The infrastructure controller is the main architectural component of the Cisco ACI solution. It is the unified point of automation and management for the Cisco ACI fabric, policy enforcement, and health monitoring. The APIC appliance is a centralized, clustered controller that optimizes performance and unifies the operation of physical and virtual environments. The controller manages and operates a scalable multitenant Cisco ACI fabric.
The main features of the Cisco APIC include the following:
â— Application-centric network policies
â— Data-model-based declarative provisioning
â— Application and topology monitoring and troubleshooting
â— Third-party integration
â—¦ Layer-4 through Layer-7 (L4-L7) services
â—¦ VMware vCenter and vRealize
â—¦ Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), and Azure Pack
â—¦ Open vSwitch (OVS) and OpenStack
â—¦ Kubernetes
â— Image management (spine and leaf)
â— Cisco ACI inventory and configuration
â— Implementation of a distributed framework across a cluster of appliances
â— Health scores for critically managed objects (tenants, application profiles, switches, etc.)
â— Fault, event, and performance management
New features in Cisco ACI Release 6.0 (Cisco ACI 6) include the following :
â— Increased scalability in hardware and network pods per fabric
â— New innovations in remote leaf capabilities
â— Enhanced Precision Time Protocol and Sync-E support in ACI Leaf
â— Cisco ThousandEyes® integration
The controller framework enables broad ecosystem and industry interoperability with Cisco ACI. It enables interoperability between a Cisco ACI environment and management, orchestration, virtualization, and L4-L7 services from a broad range of vendors.
