This slide provides exact steps we need to follow to achieve VMware integration with ACI Fabric

1. ACI Integration with VMware
By Dhruv Sharma

2. Introduction
• There are two ways to connect an appliance/FTD to the leaf.
• Mode 1: Connect the FTD using an EPG (bare metal) over L2 configuration.
• Mode 2: Connect FTD using an EPF (Vmware ) over L2 configuration.
• Mode 2: Connect the FTD to the leaf using L3 mode. In this mode the FTD connects to the leaf
using a single VR.

3. Network Topology

4. Policies within ACI
Access Policy Tenant Based Policy

5. • Part 1: Configure Access Policy
Virtual Networking Fabric Policy

6. Setup Access Policy
• Step 1: Connect to vSphere client hosted on Cisco UCS Server confirm if you can see any VDS
(Virtual Distributed Switch). In our case there is not VDS. Domain = dcloud.DC

7. Setup Access Policy –Part A
• Step 2: Connect to APIC and follow below steps to create vCEntre Domain Profile:

8. Setup Access Policy –Part A
(i) Create a new VLAN Pool

9. Setup Access Policy –Part A
(ii) Create a new AEP Policy and map it to the profile:

10. Setup Access Policy –Part A
(iii) Provide vCenter Credentials

11. Setup Access Policy –Part A
(iv) Add vCenter Address details

12. Setup Access Policy –Part A
(v) Configure Port channel settings for vCenter. Mostly we use Mac-pinning when connecting UCS
blade enclosures since LACP is not supported at the server level.

13. Summary

14. Setup Access Policy –Part B
Step 3: Configure Access Policy
(i) Configure Interface Policy Group:

15. Setup Access Policy –Part B
(ii) Create a new Interface Profile

16. Setup Access Policy –Part B
(iii) Create Interface Selector Profile

17. Verification
• Step 4: Finally the Domain is created on the vsphere, which we created over the ACI fabric
automatically.

18. Verification
• Step 5: Verification- Verify the interfaces imported from vSphere for the virtual machines.

19. • Part 2: Tenant Based Policy

20. Tenant Policy
• Step 1: Create an Application Profile & map Application EPGs

21. Tenant Policy
Step 2: Drag and drop the orange VMware icon onto the 20-Web EPG until you see a link
between them.

22. Tenant Policy
Step 3: Finally we need contracts - Note: Consumer is the source and Provider is the destination.

23. Tenant Policy

24. Questions
• Question: What does an interface status “Out Of Service” implies when we run the command
“show interface brief” from the leaf switches?
• Answer: Policy isn’t applied on the interface.

25. Questions
• Question: What are modes connecting from APIC controller ?
• Answer: We can connect to APIC controller using BASH (Linux) and NXOS mode shown below.

26. References
• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/3-
x/virtualization/b_ACI_Virtualization_Guide_3_0_1/b_ACI_Virtualization_Guide_3_0_1_chapter_
011.html