Cisco ACI Ask the Experts Resources

[Vivien Chia]

• Online guides
• Upcoming sessions
• In case you missed it

Thanks for attending our Ask the Experts (ATXs) sessions! Here’s the post-session resources for easy reference. Subscribe (how-to) this post to stay up-to-date with latest resources. 

Online guides

Fundamental (Select)	[NFDC/DCNM] Product Overview & Business Value: DCNM Overview	NDFC (DCNM) Data Sheet NDFC (DCNM) Documentation   Cisco Data Center Switches Community
	[Nexus Dashboard] Product Overview and Business Value: Nexus Dashboard	Nexus Dashboard Insights whitepaper Nexus Dashboard Insights User Guide Nexus Dashboard Deployment Guide Nexus Dashboard ND sizing calculator Unofficial guide on ND installation with RADIUS and Intersight Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Product Overview & Business Value: Why Cisco ACI?	Introduction to ACI – BRKACI-1000 ​Why ACI: an overview and a customer (BBVA) perspective - PSOACI-4592 Cisco ACI Data Sheet ​Cisco ACI Case Studies
Fundamental (Onboard)	Architecture Transformation Planning: Cisco ACI and Container Networking	Whitepaper: Cisco ACI and OpenShift Integration Whitepaper: Cisco ACI and Kubernetes Integration Solution Overview: Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure and Kubernetes Solution ACI Virtualization Compatibility Matrix
	Architecture Transformation Planning: Multi-Pod for Cisco ACI	Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide
	Architecture Transformation Planning: Multi-Site for Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Multi-Site Fundamentals Guide, Release 2.1(x) Cisco ACI Multi-Site Architecture White Paper
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Getting started: VXLAN Multi-Site with NDFC	Scalability Guide for Cisco NDFC Cisco NDFC Configuration Guide, LAN Fabrics VXLAN EVPN Multi-Site Design and Deployment White Paper Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Community
	[Nexus Dashboard] Product Overview and Business Value: Nexus Cloud Overview	Cisco Nexus Cloud | At-a-Glance Cisco Nexus Cloud | Data Sheet Nexus Cloud Session @ Tech Field Day Introducing Nexus Cloud Cisco Nexus Cloud | FAQ Cisco dCloud Nexus Cloud | An Early Preview
	Use Case Overview & Planning: Automation & Programmability for Cisco ACI	Cisco Ecosystem Exchange DevNet (ACI) Cisco DC App Center
	Use Case Overview and Planning: Distributed Networking for Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Multi-Site Architecture White Paper ACI Multi-Pod White Paper Cisco ACI Virtual Pod Architecture White Paper Cisco ACI Remote Leaf Architecture White Paper Cisco Cloud ACI on AWS White Paper Cisco Mini ACI Fabric and Virtual APICs
Fundamental (Implement)	Component Integration: Cisco ACI and DHCP	Cisco ACI Fundamentals, Releases 2.x and 3.x Cisco ACI Fundamentals, Release 4.1(x) Setting Up an ACI Fabric
	Component Integration: Cisco Cloud APIC on AWS	Cisco Cloud ACI Main Page​ Installation Guide​ Cisco Cloud ACI on AWS White Paper​ Cisco ACI Multi-Site Architecture White Paper
	Component Integration: Kubernetes VMM for Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI and Kubernetes Integration​ ACI CNI Plugin​ ACI Virtualization Compatibility Matrix​ Kubernetes Main Page​ Kubernetes Best Practices  ​ GitHub - Kubernetes
	Deployment Best Practices: Automation & Programmability for Cisco ACI	Cisco Ecosystem Exchange DevNet (ACI) Cisco DC App Center
	Deployment Best Practices: Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Object Naming and Numbering: Best Practices ACI Fabric Endpoint Learning White Paper Cisco Live Library – ACI Troubleshooting and Best Practices
	[Nexus Dashboard] Deployment Best Practices: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights	Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights Deployment Guide, Release 6.0.2 Getting your Cisco ACI Fabrics ready for Nexus Dashboard Insights Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Deployment Best Practices: NDFC Upgrade Best Practices	Cisco NDFC Software Upgrade Matrix Cisco Nexus Dashboard & Services Compatibility Matrix Cisco NDFC Installation and Upgrade Guide 12.1.1e Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Community
	Installation/Implementation Best Practices: Cisco ACI	Product information: ACI Object Naming and Numbering Setting up an ACI Fabric ACI Fabric Hardware Installation Guide Cisco APIC M3/L3 Server Installation and Service Guide ACI Getting Started Guide Cisco APIC Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide CiscoLive library: How to Set up an ACI Fabric from Scratch Your First 7 Days of ACI
	Installation/Implementation Best Practices: Multi-Site Orchestrator for Cisco ACI	Cisco Multi-Site Orchestrator Release Notes, Release 3.2(1) Cisco Multi-Site Orchestrator Deployment Guide, Release 3.2(x)
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Installation/Implementation Best Practices: NXOS Upgrade using NDFC	Cisco NDFC Configuration Guide 12.1 - Image Management Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Compatibility Matrix, Release 12.1.1e Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Migration Strategies and Best Practices: Automated Migration from Nexus to ACI	CiscoLive On-Demand Library (DIGDCN-2937) Scripts/Playbooks Cisco DevNet Ansible Module Index
	Migration Strategies & Best Practices: Cisco ACI Layer 2	APIC Layer 2 Configuration Guide Migrating Existing Networks to ACI ACI Workload Migration VOD Bare Metal Server Migration to ACI VOD ACI Training Videos Success Source - L2 Migration Walkthrough
	Migration Strategies & Best Practices: Cisco ACI Layer 3	APIC Layer 3 Configuration Guide Migrating Existing Networks to ACI ACI Workload Migration VOD Bare Metal Server Migration to ACI VOD ACI Training Videos Success Source – L3 Migration Walkthrough
	Migration Strategies and Best Practices: Multi-Site and Multi-Pod for Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Multi-Pod White Paper​ Cisco ACI Multi-Site White Paper​ Migrating Existing Networks to Cisco ACI
Intermediate (Use)	[NFDC/DCNM] Feature Overview: IGP/iBGP in the Data Center	Building Data Centers with VXLAN BGP EVPN: A Cisco NX-OS Perspective Cisco Nexus 9000 Series NX-OS VXLAN Configuration Guide, Release 10.1(x) VXLAN Network with MP-BGP EVPN Control Plane Design Guide Data Center Switches Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Remote Leaf for Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Remote Leaf Guide Cisco ACI Remote Leaf Architecture White Paper
	Feature Overview: Multi-site Technical Overview with NDFC (DCNM)	VXLAN EVPN Multi-Site Design and Deployment White Paper Save & Deploy Operation in the MSD Fabric Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)
	[Nexus Dashboard] Feature Overview: Nexus Cloud (newly added)	Cisco Nexus Cloud | At-a-Glance Cisco Nexus Cloud | Data Sheet Nexus Cloud Session at Tech Field Day Introducing Nexus Cloud Cisco Spaces Community
	Feature Overview: Nexus 9K HW/SW Telemetry Technical Overview	Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights documentation Cisco Nexus Dashboard capacity planning Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Feature Overview: Security and Segmentation for Cisco ACI using ACI Virtual Edge	ACI Virtual Edge ACI vCenter Plug-in​ Add Cisco ACI Virtual Edge (AVE)
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Feature Overview: SMU updates for NXOS	Cisco Nexus 9000 Series NX-OS System Management Configuration Guide Cisco NX-OS Software Strategy and Lifecycle Guide Cisco NDFC Fabric Controller Configuration Guide, Release 12.1.x Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Community Cisco Data Center Switches Community
	Feature Overview: UCS Director with Cisco ACI	UCS Director APIC Management Guide, Release 6.7​ Cisco UCS Director 6.7 admin and install guides​ UCSD compatibility matrix​ UCSD data sheet​ Multi-node resource requirements​ UCSD Technical Content Index
	Monitoring Best Practices: ACI with Ansible and Terraform	Terraform.io Ansible Documentation HashiCorp Terraform - CiscoDevNet (ACI) Cisco ACI Guide (Ansible) GitHub - Cisco DevNet (Ansible-ACI) GitHub - CiscoDevNet (Terraform-ACI) Cisco ACI DevNet community
	Monitoring Best Practices: Cisco ACI	ACI Monitoring: Providing a complete view of your fabric - BRKACI-2271 Day 2 Operational Support for Cisco ACI - SOLACI-1002 Configuring Syslog for ACI Configuring SNMP for ACI Cisco APIC and Netflow ACI Troubleshooting @ Cisco Live
	Monitoring Best Practices: Distributed Networking	Operating Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Monitoring ACI - CiscoLive BRKACI-2271 Cisco Nexus Insights White Paper
	[Nexus Dashboard] Monitoring Best Practices: Fabric Monitoring with Nexus Cloud	Overview: Cisco Nexus Cloud | At-a-Glance Cisco Nexus Cloud | Data Sheet Demos: Nexus Cloud Session @ Tech Field Day FAQ: Cisco Nexus Cloud | FAQ Blogs: Introducing Cisco Nexus Cloud Transform your network operations with the cloud-delivered power of Nexus Cloud
	Troubleshooting Best Practices: Cisco ACI	ACI Fabric Endpoint Learning White Paper​ Cisco APIC Troubleshooting Guide ​ Troubleshooting Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure - Second Edition​ ACI SPAN Configuration Guide ​ Cisco DC App Center
	Troubleshooting Best Practices: Multi-Site for Cisco ACI	ACI Multi-Site Architecture White Paper​ Cisco APIC in a Cisco ACI Multi-Site Topology​ Video - Cisco ACI Fabric Tenant Migration to Multi-Site​ Cisco APIC Troubleshooting Guide, Release 4.2(x)
Intermediate (Engage)	[Nexus Dashboard] Advanced Feature Overview: Bug and Best Practice Scan Execution	Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights White Paper Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights Deployment Guide Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights User Guide for Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights User Guide for Cisco DCNM Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Adapting to Changes: DevOps Trends and Cisco ACI	Terraform​ Git​ GitLab​ Cisco Developers Network DevNet​ Demo files on GitHub
	Advanced Feature Overview: Cisco ACI 6.0.1 new software capabilities	ACI 6.0 release notes Cisco APIC System Management Configuration Guide
	[NFDC/DCNM] Advanced Feature Overview: Multicast Overview	Multicast Routing in the VXLAN Underlay Creating a VXLAN BGP EVPN Fabric with DCNM Building Data Centers with VXLAN BGP EVPN: A Cisco NX-OS Perspective Cisco Data Center Switches Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Advanced Feature Overview: Multi-site with NDFC/NDO Advanced Features	VXLAN EVPN Multi-Site Design and Deployment White Paper NextGen DCI with VXLAN EPVN Multi-Site Using vPC Border Gateways White Paper Cisco NDFC Fabric Controller Configuration Guide, Release 12.0.x Configuring Tenant Routed Multicast 9.2.x Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Community
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Advanced Feature Overview: New Features in NDFC 12.x	NDFC 12.0.1 Release Notes NDFC 12.0.2 Release Notes NDFC Deployment Guide Cisco Nexus Dashboard and Services Compatibility Matrix Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Advanced Feature Overview: Security and Policy for Cisco ACI	Operating Cisco ACI: Working with Contracts Use vzAny to Automatically Apply Communcation Rules to all EPGs in a VRF Cisco Tetration Analytics™: Solution Overview
	Advanced Feature Overview: Using Ansible with Cisco ACI	Ansible Documentation Ansible / Cisco ACI Guide Ansible ACI Modules Demo files on GitHub DevNet ACI - Devnet contains some very useful Ansible self paced training sessions as well as useful Ansible related curated github projects to help jump start your work with programming and ACI For Ansible 2.0 ACI Collections on Ansible Galaxy MSO Collections on Ansible Galaxy Demo Code GitHub
	Advanced Feature Overview: Using Python with Cisco ACI	Cisco Ecosystem Exchange DevNet (ACI) Cisco DC App Center ACI Toolkit resources: https://github.com/datacenter/acitoolkit https://buildmedia.readthedocs.org/media/pdf/acitoolkit/latest/acitoolkit.pdf https://acitoolkit.readthedocs.io https://developer.cisco.com/site/aci/ https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/ https://github.com/damcfarl/ATX-Python
	Operations Planning and Best Practices: Cisco ACI Multi-Site	Cisco ACI Multi-Site Architecture White Paper​ DGTL-BRKACI-2125, ACI Multi-Site Architecture and Deployment ​ Cisco ACI Multi-Site Fundamentals Guide, Release 3.x​ Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide, Release 3.x
	[Nexus Dashboard] Operations Planning and Best Practices: Monitoring Fabric Resource Usage	Verified ACI scalability guide Nexus Dashboard Insights User Guide Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
Advanced (Adopt)	Adapting to Changes: Cisco ACI Integration with ServiceNow	Cisco ACI - ServiceNow Solutions Overview​ Cisco ACI Application at the ServiceNow Store​ Cisco ACI Application Installation and Configuration Guide
	Adapting to Changes: Enabling 5G/Telco DC with ACI and SR-MPLS integration	Cisco ACI SR/MPLS Handoff Architecture White Paper Cisco ACI Design Guide for Telco Data Center Deployments White Paper Unofficial ACI Guide - ACI SR-MPLS Handoff for L3 Outs Validated Design for Cisco ACI to SR-MPLS Handoff
	Expanding to New Use Cases: Cisco ACI and SD-Access Policy Integration	Cisco SD-Access (SDA) Integration with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Multi-Domain Integration for intent-based networking Cisco Ecosystem Exchange
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Expanding to New Use Cases: Distributed Networking - Multi-Site with NDFC/NDO	NDFC Configuration Guide NDFC Deployment Guide NDO Overview NDO Configuration Guide VXLAN Multi-Site Deployment White Paper Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Expanding to New Use Cases: Multi-Site Automation for Cisco ACI	Ansible Documentation​ Ansible / Cisco ACI Guide Ansible ACI Modules​ Demo files on GitHub​ DevNet (ACI)​ dCloud labs​ Cisco ACI Multi-Site REST API Configuration Guide​ REST API Reference (OpenAPI/Swagger)
	[Nexus Dashboard] Expanding to New Use Cases: Pre-Change Analysis	Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights White Paper Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights User Guide for Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Expanding to New Use Cases: Software Image Management with NDFC	Cisco NDFC 12 Data sheet Cisco Nexus Dashboard and Services Compatibility Matrix Cisco Nexus Dashboard Capacity planning Cisco NDFC Installation and upgrade guide Cisco NDFC Deployment guide Cisco NDFC LAN configuration guide Cisco Data Center Switches Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
Advanced (Optimize)	Performance Tuning Best Practices: Distributed Networking for Cisco AC	ACI Multi-Pod White Paper​ ACI Multi-Site White Paper​ ACI Design Guide White Paper
	[Nexus Dashboard] Performance Tuning Best Practices: Event Management and Analysis	Cisco Nexus Dashboard At-a-Glance Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	[NDFC/DCNNM] Performance Tuning Best Practices: VXLAN Fabric Performance Tuning Best Practices	Intelligent Buffer Management on Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches White Paper Configuring VXLAN QoS Nexus 9000 TCAM Carving Flexible Forwarding Table on Nexus 9000 White Paper Cisco Data Center Switches Community Cisco Nexus Dashboard Community
	Upgrade Planning and Best Practices: Automating ACI Upgrade with Ansible  Upgrade Planning & Best Practices: Cisco ACI	Cisco ACI Upgrade Checklist ACI Upgrade Preparation Best Practice and Troubleshooting Cisco APIC Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide Software Download APIC Upgrade/Downgrade Support Matrix ACI-mode Switches Hardware Support Matrix Bug Search Tool
	[NFDC/DCNM] Upgrade Planning and Best Practices: Patching DCNM	Cisco NDFC Data Sheet Cisco NDFC Documentation Roadmaps CVE-2021-44228 Apache Log4j vulnerability Talos Blog Cisco Secure Alert Website Cisco Security Event Response page The publicly-available Event Response CSCwa47291: DCNM-server Log4j Vulnerability Scanning NDFC for Log4j2 Vulnerabilities Cisco Data Center Switches Community
	Upgrade Planning and Best Practices: Upgrading ACI Sites using Multi-Site Orchestrator	Cisco ACI Multi-Site Configuration Guide, Release 3.2(x) Cisco APIC Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide
	[Nexus Dashboard] Upgrade Planning and Best Practices: Upgrading ND cluster and Apps	CVE-2021-44228 Apache Log4j vulnerability Talos Blog Cisco Secure Alert Webpage Cisco Security Event Response page Cisco Event Response If your organization is experiencing a security incident, please reach out to Talos Incident Response: AMERS: +1-844-831-7715 EMEAR: + 44 808-234-6353 APJC: +61 2 8294 2248

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[JanineRoseAragoza84159]

Thank you for sharing this! Great overview and roadmap!

[MiguelFL]

This information is very useful and valuable that can help me in the future  

[Gallifrean]

A colleague has asked the following question 

"Does a switch come in ACI mode and already have a basic setup to allow it to be discovered when it is plugged in, or am I required to do something to the switch via CLI or initial setup?"

[BANERJEE SHIBASISH]

Hi @Gallifrean - There is a nice article about detail processes of adding a new leaf / spine switch in ACI fabric. 

https://community.cisco.com/t5/data-center-and-cloud-documents/adding-new-leaf-spine-node-to-aci-fabric/ta-p/3216766

[rikaragoza]

This is an immensely valuable resource and roadmap! Thank you!

[michalsabat]

That is great. Thank You very much

[vladislav.saykov]

Great resources!

[bezik]

Thanks for sharing this great information.

[steff.l]

Very helpful resource!

Thank you for putting it together all in one place.

[ramadani]

nice information thanks for sharing

[John Pell]

Now that is a lot of great information - wish this was around a few years ago when I was looking at an ACI project

Thanks for pulling it together

[davidpeck]

Great information on the landscape of information available regarding Cisco ACI. I'd be interested in what people wished they had known before they starting using their first ACI stack of switches.

[rendy.rinaldy]

Thank for your sharing, excellent. keep it update

[lpersing]

This type of curated content is exactly what I am looking for. Everything in 1 page with links to everything. Wonderful content, keep it coming.

[DRX]

yes，i like this topic！