few questions about new ACI setup

[Ron Baduach]

Hi Guys ,

I'm sorry in advance for my disordered question . i'm just feel lost in this field of ACI .

I'm reading articles/guides and watching videos, but, when coming to the real thing, i think i need some human guidance, and that's why i'm writing here .

First, the physical setup :

*2 Nexus 9936 [ACI Mode] as Spine

*2 Nexus 9318 [ACI Mode] as Leaves [each connected to both Spines with 40GB cables]

*1 UCSC-C24-M3S [A regular C-Series, not ACI ] that will use for APIC [connected to each leaf with 10 GB cables]

The questions :

1. did the connections i made are right ? i mean logically 

2. am I able to install APIC on this kind of UCS-C series [not purchased as an APIC Server .] ? if so, which ISO should i use ? i tried ISO from Cisco's site but the installation is not starting [see attachment]

Thanks in advance guys !

Baduach Ron

[Tomas de Leon · Accepted solution]

Baduach Ron,

Did you order an ACI Bundle or are you trying to piecemeal switches & UCS to create an ACI Pod?

You can not just use any UCS C-Series server. The APIC is a Hardware Appliance and it has it's on PID which is required to work.

Please clarify.

Thanks

T.

[Ron Baduach]

Hi Tomas , thanks for your reply

Please take a look again on my post, i edited it . 

You can see the changed on Bold & Underline text

thanks

[RedNectar · Accepted solution]

Hi Ron,

I think Thomas actually answered your question when he said:

You can not just use any UCS C-Series server.

APIC servers are a special build with special tweaks (which I believe includes tweaks to the BIOS). I doubt very much that you will ever get APIC software installed on a regular C series server that was not specifically bought as an APIC.

Thomas has closer links to Cisco internals than I do, so he may come back with a better explanation

RedNectar

aka Chris Welsh

[Ron Baduach]

thanks a lot Tomas & Chris

i thought first that Tomas talked only about the N9Ks , but not on the C-Series 

now i saw that he wrote that i'll need a C-Series specific for APIC 

thanks !