Fabric Groups and Multi-Cluster Fabric Groups are both ways to organize and manage network fabrics in Cisco Nexus Dashboard (ND), but they work at different scales.
Fabric Groups
A Fabric Group is a way to group multiple network fabrics within a single ND cluster.
It helps manage, monitor, and apply policies to related fabrics from one place.
All fabrics are managed from the same Nexus Dashboard instance.
Multi-Cluster Fabric Groups
Multi-Cluster Fabric Groups allow you to group and manage fabrics across multiple ND clusters.
They use the One Manage feature to provide centralized management and monitoring for fabrics in different data centers or sites.
You can view topologies, health, and automate connections between fabrics from different clusters, all from one dashboard.
This is ideal for organizations with several data centers or large, distributed networks.
Summary
Use Fabric Groups to organize and manage multiple fabrics within a single Nexus Dashboard cluster.
Use Multi-Cluster Fabric Groups (with One Manage) to manage and automate fabrics across several ND clusters, especially for large or multi-site networks.
In this lab we will be exploring Multi-Cluster Fabric Groups.
Step 1 - All Clusters
Click The Blue Globe
Select All Clusters
Step 2 - Manage Fabrics
Click Manage
Then, click Fabrics
Step 3 - Create Fabric Group
In the Fabrics pane, you should now see your Site1, Site2, ExtL3, and ISN fabrics present.
Click on Multi-Cluster Fabric Grouops then Create Fabric Group:
Click Multi-Cluster fabric Groups
Click Create Fabric Group
Click VXLAN
Then click Next
Step 4 - Fabric Group Settings
The first section is General Parameters where you define the Layer 2 and Layer 3 VXLAN VNIs for extending Layer 2 and Layer 3
connectivity and the corresponding templates required. The L2VNI and L3VNI ranges must align and encompass the ranges used in the
one or more fabrics that will be imported into your MultiSite Domain (MSD). When you created your Site1 and Site2 fabrics, these
ranges were what was used.
Enter the Fabric name,
ltrdcn2654
and Click DCI
Select Centralized_To_Route_Server
Enter Route Server loopback 44.4.0.1
Enter Route Server ASN 65444
Enable Redistribute Direct
Scroll Down and
Enable BGP Neighbor Description on Multi-Site Overlay IFC
Enable Multi-Site Underlay IFC Auto Deployment Flag
Enable BGP Send-community on Multi-Site Underlay IFC
Enable BGP log neighbor change on Multi-Site Underlay IFC
Scroll Down and
Then click Next
Step 5 - Finalized Fabric creation and close.
Click Create
Click Close
Continue to the next section to import your Site1 and Site2 fabrics into your Multi-Cluster fabric group. You will also import your ISN fabric for
establishing the underlay and overlay IFCs between your Site1 and Site2 fabrics and then extending L2/L3 VNIs.
