Integration with third-party management systems such as VMware,
Microsoft, and OpenStack
Cloud APIC appliance for Cisco cloud ACI deployments in public cloud
environmentsA minimum of three APICs in a cluster are needed for
high availability.
The Cisco ACI fabric is built in a leaf-and-spine
architecture. As the name implies, some of the Cisco
Nexus switches that are part of the ACI fabric are called
leaves and perform a function similar to that of an access
switch, to which both physical and virtual endpoint
servers are connected, and some of the switches are
called spines and perform a function similar to that of a
distribution switch to which all the access switches are
connected. Figure 9-1 provides a visual representation of
how all the Cisco ACI fabric components come together.
Figure 9-1 Cisco ACI Fabric Architecture
It is very important to choose the right switches for the
right functions as not all Cisco Nexus 9000 switches
support all functions in a leaf-and-spine architecture.
The leaf switches connect to all the spine switches and to
endpoint devices, including the Cisco APICs. The Cisco
APICs never connect to spine switches. Spine switches