Should I consider In band or Out of band management?

[jgesualdi]

We recently deployed ACI in our DR network. For that network which is in another state we used and out of band management network for the APIC and leaf switches. We are now installing a new ACI network in our production DC which is local. The OOB network was allot of extra cabling and work. My question is, should we consider using inband for the local production DC?   Looks  so much easier, what is the consensus here? Is inband good enough?

Thanks.

[gmonroy]

jgesualdi,

    Assuming you have already reviewed the release notes for potential bugs that may relate to in-band and oob mgmt, it really does come down to implementation preference.

In-band management requires more "up front" configuration and setup, but may pay back down the line depending on what sort of integrations we are planning to use (vmm, l4-l7, etc). On older versions, it did have some limitations which is why it is worth reviewing the release notes of the version you are planning to implement.

OOB, while requiring the extra cabling, tends to be the "safer" option in my opinion. It is even nice to have as a fallback in case you decide to go with both. At the very minimum, having OOB to the APICs is almost a must (again, in my opinion) given that you can get from the APICs to the switch nodes using the infra TEP addresses.

Hope this helps,

-Gabriel

[jgesualdi]

One last question. Down the road when we integrate with a VMM domain can I use inband for the VMM integration?   My plan is to use a dedicated OOB for all my APIC'S and LEAF/Spine switches only. Down the road for VMM I will use an inband connection. Is this an acceptable design? Thanks.