Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure

Software Guidance
This guide is not meant to take the place of a software recommendation process. Customers should still perform their
own due diligence before selecting a software version for their own ACI Fabric. This list is simply meant to summarize the
available ACI Software features, by release, and be used as a quick reference guide.

APIC 1.0

1.X (any 1.x release) – This version is end of life. If you are running a 1.X release of any kind, you should consider
moving to the 3.2 release. Check out the link below to help determine which versions you can upgrade to and from:

Cisco APIC Management, Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide

In addition, here are the end-of-life announcements for all 1.x APIC Software.

EOL Announcement for 1.0

EOL Announcement for 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3

1.3 (Bronx)
New Hardware Supported
• N9K-C93180YC-EX (Leaf)
• N9K-X9732C-EX (Spine LC)
• N9K-C9504-FM-E (Spine Fabric Module)
• N9K-C9508-FM-E (Spine Fabric Module)
APIC 2.0

2.0(2) (Congo)
New Software Features
• VMM – VMware VCenter 6.0 is supported
• Contract Permit Logging
• MultiPod – MultiPod support introduced
• Copy Services
• EPG deployment via AAEP
• L3 multicast support (requires at least -EX based Leaf)
• Policy-based redirect
• Syslog in NXOS Style CLI Format
• Proxy ARP
• Per-EPG MCP
New Hardware Supported
• N9K-C93108TC-EX

2.1 (Crystal)
New Software Features
• MultiPod – Copy Services Support for MultiPod
• MultiPod – Golf support for -EX based switches
• FIPs Support
• IP Aging (Endpoint Learning Best Practice)
New Hardware Supported
• QSA support for N9500 Spine Linecards and -EX-based Leafs

2.2 (Danube)
• 2.2(4) – Long Lived Release
• Guidance – 3.2(6i), or Latest 2.2(4) release.
• You can upgrade directly from 2.2(4) to 3.2(2) (which is the next long-lived release for ACI). For more information on long-
lived releases, check out this link.
• New Software Features
o VMM – VMware VCenter 6.5 is supported
o Critical Best Practice Endpoint Learning Options are available
 Enforce Subnet Check
 Disable Remote EP Learning
o MultiPod – Active/Standby FW support across Pods (MultiPod) without vPC (physical link or local port-channel only)
o Cisco ACI App Center
o Standby APIC
o Contract Preferred Groups
o Netflow for -EX based Leaf Switches
o Control Plane MTU Setting (for use with MultiPod)
o Q-in-Q Tunneling BD
• New Hardware Supported
o N9K-93180LC-EX (40Gig EX-based Leaf)
o Breakout support for 9332
o N9K-C93180YC-FX – 2.2(2)
o N9K-C93108TC-FX – 2.2(2)
2.3 (Drava)
• Not a long-lived train; Enforce Subnet Check (Endpoint Learning BP) is not available for any 2.3 code version.
• If needed, use latest 2.3 release.
• New Software Features
o MultiPod – Active/Standby FW support across Pods (MultiPod) with vPC
o Attribute based uSeg (Microsegmentation)
o Contract Inheritance
o Tetration Analytics support for FX-based Leaf Switches
• New Hardware Supported
o N9K-SUP-A+, N9K-SUP-B+

APIC 3.0

3.0 (Ebro)
• New Software Features
o MultiSite – MultiSite is first supported; (N9K-X9732C-EX Spine Linecards are required)
o VMM – Kubernetes for bare-metal server support
o Intra-EPG Contracts
o Tetration Analytics support for N9K-C9348GC-FXP switch
• New Hardware Supported
o N9K-9364C (no MultiSite support for 3.0)
o N9K-C9348GC-FXP (1 RU, fixed port 48port 10/100/1000)
o N9K-C9508-FM-E2 (Spine FM)
o N9K-C9736-FX Spine LC

3.1 (Euphrates)
• New Software Features
o Monitor Active GUI Sessions
o BFD support for Spine switches
o Cisco AVE (Next-Gen AVS)
o L4-7 Cloud Orchestrator Mode
o Flooding is limited to Encapsulation (Flood-in-Encap)
o Downlink support for Uplink ports on EX-based and FX-based Leaf switches.
o OpenShift Container support
o Remote Leaf Switches
o MultiSite – N9K-C9364C Spine Switch is now available for MultiSite

3.2 (Frazer)
• New Software Features
o Layer-3 routed and sub-interface port-channel for L3out
o SPAN on L3out
o Multi-Site + Multi-Pod Support
o Multi-Site Back-to-Back Spine
o VMM – VMware VCenter 6.7 is supported beginning with 3.2(2)
o MCP Aggressive timer support
o Remote Leaf – Orphan Port support
o UI Enhancements
o Fibre Channel N-port virtualization
• New Hardware Supported
o Enhanced breakout support on profiled QSFP ports on N9KC93180YC-FX switches
o The Cisco N9K-C9336C-FX2 switch now supports breakout, 18-port downlink/uplink, and MACsec.
APIC 4.0

4.0 (Ganga)
• New Software Features
o EPG Shutdown
o Disable IP Dataplane Learning (VRF Level)
o Multi-Site – L4-7 Service integration, CloudSec, L3 Multicast
o RP in the Fabric
o QOS for ROCEv2
o Additional QOS classes (3 additional levels)
o MACsec encryption support on remote leaf switches
o TCAM Policy Compression for identical filter rules
o Preferred Group support for service-groups
o Inter-VRF Multicast
o ACI vPOD (limited availability)
o ACI Host-based Routing advertisement via L3out
o L3out Supported in service-graphs
o Fabric-wide CPU, memory utilization and temperature dashboard
o VMM read-only domain promotion to fully managed
o AVE Uplink VxLAN Load-balancing
o Fibre-Channel enhancements
o FCoE enhancements
o vPC with SAN boot
o vFC ports can now be a member of a vPC
o NPV support enhancements
o NPIV mode support
o Host – 4G/16G/32G/Auto speed options
o Uplink – 4G/8G/16G/32G/Auto speed options
o Port-channel support on FC uplink ports
o Trunking support on FC uplinks ports
• New Hardware Supported
o Mini ACI, Virtual APIC (vAPIC), Cisco APIC-X
o N9K-C9332C – 32 port 40/100G (Baby Spine)
o N9K-C93240YC-FX2 – 48 port – 10/25G + 12 40/100G uplink ports

4.1 (Hudson)
• New Software Features
o ACI Anywhere with AWS
o OpenStack OSP13 Support
o MLD Snooping
o GTP Load-balancing
o L1/L2 PBR
o Multi-Tier Topology support
o UCS Integration App
o Cloud APIC
o Cisco ACI Integration with Cisco’s SD-WAN Viptela
o Support for Microsoft NLB
• New Hardware Supported
o Nexus N9K-9358GY-FXP
o Nexus N9K-X9736Q-FX
• Scale Enhancements
o Remote Leaf – 128 (Single Pod)
o 100 sub-interfaces per VRF and Per L3out
o 30K IPv4/IPv6 LPM prefixes on Border Leaf (EX, FX, and FX2 platforms)
o 4K Mac EPGs
o 32K L2 Multicast support on FX platform

Original content written by Jody Davis and published at https://unofficialaciguide.com.