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Administration Guide

Fabric connectors for ACI

Fabric connectors for ACI

With FortiManager, you can create a fabric connector for Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), and then import address names from ACI to automatically create dynamic objects that you can use in policies. When you install the policies to one or more FortiGate units, FortiGate uses the information and Fortinet SDN Connector to communicate with ACI and dynamically populate the objects with IP addresses.

Requirements:

  • FortiManager 5.6 or later ADOM
  • FortiGate is managed by FortiManager
  • The managed FortiGate unit is configured to work with Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)

Following is a high-level overview of the configuration procedure:

  1. In FortiManager, ensure that you are using a 5.6 or later ADOM.
  2. Create a fabric connector object for ACI. See Configuring fabric connectors.
  3. Import address names from ACI to the fabric connector object. See Importing address names to fabric connectors.

    The address names are imported and converted to dynamic firewall address objects. The objects do not yet include IP addresses. The objects are displayed on the Firewall Objects > Addresses pane.

  4. In the policy package in which you will be creating the new policy, create an IPv4 policy and include the firewall address objects for ACI. See IP policies.
  5. Install the policy package to FortiGate. See Install a policy package.

    FortiGate uses the information and Fortinet SDN Connector to communicate with ACI and dynamically populate the firewall address objects with IP addresses.

If the address names change in ACI after you import them to FortiManager, you must import the address names again.

Fabric connectors for ACI

With FortiManager, you can create a fabric connector for Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), and then import address names from ACI to automatically create dynamic objects that you can use in policies. When you install the policies to one or more FortiGate units, FortiGate uses the information and Fortinet SDN Connector to communicate with ACI and dynamically populate the objects with IP addresses.

Requirements:

  • FortiManager 5.6 or later ADOM
  • FortiGate is managed by FortiManager
  • The managed FortiGate unit is configured to work with Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)

Following is a high-level overview of the configuration procedure:

  1. In FortiManager, ensure that you are using a 5.6 or later ADOM.
  2. Create a fabric connector object for ACI. See Configuring fabric connectors.
  3. Import address names from ACI to the fabric connector object. See Importing address names to fabric connectors.

    The address names are imported and converted to dynamic firewall address objects. The objects do not yet include IP addresses. The objects are displayed on the Firewall Objects > Addresses pane.

  4. In the policy package in which you will be creating the new policy, create an IPv4 policy and include the firewall address objects for ACI. See IP policies.
  5. Install the policy package to FortiGate. See Install a policy package.

    FortiGate uses the information and Fortinet SDN Connector to communicate with ACI and dynamically populate the firewall address objects with IP addresses.

If the address names change in ACI after you import them to FortiManager, you must import the address names again.