1. Add an ACI Controller

The system retrieves ACI data through the ACI Controller by using APIs. Follow the steps below to add a controller and specify the address and user credentials to access the controller in the system.

1)Click the domain name from the quick access toolbar and select Domain Management.

2)In the Domain Management page, select Operations > Discover Settings > API Server Manager from the quick access toolbar.

3)Click Add API Server on the API Server Manager tab.

4)Enter a unique name in the Server Name field.

5)Select Cisco ACI from the API Source Type drop-down menu.

6)In the Endpoints field, enter the URL of the controller.

7)Enter the username and password to access the controller. If more parameters are required when you access the controller or request data from the controller, you can click Advanced to configure the keys (parameter names) and values.

8)Select a Front Server or Front Server Group from the Front Server/Front Server Group drop-down menu.

Note: Make sure that the port 7086 of your NetBrain Front Server is not occupied by other applications, because this port is used by the service components of a Front Server to communicate with each other.

9)Click OK.

2.Discover Your ACI Network

Note: The Inter-Pod Network (IPN) is connecting different ACI Pods allowing for the establishment of Pod-to-Pod communication (also known as east-west traffic). To successfully discover a multi-pod network, IPN nodes must be discovered prior to discovering APIC domains.

1)In the Domain Management page, select Operations > Discover from the quick access toolbar.

2)Click Select API Servers and select the API Controller that you have configured.

3)Click Start Discovery.

Note: The SDN discovery only retrieves basic data of your network and builds L3 topology. After the discovery, you need to execute a benchmark task to retrieve all data and build all components, including visual spaces and data views. See Auto-Updating ACI Data in NetBrain through Benchmark for details.