DISCLAIMER – This post is not meant to take the place of a software recommendation process. Customers should still perform their own due diligence before selecting a software version for their own ACI Fabric. This post is meant to summarize the available ACI Software features, by release, and be used as a quick reference guide. … More ACI / APIC Software Guidance
Previously I had written an article on Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine (OVA Based SE). That article was updated on 7/6/2020 to include the connectivity discussions and install instructions for release 3.0.2d MSO running on SE 1.1.3d. I have recently got a few requests to also do a writeup / install guide on … More Deploying MSO on Cisco Application Service Engine ( AWS AMI Based SE)
Local user databases are great, until you have a few dozen of them. Your lab environment probably has a few users (such as yourself), and some of you might even be sharing the “admin” account, at least until Kyle breaks the fabric again and doesn’t tell anyone and all you see is an audit trail … More Configuring LDAP Authentication with Cisco APIC Controller
RFC2307 was written in 1998 to define a schema for representing NIS information (such as Unix account attributes such as UID, home directory, etc) in an LDAP-based directory. A later draft called RFC2307bis was introduced and adopted by some major Unix vendors, but never left draft stage. Microsoft’s Active Directory adopted RFC2307 attributes for Unix … More LDAP Schemas: RFC2307 vs RFC2307bis
Now that 4.0 is released, it’s time to start planning your upgrade! So get out your pencils and slide rules, and start blocking off your calendar for maintenance windows for the next three months… Just kidding! With ACI, upgrading is simply one of those casual tasks you do between coffee breaks or network outages. And … More Upgrading ACI Fabric: The 4.0 Way.
There are certain times when CIMC access to your APIC is absolutely critical, for example, when you are troubleshooting a problem, upgrading your APICs, or performing a factory reset. During these times, you can access your APIC via CIMC by using the KVM console, which requires Java (or HTTP with CIMC 3.0), or by enabling … More Upgrading the CIMC for your APICs
ACI contains a plethora of information. Using SYSLOG to get that information from all of the devices in your fabric to a centralized SYSLOG server is still a good way of aggregating logging data, alerts, and audit information. In this post, we’ll review what data is available to be forwarded to your external SYSLOG server, … More Configuring Syslog for ACI
Upgrading your ACI Fabric is one of the main selling points for ACI. However, making the decision of where to upgrade to can be a tricky proposition. Which version can I upgrade from and to? What about downgrades? The code selection process can get even more complex if you have dependencies such as AVE (ACI … More APIC Upgrade Tool
Configuring Out-of-Band connectivity to your ACI Fabric devices is a critical component to successfully maintaining and operating your datacenter. When it comes to configuring OOB connectivity to your devices (Leafs, Spines, and APIC Controllers), you’ll have need to do two things to get things going: All devices will need static OOB addresses (APIC Controllers, Leafs, … More ACI: Configuring Out-of-Band (OOB) access for your Fabric
Prerequisites Make sure and have the appropriate Contracts configured for OOB to permit the access to the desired port. If you do not have this in place, the traffic destined to the new port will be killed by the contracts. While not a prerequisite, Since HTTPs access via the GUI is generally the “front … More Changing the default port for HTTP(s) access to the APIC GUI