New and Changed Information

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

Table 1. New Features and Changed Behavior in Cisco APIC

Cisco APIC Release Version

Feature

Description

N/A -- Revised section "On-Demand VMM Inventory Refresh" to clarify.

Release 1.2(1i)

--

In release 1.2(1i), in the APIC GUI, the following names changed in the Navigation page:

  • "VM NETWORKING > POLICIES" to "VM Networking > Inventory"

  • "VM Provider VMware" to "VMware"

Release 1.0(2j)

--

This guide was released.

On-Demand VMM Inventory Refresh

Triggered Inventory provides a manual trigger option to pull and refresh Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) inventory from the virtual machine manager (VMM) controller. It is not required in normal scenarios. Use it with discretion only when errors occur.

When there is a process restart, leadership change, or background periodic 24-hour inventory audit, Cisco APIC pulls inventory to keep VMM inventory aligned with the VMM controller inventory. At certain times, VMware vCenter APIs can error out, and Cisco APIC may not have fully downloaded the inventory from the VMware vCenter despite retries. Cisco APIC indicates this condition with a user-visible fault. In this case, triggered inventory allows you to start an inventory pull from the Cisco APIC VMM to the VMware vCenter.

Cisco APIC does not maintain any synchronization between the VMM configuration and the VMware vCenter VDS configuration. If you directly change VDS settings from the VMware vCenter, Cisco APIC does not try to overwrite the user settings (except for PVLAN configuration).

Triggering an On-Demand VMM Inventory Refresh Using the GUI

This GUI procedure triggers an on-demand VMM inventory refresh.

Procedure

Step 1

In the menu bar, click VM Networking.

Step 2

If you are running 1.1(4) or prior: In the submenu bar, click Policies. If you are running 1.2(1) or later: In the submenu bar, click Inventory.

Step 3

If you are running 1.1(4) or prior: In the Navigation pane, expand VM Provider VMware. If you are running 1.2(1) or later: In the Navigation pane, expand VMware.

Step 4

Expand your VMM domain name.

Step 5

Right-click your VMM controller and select Trigger Inventory Sync.

Step 6

(Optional) If you are running 1.2(1) or later: To confirm a successful refresh, follow these steps:

  1. In the VM Networking menu, click the Inventory submenu.

  2. Expand VMware, your VMM domain name, and your VMM controller.

  3. In the Work pane, verify the most recent inventory completion timestamp.

Triggering an On-Demand VMM Inventory Refresh Using the API

When submitted using the REST API, the sample XML policy below triggers an on-demand VMM inventory refresh. 


<vmmProvP vendor="VMware">
    <vmmDomP name="productionDC">
       <vmmCtrlrP 
            name="vcenter1" 
            hostOrIp="192.20.0.123" 
            rootContName="productionDC”       
            inventoryTrigSt="triggered”>
       </vmmCtrlrP>
   </vmmDomP>
</vmmProvP>

Triggering an On-Demand VMM Inventory Refresh Using the CLI

This CLI procedure triggers an on-demand VMM inventory refresh.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. moset inventory-trigger-state triggered
  2. moconfig commit

DETAILED STEPS

Step 1

moset inventory-trigger-state triggered

Step 2

moconfig commit

Example

This example triggers an on-demand VMM inventory refresh and verifies the timestamp of the inventory. 


admin@ifc0:vcenter1> pwd
/aci/vm-networking/policies/vmware/vmm-domains/productionDC/controllers/vcenter1
admin@ifc0:vcenter1> moset inventory-trigger-state triggered
admin@ifc0:vcenter1> moconfig commit
Committing mo 'vm-networking/policies/vmware/vmm-domains/productionDC/controllers/vcenter1'
All mos committed successfully.

admin@ifc0:vcenter1> cat /aci/vm-networking/inventory/VMware/vmm-domains/productionDC/controllers/productionDC-
vcenter1/summary  | grep last-inventory
last-inventory-timestamp : 2014-10-20T20:45:45.547+00:00

Note

The "last-inventory-timestamp" at the end confirms successful completion of the on-demand VMM inventory refresh.