Procedure for adding 4th APIC in DR Scenario

[Ben Jenkins]

Hi,

Is there any documentation on how you add the "4th" APIC in a DR scenario.

Our environment is set-up for ACI Multi-pod with 2 APICS in Primary DC and 1 APIC in Secondary DC.

Primary DC (Controller ID/No Controllers/POD ID):

APIC01 - 1/3/1

APIC02 - 2/3/1

Secondary DC (Controller ID/No Controllers/POD ID)

APIC03 - 3/3/2

APIC04 - ?/3/2

Our concern is if Primary DC fails what is the impact if we add APIC04 as Controller ID 1 or 2 assuming it would have to be one of these two?

Would it decide the config for the fabric is whatever's coded on APIC04 (i.e. nothing) or recognise APIC03 as having the config and populate APIC04?

Thanks

Ian Gallimore

[Robert Burns · Accepted solution]

See the instructions in the section titled "Procedure to Enable a Standby APIC Controller" in this guide:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/kb/b_kb-aci-stretched-fabric.html#concept_4B9644FE992A43D9A261F1531DBC9588

Robert

[Curtis Parish]

Short answer is you configure the 4th APIC as APIC 2 and keep it shut down until the primary  APIC 2 is offline.  

Also pay attention to the section about restoring your primary data center.   If changes are made while in DR mode you have to wipe the fabric in the primary data center and let all the devices be rediscovered.