Understanding Fabric Groups, Release 4.3.1

 
Updated August 22, 2026
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New and changed information

The following table provides an overview of the significant changes up to this current release. The table does not provide an exhaustive list of all changes or of the new features up to this release.

Release Version Feature Description

Nexus Dashboard 4.3.1

New information in a fabric group’s Overview page

The Overview page for a fabric group now provides Advisory level, Analytics summary, and Connectivity information, as well as Fabric bugs information.

For more information, see Overview.

Nexus Dashboard 4.3.1

Ability to run connectivity analysis at the fabric group level

A Start connectivity analysis job option is now available under Overview > Actions page at the fabric group level.

For more information, see Actions.

Nexus Dashboard 4.3.1

Endpoints page now available for fabric groups

The Connectivity > Endpoints page is now available for fabric groups, providing information on the endpoints across the different fabrics in a fabric group.

For more information, see Endpoints.

Nexus Dashboard 4.3.1

Inter-fabric page now available for fabric groups

The Connectivity > Inter-fabric page is now available for fabric groups, which monitors and displays information about previously configured inter-fabric connections, providing visibility into the health and connectivity status of those connections.

For more information, see Inter-fabric.

Nexus Dashboard 4.3.1

Support for any logical construct for VXLAN-ACI fabric groups

The any logical construct was previously available for VXLAN fabric groups. Beginning with Nexus Dashboard release 4.3.1, the any logical construct is now available for VXLAN-ACI fabric groups as well.

For more information, see Support for any in VXLAN-ACI fabric groups.

Understanding fabric groups

You can use fabric groups to create a group of fabrics with common attributes for visualization purposes and simpler management.

Understanding LAN fabrics, ACI fabrics, and fabric groups

Before you begin working with fabrics and fabric groups, it’s helpful to understand more about each.

Understanding LAN and ACI fabrics

Fabrics are on-premises network regions that include a group of switches and other networking devices that provide connectivity to your applications and endpoints. They may be split in different availability zones (such as pods) that are analyzed and managed by Nexus Dashboard.

There are many types of fabrics:

  • LAN — This type of fabric contains either of these switch types:

    • NX-OS switches — These are a group of Nexus switches running NX-OS software. Nexus Dashboard manages and monitors NX-OS switches using best-practice templates. You can add a fresh set of NX-OS switches for greenfield deployments or onboard existing NX-OS switches to an existing fabric for incremental management and monitoring.

    • Non-Nexus switches and devices — Nexus Dashboard supports onboarding a variety of non-Nexus switches and service appliances such as IOS-XE, IOS-XR, firewalls, and load balancers. These devices support campus VXLAN EVPN fabrics, Layer 4 to Layer 7 (L4–L7) services, and external fabrics that enable east-west or north-south connectivity, such as an IP-based network (IPN), inter-site network (ISN), core, and edge.

  • ACI — ACI fabric consists of multiple Cisco N9000 switches running ACI software managed by an Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) cluster.

    • Monitoring and Analysis: Onboard existing ACI fabrics for continuous telemetry streaming. In environments with restricted connectivity, such as air-gapped networks, you can onboard ACI switches as offline snapshots to perform point-in-time analysis without a direct network connection.

    • You can also use Orchestration to manage and coordinate policies across multiple ACI sites.

    • In addition, you can group ACI fabrics with NX-OS fabrics using the VXLAN-ACI fabric group, where you can now import tenant policies from ACI fabrics into Nexus Dashboard using the EPG-to-ESG migration workflow. See Understanding the process for importing tenant policies from ACI fabrics into VXLAN-ACI fabric groups for more information.

Nexus Dashboard multi-cluster architecture categorizes fabrics as Local or Remote.

  • Local: A fabric that is present in the local Nexus Dashboard cluster.

  • Remote: A fabric that is not present in this cluster, but rather is present in another cluster that is part of Nexus Dashboard multi-cluster connectivity.

In addition, local fabrics can be broken down in the following manner:

  • Online fabrics: Fabrics that are connected to Nexus Dashboard over the network.

  • Snapshot fabrics: Fabrics that are referenced by a snapshot for use in one-time analysis or demonstrations. They may or may not be connected to Nexus Dashboard over the network.

And finally, you can either create new fabrics or onboard existing fabrics. Note that before Nexus Dashboard and the individual services were unified into a single product (as described in "Unified Nexus Dashboard deployment"), there were fabric types that were available previously but might not be available as a new fabric type with the unified product, such as the Legacy Classic LAN fabric type. You can still onboard those existing fabric types but you will not be able to create a new fabric with those pre-unification fabric types. See Mapping fabric types for more information.

Grouping fabrics and clusters

There are several ways to group fabrics and clusters together in Nexus Dashboard:

Grouping Nexus Dashboard clusters

Multi-cluster connectivity: You can establish connectivity between multiple Nexus Dashboard and APIC clusters. For more information, see Connecting Clusters.

Grouping fabrics

The method that you use to group fabrics together differs depending on the type of fabric:

  • NX-OS fabrics: You can group fabrics together using a fabric group, which is a collection of fabrics grouped for visualization or management. The available fabric group types include:

    • VXLAN: A fabric group that is used to interconnect multiple data center VXLAN EVPN fabrics and/or ACI fabrics using border gateways. It can also be used to interconnect Data Center and Campus VXLAN EVPN fabrics. This enables shared overlay deployments for security and segmentation using VXLAN EVPN multisite. The IPN/ISN interconnect network fabric may also be optionally part of this group.

      These types of VXLAN fabric groups are available:

      • VXLAN: This subtype of fabric group can contain multiple NX-OS-based Data Center VXLAN EVPN fabrics and/or IOS-XE-based Campus VXLAN EVPN fabrics (which need NX-OS-based border gateways). The DCI network comprising of Multi-Site and External Connectivity or BGP routed fabrics can also be part of this group.

      • VXLAN-ACI: A group that includes a Cisco ACI fabric connected to one or more Cisco NX-OS fabrics using the Nexus One architecture for unified management and policy deployment. For more information, see Understanding the Nexus One architecture.

    • Classic: A Classic fabric group can contain Enhanced Classic LAN, Legacy Classic-LAN, Any VXLAN EVPN and External and Inter-fabric connectivity fabrics. This group allows for a combined visualization at a topology level. No group level deployments are available in this fabric group.

    • IP Fabric for Media: A logical group of LAN or IP Fabric for Media (IPFM) fabrics. This type of fabric group can contain individual IPFM/IPFM-Classic/Classic-LAN fabrics. This type of group allows shared host and flow definitions.

  • Cisco ACI fabric management models: You can manage ACI fabrics in Nexus Dashboard using one of two methods:

    • Using Cisco ACI in Nexus Dashboard Orchestration

    • Using Cisco ACI in a VXLAN-ACI fabric group

      • Enables management and interoperability between Cisco ACI and Cisco NX-OS VXLAN EVPN fabrics.

      • Automates the infrastructure configuration for inter-fabric underlay and overlay connectivity between ACI and NX-OS fabrics.

      • Centralizes the deployment of security and segmentation policies across Cisco ACI and Cisco NX-OS environments.

        For more information, see Understanding the Nexus One architecture

    Constraint: You cannot enable Orchestration on a Cisco ACI fabric that is a member of a VXLAN-ACI fabric group. Similarly, you cannot add a Cisco ACI fabric to a VXLAN-ACI fabric group if Orchestration is enabled. When adding fabrics to a VXLAN-ACI fabric group, any ACI fabrics with Orchestration enabled will not be available to choose.

  • Multi-cluster fabric groups: You can create a multi-cluster fabric group that spans multiple Nexus Dashboard clusters to manage VXLAN fabrics across different clusters in a multi-cluster fabric group. For more information, see Create multi-cluster fabric groups.

Guidelines and limitations for fabric groups

  • For fabric groups, the controller and telemetry functions must reside on the same Nexus Dashboard cluster, as co-location of these services across multiple clusters is not supported.

Understanding the Fabric Groups page

The Fabric groups page provides a centralized view of fabric group operations, inventory health, connectivity metrics, configuration, and operational status of the network monitoring infrastructure.

The Fabric groups page includes the following tabs.

Overview

The Overview tab provides a summary of the health and status of the fabric group. You can also view the anomaly level, general fabric details (such as software versions and license tier), inventory summaries, and real-time status of input ports, monitoring tools, and packet filters. It also tracks data throughput and recent administrative activity.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Overview tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

    The Overview page for that fabric group displays.

Actions

These are the actions that you can take at the fabric group level.

Action Description

Edit fabric group settings

Allows you to modify the configuration settings of the fabric group as needed.

Add member fabric

Allows you to add member fabrics to a fabric group.

Recalculate and deploy

Allows you to recalculate fabric policies and configurations, ensuring they are up-to-date and aligned with the desired state. Once recalculated, you can deploy these settings across the fabric group.

Associate tenants

Allows you to associate tenants with the fabric group. For more information, see Associate tenants with a fabric group.

Start connectivity analysis job

Allows you to start a connectivity analysis job scoped to the fabric group. Only endpoints within that fabric group are available for analysis. For more information, see Analyzing endpoint flows using Connectivity Analysis.

Configuration

Allows you to add links in a fabric group.

Maintenance

Provides options to backup and restore a fabric group. For more information, see Backing Up and Restoring Your Nexus Dashboard.

Tiles

Review the information in the various tiles in the Overview tab.

Anomaly level

The anomaly data for a fabric group includes the anomalies of the fabric group and all its member fabrics. The aggregate score and level are reflected in the Overview page for the fabric group, as well as the Summary and Details widgets and pages.​

Nexus Dashboard proactively detects different types of anomalies across the network, analyzes the anomalies, and identifies remediation methods. The Anomaly level tile provides a status of your anomaly levels and a list of your top anomaly categories.

Nexus Dashboard monitors different sets of data from all nodes in the fabrics in the fabric group and baselines the data to identify “normal” behavior. Any deviation is represented as an anomaly. Your time is better spent in resolving the issue instead of tracking the issue. Additionally, it can estimate the impact of the anomaly and generate a recommendation depending on the nature of the anomaly and thus reducing the Mean Time to Troubleshooting and Resolution (MTTR).

Click in the Anomaly level tile to navigate directly to the Anomalies tab in the Summary page. See Detecting Anomalies in Your Nexus Dashboard for more information.

Advisory level

The advisory data for a fabric group includes the advisories of the fabric group and all its member fabrics. The aggregate level is reflected in the Overview page for the fabric group, as well as in the Summary and Details widgets and pages.​ ​ Nexus Dashboard identifies field notices, software and hardware end-of-life and end-of-sale announcements, as well as PSIRTs that can potentially impact the network fabrics that it is monitoring, and generate advisories. Advisories provide recommendations to keep your network under support and running in optimal conditions. The Advisory level tile provides a status of your advisory levels and a list of your top advisory categories.

Click in the Advisory level tile to navigate directly to the Advisories tab in the Summary page. See Identifying Advisories in Your Nexus Dashboard for more information.

Recent activity

The Recent activity tile provides a summary of the most recent changes that have occurred in the fabrics in the fabric group (for example, if you deleted an interface on a switch in a fabric in the fabric group). Click View all to navigate directly to the History tab in the Summary page. See History for more information.

General

The General tile provides a summary of this information for the fabric group. Click Settings to view more detailed information on the general settings for the fabric group.

Field Description

Group name

Provides the name of the fabric group.

Type

Provides the type of fabric group.

CloudSec

Shows if CloudSec is enabled or not for this fabric group.

Multi-site overlay IFC deployment method

Provides information on how the data centers connect through the border gateways: manually, directly to the border gateways or through a route server.

Security group status

Provides the security group status for the fabric group.

Switches software version

Provides the software versions on the switches in the fabrics in the fabric group. If there are more than two switch software versions in the fabrics in the fabric group, text is displayed that shows how many additional switch software versions are in the fabrics.

Fabric bugs

Displays bugs that are associated with the software running on the fabrics in the fabric group. Click Show more to view the active and known bugs for the fabrics in the fabric group.

Inventory

In the Inventory tile, you can view the summary of this information in the fabric group.

  • Member fabrics: Displays the number of member fabrics in the fabric group. Click this box to navigate directly to Inventory > Member fabrics for this fabric group.

  • Controllers: Displays the number of switches in the fabrics in the fabric group. Click this box to navigate directly to Inventory > Controllers for this fabric group.

  • Switches: Displays the number of switches in the fabrics in the fabric group. Click this box to navigate directly to Inventory > Switches for this fabric group.

  • VPC pairs: Displays the number of vPC pairs in the fabrics in the fabric group. Click this box to navigate directly to Inventory > vPC pairs for this fabric group.

  • Other devices: Displays the number of other devices in the fabrics in the fabric group. Click this box to navigate directly to Inventory > Other devices for this fabric group.

Interfaces

In the Interfaces tile, you can see the summary of the interfaces for the fabrics in the fabric group, including the number of switches that are in the Up, Down, or Admin Down state.

  • Click Physical to show only physical interfaces, or click All to show physical and virtual interfaces.

  • Click the link for the total number of interfaces in the fabric group to navigate directly to Connectivity > Interfaces for this fabric group. This provides additional details such as Anomaly Level, Admin Status, Operational Status, and Interface Type. Click the interface name to view additional details.

Analytics summary

These topics provide information on the Analytics summary area for fabric groups.

Guidelines and limitations: Analytics summary for fabric groups

  • There is no navigation directly from a fabric group’s Analytics summary area to the Analytics Hub page. However, you can navigate directly to the Analytics Hub page from the Analytics summary area from any member fabric in the fabric group.

  • If a report is not available at the fabric level (such as for conformance or energy management), you cannot trigger that report from the fabric level. Instead, you must trigger the report from the Analytics Hub page or from the member fabric level.

Analytics summary for fabric groups

In the Analytics Summary tile, you can see an overview of the multiple analytics collected from across the fabric group. Click the appropriate area in the Analytics Summary tile to view summarized views, similar to those displayed in the Overview > Analytics summary for a fabric.

It displays the status for these areas related to the fabric group.

  • Conformance: Displays aggregated status for member fabrics in the fabric group. Enables you to visualize and understand the lifecycle of your hardware and software in the network. This assists you in planning upgrades and hardware refresh. Conformance Report is generated everyday for each fabric group for hardware and software conformance and weekly for each fabric group for scale conformance. In the report you can view the conformance status of software, hardware, a combination of both software and hardware, and scale conformance status for fabric groups.

    Click the Conformance box to bring up a slide-in pane that provides conformance information in these areas.

    • Devices by hardware conformance status

    • Devices by software conformance status

    • Scale conformance status for fabrics or switches

  • Traffic analytics: Displays an aggregated summary of traffic analytics information for member fabrics in the fabric group. Enables you to monitor your network’s latency, congestion, and drops.

    Traffic Analytics automatically discovers services running in your network by matching well-known Layer 4 ports to their corresponding service endpoint categories. Nexus Dashboard then assesses service performance based on thresholds for the following metrics:

    • Latency: Measures the overall time in microseconds it takes a packet to go from one place to another.

    • Congestion: Measures network bandwidth utilization and quality of service (QoS) activation mechanisms to determine if a service is experiencing network congestion.

    • Drops: Measures the score or number of dropped packets versus transmitted packets considering factors such as CRC errors, faulty cables, and other devices.

      Click the Traffic analytics box to bring up a slide-in pane that provides the traffic analytics summary.

  • Energy management: Displays aggregated values from all member fabrics in the fabric group. Helps you monitor, predict, and improve your network’s energy usage, its related carbon emissions, and its total energy cost. The energy management report enables you to get insights on energy utilization, CO2 emissions, and energy cost for all the fabrics in the fabric group on a monthly basis.

    The report is generated by calculating the monthly values for Power Consumption and by summing the usage data across all of your devices at each of your fabrics for every single day in the chosen month. This data is then combined with the Cisco Energy Manager to provide greater insight into what that usage means in terms of energy cost, estimated emissions, and estimated switch power consumption. For more information about the Cisco Energy Manager, see Cisco Energy Manager.

    Click Energy management to bring up a page that provides the energy management report for your fabric group. In addition, if no report is displayed, then you will have to generate the report for all the member fabrics in the fabric group through the Analyze > Analysis Hub > Energy management page.

Connectivity

In the Connectivity tile, you can view details about these areas related to this fabric group.

  • Endpoints: Displays the total number of endpoints from all member fabrics in the fabric group. ​Click the number of endpoints shown to navigate directly to Connectivity > Endpoints for this fabric group. See Endpoints for more information.

  • Inter-fabric: Displays the total number of inter-fabric links between member fabrics in the fabric group. Click the number of inter-fabric connections shown to navigate directly to Connectivity > Inter-fabric for this fabric group. See Inter-fabric for more information.

Segmentation and security

In the Segmentation and security tile, you can view details about these areas related to this fabric.

  • Tenants: Click the number of tenants shown to navigate directly to Segmentation and security > tenants for this fabric group.

  • VRFs: Click the number of VRFs shown to navigate directly to Segmentation and security > VRFs for this fabric group.

  • Security groups: Click the number of security groups shown to navigate directly to Segmentation and security > Security groups for this fabric group.

  • Networks: Click the number of networks shown to navigate directly to Segmentation and security > Networks for this fabric group.

Inventory

The Inventory tab lists all hardware assets managed within the fabrics in the fabric group, including switches and controllers. It allows you to monitor hardware resources, view capacity, and verify the operational status of each device in the network.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Inventory tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click Inventory.

The Inventory page displays the following tabs.

Member fabrics

The Member fabrics area is an Inventory page that is specific to fabric groups. It provides this information on the member fabrics in this fabric group.

Field Description

Fabric name

Specifies the names of the member fabrics in this fabric group.

Type

Specifies the types of member fabrics in this fabric group.

Anomaly level

Displays the anomaly levels of the fabrics in this fabric group, classified as Healthy, Critical, Major, Minor, and Warning, based on operational issues.

Advisory level

Displays the advisory levels of the fabrics in this fabric group, classified as Healthy, Critical, Major, or Warning, based on operational issues.

License tier

Displays the license tiers for the fabrics in this fabric group.

ASN

Displays the ASNs for the fabrics in this fabric group.

Connectivity status

Indicates whether the connectivity for the fabrics in this fabric group is Up or Down.

Software version

Specifies the software versions for the fabrics in this fabric group.

Security group status

Displays the status of the security groups for the fabrics in this fabric group.

Switches

The information provided in the Switches page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Switches pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

These articles describe the fabric-level information provided on the Switches page:

VPC Pairs

The information provided in the VPC pairs page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the VPC pairs pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

These articles describe the fabric-level information provided on the VPC pairs page:

Other devices

The information provided in the Other devices page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Other devices pages from the member NX-OS fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Other devices page:

Other devices information in NX-OS fabrics

Controllers

The information provided in the Controllers page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Controllers pages from the member ACI fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the ACI fabric-level information provided on the Controllers page:

Controllers information in ACI fabrics

Connectivity

The Connectivity tab provides a centralized location to manage and monitor the physical and logical connections for the fabrics in your fabric group. It allows you to verify that interfaces function correctly and traffic follows your defined policies.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Connectivity tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click Connectivity.

The Connectivity page displays the following tabs.

Interfaces

Click Interfaces to view the interfaces for fabric group, then click the appropriate sub category, depending on the fabric type in your fabric group:

NX Interfaces

The information provided in the NX Interfaces page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Interfaces pages from the member NX-OS fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Interfaces page:

Interfaces information in NX-OS fabrics

ACI Interfaces

The information provided in the ACI Interfaces page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Interfaces pages from the member ACI fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the ACI fabric-level information provided on the Interfaces page:

Interfaces information in ACI fabrics

Endpoints

The Endpoints page provides information on the endpoints learnt in each fabric in this fabric group. You can filter the results based on MAC address, IP addresses, hostname, anomaly level, interface, status, VRF instance, Layer 3 switches, and Layer 3 interfaces.

The information provided in the Endpoints page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Endpoints pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group. While there might be differences between endpoint information that is displayed at the ACI fabric and NX-OS fabric levels, at the fabric group level, the endpoint information that is displayed is a subset of the endpoint information that is common between the two fabric types. The endpoint information that is provided at the fabric group level is similar to the endpoint information that is displayed when you click on Active Endpoints in the global Overview page.

These articles describe the endpoints information at the individual fabrics level:

Guidelines and limitations: Endpoints in fabric groups

  • Endpoints information is not supported for multi-cluster fabric groups, so endpoints are not displayed in the endpoints table in the Endpoints tab under Connectivity for multi-cluster fabric groups. See Grouping fabrics for more information on multi-cluster fabric groups.

  • For single-cluster fabric groups, endpoints are displayed in the endpoints table in the Endpoints tab under Connectivity; however, Real Time Event Visualization (RTEV) information is not displayed in the endpoints table for single-cluster fabric groups.

Links

You can add links between border switches of different fabrics (inter-fabric links) or between switches in the same fabric (intra-fabric links). You can only create an inter-fabric connection (IFC) for a switch that is managed by Nexus Dashboard.

The information provided in the Links page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Links pages from the member NX-OS fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Links page:

Links information in NX-OS fabrics

Inter-fabric

Click Inter-fabric to view inter-fabric connections for the fabrics in this fabric group.

For the most part, the information provided in the Inter-fabric page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Inter-fabric pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This information in the fabric group’s Inter-fabric page is specific to fabric groups.

Field Description

Source fabric

The source fabric in the inter-fabric connection.

Source fabric group name

The name of the fabric group that contains the source fabric in the inter-fabric connection.

Destination fabric

The destination fabric in the inter-fabric connection.

Destination fabric group name

The name of the fabric group that contains the destination fabric in the inter-fabric connection.

The remaining information that is provided in the fabric group’s Inter-fabric page is an aggregation of the information from the Inter-fabric pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

These articles describe the fabric-level information provided on the Inter-fabric page:

While there might be differences between inter-fabric information that is displayed at the ACI fabric and NX-OS fabric levels, at the fabric group level, the inter-fabric information that is displayed is similar to what is displayed when you click on Inter-fabric in the global Overview page.

Flows

Flows provides deep insights at a flow level giving details such as average latency and packet drop indicator. It also raises anomalies when the latency of the flows increase or when packets get dropped because of congestion or forwarding errors.

Each flow has a packet counter representing the number of packets entering the ASIC for that flow over a period of time. This period of time is called aggregation interval. There are several points where flow statistics for a given flow can be aggregated. Aggregation can happen in the ASIC, switch software, and server software.

The Flows page in Nexus Dashboard displays the telemetry information collected from various devices in the fabric that were added to the fabric.

The information provided in the Flows page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Flows pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

These articles describe the fabric-level information provided on the Flows page:

Segmentation and security

The Segmentation and security page allows you to configure these areas:

  • VRFs (Virtual Routing and Forwarding)

  • Networks

  • Security groups or Endpoint Security Groups (ESGs)

  • Security contracts and associations

  • Protocol definitions

  • Tenants in the fabric segmentation and security context

Follow these steps to navigate to the Segmentation and security tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click Segmentation and security.

The Segmentation and security page displays the following tabs.

Guidelines and limitations: Segmentation and security for VXLAN-ACI fabric groups

You cannot configure L4-L7 services at the VXLAN-ACI fabric group level as you would at an NX-OS fabric level.

Networks

The information provided in the Networks page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Networks pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any networks that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Networks page:

Networks information in NX-OS fabrics

VRFs

The information provided in the VRFs page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the VRFs pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any VRFs that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the VRFs page:

VRFs information in NX-OS fabrics

Security groups

The information provided in the Security groups page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Security groups pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any security groups that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Security groups page:

Security groups information in NX-OS fabrics

Support for any in VXLAN-ACI fabric groups

The any logical construct, which represents all the security groups and non-classified resources for a given VRF, was previously available for VXLAN fabric groups. Beginning with Nexus Dashboard release 4.3.1, the any logical construct is now available for VXLAN-ACI fabric groups as well. With this feature, the any logical construct is supported when creating a new VXLAN-ACI fabric group, as well as when importing ACI vzAny policies from an ACI fabric as an any logical construct in Nexus Dashboard. For more information on importing ACI vzAny policies from an ACI fabric, see Understanding the process for importing tenant policies from ACI fabrics into VXLAN-ACI fabric groups.

The any logical construct offers a convenient way of associating any traffic within a Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instance to a contract, which allows for communication without creating separate contract relations for each security group.

These are the advantages of using the any logical construct:

  • TCAM space is saved

  • Simplified configuration and maintenance

The any logical construct is created automatically when you choose either strict or loose in the Enable Security Group field under Security when editing a fabric group. The any logical construct is then displayed under Segmentation and security > Security groups for that fabric group.

Use cases for the any logical construct

These are the use cases for the any logical construct:

  • Any-to-Any intra-VRF communication: When creating a security association for the fabric group, choose:

    • Any in the Source group field

    • Any in the Destination group field

    • The same VRF in both the Source group VRF and the Destination group VRF fields

  • Any-to-Security Group in the same VRF: When creating a security association for the fabric group, choose:

    • Any in the Source group field

    • The appropriate security group in the Destination group field

    • The appropriate VRF for the any logical construct in the Source group VRF field

  • Security Group-to-Any in same VRF: When creating a security association for the fabric group, choose:

    • Any in the Source group field

    • The appropriate security group in the Destination group field

    • The appropriate VRF for the any logical construct in the Destination group VRF field

Guidelines and limitations: any logical construct

  • If a VRF is defined in tenant common, then you can perform the security association involving any only in tenant common.

  • The any logical construct, along with security groups in general, are not supported in inter-VRF scenarios for VXLAN-ACI fabric groups.

Security contracts

The information provided in the Security contracts page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Security contracts pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any security contracts that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Security contracts page:

Security contracts information in NX-OS fabrics

Security associations

The information provided in the Security associations page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Security associations pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any security associations that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Security associations page:

Security associations information in NX-OS fabrics

Protocol definitions

The information provided in the Protocol definitions page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Protocol definitions pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any protocol definitions that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Protocol definitions page:

Protocol definitions information in NX-OS fabrics

Tenants

The information provided in the Tenants page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Tenants pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group and any tenants that were created at the fabric group level.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Tenants page:

Tenants information in NX-OS fabrics

Configuration policies

The Configuration policies tab allows you to manage and deploy CLI-based configuration templates to the switches within the fabrics in the fabric group. It applies settings such as interface breakouts and system features directly to the hardware.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Configuration policies tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click the Configuration policies tab.

The Configuration policies page displays the following tabs.

Guidelines and limitations: Configuration policies for fabric groups

  • A fabric group’s Configuration policies page displays information only for NX-OS fabrics.

  • Beginning with Nexus Dashboard Release 4.3, users with only the Observer role have access restrictions that prevent access to most device configuration settings. Conversely, users with other roles, including users assigned the Observer role in addition to other roles across various security domains, retain some access to view device configurations.

Policies

The information provided in the Policies page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Policies pages from the member NX-OS fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Policies page:

Policies information in NX-OS fabrics

Resources

The information provided in the Resources page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Resources pages from the member NX-OS fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the NX-OS fabric-level information provided on the Resources page:

Resources information in NX-OS fabrics

Anomalies

The Anomalies tab displays all detected anomalies within the fabrics in the fabric group. It organizes the anomalies by severity level and category, allowing you to filter and group events to identify and troubleshoot specific problems like hardware health issues.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Anomalies tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click the Anomalies tab.

The information provided in the Anomalies page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Anomalies pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Anomalies page for both ACI fabrics and NX-OS fabrics:

Detecting Anomalies in Your Nexus Dashboard

Advisories

Nexus Dashboard identifies field notices, software and hardware end-of-life and end-of-sale announcements, as well as PSIRTs that can potentially impact the network fabrics that it is monitoring, and generate advisories. Advisories provides recommendations to keep your network under support and running in optimal conditions.

Advisories in Nexus Dashboard provide details of relevant impact from field notices, PSIRTs, EoL/EoS of hardware and software, and best practices. You can view the advisories by level and category for a particular fabric based on the selected time range.

When Advisories identifies field notices that can potentially impact the network fabrics that it is monitoring, Nexus Dashboard validates the serial number of the devices in the fabrics against a list of affected device serial numbers in each field notice. If a serial number is not included in a field notice, Nexus Dashboard excludes that field notice. For Advisories to validate the device serial numbers, Nexus Dashboard must have an Internet connection and be connected to and registered to Cisco Intersight. Without such connectivity, Advisories cannot validate the serial numbers, which can result in Advisories incorrectly including field notices that do not apply. Not all field notices include serial number validation.

Follow these steps to navigate to the Advisories tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click the Advisories tab.

The information provided in the Advisories page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Advisories pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Advisories page for both ACI fabrics and NX-OS fabrics:

Identifying Advisories in Your Nexus Dashboard

History

The History tab provides a comprehensive activity log of all actions taken within the fabrics in the fabric group. It provides details about audit logs, deployment history, policy change history, and system events in chronological order, which is essential for compliance, auditing, and tracking the root cause of configuration changes.

Follow these steps to navigate to the History tab.

  1. Navigate to the Fabric groups page.

    Go to Manage > Fabrics > Fabric groups.

  2. From the Fabric groups table, click a fabric group.

  3. In the fabric group page, click the History tab.

The History page displays the following tabs.

Guidelines and limitations: History for fabric groups

The Audit logs tab provides information for both ACI and NX-OS fabrics, whereas the Deployment history, Policy change history, and Recent tasks tabs provide information only for NX-OS fabrics.

Audit logs

The information provided in the Audit logs page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Audit logs pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Audit logs page for both ACI fabrics and NX-OS fabrics:

Reviewing History and Logs in Your Nexus Dashboard

Deployment history

The information provided in the Deployment history page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Deployment history pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Deployment history page for NX-OS fabrics:

Reviewing History and Logs in Your Nexus Dashboard

Policy change history

The information provided in the Policy change history page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Policy change history pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Policy change history page for NX-OS fabrics:

Reviewing History and Logs in Your Nexus Dashboard

Recent tasks

The information provided in the Recent tasks page for fabric groups is an aggregation of the information from the Recent tasks pages from the member fabrics in the fabric group.

This article describes the fabric-level information provided on the Recent tasks page for NX-OS fabrics:

Reviewing History and Logs in Your Nexus Dashboard

Copyright

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