Cisco APIC Installation and ACI Upgrade and Downgrade Guide
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Cisco APIC Installation and ACI Upgrade and Downgrade Guide
Updated: July 12, 2026
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Describes the core networking devices that form the backbone of data center fabric architectures.
A spine switch is a high-capacity networking device that
forms the core layer of a leaf-spine data center fabric architecture
provides high-bandwidth connectivity between leaf switches, and
enables scalable east-west traffic distribution across the data center network.
When replacing switches with newer hardware that cannot run the same ACI software version as existing switches, you must perform a coordinated upgrade process to maintain fabric stability.
| 1. | Upgrade the APIC cluster to the software version that can run the new switch hardware. |
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| 2. | Upgrade switches that are not to be replaced to the same version as the APIC cluster. |
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| 3. | Follow the same procedure as RMA with the existing switch running the old version and the new switch running the new version. See "Procedures and verification" in "Troubleshoot ACI Fabric Discovery - Device Replacement" for details. |
The procedure is the same as Return Material Authorization (RMA).
See "Procedures and verification" in "Troubleshoot ACI Fabric Discovery - Device Replacement" for details.
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