ACI port usage: fabric, fabric external

[WarrenT-CO]

Hello Cisco Community,

Can I connect a 40Gig firewall interface to my 9372TX QSFP ports even though the port usage says "fabric, fabric external" ?

Can some one explain what usage "fabric, fabric external" means, because I suspect I can connect a 40Gig firewall interface to this port or connect to a Spine switch in my fabric.

I also attached a snapshot.  Thank you

[mabushei · Accepted solution]

Hi Warren,

I understand that you are trying to connect a 40Gig firewall interface to interface 1/50 which is one of the 9372TX fixed 40-Gbps QSFP.

"fabric, fabric external" means that these ports by default are configured for uplink connectivity with the fabric, on other words these ports by default only could be used to connect with spine switches, we need to convert them to downlinks port before connect to access side of the fabric, however according to the below link limitations:
 - Starting with Cisco APIC Release 3.1(1), uplink and downlink conversion

 - and this is supported on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches with names that end in EX or FX only, which is not supported on your leaf "9372TX" 

refer to the below link, Configuring Port Profiles to Change Ports from Uplink to Downlink or Downlink to Uplink section for more information

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/4-x/L2-configuration/Cisco-APIC-Layer-2-Configuration-Guide-411/Cisco-APIC-Layer-2-Configuration-Guide-411_chapter_0111.html

[WarrenT-CO]

Thank you!

[WarrenT-CO]

To configure a port profile using the NX-OS style CLI, perform the following steps:
Before you begin
• The ACI fabric is installed, APIC controllers are online, and the APIC cluster is formed and healthy.
• An APIC fabric administrator account is available that will enable creating or modifying the necessary
fabric infrastructure configurations.
• The target leaf switches are registered in the ACI fabric and available.
Procedure
Step 1 configure
Enters global configuration mode.
Example:
apic1# configure
Step 2 leaf node-id
Specifies the leaf or leaf switches to be configured.
Example:
apic1(config)# leaf 102
Step 3 interface type
Specifiesthe interface that you are configuring. You can specify the interface type and identity.For an Ethernet
port, use ethernet slot / port.
Example:
apic1(config-leaf)# interface ethernet 1/2
Step 4 port-direction {uplink | downlink}
Determines the port direction or changes it. This example configures the port to be a downlink.
Note On the N9K-C9336C-FX switch, changing a port from uplink to downlink is not supported.
Example:
apic1(config-leaf-if)# port-direction downlink
Access Inter

Step 5 Log on to the leaf switch where the port is located and enter the setup-clean-config.sh -k command, then the
reload command.