ACI

The context This blog is to explains the scalability issue I have faced while trying to use Terraform to deploy Cisco ACI Fabric. Terraform has been developed initially to deploy Cloud infrastructure. As everything is virtual in a Cloud environment, it’s more or less easy to organize your Terraform infrastructure per application to keep the environment small enough. As a best practice it’s recommended to keep the workspaces as small as possible to avoid performance issues.

The big picture This blog post is a memo for the ACI Terraform policy model. I have struggled to find equivalences between ACI REST API Call / Classes and Terraform resources. Below you can find the full diagram. The diagram is not exhaustive but I think I have reached a point where I can published something. I will probably modify or add things if I use more resources or if people correct me but I think it is a good start.

“Several of these protocols are standards” My understanding is that even if the protocols look standard, Cisco made some modifications on them : VXLAN (fiels to transport ACI Policies), ISIS (added the multidestination tree) and hence are note standard anymore. “Does it require proprietary server ?” Not prorietary servers but proprietary switches…So you are locked in regarding the software and the hardware. Both can’t be decoupled. If you choose to move to another switch vendor, you need to change the hardware and sart learning new software and protocols skills.