ACI/N9K news update: October

Winter is coming closer, and we are in the count down before the next big ACI release comes (code named “Brazos”) with lots of operational enhancements, amongst other things. In the meantime, this is what has been going on in the ACI/N9K area this past month of October:

• Puppet for ACI: https://github.com/datacenter/puppet-aci. The Puppet Device framework is being used, that is, no agent required (Puppet manifests are translated in the server to API calls)
• The ACI-Fortinet integration officially announced in cisco.com:
  • Blog entry: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/new-fortigate-connector-for-cisco-aci-delivers-app-centric-security-automation-for-data-center-agility
  • Solution overview: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/solution-overview-c22-735898.html
  • In fortinet.com: http://www.fortinet.com/press_releases/2015/fortinet-complements-cisco-application-centric-infrastructure-sdn-security.html
• Useful piece of information: In VXLAN, the tenant packet DSCP values are copied to the VXLAN header DSCP
• Cisco Enterprise Cloud Suite demo in dCloud! More details here: https://dcloud-cms.cisco.com/?p=19135
• 7.0(3)I2(1a) released for NXOS with bug fixes, I2(1) has been deferred
• From the Web:
  • Knowledge Base article on vzAny: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/kb/b_KB_Use_vzAny_to_AutomaticallyApplyCommunicationRules_toEPGs.html
  • SDX-central on unmanaged service integration: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/featured/layer-4-7-cisco-article/2015/09/?utm_content=buffera5bd2
  • Nice write-up on 10 things you should know about Fast IT: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-things-you-should-know-about-fast-it/
  • sdxcentral Demo Friday with ACI+A10:
    • Event content: https://www.sdxcentral.com/resources/sdn-demofriday/advanced-security-a10-demofriday/
    • Q&A: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/featured/advanced-security-a10-demofriday-qa/2015/10/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=sdxcentral
• Blogs:
  • Soni Jiandani: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/co-innovating-with-ecosystem-partners-to-deliver-truly-integrated-solutions-for-our-customers
  • Excellent and concise entry on ACI security: open and consistent, for every one (Frank D’Agostino): https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/aci-security-open-consistent-for-everyone
  • ITD on N9K – SLB with NAT: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/server-load-balancing-with-nat-using-nexus-switches-itd
  • ACI, big data and Data Torrent: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/aci-big-data-and-datatorrent
  • 1,000th customer pictogram: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/aci-customer-momentum.pdf
  • New entry on Lauren’s blog, this time on L2 connectivity: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/general-virtualization-articles/layer-2-external-access-cisco-aci.html
  • Great posts by Luca on containers
    • Part 1: http://lucarelandini.blogspot.com/2015/10/devops-docker-and-cisco-aci-part-1.html
    • Part 2: http://lucarelandini.blogspot.com/2015/10/devops-docker-and-cisco-aci-part-2.html
  • Jim French’s blog: https://cisco.jiveon.com/blogs/JimFrench/2015/09/23/software-defined-network-overlay-and-controller-situation
• Videos
  • I did a quick demo of AVS using application network migrations as concept (7:31): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DmNrCUT1_s
  • End-to-end application deployment with Cisco ACI, OpenStack and Puppet by Chris Gascoigne (24:02): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4mz4iQfego
  • Lauren Malhoit in Openstack Summit Tokyo (11:53): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HkiDFGxwFA
  • Cisco- Bringing Enterprise Grade OpenStack Clouds Online Faster (39:06): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzppPn1XOLk
  • NetScaler and ACI: configuring SLB Service Graphs (1:56): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRngZTlzWrU
  • NetScaler and ACI: configuring AppFW Service Graphs (3:19): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYVoX61Al6E
  • NetScaler and ACI: configuring SSL Service Graphs (3:37): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-0wAunUNhA
  • OneCloud on UCSD+ACI (9:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zf_sMZANNg
  • TechWise TV: inside the APIC (53:13): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MACdOHOXkzQ
  • TechWise TV: the momentum accelerates (31:52): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzsTuN-DdkE
  • TechWise TV Special: ACI is more than SDN (1:02:43): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=youleTI9p8U
  • TechWise TV: Cisco and Openstack Neutron (49:15): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L22gQykSkLc
  • Cisco and VCE: a winning relationship, with Frank Palumbo (1:37): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeWrh4XCnDk
  • Transform your DC with ACI and NetScaler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhipQdW31LU
  • See this great video from Muhammed on the ACI firmware upgrade process (18:41):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dhop-C4bc