Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure ACI Overview

1. * Cisco Application
Centric Infrastructure
Overview

2. 1. Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Overview
2. Why CISCO Application Centric Infrastructure?
3. CISCO Application Centric Infrastructure Components
4. Cisco ACI Features
5. How To Transform to ACI
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3. • CISCO ACI is innovative datacenter architecture designed to remove complexity
between applications tier and hardware devices, centralize management and
monitoring of all physical and virtual resources, increase security and help
infrastructure team to understand the developers and operation teams.
• Application centric infrastructure is a full system-based approach with tight
integration between physical and virtual elements and innovation application specific
integrated circuits (ACISCs) built to get a complete hardware and software
information.
• This unique approach uses a common policy-based operating model across a network
that support ACI to :
• Simplifies, optimizes, and accelerates the entire application deployment
lifecycle
• Eliminate IT big efforts and reduce cost and complexity.
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4. *

5. • Simplified automation with an application-based policy model
• Common platform for managing physical, virtual and cloud-based environments
• Centralized visibility with real-time application health monitoring
• Operation simplicity, with common policy, management, and operation models across
application, network and security resources.
• Open software flexibility for development and operations (DevOps) teams.
• Scalable performance and secure multitenancy
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6. 1.Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure
Controller(APIC)
2.Application Network Profiles (EPG)
3.Cisco ACI Fabric: Cisco Nexus Portfolio (NEXUS 9000)
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7. • Cisco APIC is deployed as a cluster of three or more appliances, although you can still create new
policies even with a single controller, and the fabric can forward traffic even without controllers.
• Cisco APIC is shipped as a physical server appliance on Cisco UCS C220 M3 server with two 10 Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces that must be connected to any two leaf switches and with Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces for out-of-band management.
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8. • Cisco APIC is a physically distributed but logically centralized controller that provides DHCP, bootstrap
configuration, and image management to the fabric for automated startup and upgrades.
• Cisco APIC is completely removed from the data path. This means that the fabric can still forward
traffic even when communication with the APIC is lost.
• APIC Provides:
• centralized management for the fabric, policy enforcement, health monitoring, optimizes
performance, supports any application anywhere, unifies operation of physical and virtual
environments
• responsible for tasks ranging from fabric activation, maintenance of switches firmware, network
policy configuration.
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9. • An Application Network Profile within the fabric is a collection of the endpoint groups, their
connections, and the policies that define those connections. Application Network Profile is
the logical representation of all components of the application on the application fabric.
• ACI collect Endpoints that required similar policy into Endpoint groups, each endpoint
represent an application or set of services.
• Application Network Profiles are designed to be modeled in a logical way that matches the
way that applications are designed and deployed.
• The configuration and enforcement of policies and connectivity are then handled by the
system through the Cisco APIC rather than an administrator.
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10. *

11. • The CISCO ACI Fabric replace the traditional design (Access- Distribution- Core) to newly
design contain Leaf and Spine layers
• CISCO ACI Network deployment based on nexus 9000 series switches, which offers modular
and fixed 1/10/40 Gigabit Ethernet switch.
• Nexus 9000 take full advantage of Cisco ACI application policy–based services and
infrastructure automation features. This dual-function capability provides customers with
investment protection and ease of migration to Cisco ACI through a software upgrade.
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12. * 3. Cisco ACI Fabric: Cisco Nexus Portfolio

13. • Centralized fabric management
• Cisco ACI availability ( 3 APIC node clusters with N+2 redundancy)
• Automated Software Management of all components
• Layer 4 through 7 services integration
• Troubleshooting GUI
• Secure user authentication ( RADIUS- LDAP- TACACS+ - Local authentication with
password and RBAC
• Provide multiple tenants and isolated private networks
• Provide full Network topologies and drawings
• Virtualization integration handle virtual machines in parallel with physical machines
• ACI Endpoint Tracker application (track all packets move through ACI Fabric)
• System wide application visibility and troubleshooting(SPAN- Atomic counters -
Application and tenant health scores)
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14. • Relationship is formed between APIC and Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
• Multiple VMMs likely on a single ACI Fabric
• Each VMM and associated Virtual hosts are grouped within APIC
• Integrated with VMware Vcenter, Microsoft SCVMM and Azure Pack, Open stack,
LINUX Container.
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15. • Automate Service Insertion Through APIC
• Create Service Graph
• Automatic endpoint addition/removal with ACI
• Easily add and remove ACL rules
• Publish new applications use Python API
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16. • We didn’t need to replace all devices to start ACI fabric
• Cisco provide some services can help customers to upgrade to ACI
• Cisco business strategy
capabilities help you articulate the strategy and develop the business case
and an architectural-led master plan for ACI.
• Cisco readiness planning capabilities
help transform your data center networks to an aci by identifying risks and
opportunities, analyzing operational elements, and recommending detailed
migration plans to enable a smooth and successful transition to aci.
• Cisco data center services for operations enablement
prepare your environment for aci while addressing all stages of the operations
lifecycle.
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17. Islam Salah