DCACI - Implementing Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure v1.2

Introducing Cisco ACI Fabric Infrastructure and Basic Concepts

• What Is Cisco ACI?
• Cisco ACI Topology and Hardware
• Cisco ACI Object Model
• Faults, Event Record, and Audit Log
• Cisco ACI Fabric Discovery
• Cisco ACI Access Policies

Describing Cisco ACI Policy Model Logical Constructs

• Cisco ACI Logical Constructs
• Tenant
• Virtual Routing and Forwarding
• Bridge Domain
• Endpoint Group
• Application Profile
• Tenant Components Review
• Adding Bare-Metal Servers to Endpoint Groups
• Contracts

Describing Cisco ACI Basic Packet Forwarding

• Endpoint Learning
• Basic Bridge Domain Configuration ****

Introducing External Network Connectivity

• Cisco ACI External Connectivity Options
• External Layer 2 Network Connectivity
• External Layer 3 Network Connectivity

Introducing VMM Integration

• VMware vCenter VDS Integration
• Resolution Immediacy in VMM
• Alternative VMM Integrations

Describing Layer 4 to Layer 7 Integrations

• Service Appliance Insertion Without ACI L4-L7 Service Graph
• Service Appliance Insertion via ACI L4-L7 Service Graph
• Service Graph Configuration Workflow
• Service Graph PBR Introduction

Explaining Cisco ACI Management

• Out-of-Band Management
• In-Band Management
• Syslog
• Simple Network Management Protocol
• Configuration Backup
• Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
• Role-Based Access Control
• Cisco ACI Upgrade
• Collect Tech Support

• Validate Fabric Discovery
• Configure Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• Create Access Policies and Virtual Port Channel (vPC)
• Enable Layer 2 Connectivity in the Same Endpoint Group (EPG)
• Enable Inter-EPG Layer 2 Connectivity
• Enable Inter-EPG Layer 3 Connectivity
• Compare Traffic Forwarding Methods in a Bridge Domain
• Configure External Layer 2 (L2Out) Connection
• Configure External Layer 3 (L3Out) Connection
• Integrate Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) With VMware vCenter Using VMware Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS)

Each of these optional supplementary labs can be done independent of any other provided the prerequisites have been met for each lab.

These labs apply to the NterOne ACI lab environment.

The intent of these optional labs is to provide additional hands on experience within ACI beyond the formal Cisco course labs.

Discovery Lab 1:

Monitoring and Diagnosing ACI

• Configure ACI to log to a Syslog Server
• View Faults Using the Cisco APIC GUI
• View events using the Cisco APIC GUI
• Use the API Inspector

Discovery Lab 2:

Use Visore to Explore an ACI Tenant

• Use the Managed Object Browser (Visore)

Discovery Lab 3:

Configure Tenant Span

• Setup Visibility and Troubleshooting using the Cisco APIC GUI.
• Setup SPAN using the Cisco APIC GUI.
• View captured SPAN packets with Wireshark.

Discovery Lab 4:

Configure RBAC Using Local and Radius Users

• Configure a local security domain
• Configure local users and roles for your tenant security domain
• Create a RADIUS security domain and map to your tenant
• Create an AAA login domain for RADIUS authentication
• Test RADIUS authentication and authorization

Discovery Lab 5:

Configure the APIC Using the ACI Cobra SDK (Python)

• Configure the Communication Policy
• Review a Python script
• Use a Python Script to create a Tenant

Discovery Lab 6:

Configure the APIC Using the Cisco APIC REST to Python Adapter (ARYA)

• Save the configuration of an object within the APIC as an XML file
• Use ARYA to create a Python script
• Use Notepad++ to edit a Python script
• Create a new object within the APIC using the Python script