Configuring Infra for Cisco APIC Sites

Refreshing Site Connectivity Information

Any infrastructure changes, such as adding and removing spines or changing spine node IDs, require a Multi-Site fabric connectivity site refresh. This section describes how to pull up-to-date connectivity information directly from each site's APIC.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

In the Main menu, select Infrastructure > Infra Configuration.

Step 3

In the top right of the main Infra Configuration view, click the Configure Infra button.

Step 4

In the left pane, under Sites, select a specific site.

Step 5

In the main window, click the Refresh button to pull fabric information from the APIC.

Step 6

(Optional) For on-premises sites, in the Confirmation dialog, check the box if you want to remove configuration for decommissioned spine switch nodes.

If you choose to enable this checkbox, all configuration info for any currently decommissioned spine switches will be removed from the database.

Step 7

Finally, click Yes to confirm and load the connectivity information.

This will discover any new or removed spines and all site-related fabric connectivity will be re-imported from the APIC.

Configuring Infra: On-Premises Site Settings

This section describes how to configure site-specific Infra settings for on-premises sites.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

In the left navigation menu, select Infrastructure > Infra Configuration.

Step 3

In the main pane, click Configure Infra.

Step 4

In the left pane, under Sites, select a specific on-premises site.

Step 5

Provide the Overlay Configuration.

  1. In the right <Site> Settings pane, select the Overlay Configuration tab.

  2. In the right <Site> Settings pane, enable the Multi-Site knob.

    This defines whether the overlay connectivity is established between this site and other sites.

  3. (Optional) Enable the CloudSec Encryption knob encryption for the site.

    CloudSec Encryption provides inter-site traffic encryption. The "Infrastructure Management" chapter in the Cisco Multi-Site Configuration Guide covers this feature in detail.

  4. Specify the Overlay Multicast TEP.

    This address is used for the inter-site L2 BUM and L3 multicast traffic. This IP address is deployed on all spine switches that are part of the same fabric, regardless of whether it is a single pod or Multi-Pod fabric.

    This address should not be taken from the address space of the original fabric's Infra TEP pool or from the 0.x.x.x range.

  5. (Optional) From the External Routed Domain dropdown, select the domain you want to use.

    Choose an external router domain that you have created in the Cisco APIC GUI. For more information, see the Cisco APIC Layer 3 Networking Configuration Guide specific to your APIC release.

  6. Specify the BGP Autonomous System Number.

  7. (Optional) Specify the BGP Password.

  8. (Optional) Enable SR-MPLS Connectivity for the site.

    If the site is connected via an MPLS network, enable the SR-MPLS Connectivity knob and provide the Segment Routing global block (SRGB) range.

    The Segment Routing Global Block (SRGB) is the range of label values reserved for Segment Routing (SR) in the Label Switching Database (LSD). These values are assigned as segment identifiers (SIDs) to SR-enabled nodes and have global significance throughout the domain.

    The default range is 16000-23999.

    If you enable MPLS connectivity for the site, you will need to configure additional settings as described in the "Sites Connected via SR-MPLS" chapter of the Cisco Multi-Site Configuration Guide for ACI Fabrics.

Step 6

Provide the Underlay Configuration.

The following settings are required if you are using OSPF protocol for underlay connectivity between the site and the IPN. If you plan to use BGP instead, you can skip this step. BGP underlay configuration is done at the port level, as described in Configuring Infra: Spine Switches.

  1. In the right <Site> Settings pane, select the Underlay Configuration tab.

  2. Provide the OSPF Area ID.

  3. Select the OSPF Area Type from the dropdown menu.

    The OSPF area type can be one of the following:

    • nssa

    • regular

  4. Configure OSPF policies for the site.

    You can either click an existing policy (for example, msc-ospf-policy-default ) to modify it or click +Add Policy to add a new OSPF policy. Then in the Add/Update Policy window, specify the following:

    • In the Policy Name field, enter the policy name.

    • In the Network Type field, choose either broadcast, point-to-point, or unspecified.

      The default is broadcast.

    • In the Priority field, enter the priority number.

      The default is 1.

    • In the Cost of Interface field, enter the cost of interface.

      The default is 0.

    • From the Interface Controls dropdown menu, choose one of the following:

      • advertise-subnet

      • bfd

      • mtu-ignore

      • passive-participation

    • In the Hello Interval (Seconds) field, enter the hello interval in seconds.

      The default is 10.

    • In the Dead Interval (Seconds) field, enter the dead interval in seconds.

      The default is 40.

    • In the Retransmit Interval (Seconds) field, enter the retransmit interval in seconds.

      The default is 5.

    • In the Transmit Delay (Seconds) field, enter the transmit delay in seconds.

      The default is 1.

Step 7

Configure inter-site connectivity between on-premises and cloud sites.

If you do not need to create inter-site connectivity between on-premises and cloud sites, for example if your deployment contains only cloud or only on-premises sites, skip this step.

When you configure underlay connectivity between on-premises and cloud sites, you need to provide an IPN device IP address to which the Cloud APIC's CSRs establish a tunnel and then configure the cloud site's infra settings.

  1. Click +Add IPN Device to specify an IPN device.

  2. From the dropdown, select one of the IPN devices you defined previously.

    The IPN devices must be already defined in the General Settings > IPN Devices list, as described in Configuring Infra: General Settings

  3. Configure inter-site connectivity for cloud sites.

    Any previously configured connectivity from the cloud sites to this on-premises site will be displayed here, but any additional configuration must be done from the cloud site's side as described in Configuring Infra for Cisco Cloud APIC Sites.

What to do next

While you have configured all the required inter-site connectivity information, it has not been pushed to the sites yet. You need to deploy the configuration as described in Deploying Infra Configuration

Configuring Infra: Pod Settings

This section describes how to configure Pod-specific settings in each site.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

In the Main menu, click Sites.

Step 3

In the Sites view, click Configure Infra.

Step 4

In the left pane, under Sites, select a specific site.

Step 5

In the main window, select a Pod.
Step 6

In the right Pod Properties pane, add the Overlay Unicast TEP for the Pod.

This IP address is deployed on all spine switches that are part of the same Pod and used for sourcing and receiving VXLAN encapsulated traffic for Layer2 and Layer3 unicast communication.

Step 7

Click +Add TEP Pool to add an external routable TEP pool.

The external routable TEP pools are used to assign a set of IP addresses that are routable across the IPN to APIC nodes, spine switches, and border leaf nodes. This is required to enable Multi-Site architecture.

External TEP pools previously assigned to the fabric on APIC are automatically inherited by NDO and displayed in the GUI when the fabric is added to the Multi-Site domain.

Step 8

Repeat the procedure for every Pod in the site.

Configuring Infra: Spine Switches

This section describes how to configure spine switches in each site for Cisco Multi-Site. When you configure the spine switches, you are effectively establishing the underlay connectivity between the sites in your Multi-Site domain by configuring connectivity between the spines in each site and the ISN.

Prior to Release 3.5(1), underlay connectivity was establishing using OSPF protocol. In this release however, you can choose to use OSPF, BGP (IPv4 only), or a mixture of protocols, with some sites using OSPF and some using BGP for inter-site underlay connectivity. We recommend configuring either OSPF or BGP and not both, however if you configure both protocols, BGP will take precedence and OSPF will not be installed in the route table.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

In the Main menu, click Sites.

Step 3

In the Sites view, click Configure Infra.

Step 4

In the left pane, under Sites, select a specific site.

Step 5

In the main window, select a spine switch within a pod.
Step 6

In the right <Spine> Settings pane, click +Add Port.

Step 7

In the Add Port window, provide the underlay connectivity information.

Any port already configured directly in APIC for IPN connectivity will be imported and shown in the list. For any new ports you want to configure from NDO, use the following the steps:

  1. Provide general information:

    • In the Ethernet Port ID field, enter the port ID, for example 1/29.

      This is the interface which will be used to connect to the IPN.

    • In the IP Address field, enter the IP address/netmask.

      The Orchestrator creates a sub-interface with VLAN 4 with the specified IP ADDRESS under the specified PORT.

    • In the MTU field, enter the MTU. You can specify either inherit, which would configure an MTU of 9150B, or choose a value between 576 and 9000.

      MTU of the spine port should match MTU on IPN side.

  2. Configure OSPF settings if you want to use OSPF protocol for underlay connectivity.

    If you want to use BGP protocol for underlay connectivity instead, skip this part and provide the information required in the next substep.

    • Set OSPF to Enabled.

      The OSPF settings will become available.

    • From the OSPF Policy dropdown, select the OSPF policy for the switch that you have configured in Configuring Infra: On-Premises Site Settings.

      OSPF settings in the OSPF policy you choose should match on IPN side.

    • For OSPF Authentication, you can pick either none or one of the following:

      • MD5

      • Simple

    • Set BGP to Disabled.

  3. Configure BGP settings if you want to use BGP protocol for underlay connectivity.

    If you're using OSPF protocol for underlay connectivity and have already configured it in the previous substep, skip this part.

    Note 

    BGP IPv4 underlay is not supported in the following cases:

    • If your Multi-Site domain contains one or more Cloud APIC sites, in which case you must use the OSPF protocol for intersite underlay connectivity for both on-prem to on-prem and on-prem to cloud sites.

    • If you are using GOLF (Layer 3 EVPN services for fabric WAN) for WAN connectivity in any of your fabrics.

    In the above cases, you must use OSPF in the Infra L3Out deployed on the spines.

    • Set OSPF to Disabled.

      We recommend configuring either OSPF or BGP and not both, however if you configure both protocols, BGP will take precedence and OSPF routes will not be installed in the route table because only EBGP adjacencies with the ISN devices are supported.

    • Set BGP to Enabled.

      The BGP settings will become available.

    • In the Peer IP field, provide the IP address of this port's BGP neighbor.

      Only IPv4 IP addresses are supported for BGP underlay connectivity.

    • In the Peer AS Number field, provide the Autonomous System (AS) number of the BGP neighbor.

      This release supports only EBGP adjacencies with the ISN devices.

    • In the BGP Password field, provide the BGP peer password.

    • Specify any additional options as required:

      • Bidirectional Forwarding Detection—enables Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) protocol to detect faults on the physical link this port and the IPN device.

      • Admin State—sets the admin state on the port to enabled.

Step 8

Repeat the procedure for every spine switch and port that connects to the IPN.