What’s new?

Introduction

To assist readers already familiar with NSP installation and upgrade, this section summarizes the major changes introduced in this release and provides links to the affected content.

Not all changes are noted; it is recommended that you always perform an installation or upgrade by carefully following the directions in the most recent issue of the Installation and Upgrade Guide on the Doc Center.

Release 24.8 features

The following table identifies the 24.8 feature areas that have significantly affected the NSP deployment information in this guide.

Table 1-1: What’s new in Release 24.8

Feature	Description / reference
New NSP cluster load-balancing mechanism	The ELB parameters in the NSP configuration file are replaced by the load-balancing parameters described in Prepare to upgrade NSP Kubernetes deployer of procedure To upgrade the NSP Kubernetes environment, and in each NSP deployment procedure.
Non-local NSP cluster storage	The NSP supports a network-based NSP cluster storage solution that you provide. See the following for information: Providing your own storage solution Appendix C, NFS storage configuration Appendix D, Ceph storage configuration
PKI server in NSP cluster	The PKI server for TLS certificate distribution among NSP components is now an internal function of an NSP cluster. The deployment procedures describe the PKI server configuration or reconfiguration required for components outside the NSP cluster.
Prompt-based Kubernetes secret creation and administration for NSP TLS	Sensitive TLS information such as certificates are stored in Kubernetes secrets. An NSP CLI tool generates the secrets based on user input. The NSP cluster deployment procedures describe how to create, backup, and restore the secrets.
Non-root local system access	To facilitate the tracking of system access, designated users other than the root user can be given the minimum privileges required to perform NSP system administration; see Restricting root-user system access for information.
WS-NOC integration	After a temporary suspension of support for NSP integration with the WS-NOC product, the NSP supports integration with the Release 24.6 or later WS-NOC; see WS-NOC and NSP integration.
Standalone NSP support for redundant NFM-P	The NSP and NFM-P deployment models, standalone or DR, do not need to match. Statements that indicate otherwise have been removed.
Flow Collector and Flow Collector Controller containerization	NSP flow data collection is now hosted by an NSP cluster, rather than by NSP Flow Collectors and Flow Collector Controllers on stations outside the cluster. RESTCONF API calls replace the web UI for the configuration of flow-data collection. The following describe the required migration of the NSP Flow Collectors and Flow Collector Controllers to an NSP cluster: NSP Flow Collector and Flow Collector Controller migration from Release 22.6 or earlier NSP Flow Collector and Flow Collector Controller migration from Release 22.9 or later
Legacy NFM-P compatibility with NSP Release 24.8	To enable NSP compatibility with an earlier NFM-P system

Release 24.4 features

The following table identifies the 24.4 feature areas that have significantly affected the NSP deployment information in this guide.

Table 1-2: What’s new in Release 24.4

Feature	Description / reference
Restricted remote user access	You can prevent remote root-user access to the stations in an NSP deployment by restricting access to a designated non-root user, as described in Disabling remote root access.
Analytics server containerization	NSP analytics servers are now hosted by an NSP cluster, rather than deployed on separate stations outside the cluster. The following describe the required migration of all analytics servers to an NSP cluster. NSP analytics server migration from Release 22.6 or earlier NSP analytics server migration from Release 22.9 or later
Mandatory NFM-P integration with NSP cluster	The local nspOS instance in an independent NFM-P deployment is no longer supported. An NFM-P system at Release 24.4 or later must be integrated with an NSP cluster. In an NFM-P deployment procedure, you must specify the NSP cluster address as the nspOS address.
Auxiliary database management without NFM-P	An NSP deployment that includes an auxiliary database no longer requires the NFM-P. NFM-P configuration steps in auxiliary database deployment procedures are conditional rather than mandatory. RESTCONF API calls replace some auxiliary database management functions in the NFM-P GUI.
Legacy NFM-P compatibility with NSP Release 24.4	To enable NSP compatibility with an earlier NFM-P system