ACI Simulator in 2025

[mcast999]

I am studying for the DCCOR exam and I would like to study "Implementing Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure". I wanted to purchase physical hardware, APIC, 2 Spine, 2 Leaf switches but I cannot find anything within my price range. I read about the ACI Simulator from Cisco, and was wondering if this still has its same limitations as far as data plane testing in 2025? Also, if anyone could recommend a good resource for getting hands on experience with the ACI APIC would be great!

 

[mfr-6]

hi @mcast999 

Yes, ACI Simulator has dataplane simulated, meaning that you can't forward real traffic through it, as the spine and leaf switches are simulated.

ACI Simulator hosted on your private server is a one option, but don't forget you can use DevNet Sandbox and run ACI Simulator instance, which is dedicated only for you, for specific period of time. I think this is a great option to get hands-on experience with APIC GUI and play around with its programmability capabilities, like experiments with REST API, Terraform, Ansible and more.

https://devnetsandbox.cisco.com/DevNet/catalog/aci-simulator-sandbox_aci-simulator

In the service catalog you can reserve ACI Simulator 6.0. If no slot is available at given point of time, you could still use ACI Simulator which is available for everyone, so keep in mind your progress could be destroyed by someone else who could do explosions and testing. Credentials for public ACI Simulator are also available on devnet sandbox catalogue.

Of course you could buy real hardware, but that option is very expensive. I think you should be good with ACI Simulator when studying for DCCOR.

Let me know if that helps!

[mcast999]

Every time I try the sandbox I get a "400 Bad Request Request Header Or Cookie Too Large"!

[bigevilbeard]

You need to use a private/incognito browser for the sandboxes this, unsure why but that works ok.

[mcast999]

Also, when I try to download the ACI Simulator from Cisco I need a Service Contract! What the hell man! Cisco makes it impossible for students!

[bigevilbeard]

World Wide Technology's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) has quite a few ACI labs on-demand, for free. You will have to register to use the site, but the only thing it asks for is an email. Once you're on the site, you will have access to articles, webinars, videos, and labs. https://www.wwt.com/atc/labs-and-learning/overview

Hope this helps.