Cisco ACI Hardware

Cisco APICs can be deployed either as physical or virtual appliances. Physical APICs are Cisco C-Series servers with ACI code installed. The Cisco APIC appliance has two form factors for medium and large configurations. Medium configurations have a medium-size CPU, hard drive, and memory for up to 1000 edge ports. Large configurations have a large-size CPU, hard drive, and memory for more than 1000 edge ports.

Cisco releases new generations of APICs with hardware improvements from time to time. At the time of this writing, Cisco has released three generations of APICs. An APIC appliance is composed of either a cluster of APIC-SERVER-L3 (UCS C220 M5) or APIC-SERVER-M3 (UCS C240 M5) hardware, referred to as third-generation appliances, Cisco UCS 220 M4, referred to as a second-generation appliance, or Cisco UCS 220 M3, referred to as first-generation appliance servers manufactured with an image secured with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), certificates, and an APIC product ID (PID).

Table 8-1 lists the specifications of the APIC M3 and L3 appliance. Note that at least three appliances need to be configured as a cluster.

   

Table 8-1 APIC M3 and L3 Appliance Specifications

Component	Cisco APIC Appliance Medium Configuration: M3	Cisco APIC Appliance Large Configuration: L3
Processor	2 × 1.7GHz Xeon Scalable 3106/85W 8C/11MB Cache/DDR4 2133M	2 × 2.1GHz Xeon Scalable 4110/85W 8C/11MB Cache/DDR4 2400MHz
Memory	6 × 16GB DDR4-2666MHz RDIMM/PC4-21300/single rank/x4/1.2v	6 × 16GB DDR4-2666MHz RDIMM/PC4-21300/single rank/x4/1.2v
Hard Drive	2 × 1TB 12G SAS 7.2K RPM SFF HDD	2 × 2.4TB 12G SAS 10K RPM SFF HDD (4K)
PCI Express (PCIe) slots	Cisco UCS VIC 1455 Quad Port 10/25G SFP28 CNA PCIE	Cisco UCS VIC 1455 Quad Port 10/25G SFP28 CNA PCIE
Power supply	770W power supply	770W power supply

Virtual APIC is deployed using two hard disks. Table 8-2 shows the Cisco virtual APIC requirements.

Table 8-2 Cisco Virtual APIC Requirements

Component	Virtual APIC
Processor	8 vCPUs
Memory	32GB
Disk space	100G SSD
	300G HDD
	ESxi	6.5 or above

The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches operate in one of two modes: Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS. The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches in ACI mode are the spine and leaf switches that build the fabric. Spine switches are available in both modular and fixed variants. Cisco Nexus 9500 Series modular chassis with 4, 8, and 16 slots are used as modular spine switches. The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series modular switches support a comprehensive selection of line cards and fabric modules that provide 1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The supervisor, system controller, power supplies, and line cards are common across all three switches. Each switch, however, has unique fabric modules and fan trays that plug in vertically in the rear of the chassis. Cisco Nexus 9300 Series switches are available in both spine and leaf variants.

Figure 8-14 shows Cisco 9500 platform modular switch.

  

Figure 8-14 Cisco 9500 Platform Modular Switch

Table 8-3 shows the various 9500 modular spine switch chassis available at the time of this writing.

Table 8-3 Cisco Nexus 9500 Modular Spine Switch

N9K-C9504	Cisco Nexus 9504 switch chassis with four slots
N9K-C9504	Cisco Nexus 9504 switch chassis with four slots
N9K-C9508	Cisco Nexus 9508 switch chassis with eight slots
N9K-C9508-B1	Cisco Nexus 9508 chassis bundle with one supervisor module, three power supplies, two system controllers, three fan trays, and three fabric modules
N9K-C9508-B2	Cisco Nexus 9508 chassis bundle with one supervisor module, three power supplies, two system controllers, three fan trays, and six fabric modules
N9K-C9516	Cisco Nexus 9516 switch chassis with 16 slots

You can easily figure out the capabilities of spine and leaf switches from the product ID of each switch. Try to decode the capabilities of spine and leaf switches from Tables 8-4 through 8-7 from the product ID of each switch using the taxonomy for N9K part numbers, as shown in Figure 8-15.

   

Figure 8-15 N9K Part Numbers Taxonomy

Table 8-4 shows the modular spine switch line cards available at the time of writing.

  

Table 8-4 Modular Spine Switch Line Cards

Product ID	Description
N9K-X9716D-GX	Cisco Nexus 9500 16-port, 400-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP line card
N9K-X9736C-FX	Cisco Nexus 9500 36-port, 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet Cloud Scale line card
N9K-X9736Q-FX	Cisco Nexus 9500 36-port, 40-Gigabit Ethernet Cloud Scale line card
N9K-X9732C-EX	Cisco Nexus 9500 32-port, 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Cloud Scale line card

Note

Cloud Scale in Table 8-4 refers to line cards using Cisco Cloud Scale ASICs.

Table 8-5 shows the fixed spine switches available at the time of writing.

   

Table 8-5 Fixed Spine Switches

Product ID	Description
N9K-C9332C	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 32 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 ports and two SFP ports
N9K-C9364C	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 64 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 ports and two 1/10-Gigabit SFP+ ports

Table 8-6 shows the fixed leaf switches available at the time of writing.

  

Table 8-6 Fixed Leaf Switches

Product ID	Description
N9K-C93180YC-FX3	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 100M/1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP28 ports, six 10/25/40/50/100-Gigabit QSFP28 ports, one management port (10/100/1000BASE-T), one console port (RS-232), and one USB port.
N9K-C93108TC-FX3P	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 100M/1/2.5/5/10-GBASE-T (copper) ports, six 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 ports, two management ports (one 10/100/1000BASE-T port and one SFP port), one console port (RS-232), and one USB port.
N9K-93240YC-FX2	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP28 ports and 12 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 ports. The N9K-93240YC-FX2 is a 1.2-RU switch.
N9K-C93216TC-FX2	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 96 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and 12 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93360YC-FX2	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 96 1/10/25-Gigabit front-panel ports and 12 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP spine-facing ports.
N9K-C9336C-FX2	Cisco Nexus C9336C-FX2 top-of-rack (ToR) switch with 36 fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93108TC-FX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93108TC-FX-24	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-93240YC-FX2	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP28 ports and 12 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 ports. The N9K-93240YC-FX2 is a 1.2-RU switch.
N9K-C93180YC-FX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP28 front-panel ports and six fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93216TC-FX2	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 96 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and 12 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93180YC-FX-24	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP28 front-panel ports and six fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C9348GC-FXP	Cisco Nexus 9348GC-FXP switch with 48 100/1000-Megabit 1GBASE-T downlink ports, four 10/25-Gigabit SFP28 downlink ports, and two 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 uplink ports.
N9K-C93108TC-EX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93108TC-EX-24	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93180LC-EX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 40-Gigabit front-panel ports and six 40/100-Gigabit QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93108TC-FX-24	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six fixed 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93180YC-EX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 48 1/10/25-Gigabit front-panel ports and six 40/100 Gigabit QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93180YC-EX-24	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 24 1/10/25-Gigabit front-panel ports and six 40/100 Gigabit QSFP28 spine-facing ports.
N9K-C93120TX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 96 1/10GBASE-T (copper) front-panel ports and six 40-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP spine-facing ports.

Table 8-7 lists the fixed Nexus 9300 series switches at the time of writing. These switches can be used as either spine or leaf switches in an ACI fabric, as per the requirement.

   

Table 8-7 Fixed Leaf/Spine Switches

Product ID	Description
N9K-C9364C-GX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 64 100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 ports, two management ports (one RJ-45 port and one SFP port), one console port (RS-232), and one USB port
N9K-C93600CD-GX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 28 10/40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 ports (ports 1–28) and eight 10/40/100/400-Gigabit QSFP-DD ports (ports 29–36)
N9K-C9316D-GX	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 16 10/40/100/400-Gigabit QSFP-DD ports (ports 1–16)
N9K-C9332D-GX2B	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 32 400Gbps QSFP-DD and two 1/10Gbps SFP+ ports
N9K-C9364D-GX2A	Cisco Nexus 9300 platform switch with 64 400Gbps QSFP-DD and two 1/10Gbps SFP+ ports