Can you use Cisco Catalyst 9500 with ACI?
Is Cisco Catalyst 9500 supported with ACI?
The short answer is “No”, Cisco Catalyst 9500 is not supported as part of the ACI Fabric, because Cisco ACI only supports Nexus 9000 series switches as Fabric nodes, either Leafs or Spines switches.
But, you can use Cisco Catalyst 9500 switches outside ACI fabric and utilize them with Layer 2 extension with ACI Fabric (L2out) or via Layer 3 connectivity (L3Out).
Cisco ACI Fabric components:
Cisco ACI and architectural solutions are built with the following building blocks:
- Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)
- Cisco Nexus 9000 Series spine and leaf switches for Cisco ACI
Cisco ACI Supported switches models:
Cisco Nexus 9300 and 9500 platform switches support Cisco ACI. Organizations can use them as spine or leaf switches to take full advantage of an automated, policy-based, systems management approach.
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches include modular and fixed 1, 10, 25, 40, 50, 100, and 400 Gigabit Ethernet switch configurations that are designed to operate either in NX-OS mode for compatibility and consistency with the current Cisco Nexus switches (using Cisco NX-OS Software) or in ACI mode to take full advantage of Cisco ACI application-policy-based services and infrastructure automation features.
Below is The full list of switches which are supported as Fabric nodes in Cisco ACI solution (as for 4.2(7)):
Modular Spine Switches:
- N9K-C9504
- N9K-C9508
- N9K-C9508-B1
- N9K-C9508-B2
- N9K-C9516
Fixed Spine Switches:
- N9K-C9316D-GX
- N9K-C9332C
- N9K-C9336PQ
- N9K-C9364C
Fixed Leaf Switches:
- N9K-93240YC-FX2
- N9K-C93108TC-EX
- N9K-C93108TC-EX-24
- N9K-C93108TC-FX
- N9K-C93108TC-FX-24
- N9K-C93120TX
- N9K-C93128TX
- N9K-C93180LC-EX
- N9K-C93180YC-EX
- N9K-C93180YC-EX-24
- N9K-C93180YC-FX
- N9K-C93180YC-FX-24
- N9K-C93216TC-FX2
- N9K-C9332PQ
- N9K-C93360YC-FX2
- N9K-C9336C-FX2
- N9K-C9348GC-FXP
- N9K-C93600CD-GX
- N9K-C9364C-GX
- N9K-C9372PX
- N9K-C9372PX-E
- N9K-C9372TX
- N9K-C9372TX-E
- N9K-C9396PX
- N9K-C9396TX
