How to Configure Cisco ACI to VMM Domain Integration

Cisco ACI to VMM integration concept is integrating Cisco ACI to virtual hypervisor. In Our case, we will use Cisco ACI Integration to VMware hypervisor.

Now question Arise, why you need to integrate Cisco ACI to VMM Domain?

Cisco ACI VMM integration allows ACI to push configurations to the vCenter (vCenter is central management console for all the ESXi servers). This will enables vCenter to see all the EPG created in ACI and VM can easily use those EPG networks by attaching VM NIC to the EPG.

What exactly happens after the ACI to VMM Integration?

Once ACI to VMM integration is complete, Cisco ACI push a vDS (Virtual Distributed Switch) configuration to the vCenter.

What do you need from VMware side to build a VMM integration?

1.) Data-Center Name

2.)  vCenter Name

3.) vCenter IP address

4.) vCenter credentials – ACI will use the credentials to login to vCenter

Note- You will need proper permissions on vCenter account so ACI can push DVS configuration to the vCenter.

What you need to configure on ACI side before configuration a VMM integration

1.) Attachable Entity Profile (AEP)

2.) VLAN Pool 

Once you have all above information, you can proceed with configuring ACI VMM Integration.

Step1- Login to APIC-> Go to Virtual Networking->VMware->Right Click & choose Create vCenter Domain as below.

Step2- Please fill the details as below.

Step3- Provide vCenter credentials provided by VMware team 

Step4- Scroll down the page, click on vCenter + sign as below. 

Step5- Fill the information related to vCenter name, IP, Data Center name provided by compute team

Step6- Choose the port-channel mode for the policy as below and click submit, it will create the VMM integration with ACI. ACI integration with vCenter is complete after this step. 

Verification & Troubleshooting

1.) If your integration is working fine, you will see the ESX servers under hypervisor as below. I don’t have any ESX server as of now, so it is not  visible.

2.) If you don’t see any ESX servers under Hypervisors, you can go to fault section to see if ACI has generated any fault related to the configuration? In the below fault, it seems Issue is with ACI to vCenter IP communication so you need to resolve the communication issue to get rid of fault. 

I hope the article will help you in configuring ACI to VMM Integration successfully. If you have any suggestions or comments, please add the details in comment section !!