#CiscoChampion Radio is a podcast series by Cisco Champions as technologists hosted by Amy Lewis (@CommsNinja). This week we're talking about ACI Updates with Cisco Product Management Director, Thomas Scheibe.

Listento the Podcast

Learn about the Cisco Champions Program HERE.
See a list of all#CiscoChampion Radio podcasts HERE.

Subject Matter Expert
Thomas Scheibe @thomas0002, Director, Product Management

Cisco Champions
Rick Vanover @RickVanover, Product Strategy Specialist
Hal Rottenberg @halr9000, Practice Manager

Highlights:
The real benefits of ACI
Who orchestrates the policies around ACI
What problems does ACI solve
What's the smallest infrastructure that would benefit from ACI
What ACI will mean to Network Administrators

Resources
ACI Overview
ACI Overview Video
OpFlex Overview

Transcripts:
halr9000so is this ACI 101 or not?
CommsNinjaYes Hal, plus updates. Ask all the questions.
RickVanoverQuestion for Thomas at the end of this thought
@gallifreyanFor the longest time, I heard "insieme" and thought they were saying "NCME" and misnaming NVME.
halr9000Let's use a convention that I find helpful in my podcast: please use "##" in front of your message if it's a question for the guest
halr9000 ##like so
laurenmalhoitYou can also put an asterisk on either side to make it bold
halr9000oh
halr9000 ##yes do that too
CiscoServerGeekGood overview of AVI -5mins -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZWwjNAiUpI
@gallifreyanAnd if you precede it with your password, it makes the text blink.
crajohnsonIt's a bold move.
halr9000lol
CommsNinjaLOL.
@gallifreyanhamster3000 This is blinking!
laurenmalhoitwell played Robert
crajohnsonhunter2 is my password
halr9000thx ciscoservergeek, everyone feel free to add links for show notes
crajohnsonAPIC for ACI is NOT the same as APIC-EM
CommsNinjaType in your questions Champions!
CommsNinja(and your helpful commentary!)
halr9000IKR crajohnson?
halr9000i hate that
RickVanoverASIC or APIC?
RoutingNinjaHelpful.. that rules out my commentary
@gallifreyanor ACPI
CiscoServerGeekWhat's driving the need to do things this way? What problem are we solving?
CommsNinjaI chose words carefully RoutingNinja
CommsNinjaWe will unmute people at the end of the call!
@gallifreyanI'm guessing the policy stuff will enable you to implement new tech without respinning silicon, among other things.
Josh_AtwellSkip me when you start unmuting. I deserve it
halr9000josh!
RickVanover ##Follow on question
CommsNinjaJosh is double muted.
laurenmalhoitI hear a lot of complaining about having to replace hardware specifically re: ACI. Not sure if anyone can comment on that
halr9000I'll ask that laurenmalhoit
laurenmalhoitThanks Hal
halr9000 #amnotcisco
halr9000mu ha ha ha
CommsNinja #IamGoogle oh wait . . .
RickVanover@LaurenMalhoit -like need to be a newer than x model? Or it breaks stuff?
CiscoServerGeekSo I no longer have a need to login to individual top of rack switches and do configuration? The APIC controls the switches? ... so on that...
CiscoServerGeek... Which "stuff" can it control?
laurenmalhoitI've heard complaints about replacing it now and then again in a couple years. I don't reallyknow if any of that is true
crajohnsonOpflex model is important
halr9000good stuff
laurenmalhoitYou covered it Rick
RickVanoverThe whole this blue and this blue/grey clearly says I'm not a netwrok guy LOL
RickVanoverServer guy
halr9000me neither. we are gonna have fun asking dumb questions!
RickVanoverfirst tattoo will be "I HEART UCS"
@gallifreyanI hear that's day 2 of orientation, Rick
Fish14Nice one, Robert
@gallifreyan"very very attractive price" three fiddy?
halr9000a bargain at half the price!
RoutingNinjathey'll make it "feel" free
RickVanoverAttractive price
williamcaban"attractive price"... attractive for whom?
@gallifreyanMy price is too sexy for your budget, too sexy for your budget...
RoutingNinjamy Cisco sales rep has a$300k boat.. I'll let you take a guess who the price is attractive for.
CiscoServerGeek LOL
CiscoServerGeekPowerShell FTW
halr9000woot
@gallifreyanMy sales rep left for Hortonworks. YMMV
RickVanover ##I have a follow on
halr9000i was about to talk
halr9000glad you typed that rick
halr9000I want#ACIforLinksys
RickVanoverFollowng the rulez
CiscoServerGeekI want ACI for Meraki
@gallifreyanWRT1900ACI
cnicklnow that i want
halr9000does it run openwrt?
CiscoServerGeekohhh wait, Meraki sort of already does that
williamcaban@halr9000 you can write your own OPFLEX for ti
halr9000i don't know that word actually
halr9000opflex?
williamcabanOPFlex is the new protocol for integrating with ACI
halr9000...hmm wonder if i know it by a diff name
halr9000now i have a reading assignment. thx william
RoutingNinjaThe problems I have with something like ACI in my environment are more political than technical.
williamcabanhttp://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-731304.html
RickVanover@RoutingNinja interesting
RickVanoverthere are 3 barriers, technical win, price win and political win
RickVanoverI see a lot of these strategies in storage
RickVanoverthe proverbial policy for storage
RickVanover ##Have follow up question
halr9000 k
RoutingNinjaWe couldn't even get UCS into our environment because the "server" guys are so anti-Cisco
halr9000me too
halr9000@routingninja that's a shame!
RoutingNinjayeah, very much so
halr9000you guys have any more questions?
@gallifreyanUCS can be poorly sold into environments... btdt.
Erik Bussink@RoutingNinja Honestly... its really their loss
Fish14btdt?
Fish14great.... something new I have to google
RoutingNinjabeen there done that
Fish14ah... thanks... saved me a trip
RoutingNinjahehe
halr9000ahhh ssdd
@gallifreyanyeah, been there done that. aka btdtgtt... also known as been there done that got the tee-shirt
halr9000haha he said UCS
halr9000so now I have a follow on
halr9000 ##
CiscoServerGeekHellyeah he did!
halr9000it's a trap!!
@gallifreyanimg src=akbar.jpg
CommsNinjaBy the way, follow Thomas @thomas0002!
cnicklidk about investing in ACI just to do switch maintenance and installs... The application-centric argument makes sense.
halr9000centralizing the mgmt
cnickli get the point, but there are existing products to do that
CiscoServerGeekJust like I don't go into servers and change BIOS settings with UCS ... I do it with a POLICY .. policies rock!
RickVanover@Scott = Real benefit there
cnicklnow that i can get behind,
RickVanoveryou don't need to get bogged down with details that way
RoutingNinjagetting from point A to point B sounds painful.. we have like 1,000 applications, many of them custom.
@gallifreyanIt gets more useful at scale.
RickVanoverlets not even start with applications!
CiscoServerGeekUCS users get it .... server/network people doing it the same way they've done in the 90/00's don't get it
cnickli guess that's like setting up UCS, takes a bunch of upfront work and for tiny shops may not be worth it, but down the road it becomes idiot easy
halr9000nod
jordanmartinI don't know that's always true @gallifreyan -UCS benefits can be seen even on smaller deployments
RickVanoverSo then UCS Manager vs. ACI
RickVanoverdo they hook in or overlap ?
halr9000yes cnick1! most work up front. less later
RickVanoverWOn't ask it out loud
@gallifreyanCSG: actually those server people love it, because they can blame anything on Cisco.
halr9000or even...zero later
@gallifreyanJordan: They can be seen, but are they worth the investment? If you have 5 rackmounts and no blades, is it worth two 62xx FIs?
CiscoServerGeekI've got TONs of 1 chassis shops that see the benefit .... it's not about INITIAL DEPLOYMENT and SETUP, it's about the ongoing changes/updates
@gallifreyanCiscoServerGeek: Yeah, chassis it makes a lot of sense too
cnickli agree on the 1 chassis installs
@gallifreyangotta remember, I'm a C-Series guy, and I would not push the platform for half a dozen boxes.
CommsNinjaanyone dialed in and wanting to use their out loud voice?
halr9000@rick: thomas is an advanced guest watches the chat!
@gallifreyanAnd this is coming from the guy with the second largest C-Series integrated environment in the world.
RickVanoverindeed
CiscoServerGeekIt takes a lot of work to make things simple ... the upfront investment pays off down the road
CommsNinjaThomas is definitely doing a great job! So anyone else?
halr9000 ##i have a follow on
@gallifreyanYeah, it gets more useful as your scale gets bigger.
@gallifreyanI'm not saying it's useless with one server or one switch... just the financial play is harder to justify at that scale.
@gallifreyanopen to anyone who disagrees
williamcabanIs ACI considered a "very large Enterprises" only solution? or how does it benefit SMBs?
halr9000i think it would be silly at very low scale
CiscoServerGeeknot everything is a fit for everything ... 1 server mehhh
halr9000maybe something else can tackle the small capex problem area
RickVanover@Williamcaban but if my small infrastructure is launching missles or saving lives, it may be worth it. All infrastructures are not created equal!
cnicklwhile the larger enterprises make it a better financial play, i can see SMB adopting it quicker. Big businesses can be slow to react on new tech
RickVanovertrue nick
halr9000 yeah
@gallifreyanI think there's also a wide range of definitions for "SMB"
@gallifreyana lot of vendors forget what the S stands for.
halr9000well the definition is now "TWO RACKS"
cnicklnot referring to the pizza shop
halr9000nope, not
halr9000@amy time?
halr9000Anyone want to ask a question live?
CommsNinjaI'm here to save the day as needed
@gallifreyannot pizza shop, but what about a 10 person startup using on-premises gear for some reason... they might not have a MLB budget.
RickVanover@Robert -likely they aren't a fit
@gallifreyanYeah. But they're still SMB.
RickVanoverthey'd rather not ride a bike to the coffee shop, they'd rather woak
Erik BussinkStupid questions, is there a ACI simulator or Walktrough ?
halr9000no great question
halr9000not sure he'll know but about to find out
RickVanoverErik -DevNet likely has one
halr9000 ##i'll ask 1 more q
halr9000rick let's get that on air tho
halr9000(I already knew the answer, just wanted it out loud)
Erik BussinkWoot... there is an ACI emulator
@gallifreyanyay
jordanmartinThat's excellent
cnicklWIN
@gallifreyanACIPE.
cnicklyes please!
Erik BussinkLink a UCS Emulator with a Wks/Fusion vESXi install #WishfulDreaming
halr9000RESTful API, python SDK
halr9000puppet stuff
Josh_Atwellwow, these guys halr9000 and RickVanover sound like they've podcasted before
halr9000dude i was SOOO NERVUS
Josh_AtwellYea Erik, i've been asking that for a while
Erik BussinkThanks guys !
@gallifreyanErik: I've heard some inquiries about that on the communities site. Emulating B/C series hosts would be difficult but it is desirable
CommsNinjaUnmuting everyone!
Fish14gotta run
Fish14hugs to all
Fish14nice session
@gallifreyanbai fish
Erik BussinkI have 4 UCS C series, but can't get a proper FI to lab with
@gallifreyanErik: You can get them for$1k on eBay
@gallifreyanI have a search for 6120-6296
halr9000UCSPE
halr9000just do it
@gallifreyanlicensing may be an issue tho
GideonTamACI Emulator with Fusion on MBP is good enough for me.
@gallifreyanhalr9000: UCSPE can't talk to physical C-Series boxes
halr9000oh i did not know that
@gallifreyanit's a self-contained FI simulator.
@gallifreyanyou can build an inventory, and simulate firmware upgrades with the stripped bundles, but there's no current way to emulate the hosts (i.e. kvm, host
halr9000@rachel here's the aci overview video rick mentioned earlier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZWwjNAiUpI
Erik BussinkYou need a C-Series M3 to connect it to a FI. M2 are not supported as the firmware is stuck at 1.4.3
@gallifreyanErik: Either you're talking about something else, or I'll make you a bet on that.
CommsNinjacisco.com/go/aci
Erik Bussink@Gallifreyan I'm not going to bet  rather speend my$on a old FI 6120
@gallifreyanErik: You need a certain level to do single connect...
Erik Bussink@gallifreyan Are you using Nexus 2000 between the FI and the C M2 series for the mgmt ?
Erik BussinkYeah, Single connect once you have a VIC1225
halr9000later all
@gallifreyan2322pp as I recall. About a hundred of them.