Spine & Leaf Switch Model requirements

[kumar.rb@cognizant.com]

Hello All - Just looking for help to understand some basics in choosing Spine and leaf in ACI. In a Datacenter, we use 

 - ACI Spine as Nexus N9K-X9732C-EX (Sup-A) with firmware aci-n9000-dk9-13.2.4e.bin

-  Leaf as N9K-C93108TC-EX with image aci-n9000-dk9-13.2.4e.bin

Question 1: Other than the Hardware capacity such as the number of Interfaces, Throughput, What is the differentiator of Leaf Switch and Spine Switch?

Question 2: Is there any configuration specific to Spine Switch that makes it different from Leaf during the initial configuration other than the topology?

regards, RB

[kumar.rb@cognizant.com]

Adding to the previous post, i just read

" The Cisco ACI fabric is composed of the Cisco APIC and the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series spine and leaf switches.
Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switches can function as a spine in either Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS operating modes.
The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switch has three chassis: 4-Slot, 8-Slot, and 16-Slot. The Cisco Nexus 9300 Series
ToR can be configured as leaf and spine switches"

Is there any specific configuration to convert 9300 as Spine or Leaf functionality ?

[kumar.rb@cognizant.com]

Hi - I dont see any message on this post. Can you respond again

[ralphcarter · Accepted solution]

Question 1: Other than the Hardware capacity such as the number of Interfaces, Throughput, What is the differentiator of Leaf Switch and Spine Switch?

In your case, the Nexus chassis with the 9732 linecard cannot be a leaf. Its only supported as a Spine switch. The 93108 is also supported only as a ACI leaf and cannot be a spine.

Its just about compatibility and I'm sure specific hardware for each role.

Question 2: Is there any configuration specific to Spine Switch that makes it different from Leaf during the initial configuration other than the topology?

I believe it is just hardware related but in your case, you cannot mix and match between spine and leaf. Each of the platforms have its dedicated role and cannot be reversed.

[kumar.rb@cognizant.com]

Thank you