NCM 2022.3 release notes
Release date: September 28, 2022
These release notes were last updated on March 29, 2023.
These release notes describe the new features, improvements, and fixed issues in Network Configuration Manager 2022.3. They also provide information about upgrades and describe workarounds for known issues.
Learn more
- For information on the latest hotfixes, see NCM hotfixes.
- For release notes for previous NCM versions, see Previous Version Documentation.
- For information about requirements, see NCM system requirements.
- For information about working with NCM, see the NCM Administrator Guide.
New features and improvements in NCM
NCM 2022.3 offers the following new features.
SolarWinds Platform
NCM 2022.3 is now built on the new SolarWinds Platform and installed with the new SolarWinds Installer.
Learn more about the new SolarWinds Platform.
See also the SolarWinds Platform 2022.3 Release Notes.
New Config Summary dashboard
A new Config Summary dashboard is available. The new interface is optional, and the previous version of the Config Summary dashboard is shown by default. To explore the updated version of the dashboard, locate the yellow bar at the top of the Config Summary dashboard and click View new UI.
Examples of changes
The dashboard is better organized and more user friendly. The information shown on it has been updated to highlight important data. You can click on any widget for more detailed information.
Some examples of the changes are shown below:
-
In addition to listing NCM nodes, the updated dashboard displays a roll-up of node statuses.
In the list, an icon indicates the status of each node.
-
In addition to indicating that the configs on some devices are not backed up, the new dashboard also tells you:
- How many configs are not backed up because the backup failed or because a backup job was never configured to run on the device.
- How many configs were not backed up in the last 24 hours.
-
The Firmware vulnerabilities widget and the Policy violations widget group vulnerabilities and violations by severity, so you can immediately identify the most serious issues.
Edit the new dashboard
Click the pencil icon in the upper-right corner to edit the Config Summary dashboard. You can rearrange widgets, remove widgets, and add new widgets.
Make the new dashboard the default
To display the updated Config Summary dashboard by default:
- Click Settings > All Settings.
- Under Product Specific Settings, click NCM Settings.
- Under Advanced, click Advanced Settings.
- Under Enable New NCM Summary Interface, select Use new NCM Summary Page as default.
Additional information on the Transfer Status page
In previous versions, the Transfer Status page showed the status of only config transfers that were initiated from that page. It now shows the status of all config transfers, including those that were initiated from a job. A Job Name column has been added to the table.
Changes to inventory reporting
On-demand inventory scans run as jobs
When you select nodes from the Configuration Management page and choose Update Inventory, you can choose to run the scan immediately or schedule a job. If you choose to run the scan immediately, NCM creates a job and runs it on the selected nodes with the default data collection options. The job name is "Update inventory on demand" followed by the date and time the job was created.
The Jobs List page opens automatically, and you can monitor the status of the job from there. The Inventory Status tab has been removed from the Configuration Management page because it is no longer needed.
Other changes
The inventory scan engine now runs on a more secure framework. As part of this update, the following have been removed:
-
Disable Inventory Lookup option
The Inventory Lookup option is not required by any reports and, when enabled, it generated a large number of unexpected ICMP requests. It is now disabled by default.
- Extend VLANs Inventory option
- Global TM report
- Cisco Catalyst Card report
Session trace logs after a failed connection
If NCM cannot connect to a device, the Transfer Status page includes a Get trace log link.
Click this link to display entries from the log, which could help you troubleshoot the issue. The Session trace log page also includes an option to download the entire log and an option to search the page.
Fixed issues in NCM 2022.3
With this release, NCM now runs on the SolarWinds Platform. NCM 2022.3 contains all of the fixed issues since the NCM 2020.2.6 release, including all NCM 2020.2.6 hotfixes and fixes in SolarWinds Platform 2022.2 and 2022.3
See also the following for more information:
| Case number | Description |
|---|---|
| 00970155 |
Binary configuration files from Palo Alto devices are placed in the config archive folder even when the device sends the file name enclosed in single quotes. |
| 01077460 |
If a firmware upgrade includes the Get info on config register command, NCM automatically enables the Update config register option if the returned register value does not match the expected value. This prevents the firmware operation from failing with the following error if the Update config register is not explicitly selected: Unable to Update Config Register. See NcmBusinessLayerPlugin.log for details |
| 00994048 |
The NCM Update Inventory job no longer has problems writing to a shared network drive. |
| 01011190 |
Manually downloading configs from nodes that are not managed by NCM is no longer possible. |
| 01005747 |
When a user is moved from one SAML group to another SAML group with different NCM permissions, NCM recognizes the new permissions. |
| 00961659, 00964394, 01096223 |
When a user logs in with a Windows group account and specifies user-level login credentials, NCM retains the credentials after the user logs out. |
| 00886612 |
An issue that caused website failures has been resolved. For example, links on the Active Alerts page no longer return the following error:
|
| 00918323 |
When enhanced node status calculation is enabled, NCM displays the correct node status instead of Unknown. |
| 00841208, 00919519 |
NCM correctly detects and matches all firmware vulnerabilities. |
| 00588802, 00622165 |
Attempting to delete comparison criteria does not return an error. |
| 00485757 | Firmware upgrade operations no longer fail if the device name contains an asterisk (*). |
| 01091157, 01093969, 01097784, 01119327, 01121995, 01126183, |
Initiating an SSH connection to a network device from the Node Details page now works correctly. |
| N/A | NCM 2022.3 includes security enhancements. |
See also the SolarWinds Platform 2022.3 Release Notes.
Installation and upgrade
For information about installing Network Configuration Manager, in a new environment, see the SolarWinds Platform Product Installation and Upgrade Guide. You can download a free trial from the SolarWinds website.
Use the SolarWinds Installer to upgrade your entire SolarWinds deployment (all products and any scalability engines).
You can upgrade your entire deployment from the My Deployment page (Settings > My Deployment).
You must be on NCM 2020.2.1 or later to upgrade to NCM 2022.3. If you are on NCM 2020.2 or earlier, first upgrade to 2020.2.6 and then upgrade to 2022.3.
Before you upgrade!
-
In addition to the SolarWinds Platform database, the SolarWinds Platform requires a both an NTA Flow Storage database and a Log and Event database. If your Orion deployment did not include Network Traffic Analyzer and Log Analyzer, one or both of these databases are created during the upgrade. Before upgrading from Orion Platform 2020.2.6 and earlier to SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability, make sure the database user you use to connect to your SQL Server has the db create privilege. Without this privilege, the upgrade will not complete.
-
Make sure all your legacy reports are migrated. You won't be able to access legacy reports and related tools after the upgrade. To migrate reports, use the Legacy Report Migration Tool.
-
After upgrading to SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability from an Orion Platform 2020.2.6 installation, you will need to update your MIB database.
-
Some upgrade situations from the Orion Platform to the SolarWinds Platform are not supported and the installer will stop the upgrade automatically:
- If you have a SQL Server earlier than 2016. (See End of support and the NCM 2022.3 system requirements for more information.)
- If you have an Orion Platform product version 2020.2 or earlier.
Known issues
| Some functionality in SolarWinds Platform products cannot be accessed through Internet Explorer 11 | |
|---|---|
| Issue |
If you use IE 11 to access NCM or other SolarWinds Platform products, some pages are not accessible or do not function correctly. These pages include (but are not limited to):
|
| Resolution or Workaround | If a page does not function correctly in IE 11, use a different browser to access the page. |
| After upgrading, attempting to open an NCM page returns an error | |
|---|---|
| Issue |
In some environments, after an upgrade to NCM 2020.2.6 or later, NCM pages cannot be accessed. When you attempt to open a page that includes NCM data, such as the Node Details page, the message |
| Resolution or Workaround |
If you encounter this issue, complete the following steps on the main polling engine and all additional polling engines (APEs).
|
| Permissions required to modify policy reports | |
|---|---|
| Issue |
When you configure NCM security settings, you can select the following option: Only NCM admin can modify compliance policy reports If you select this option, the NCM Administrator role is required to manage policy reports through the user interface. However, if you use the SolarWinds API to manage policy reports, both the NCM Administrator role and Orion administrator rights are required. |
| Resolution or Workaround | Grant Orion administration rights to the account that will manage policy reports using API calls. |
| NCM does not show current information about overlapping ACL rules after an upgrade | |
|---|---|
| Issue | After you upgrade, NCM does not display current information about shadowed or redundant access control list (ACL) rules. Older information is displayed. |
| Resolution or Workaround | Download the configuration files from your Cisco ASA and Nexus devices. After you download the config files, NCM displays current information about shadowed and redundant ACL rules. |
End of life
| Version | EoL announcement | EoE effective date | EoL effective date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019.4 | July 27, 2022: End-of-Life (EoL) announcement – Customers on NCM version 2019.4 should begin transitioning to the latest version of NCM. | August 26, 2022: End-of-Engineering (EoE) – Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for NCM version 2019.4 will no longer be actively supported by SolarWinds. | August 26, 2023: End-of-Life (EoL) – SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for NCM version 2019.4. |
| 8.0 | July 27, 2022: End-of-Life (EoL) announcement – Customers on NCM version 8.0 should begin transitioning to the latest version of NCM. | August 26, 2022: End-of-Engineering (EoE) – Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for NCM version 8.0 will no longer be actively supported by SolarWinds. | August 26, 2023: End-of-Life (EoL) – SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for NCM version 8.0. |
See the End of Life Policy for information about SolarWinds product life cycle phases. To see EoL dates for earlier NCM versions, see NCM release history.
End of support
This version of Network Configuration Manager no longer supports the following platforms and features.
| Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Database | SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 are no longer supported for use as the SolarWinds Platform or Orion Platform database. |
| Syslog and traps |
Legacy Syslog and Traps functionality has been removed. During an upgrade, legacy syslog and trap rules are migrated to the Log Viewer. A few rule conditions are not currently supported in the new log functionality. Any rules that are not imported are listed in the Migration Report. |
Deprecation notice
This version of Network Configuration Manager deprecates the following platforms and features.
Deprecated platforms and features are still supported in the current release. However, they will be unsupported in a future release. Plan on upgrading deprecated platforms, and avoid using deprecated features.
| Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Browser support | All versions of Internet Explorer will become unsupported in a future release. Some pages are not compatible with IE 11. Do not enable Enterprise Mode in IE 11. It is not supported. |
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