Adding and Deleting Sites

Cisco MSO and APIC Interoperability Support

Cisco Multi-Site Orchestrator (MSO) does not require a specific version of APIC to be running in all sites. The APIC clusters in each site as well as the MSO itself can be upgraded independently of each other and run in mixed operation mode as long as the fabric can be on-boarded to the Nexus Dashboard where the Multi-Site Orchestrator application is installed. As such, we recommend that you always upgrade to the latest release of the Multi-Site Orchestrator.

However, keep in mind that if you upgrade the MSO before upgrading the APIC clusters in one or more sites, some of the new MSO features may not yet be supported by an earlier APIC release. In that case a check is performed on each template to ensure that every configured option is supported by the target sites.

The check is performed when you save a template or deploy a template. If the template is already assigned to a site, any unsupported configuration options will not be saved; if the template is not yet assigned, you will be able to assign it to a site, but not be able to save or deploy the schema if it contains configuration unsupported by that site.

In case an unsupported configuration is detected, an error message will show, for example: This APIC site version <site-version> is not supported by MSO. The minimum version required for this <feature> is <required-version> or above.

The following table lists the features and the minimum required APIC release for each one:


Note

While some of the following features are supported on earlier Cisco APIC releases, Release 4.2(4) is the earliest release that can be on-boarded to the Nexus Dashboard and managed by this release of Multi-Site Orchestrator.

Feature

 Minimum APIC Version

ACI Multi-Pod Support

Release 4.2(4)

Service Graphs (L4-L7 Services)

Release 4.2(4)

External EPGs

Release 4.2(4)

ACI Virtual Edge VMM Support

Release 4.2(4)

DHCP Support

Release 4.2(4)

Consistency Checker

Release 4.2(4)

vzAny

Release 4.2(4)

Host Based Routing

Release 4.2(4)

CloudSec Encryption

Release 4.2(4)

Layer 3 Multicast

Release 4.2(4)

MD5 Authentication for OSPF

Release 4.2(4)

EPG Preferred Group

Release 4.2(4)

Intersite L3Out

Release 4.2(4)

EPG QoS Priority

Release 4.2(4)

Contract QoS Priority

Release 4.2(4)

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Release 5.0(1)

Multicast Rendezvous Point (RP) Support

Release 5.0(1)

Transit Gateway (TGW) support for AWS and Azure Sites

Release 5.0(1)

SR-MPLS Support

Release 5.0(1)

Cloud LoadBalancer High Availability Port

Release 5.0(1)

Service Graphs (L4-L7 Services) with UDR

Release 5.0(2)

3rd Party Device Support in Cloud

Release 5.0(2)

Cloud Loadbalancer Target Attach Mode Feature

Release 5.1(1)

Support security and service insertion in Azure for non-ACI networks reachable through Express Route

Release 5.1(1)

CSR Private IP Support

Release 5.1(1)

Extend ACI policy model and automation for Cloud native services in Azure

Release 5.1(1)

Flexible segmentation through multiple VRF support within a single VNET for Azure

Release 5.1(1)

Private Link automation for Azure PaaS and third-party services

Release 5.1(1)

Openshift 4.3 IPI on Azure with ACI-CNI

Release 5.1(1)

Cloud Site Underlay Configuration

Release 5.2(1)

Adding Cisco ACI Sites

This section describes how to add a Cisco APIC or Cloud APIC site using the Nexus Dashboard GUI and then enable that site to be managed by Multi-Site Orchestrator.

Before you begin

  • If you are adding on-premises ACI site, you must have completed the site-specific configurations in each site's APIC, as described in previous sections in this chapter.

  • You must ensure that the site(s) you are adding are running Release 4.2(4) or later.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Nexus Dashboard GUI
Step 2

Add a new site.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Sites.

  2. In the top right of the main pane, select Actions > Add Site.

Step 3

Provide site information.

  1. For Site Type, select ACI or Cloud ACI depending on the type of ACI fabric you are adding.

  2. Provide the controller information.

    You need to provide the Host Name/IP Address, User Name, and Password. for the APIC controller currently managing your ACI fabrics.

    For on-premises ACI sites managed by Cisco APIC, if you plan to use this site with Day-2 Operations applications such as Nexus Insights, you must also provide the In-Band EPG name used to connect the Nexus Dashboard to the fabric you are adding. Otherwise, if you will use this site with Multi-Site Orchestrator only, you can leave this field blank.

  3. Click Add to finish adding the site.

    At this time, the sites will be available in the Nexus Dashboard, but you still need to enable them for Multi-Site Orchestrator management as described in the following steps.

Step 4

Repeat the previous steps for any additional ACI sites.
Step 5

From the Nexus Dashboard's Service Catalog, open the Multi-Site Orchestrator application.

You will be automatically logged in using the Nexus Dashboard user's credentials.
Step 6

In the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI, manage the sites.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Sites.

  2. In the main pane, change the State from Unmanaged to Managed for each fabric that you want the MSO to manage.

Removing Sites

This section describes how to disable site management for one or more sites using the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI. The sites will remain present in the Nexus Dashboard.

Before you begin

You must ensure that all templates associated with the site you want to remove are not deployed.

Procedure

Step 1

Open the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI.

You can open the MSO application from the Nexus Dashboard's Service Catalog. You will be automatically logged in using the Nexus Dashboard user's credentials.

Step 2

Remove the site's underlay configuration.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Infra Configuration.

  2. In the main pane, click Configure Infra.

  3. In the left sidebar, select the site you want to unmanage.

  4. In right bar, under Overlay Configuration tab, disable the ACI Multi-Site knob.

  5. In the right sidebar, select the Underlay Configuration tab.

  6. Remove all underlay configurations from the site.

  7. Click Deploy to deploy underlay and overlay configuration changes to the site.

Step 3

In the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI, disable the sites.

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Sites.

  2. In the main pane, change the State from Managed to Unmanaged for each fabric that you want the MSO to stop managing.

    Note 

    If the site is associated with one or more deployed templates, you will not be able to change its state to Unmanaged until you undeploy those templates.

Step 4

Delete the site from Nexus Dashboard.

If you no longer want to manage this site or use it with any other applications, you can delete the site from the Nexus Dashboard as well.

Note 

Note that the site must not be currently in use by any of the applications installed in your Nexus Dashboard cluster.

  1. From the left navigation menu of the Nexus Dashboard GUI, select Sites.

  2. Select one or more sites you want to delete.

  3. In the top right of the main pane, select Actions > Delete Site.

  4. Provide the site's login information and click OK.

    The site will be removed from the Nexus Dashboard.

Cross Launch to Fabric Controllers

Multi-Site Orchestrator currently supports a number of configuration options for each type of fabrics. For many additional configuration options, you may need to log in directly into the fabric's controller.

You can cross launch into the specific site controller's GUI from the MSO's Infrastucture > Sites screen by selecting the actions (...) menu next to the site and clicking Open in user interface. Note that cross-launch works with out-of-band (OOB) management IP of the fabric.

If your Nexus Dashboard and the fabric are configured for remote user authentication, you will be logged in automatically into the fabric's controller using the same log in information as the Nexus Dashboard user.