C9000 application hosting: IOX

[dwaugh]

Question regarding C9000 application hosting: is Catalyst 9000 capable of running other applications besides Docker? Trying to find a better platform for developing IR800 series IOX applications. IR800 series is very limited.  Can I use the C9000 for IOX development?

[balaji.bandi]

Good question, yes you are looking more of a hosting environment on the switch ? (maybe they are not meant kind of you looking), beside docker, I do not see any support I see here only tested that one myself.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/prog/configuration/1612/b_1612_programmability_cg/application_hosting.html#id_64005

some time back there were requirements on the remote plant to have this kind of feature, when i was evaluating Cisco UCS-E for the branch was the good candidate i see here (not sure if that works for you ?)

[dwaugh]

Thank you. UCS is not an option but a good thought.

[Emmanuel Tychon]

You can host IOx applications on all platforms that do support IOx. IR829 does not run native Docker engine, however those IOS-XE platforms do: IR1101, IE3400, and Catalyst 9400. There is also the IC3000 which is not a switch, not a router, just a compute appliance that runs just IOx with native Docker engine.

[dwaugh]

If creating applications for the 829, can I use an IC3000 for development of these apps?

[Emmanuel Tychon]

I wish I had an easy answer to that question other than "it depends"...

Main differences are:
a) IC3000 always come with SSD disk, whereas this is optional on IR829
b) IR829 does not run native docker engine but is using libvirt. IC3000 runs native Docker.
c) IR829 has GPS, LTE, and serial ports that the IC3000 is missing.

However they both share x86 CPU architecture therefore assuming you do not need IR829 hardware functionality, if an application work on IC3000 it will most likely run on IR829 unchanged. I have done that a couple of times already.

[dwaugh]

Thank you. This would be a good option if we did not need a WiFi workgroup bridge and serial. In other areas of the solution, the IC3000 may work great for us.