Add Cisco ACI

You can add Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrestructure) as a data source in vRealize Network Insight. This feature is available only for the enterprise license users.

Prerequisites

• You must verify the following information:

  • The data source and its version is supported in vRealize Network Insight. For more information, see Supported Products and Versions.
  • The data source follows VMware Ports and Protocols supported in vRealize Network Insight. For more information, see VMware Ports and Protocols VMware Ports and Protocols.
• To connect to the APIC controller REST API over HTTPS, you must have access to all the tenants and have the read-only privilege.
• For SNMP, you must have the read-only permission.
• To authenticate Cisco ACI, you must have a local user role with the following privileges:
  • Security Domain: all
  • Role: admin
  • Access: read
  For details on how to create a local user in Cisco ACI, see the Access, Authentication, and Accounting section in the Cisco APIC Security Configuration Guide.

Procedure

1. From the left navigation pane, go to Settings > Accounts and Data Sources.
2. Click Add Source.
3. Under Others, select Cisco ACI.
4. In the Add a new Cisco ACI Account or Source page, provide the following details:

   Option	Action
   Collector VM	Select a collector VM from the drop-down menu.
   IP Address/FQDN	Provide the IP address of an APIC controller in the cluster. Note: You do not have to add the individual switches in the ACI fabric.
   Username	Enter the user name. Note: If the user is a domain user, then you must add apic: before the user name. For example: if the user name is user1 and if the user belongs to the domain domain1 then specify the user name as apic:domain1\\user1. The domain name is case-sensitive.
   Password	Enter the password.

5. Click Validate.
6. To enable a richer data collection, click Use SNMP (recommended for richer data collection) check box, and do the following:
   1. From the SNMP Version drop-down menu, select an SNMP version. Depending on which version of SNMP you have selected, do the following:

      Option	Action
      2c	In the Community String text box, enter a community string.
      3	Enter Username, Context Name. From the Authentication Type drop-down, select an authentication type and enter the Authentication Password. From the Privacy Type drop-down, select a privacy type and enter the Privacy Password.

7. Define the polling interval for the configuration data collection. You can set the polling interval from 10 minutes to 7 days.
   • Preset - Select the interval time from the predefined time set.
   • Custom Interval - Set a value and select Minutes, Hours, and Days.
   • Fixed Schedule - Select the days and set the time to schedule the interval.
8. (Optional) In the Nickname text box, enter a nickname.
9. (Optional) In the Notes text box, add a note if necessary.
10. Click Submit.

Results

Cisco ACI is added as a data source in vRealize Network Insight.

Note:

vRealize Network Insight supports only the following features of Cisco ACI:

• Neighbor discovery (CDP and LLDP)
• Endpoint group (EPG)
• L3Out EPG
• EPG gateway
• Bridge domain
• VRF
• IPv4 routing
• Contract (in network assurance and verification)

The following features are not supported:

• Fabric extender (FEX)
• IPv6
• Layer 3 EVPN
• Multi-pod
• Multi-site