Category: Best Practice

Understanding ACI TCAM Utilization & Optimization

January 6, 2021

Being organized and creating consistent configurations is a great virtue in the Networking / SDN / Cloud and computing field.  ACI is no exception to that rule.  Haphazard, Inconsistent and thoughtless configurations will increase your work and complexity/understanding of your infrastructure once your  Fabric grows.  In addition it will make it more prone to failures … More Understanding ACI TCAM Utilization & Optimization

ACI NetCentric 2 AppCentric Using MicroSegmentation

February 22, 2020

In this blog post, I’ll discuss a method of moving from Network Centric ACI Deployment to APP Centric ACI deployment using combination of ACI Features: MicroSegmentation/PrefferedGroups/ContractMasters. When ACI Fabric is initially deployed, it is either deployed in a Greenfield or Brownfield method. Green Field means it’s a brand new deployment. Brown Field means that the … More ACI NetCentric 2 AppCentric Using MicroSegmentation

Understanding Scope Of Prefixes in L3Out External EPG in ACI

November 8, 2019

In ACI the external Routing Peer to the router is done through border leaves with a object called L3Out.   L3Out has an object in it called the L3Out InstP also known as the External EPG.    In the External EPG you can put in Prefixes and choose the scope based on your intended goal.   Under the … More Understanding Scope Of Prefixes in L3Out External EPG in ACI

Using MCP (MisCabling Protocol) for ACI

March 27, 2018

MisCabling Protocol (or MCP) detects loops from external sources (i.e., misbehaving servers, external networking equipment running STP) and will err-disable the interface on which ACI receives its own packet. Enabling this feature is a best practice and it should be enabled globally and on all interfaces, regardless of the end device. MCP limits the blast … More Using MCP (MisCabling Protocol) for ACI

ACI Naming Convention Best Practices

February 16, 2018

  This statement is especially true when it comes to naming objects inside of ACI. Naming your ACI objects in a meaningful and thoughtful way will increase the supportability of your fabric and even help the fabric to become “self-documenting”. Having naming conventions that are haphazard, will have an equally negative impact. To complicate matters, … More ACI Naming Convention Best Practices

Using Serial-over-Lan (SOL) on the CIMC to access the APIC (instead of KVM console)

February 16, 2018

The CIMC is Cisco’s answer to lights-out management for UCS servers, including the UCS servers that house the APICs. For troubleshooting the APIC, most engineers assume you must have direct console (i.e., physical access) or use the Java (or later HTTP)-based KVM Console to get true OOB access to your APIC, however, this is not … More Using Serial-over-Lan (SOL) on the CIMC to access the APIC (instead of KVM console)

The ACI Journey

October 13, 2017

When fully configured and integrated with your business processes, ACI can deliver a fantastic number of features, from automation to granular security and the list goes on… Commentary – So many times, I’ve seen ACI customers who have been “sold a bill of goods” that promises all the wonderful benefits, but due to lack of … More The ACI Journey