How to configure "Location" for ACI Nodes that can be retrieved using "SNMP"?
The following technote is written against Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Version 2.2(2e) Maintenance Release. The following is a use case scenario that was asked by a customer.
QUESTION
After looking at the Cisco Documentation and Technotes online regarding SNMP configuration for ACI, I do not see a way to retrieve "location" information for the ACI Leaf & Spine nodes using SNMP. Is this Possible?
ANSWER
In the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Fundamentals reference guide, Geolocation is talked about in the Fabric Provisioning Chapter.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/1-x/aci-fundamentals/b_ACI-Fundamentals/b_ACI-Fundamentals_chapter_010011.html
Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of a networking device. Geolocating is performed by associating a geographic location with an IP address.
<< More information included in attached .PDF file >>
So, how do we workaround this limitation with SNMP and ACI?
If you have to use SNMP to determine "Location" of nodes, you can configure the "Geolocation" information in the "Description" of all of the interfaces on the nodes themselves. This will identify the location of nodes that can be retrieved using an snmpwalk against the Leaf and Spine nodes in ACI.
Task
Configure a “description” for each interface on each node (leaf\spine) using the CLI on the APIC. Then you can use SNMP to get location.
For example:
Using the Site information listed earlier.
apic# configure
apic(config)# leaf 111
apic(config-leaf)# interface ethernet 1/1-60
apic(config-leaf-if)# description 'Cisco-RTP_Building-10_3rd-floor_RTP-S10-330_Row-N_rack-N.54'
apic(config-leaf-if)# exit
apic(config-leaf)# exit
apic(config)# exit
apic# configure
apic(config)# spine 1201
apic(config-leaf)# interface ethernet 1/1-36
apic(config-leaf-if)# description 'Cisco-RTP_Building-10_3rd-floor_RTP-S10-330_Row-N_rack-N.57'
apic(config-leaf-if)# exit
apic(config-leaf)# exit
apic(config)# exit
Leaf
snmpget -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.15 SNMPv2-MIB::sysName.0
snmpget -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.15 SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0
snmpwalk -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.15 | grep "IF-MIB::ifAlias"
Spine
snmpget -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.17 SNMPv2-MIB::sysName.0
snmpget -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.17 SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0
snmpwalk -v2c -c deadbeef 172.18.242.17 | grep "IF-MIB::ifAlias"
You can download the attached .PDF file with complete information on retrieving Geolocation information for nodes in the ACI fabric.
