Understanding the Physical Requirements of a Cisco ACI Solution

As you know that the Cisco ACI solution, including the hardware and software components. Cisco ACI solution has following components that need to be ordered

• Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) 3 node Cluster.
• ACI Fabric Leafs: Cisco Nexus 93XX switches
• ACI Fabric Spines: Cisco Nexus 95XX switches and/or Nexus 9336PQ fixed spine 
• ACI licenses for the 93XX leaf switches. No ACI license required for Spines.
• ACI licenses for FEX support
• AVS (Application Virtual Switch) licenses
  

Fig 1.1- Cisco ACI Solution

ACI Fabric Spines: Cisco Nexus 9K switches
ACI Fabric Spines are the high-performance switches that form the core of Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) architecture. 

They provide a highly scalable, low-latency, and high-bandwidth fabric for connecting all devices in the data center, including servers, storage, and other network devices. The spines provide a highly resilient, non-blocking architecture that can handle large amounts of traffic and can be easily expanded to meet growing data center demands.

Fig 1.2- Cisco ACI Spines Switches

ACI Fabric Leafs: Cisco Nexus 9K switches
Cisco ACI Fabric Leafs are the access switches in Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) architecture. They provide connectivity to end-host devices such as servers and storage, and act as intermediaries between the spines and the endpoints. 

Leafs in Cisco ACI use a policy-driven approach to configure and automate network connectivity and security policies, reducing manual configuration and improving operational efficiency. They also provide advanced features such as network segmentation and micro-segmentation to enhance security and isolate traffic flows.

Consider the number of leaf ports, and the type of leaf interfaces you plan to deploy.

Fig 1.3- Cisco ACI Leaf Switches

Cisco ACI APIC Cluster
The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) Cluster is a group of three or more APIC nodes that work together to provide a single point of management for the Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) fabric. The APIC cluster provides a highly available and distributed control plane for managing network policies, and it can dynamically scale to support larger Cisco ACI deployments.

Fig 1.4- Cisco ACI APIC Cluster

APIC cluster connects to the fabric edge ports (leafs). You will need following information to choose your configuration

• Number of Cisco ACI enabled Edge ports the APIC controller will be managing (i.e., Total number of leaf ports in the fabric)
• A set of APIC appliances constitute an APIC cluster. Figure out the number of APIC appliances you want to configure in the APIC cluster for scale and redundancy considerations
• APIC appliance connects to the Edge/leaf ports. Pick the RIGHT interface type on APIC cluster to match available interface type on Cisco ACI Leaf switches (Copper or SFP)

Cisco ACI Licenses 

Cisco Cisco ACI Licenses are required to enable various features and capabilities of the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) fabric. The licenses are typically purchased as subscriptions and can be managed through the Cisco Smart Licensing portal.

There are several types of Cisco ACI licenses available, including:

• ACI Base licenses: These are the foundational licenses required to operate the Cisco ACI fabric, and they enable features such as network segmentation and policy-based automation.
• ACI Advanced licenses: These licenses provide additional features such as security and micro-segmentation, telemetry and analytics, and multi-site management.
• ACI Cloud licenses: These licenses provide integrations with public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure, allowing customers to extend their ACI fabric into the cloud.
• ACI Anywhere licenses: These licenses enable ACI deployments on non-Cisco hardware or in virtualized environments.

Cisco ACI licenses have to be purchased for each Cisco ACI leaf switch managed by APIC. These Cisco ACI licenses are available as configurations when ordering the leaf switches. Pick the appropriate Cisco ACI licenses you will need for your Cisco ACI fabric. Following licenses are available.

Fig 1.5- Cisco ACI Leaf License

ACI FEX licenses

FEX modules are essentially remote line cards that extend the connectivity of a parent switch, allowing additional servers or end devices to be connected to the fabric. FEX modules can be connected to Cisco ACI Fabric Leafs

Fig 1.6- Cisco ACI FEX License

FEX licenses have to be purchased for each FEX managed by APIC, the PID selection depends on the number of host facing ports and speed. The FEX licenses are available as spares only.

AVS (Application Virtual Switch) licenses

Cisco ACI AVS (Application Virtual Switch) licenses are required to use the Cisco ACI Virtual Edge (AVE), which is a software-based virtual switch that runs as a virtual machine in a VMware ESXi environment. 

The AVE provides a way to extend the Cisco ACI fabric into the virtualized environment and enables policy-based automation for virtual machines (VMs) and their associated network connectivity.

Fig 1.7- Cisco ACI FEX License

The AVS licenses are included as part of the Cisco ACI Advanced and Cisco ACI Anywhere license packages, which provide additional features such as security and micro-segmentation, telemetry and analytics, and multi-site management. 

Customers who want to use the AVE and its associated features will need to purchase one of these license packages.

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