Network: ACI Community plan

Bare facts for the connection plugin (ACI + MultiSite)

What basic facts do we need to add as part of the initial connection ? What hierarchical structure would best fit its use ?

• Facts related to version information
• Facts deemed highly important for operational decisions (playbook constructs)
• Facts that don't change too often unexpectedly

ACI MultiSite TODO list

• Integrated label handling (auto-add labels if they do not exist)
• Persistent connection plugin for ACI MultiSite
• Should we use "msc_" as the prefix ?
• Review the current user interface
• How will we manage schemas ?
• Implement change-detection using Modified-header (instead of internal comparison)
• Test the minimum requirement with the version
• Known issues
  • MSC Error 400: Bad Request: Cannot Update - APIC Site ID for the new url entered does not match
  • Initial password reset

Needed modules

What ACI functionality would you prefer to see added as modules ?

• aci_aaa_user_domain (aaa:UserDomain) -- @dagwieers
• aci_aaa_user_role (aaa:UserRole) -- @dagwieers
• aci_bd_dhcp_association
• aci_taboo_contract_subject
• aci_vmm_controller (vmm:CtrlrP)
• your module here ?

Needed functionality

What use-cases do you have that require additional functionality ?

Configuration - Access Policies

• Creating FEX profiles (NOT VERY COMMON)

Configuration - EPGs

• Creating EPG Subnets(adding subnets to EPG on top, NOT COMMON)

Configuration - Networking

• L3Out creation (VERY UNCOMMON) #37570
  • Logical Node Profiles (NOT COMMON)
  • Logical Interface Profiles (NOT COMMON)
  • Networks (adding/removing) (COMMON)
  • Contracts (adding/removing) (COMMON)

Configuration - inventory management addresses (COMMON)

(All these bullets are related when setting new switch up)

• When putting new switch and setting in-band and OOB addresses (COMMON)
• IP address Pools(COMMON)
• Node management addresses (COMMON)
• Managed mode connectivity groups (COMMON)
• Updating of management addresses (VERY COMMON)

Configuration - protocol policies (Fabric policies)

• Date/Time (NTP) Policy (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)
• SNMP Policy (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)
• TACACS Policy (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)
• BGP route reflectors (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)
• Syslog / Monitoring Destinations (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)
• DHCP Protocol Policy creation (NOT COMMON, one time)
• DHCP relay applied to bridge domain (COMMON) (aci_bd_dhcp_association)
• DNS - Global Policies (NOT COMMON, one time fab setup)

Operational - Queries

• Query APIC Cluster health (COMMON) (@dagwieers) Wiki Docs
• Find ip script (VERY COMMON --> used by IDO) -- (@brunocalogero @dagwieers)
• Find all endpoints in Fabric or specific switch (COMMON)
• Contract Checker (identifies all contracts between any two endpoints, source/destination and handles response(if policy allows them to talk or not)) (COMMON)
• Checking if VLAN is in use (COMMON)
• Query operations - DNQuery, ClassQuery (VERY COMMON)
• Visore type queries/filters (VERY COMMON)
• Endpoint lookups on leafs (COMMON)
• Identification of stale tunnels (COMMON)
• Interface CRC checks per switch(es) (COMMON)

Actions on Fabric

(Avoided in prod., mainly used in LAB)

• Decommission APIC
• Decommission Switch
• Recommission Switch (pre-provision switch)
• Disable port(s)
• Enable port(s)
• Reload switch
• Reload APIC --> We have a playbook for this (@dagwieers)

ACI Lab Task041: Create NXOS ACI topology scenario 1

• Create complex l3out (l3ext:Out)

ACI Lab Task073: SCVMM step03

• Configure a VMM domain
  • (vmm:ProvP)
    • Create virtual domain (vmm:DomP)
      • Bind to VLAN pool (infra:RsVlanNs)
      • Adding VMM controller, e.g. SCVMM (vmm:CtrlrP)