Preface: This isn’t going to be a technical posting. This is a personal recap of my professional life over the last 6 years. After more than 6 years I’ve decided to leave my employer for good. An employer which is very loyal and fair to its employees and where I got the chance to grow from of a Senior Systems Engineer Role into a Datacenter Architect over my time there. Before I come to the “why”, a little bit of history. When I start a new job in a new…
Category: Allgemein
APIC / Nexus Factory Reset
Today there’s an easier topic. How to reset your ACI Fabric (APIC and Nexus Switches) to factory defaults. First. Log into your Nexus 9k via the CLI or Console: Switch# setup-clean-config.sh Switch# reload This command will reload the chassis, Proceed (y/n)? [n]: y Second. Log into your APIC via ssh or local Console (Monitor or KVM over CIMC): log in as “admin” or “rescue-user” acidiag touch clean acidiag touch setup acidiag reboot Once you’ve done that, continue with the new fabric initialization: Only power up the first APIC and do…
CCIE DC
It’s now 4 days since the exam and my mind comes slowly to the point to accept that the journey to the CCIE DC had home to a very successful end. And what a ride has it been. From a very slow start about 12 months ago. To the first time i felt a bit confident after the INE Bootcamp in January, just to hit the bottom again a few weeks later after Cisco Live where i had attended the CCIE DC Techtorial. That was a point that made me…
APIC: APIC doesn’t find the Leaf Switches
There can be a nasty little problem (you might want to call it bug) that prevents the APIC from discovering the connected Nexus Leaf Switches. The reason behind it is that after an CIMC Update and/or wipe of the CIMC it can happen that LLDP is enabled on the VIC Card. The problem here is that if it is enabled on the VIC, the LLDP messages get intercepted by the Firmware on the VIC and never reach the APIC Software. So the APIC can’t discover the Leaf’s. Here’s how to…
APIC: No suitable disks found. Exiting installer
This week I got some demo ACI equipment for a bigger PoC. Before shipping everything out to the customer I wanted to test everything so that it will work fine. While trying to boot up the APIC’s we found out that they didn’t want to boot. So ok, maybe we got them without the image, so who cares, just reinstall them with the ISO (I’ve done that quite a few times). But while the install we hit the following screen on all 3 of the APIC’s: Ok, that looked weird,…
The failed lab exam, was it just an expensive lunch?
As I already mentioned through a few channels, I failed my first attempt. And since I don’t like to jump to premature conclusions, I wanted to wait for the feedback from the Cisco case before writing a bit more about it. Today I got it and now I fulfill the promise and write a few lines about the exam day. I know most people would like to know more, but the NDA won’t allow to get into any specifics. I went to my closest testing center (Brussels) the afternoon before…
VxLAN BGP EVPN on Nexus 9000v – Part 1
Last Thursday i got a notification that there are new images out for the Nexus 9k. First thing i checked was if there is one too for the Nexus 9000v. And yes, there was it: 7.0(3)I6(1). Next thing to check was if Cisco integrated the highly anticipated feature VxLAN BGP EVPN. And after a bit of searching (since there were no release notes) i found it in the already updated NX-OSv 9000 Guide: Of course I immediately wanted to test it, but i had a real lab available over the weekend, so that had to…
VXLAN FLOOD&LEARN ON CSR1000v
After getting VXLAN F&L to work on the Nexus 9000v. I thought why not trying the “easier one”, which was already tested a lot of times over the last 1-2 years. And well, i works out of the box. How is it done? CSR1000v as Leafs IOU L3 Router (you can basically use any router that is capable of OSPF/ISIS/EIGRP and PIM) VPCS als clients to ping GNS3 to capture the Ethernet frames for a deeper understanding of what’s going on At first you need basic connectivity and dynamic routing in…
VXLan Flood&Learn on Nexus 9000v with GNS3 2.0
I had quite a lot of troubles with Nexus 9000v on GNS 1.5 with VXLAN. In fact, after finishing the config (with the same Layout used that you see above) it always ended up with the loopback source interface for the NVE Interfaces getting shutdown by the switch. I didn’t had the time to investigate it (beside the fact that i tried to get it work a lot of times …), but this week i upgraded the environment to GNS 2.0. And there was a very welcomed surprise -> It works 🙂 Update: Ariel…
Nexus 9000v on GNS3
Beginning of this year, i learned about the Nexus 9000V and I immediately saw the chance to use it for the CCIE DC preparation (and for some programming tests as well, but that’s for a future blogpost). The 9kV is basically a virtual Nexus 9300 that you can run on ESXi, Virtual BOX and KVM (the qcow2 Version is that one you need for GNS3. Here are the pro’s and con’s for the 9000V, because as always, where’s an upside, there’s also a downside. Pros: Free for testing/training use (you do need a 9k…