Cluster Management Guidelines
The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) cluster comprises multiple Cisco APICs that provide operators a unified real time monitoring, diagnostic, and configuration management capability for the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) fabric. To assure optimal system performance, use the following guidelines when making changes to the Cisco APIC cluster:
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Prior to initiating a change to the cluster, always verify its health. When performing planned changes to the cluster, all controllers in the cluster should be healthy. If one or more of the Cisco APICs' health status in the cluster is not "fully fit," remedy that situation before proceeding. Also, assure that cluster controllers added to the Cisco APIC are running the same version of firmware as the other controllers in the Cisco APIC cluster.
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We recommend that you have at least 3 active Cisco APICs in a cluster, along with additional standby Cisco APICs. Cisco APIC clusters can have from 3 to 7 active Cisco APICs. Refer to the Verified Scalability Guide to determine how many active Cisco APICs are required for your deployment.
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Disregard cluster information from Cisco APICs that are not currently in the cluster; they do not provide accurate cluster information.
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Cluster slots contain a Cisco APIC
ChassisID
. Once you configure a slot, it remains unavailable until you decommission the Cisco APIC with the assignedChassisID
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If a Cisco APIC firmware upgrade is in progress, wait for it to complete and the cluster to be fully fit before proceeding with any other changes to the cluster.
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When moving a Cisco APIC, first ensure that you have a healthy cluster. After verifying the health of the Cisco APIC cluster, choose the Cisco APIC that you intend to shut down. After the Cisco APIC has shut down, move the Cisco APIC, re-connect it, and then turn it back on. From the GUI, verify that the all controllers in the cluster return to a fully fit state.
Note
Only move one Cisco APIC at a time.
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When moving a Cisco APIC that is connected to a set of leaf switches to another set of leaf switches or when moving a Cisco APIC to different port within the same leaf switch, first ensure that you have a healthy cluster. After verifying the health of the Cisco APIC cluster, choose the Cisco APIC that you intend to move and decommission it from the cluster. After the Cisco APIC is decomissioned, move the Cisco APIC and then commission it.
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Before configuring the Cisco APIC cluster, ensure that all of the Cisco APICs are running the same firmware version. Initial clustering of Cisco APICs running differing versions is an unsupported operation and may cause problems within the cluster.
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Unlike other objects, log record objects are stored only in one shard of a database on one of the Cisco APICs. These objects get lost forever if you decommission or replace that Cisco APIC.
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When you decommission a Cisco APIC, the Cisco APIC loses all fault, event, and audit log history that was stored in it. If you replace all Cisco APICs, you lose all log history. Before you migrate a Cisco APIC, we recommend that you manually backup the log history.