Troubleshooting Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (DCACIT)

In this Troubleshooting Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure course focuses on developing a structured and repeatable troubleshooting methodology for Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) environments. It is designed to help engineers efficiently isolate, analyze, and resolve issues across the ACI fabric by understanding how logical policies, physical infrastructure, and centralized control interact during normal and fault conditions.

The course begins by introducing a systematic Cisco ACI troubleshooting methodology, emphasizing how to correlate policy intent with actual forwarding behavior. It then covers troubleshooting of both logical and physical constructs, including fabric components, policies, and infrastructure dependencies, followed by in-depth analysis of Cisco APIC health, faults, and operational status.

Additional topics include troubleshooting endpoint learning, Layer 2 connectivity, and Layer 3 routing within the ACI fabric, as well as identifying and resolving issues related to VMM integration and Layer 4-7 service insertion. The course also addresses common challenges with contracts and route leaking, helping learners understand how security and routing policies impact application connectivity.

Hands-on labs reinforce these concepts by validating endpoint status, examining VLAN and policy configurations, troubleshooting external connectivity and integration issues, and resolving contract-related problems. Together, the lectures and labs prepare learners to confidently troubleshoot complex Cisco ACI environments in real-world scenarios.

How You'll Benefit

This course will help you:

• Learn how to design policy-driven automation to streamline the deployment lifecycle
• Integrate a comprehensive solution using any hypervisor, supporting any workload, for any location, and in any cloud
• Expand your knowledge of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches

After taking this course, you should be able to:

• Apply troubleshooting methodology to Cisco ACI networks
• Troubleshoot logical and physical constructs of the Cisco ACI policy
• Understand Cisco APIC and its troubleshooting aspects
• Troubleshoot endpoint learning in Cisco ACI
• Troubleshoot Layer 2 traffic bridging and Layer 3 routing in the Cisco ACI network
• Troubleshoot hypervisor integration in Cisco ACI
• Troubleshoot Layer 4 to Layer 7 service insertion
• Troubleshoot contracts and route leaking in Cisco ACI

This course is ideal for developers and engineers including:

• Network engineers
• Systems engineers
• Data center engineers
• Consulting systems engineers
• Technical solutions architects
• Cisco integrators/partners
• Field engineers
• Server administrators
• Network managers

You should have the following knowledge and skills before attending this course:

• Familiarity with data center infrastructure operations
• Familiarity with management of Cisco data center switches
• Basic programming
• Basic network troubleshooting
• System or network administration (Linux or Windows)
• Data center operations

These are the recommended Cisco offerings that may help you meet these prerequisites:

• Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions (CCNA®) v1.0
• Understanding Cisco Data Center Foundations (DCFNDU) v1.0
• Implementing Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (DCACI) v1.0
• Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure Operation and Troubleshooting (DCACIO) v5.2

Course Outline

Module 1: Describing Cisco ACI Troubleshooting Methodology

Module 2: Troubleshooting Logical and Physical Constructs

Module 3: Troubleshooting Cisco APIC

Module 4: Troubleshooting Endpoint Learning

Module 5: Troubleshooting Layer 2

Module 6: Troubleshooting Layer 3 Routing

Module 7: Troubleshooting VMM Integration

Module 8: Troubleshooting Layer 4-7 Service Insertion

Module 9: Troubleshooting Contracts and Route Leaking

Lab Outline

• Lab 1: Verify Endpoints
• Lab 2: Examine VLANs
• Lab 3: Troubleshoot ACI Policy
• Lab 4: Troubleshoot CMM integration and External Connectivity
• Lab 5: Troubleshoot Contracts