Creating VMM domains and integrating VMWare

ACI uses Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) domain profiles to facilitate communication between virtual machine controllers and the ACI fabric. There are a handful of components that make up a domain, and these are:

• Virtual Machine Manager domain profile
• EPG association
• Attachable entity profile association
• VLAN pool association

The Virtual Machine Manager domain profile groups VM controllers together. Within this are two components: the credential for connecting to the VM controller, and the controller, which specifies how to connect to the VM controller.

The EPG association allows the APIC to push endpoint groups into the VM controller as port groups and also permits the EPG to span across several VMM domains.

The attachable entity profile association associates a VMM domain to the physical network. Here, we use an attachable entity profile (AEP), which is a network interface template, to set policies on leaf switch ports.

Finally, the VLAN pool association specifies the VLAN ID, or range of IDs, for encapsulation.