# Cisco ACI monitoring

Get a comprehensive view of your ACI controller, fabric, tenants and endpoint groups with OpManager.

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[![Cisco ACI monitoring- ManageEngine OpManager](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kBFsWCmYZdo/maxresdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kBFsWCmYZdo?si=bEm7AmPi7lgpbTqa)

Network traffic patterns have witnessed numerous changes due to the increasing popularity of cloud-based applications. In a traditional network, accommodating complex network patterns and adapting to constant changes has always been a tedious task. Most organizations are now switching to software-defined networking (SDN) infrastructures, a dramatic departure from the way standard networks are designed. SDN centralizes control of your network, improving the network's flexibility and efficiency.

Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is Cisco's SDN architecture for data centers. Cisco ACIs take a simpler approach to manage your network, providing fully integrated physical and virtual infrastructure. ACI helps you cope with the rapid application changes in your network and manage it with software flexibility and hardware scalability.

## OpManager: The comprehensive Cisco ACI monitoring tool

OpManager can handle all your network monitoring needs with [Cisco network monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/cisco-monitoring.html?cis-aci), including now Cisco ACI monitoring. Discover your whole Cisco ACI infrastructure and get a comprehensive view of your controller along with all the other components, such as the fabric, tenants, and endpoint groups. Network administrators now have a unified tool to track the health and efficiency of the entire ACI environment and its associated components. [Click here](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/cisco-monitoring.html?cis-aci) for the prerequisites to add a Cisco ACI infrastructure in OpManager.

With OpManager's Cisco ACI monitoring, you can:

- [Monitor associated components.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-monitor-all-associated-components)
- [Get a comprehensive view of your network topology.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-get-a-comprehensive-view-of-your-network-topology)
- [Monitor the spine and leaf switches.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-monitor-the-spine-and-leaf-switches)
- [Keep an eye on your tenants.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-keep-an-eye-on-your-tenants)
- [Monitor the key metrics of your ACI environment.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-monitor-the-key-metrics-of-your-aci-environment)
- [Know about your endpoints and application profiles.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-know-about-your-endpoints-and-application-profiles)
- [Access critical data in the form of dashboards and custom widgets.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-access-critical-data-in-the-form-of-dashboards-and-custom-widgets)
- [Always be aware with the help of instant notifications and personalized, automated reports.](#cisco-aci-monitoring-stay-informed-with-the-help-of-instant-notifications-and-automated-reports)

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Monitor all associated components

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Associated components monitoring](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-summary.PNG)

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Device summary](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-apic-summary.PNG)

OpManager uses Cisco's own API access credentials to communicate with your SDN environment and monitor the Cisco ACI device with all its associated components. This includes:

- **The APIC controller:** Overall controller of your ACI environment.
- **Fabric switches (spine, super spine, leaf):** Network and software components of your ACI environment.
- **Tenants:** Logical controllers that hold a set of profiles.
- **Endpoint groups:** End devices grouped by an application profile.

The Cisco ACI summary page gives you all the necessary information on the discovered ACI model, along with other details including:

- The availability timeline of the controller.
- The APIC summary table that gives you the availability and health score.
- A list of the recent faults that have occurred in the Cisco ACI environment.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Get a comprehensive view of your network topology

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Comprehensive network topology view](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-topology.jpg)

OpManager's Cisco ACI monitor automatically plots the [topology map](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/tech-topics/network-topology.html?cisco-aci) of your ACI environment for better visualization. This gives you a comprehensive look at the APIC controller, the spines, and the leaves available in your network and how they are interconnected. Click on a device and you’ll see its availability status too. The Topology tab is pretty much a network map with live status updates.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Monitor the spine and leaf switches

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Spine and Leaf switches monitoring](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-fabrics.PNG)

The Fabric tab gives you a complete layout of the network and software components of your Cisco ACI environment in a three-tier architecture. Once [network device discovery](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-device-discovery.html?cisco-aci) is initiated, components in your environment, such as the super spines, spines, and leaves, will be automatically added into OpManager. The list also includes necessary information such as the health score, pod ID, and node ID of all discovered ACI components.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Keep an eye on your tenants

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Tenant list](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-tenants.PNG)

Tenants are logical containers that denote each customer or mapped service in a Cisco ACI network. With OpManager's Cisco ACI monitoring tool, you can further drill down into a tenant and access its summary page, which has information on all connected endpoint groups, application profiles, bridge domains, and VRFs, as well as the tenant's overall health score.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Know about your endpoints and application profiles

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Endpoints and application profiles](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-epg.PNG)

OpManager's Cisco ACI monitor discovers all endpoint machines associated with your Cisco ACI environment, grouping them automatically during device discovery. Endpoints groups are a collection of end machines that are part of the discovered Cisco ACI environment. These endpoint machines are treated as individual devices in OpManager. You can also initiate advanced monitoring for these endpoints and access all related functions if necessary.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Monitor the key metrics of your ACI environment

OpManager's Cisco ACI monitoring tool closely tracks the following metrics to check if your [SDN](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/sdn-management.html?cisco-aci) environment is performing optimally.

| Component | Key metrics monitored |
|---|---|
| Fabric | Health score, availability, individual summary for associated components (spine, super spine, leaf) |
| Tenants | Health score, number of endpoint groups, associated application profiles, availability |
| Endpoint groups | Availability status, performance monitoring (if advanced monitoring is enabled). |
| APIC | Admin/Operational state, health score, availability |

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Access critical data in the form of dashboards and custom widgets

![Cisco ACI monitoring in OpManager: Custom widgets](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/cisco-aci-dashboard.PNG)

OpManager's Cisco ACI monitoring offers a dedicated SDN [dashboard](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-management-console.html?cisco-aci) with a handful of personalized widgets that deliver all the necessary information about your Cisco ACI environment. This gives network administrators a quick glance at the entire network without digging into each node. The dashboard offers various widgets, such as SDN inventory, including details of all the individual components of your ACI environment; Infrastructure Health Status, displaying the health of the controllers, fabric, and tenants in your ACI environment; and Alarms, listing the most recently triggered alarms.

## Cisco ACI monitoring: Stay informed with the help of instant notifications and automated reports

- Choose between default reports or customize your own Cisco ACI availability or performance reports.
- Associate notification profiles with the SDN environment and its components to [alert](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-monitoring-alerts.html?cicso-aci) you when something goes wrong. Mark critical servers as high-priority so you don't miss out on any updates, and configure [Workflows](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/it-workflow-automation.html?cis-aci) if needed.
- Keep an eye on the most important Cisco ACI performance metrics by building customized dashboards.
- Monitor the interfaces associated with all connected components and assign various Cisco ACI performance and application monitors to devices according to device type.

## FAQs on Cisco ACI monitor

### What is Cisco ACI monitoring?

TMonitoring and managing Cisco environment and its components such as fabric, tenants, and endpoint groups from a unified console is called Cisco ACI monitoring.

### Why do we need Cisco ACI monitoring?

With Cisco ACI monitoring, you can keep a track of key metrics of the ACI environment and also keep an eye on tenants, endpoints, application profiles, spine and leaf siwtches. This helps you gain comprehensive view of your APIC controller along with other components and track the health and performance of the entire ACI infrastructure.

### How to check Cisco ACI monitoring?

OpManager's Cisco ACI monitoring uses Cisco's own API access credentials to communicate with your SDN environment and monitor the Cisco ACI device with all its associated components. Including APIC controller, fabric switches, tenants and endpoint groups.