Installation and Configuration¶

The plugin is available as a Python package in PyPI and can be installed with pip:

pip install nautobot-ssot-aci

The plugin is compatible with Nautobot 1.2.0 and higher

To ensure Nautobot SSoT for Cisco ACI is automatically re-installed during future upgrades, create a file named local_requirements.txt (if not already existing) in the Nautobot root directory (alongside requirements.txt) and list the nautobot-ssot-aci package:

echo nautobot-ssot-aci >> local_requirements.txt

Once installed, the plugin needs to be enabled in your nautobot_config.py:

# In your nautobot_config.py
PLUGINS = ["nautobot_ssot_aci"]

Settings¶

Behavior of the plugin can be controlled with the following list of settings.

Setting Name (* required)	Type	Description
apic_*		Per-APIC settings. See per-APIC settings section for details.
tag*	String	Tag which is created and applied to all synchronized objects.
tag_color*	String	Hex color code used for the tag.
tag_up*	String	Tag indicating the state applied to synchronized interfaces.
tag_up_color*	String	Tag color applied to the "UP" tag on interface status.
tag_down*	String	Tag indicating the state applied to synchronized interfaces.
tag_down_color*	String	Tag color applied to the "DOWN" tag on interface status.
manufacturer_name*	String	Manufacturer name. Specifically existing, or a new one with this name will be created.
ignore_tenants*	List[String]	List of ACI Tenants that should not be synchronized from APIC.
comments*	String	Comment added to synchronized objects.

Example:

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "nautobot_ssot": {
        "hide_example_jobs": True,
    },
    "nautobot_ssot_aci": {
        # URL and credentials should be configured as environment variables on the host system
        "apics": {x: os.environ[x] for x in os.environ if "APIC" in x},
        # Tag which will be created and applied to all synchronized objects.
        "tag": "ACI",
        "tag_color": "0047AB",
        # Tags indicating state applied to synchronized interfaces.
        "tag_up": "UP",
        "tag_up_color": "008000",
        "tag_down": "DOWN",
        "tag_down_color": "FF3333",
        # Manufacturer name. Specify existing, or a new one with this name will be created.
        "manufacturer_name": "Cisco",
        # Exclude any tenants you would not like to bring over from ACI.
        "ignore_tenants": ["common", "mgmt", "infra"],
        # The below value will appear in the Comments field on objects created in Nautobot
        "comments": "Created by ACI SSoT Plugin",
    }

Some of the above settings can be omitted, and if omitted the below defaults will take effect:

default_settings = {"tag": "ACI",
                   "tag_color": "FF3333",
                   "manufacturer_name": "Cisco",
                   }                    

Per-APIC settings¶

The APIC URL and credentials need to be created as environment variables on the host system.

You can configure multiple APIC instances for synchronization. To do this, append _ character, followed by an identifier, to the names of environment variables.

In the example below, configured APIC uses NTC for an identifier. Instead of NTC you could, for example, use CHCG01 to configure an APIC instance in your Chicago facility.

export NAUTOBOT_APIC_BASE_URI_NTC=https://aci.cloud.networktocode.com
export NAUTOBOT_APIC_USERNAME_NTC=admin
export NAUTOBOT_APIC_PASSWORD_NTC=not_so_secret_password
export NAUTOBOT_APIC_VERIFY_NTC=False
export NAUTOBOT_APIC_SITE_NTC="NTC ACI"
export NAUTOBOT_APIC_TENANT_PREFIX_NTC="NTC_ACI"

The identifier is used to select APIC from the SSoT dashboard when initiating a synchronization job:

Nautobot Objects Affected by Settings¶

A Site will be created in Nautobot with the name specified in the NAUTOBOT_APIC_SITE environment variable and resources created by the plugin will be assigned to this site.

Tenants imported from ACI will be prepended with the unique name specified by the corresponding TENANT_PREFIX variable. This uniquely identifies tenants which might have the same name, but belong to two different APIC clusters.

Configuring Device Templates¶

To create a new Nautobot Device Type mapping to a specific ACI leaf or spine switch model you need to provide YAML file describing that model. This model definition includes interface template with the ports and transceiver types (ex. 10GE SFP+) specification.

The YAML files need to be placed in the nautobot_ssot_aci/diffsync/device-types directory. Their names need to match the model name as it appears in the ACI Fabric Membership area of the APIC dashboard.

For example, given a Model name of N9K-C9396PX as shown below, the YAML file should be named N9K-C9396PX.yaml.

There are example YAML files for a few common switch models in nautobot_ssot_aci/diffsync/device-types, and additional ones can be downloaded here.