ACI MultiPod - Enable Standby APIC https://howdoesinternetwork.

com/2019/aci-multipod-enable-standby-apic

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ACI MultiPod – Enable

Standby APIC ▪ Index
 Valter Popeskic  Data Center with Cisco , Software De�ned ▪ Fundamentals
Datacenters  4 Comments
▪ Troubleshooting
▪ Con�guration
Table of Contents 
▪ Software De�ned
Datacenters
A P I C C O N T R O L L E R C LU S T E R
▪ Data Centers with
You actually need three APIC controller servers to get the cluster VMware
up and running in complete and redundant ACI system. You can
▪ Data Centers with
actually work with only two APICs and you will still have a cluster
Cisco
quorum and will be able to change ACI Fabric con�guration.
▪ Routing

LO O S I N G O N E S I T E ▪ Switching


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ACI MultiPod - Enable Standby APIC https://howdoesinternetwork.com/2019/aci-multipod-enable-standby-apic

In the MultiPod, those three controllers need to be distributed so ▪ Security

that one of them is placed in the secondary site. The idea is that ▪ IPv6
you still have a chance to keep your con�guration on one
▪ Protocols
remaining APIC while losing completely primary site with two
APICs. On the other hand, if you lose secondary site, two APICs in ▪ Voice
the �rst site will still enable you to do con�guration and ▪ Devices
management of ACI Fabric as nothing happened.
▪ Networking Tips & Tricks

LO S I N G D C I I N T E R C O N N E C T ▪ About this project

▪ About the author
The second type of MultiPod fail is when you lose DCI (datacenter
interconnect). In that case, both sites will keep working but will ▪ Books
alert that the other side is down. The secondary site with one
APIC will be in read-only mode and the primary site will be fully
functional with two remaining APICs on that site. If some changes
are made on the primary site, those changes will be replicated to
Search the site
the third controller on the secondary site when DCI recovers and
con�guration relating site B POD will be then pushed to POD 2
fabric. Search

 DCI issues are not a good time for APIC replacement, just
wait for DCI to start working normally and continue to use ACI
APIC controllers as before the issues. You will still have the
RELATED POSTS
option to manage primary site if DCI fails and after DCI starts
working again changes will be replicated to secondary site CLOS Topology
APICs and Fabric.
New ACI deployment?
Watch out when
connecting APICs to Leafs
 Please note that temporary DCI issues are not a good time to
replace the APIC. If you are experiencing just a DCI outage ACI MultiPod and how to
the second site still works but it cannot be con�gured. Think build MultiDatacenter with
about it, perhaps the best thing to do in this case is not to Cisco ACI
change the con�guration of your fabric on either side while
DCI doesn’t get back up and running. That way you are sure VMware TKGI –
your con�guration does not a�ect the MultiPod stability once Deployment of Harbor
DCI gets back up and sites start to communicate again. Container Registry fails
with …

Software-de�ned data
MORE THAN THREE APICS center and what’s the way
If your Fabric is huge, you will need to use 5 member APIC cluster to do it
which is able to manage altogether more than 300 Leaf Switches.
Cisco ACI – Con�guring by
In that case, you have an issue with shreds of the database that
POSTing JSON
keeps your con�guration. In 5 controller cluster, some of the
APICs will keep only some of the ACI Fabric con�guration and not Cisco ACI – API Calls vs
a whole copy like in three cluster member setup. You should JSON POST


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ACI MultiPod - Enable Standby APIC https://howdoesinternetwork.com/2019/aci-multipod-enable-standby-apic

keep in mind that having more APICs will not make your cluster Setting up Cisco ACI From
more robust, it will only get more power to manage more leafs. Scratch

Here you have more info about 3 vs 5 cluster members and some What is Cisco ACI?
more scalability info.
VMware NSX-T Install Tips
& Tricks
S TA N D BY A P I C C O N T R O L L E R
In three cluster member setup, it is recommended to use one
more APIC (fourth one) on the secondary site in order to be able
to recover in fully functional mode even if the primary site with
two active cluster members gets completely down and gets lost
altogether due to some unexpected �re, �ood or construction fail.

In case of normal datacenter operation, the fourth APIC will be in

standby mode which means that it will keep whole ACI Fabric
con�guration but it will not be reachable via https nor will he take
part of cluster quorum calculation. It will just sync the tenant
con�guration shreds from other APICs and it will also be
automatically updated when cluster software is updated.

He will just wait there for some disaster to happen so that

network admins can take leverage of his existence and promote
the APIC to the active one.

In order to start using the standby cluster member, after the

primary site is lost, you need to go through APIC replace method
that will replace one of the lost APICs with standby. Standby APIC
will then become active and it will take the ID of the lost one. His
IP address will not change in that process nor will he change his
name.

R E P L AC I N G LO S T AC T I V E A P I C W I T H
S TA N D BY A P I C

1. In our example, we see that all three APIC controllers are up

and running before we lose one of the datacenters

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