Multi Fabric Deployment

Multifabric Support

Cisco Application Services Engine supports multifabric. In multifabric deployment, service nodes can be spanned across the fabrics.

With multifabric support, multiple Cisco ACI fabrics can be on-boarded on to a single Cisco Application Services Engine cluster. Once the Cisco ACI fabric is on-boarded as a site onto the Cisco Application Services Engine cluster, apps running on the Cisco Application Services Engine cluster can access this site.

Cisco APIC data network IP and admin credentials are needed to on-board a site. Cisco Application Services Engine should have IP reachability to the Cisco APIC Inband Management IP. Admin credentials of Cisco APIC are not stored in the Cisco Application Services Engine cluster, they are used only one time to copy the SSL keys to Cisco APIC. Sites added to the Cisco Application Services Engine cluster are not enabled in the apps by default, they need to be explicitly enabled for each app in their respective GUI.

In Cisco Application Services Engine release 1.1.3, only Cisco NIR and Cisco NIA will use the sites on-boarded on to Cisco APIC. Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator does not use these sites.

Adding a Site

In the Sites Details page, perform the following actions:

Before you begin

  1. Cisco ACI fabric Inband management must be pre-configured.

  2. EPG/L3Out for Cisco Application Services Engine data network IP connectivity must be pre-configured.

    Additional information is available in the "Fabric Connectivity" section of the Cisco Application Services Engine Deployment Guide. Specific EPG or L3Out configuration procedures are described in Cisco APIC Layer 2 Networking Configuration Guide and Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide respectively.

  3. IP connectivity from Cisco Application Services Engine to Cisco APIC over data network must be configured.

  4. IP connectivity from Cisco Application Services Engine to the leaf nodes or spine nodes must be configured.


    Note

    Points 3 and 4 are applicable only for the Cisco NIR app.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Infrastructure > Sites.

Step 2

Click Actions. Click Add site.

Step 3

Enter the Site name. This can be any string of characters.
Step 4

Enter the Host name/ Data Network IP address of APIC.

Step 5

Enter the User name.

Step 6

Create and enter the Password. Confirm the password.

Step 7

Enter the Domain Name.

Step 8

In the Login Domain field, enter the domain name for the site.

Step 9

Click Create.

The site is added to the Cisco Application Services Engine.
Step 10

Repeat these steps to add additional sites.

Note 

If a site is deleted, importing the configuration of the site, does not help in the recovery of the site. The site needs to be manually created.

Removing a Site from Cisco Application Services Engine

Use this procedure to delete or remove a site from Cisco Application Services Engine.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Application Services Engine GUI.

Step 2

Ensure you unbind the site from any Schema’s before trying to delete the site.

Note 

When Cisco ACI fabric is added as a site on to Cisco Application Services Engine, some policies are created on Cisco APIC. If the Cisco Application Services Engine is clean rebooted without deleting the on-boarded site, the policies created on Cisco APIC will not be deleted. To clean up these policies on Cisco APIC, the site should be re-added and deleted.

Note 

Deleting a site will cause an interruption in all the apps running on this site. This operation cannot be undone.
Step 3

Choose Infrastructure > Sites.

Step 4

In the Sites List page, place a check in the box next to the site you want to delete and choose Action> Delete.

Step 5

Click Submit.

Step 6

Confirm Delete dialog box appears.

  1. Enter the User name.

  2. Create and enter the Password. Confirm the password.

  3. In the Login Domain field, enter the domain name for the site.

Step 7

Place a check box next to the box in Force Delete.

Note 

Use Force Delete options if apps are using the site and you can not follow recommended actions of removing the sites from app or if the site is not reachable.

Step 8

Click OK.