details.

Improvements

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Technology Tables

  • MAC Table (Technology > Addressing > MAC Table) – The table now includes SPBM next-hop information in three new columns. See Shortest Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) for details.
    • SPBM I-SID – The service instance identifier the MAC address belongs to.
    • SPBM B-MAC – The destination backbone MAC address the entry resolves to.
    • SPBM B-VLAN – The backbone VLAN that carries the traffic.
  • Cloud Security (Technology > Cloud > Security) – New inventory table listing security policies (security groups/NACLs/firewall policies) across cloud vendors, at /technology/cloud/security. It shows the number of inbound and outbound rules per policy. Clicking a count opens the rule tree for that policy and direction. The New Cloud Model feature flag must be enabled to use this table.
  • Cloud Network Interfaces and Cloud Subnets – These tables now include a Security column showing the security groups/policies applied to each interface or subnet, linked to the new Cloud Security table. Enable the New Cloud Model feature flag to use this column.

GUI

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Path Lookup

  • SPBM L2 VSN Services – Path lookup now follows SPBM L2VSN services. It traces traffic from the ingress backbone edge bridge (BEB) across the backbone core bridges (BCBs) to the egress BEB. Each hop displays in the path. See Shortest Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) for details.

Vendor Support

Arista EOS

Interface Media Type – IP Fabric now collects the media type for Arista EOS interfaces (e.g., 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-SR). The Media column in Inventory > Interfaces now displays data for Arista EOS devices.

GCP

Firewall Policies – IP Fabric now collects GCP hierarchical firewall policies, and network and regional firewall policies, also collecting existing firewall rules. These display in the new Cloud Security table. Path lookup was updated with new packet selectors to evaluate these policies.

Address Groups and Target Networks – GCP firewall rule collection now includes address groups and target network scoping.

Load Balancer NEG Backends – IP Fabric now collects more Network Endpoint Group (NEG) types for GCP and supports them as load balancer backends in path lookup where technically possible. FQDN-based, serverless, and Private Service Connect (PSC) NEGs are currently unsupported in path lookup.

Resource Manager Tags – IP Fabric now collects GCP Resource Manager tags. In Technology > Cloud > Nodes (/technology/cloud/nodes/inventory), the Tags column now displays these Resource Manager tags instead of labels. This also feeds the new Cloud Tags site separation rule for GCP resources.

ZPE Nodegrid

  • Basic Discovery – IP Fabric now supports basic discovery of ZPE Nodegrid out-of-band management devices. Coverage includes interfaces, ARP, IPv6 neighbors, routing table, serial ports, configuration backup, and management services. See Feature Matrix for details.

FS (FSOS)

ACL (Technology > Security > ACL) – IP Fabric now collects ACL data for FS switches.

FSOS ACL Coverage

Supported: the S3900 family. Not supported: other FSOS models (e.g., S5850, N8560, T5850) – ACL data collection may not work correctly on those models.

API Endpoint Deprecation

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Experimental Features

Fast Discovery for Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

A new feature flag ENABLE_WLC_FAST_DISCOVERY reduces discovery time for Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. When enabled, IP Fabric collects access point and wireless client data using controller-wide (bulk) CLI commands instead of running per-AP and per-client commands. This reduces the number of CLI commands and the duration of the wlcApList and clientList discovery tasks.

Supported on Cisco AireOS controllers running AireOS 8.1 or newer, and on Cisco Catalyst 9800 (IOS-XE) controllers. IP Fabric discovers controllers that do not meet the version requirement in full mode even when the flag is enabled. Task names, output schemas, and API responses remain unchanged, so no downstream configuration is affected.

Disabled by default. To enable it, see Feature Flags.

Miscellaneous

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