VMware Support for Cisco ACI VMM with VCF 9.x

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Cisco has a solution which is related to Cisco ACI called VMM which uses the public vSphere API to configure vSphere networking. This includes VDS, uplinks, LAG/LACP and portgroups. 

In May 2026 Cisco added support for VCF (vSphere) 9.0 to ACI VMM 6.2(2). Cisco support for this solution is documented here:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/Website/datacenter/aci/virtualization/matrix/virtmatrix.html#vmware_support

Customers using vSphere 8.x can install or upgrade to VCF 9.0 and receive support from Cisco. Cisco is in the process of qualifying VCF 9.1, and support is pending. Customers who want to install or upgrade to VCF 9.1 should contact Cisco and request technical qualification.

Note: Support for Cisco ACI VMM is provided by Cisco who has developed the solution. Customers are advised to contact Cisco technical support should issues with the Cisco ACI VMM solution arise.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 +

VMware vSphere ESXi 

 

 

Cause

Cisco ACI VMM 6.2(2) may not function with SDDC Manager.

Cisco does not currently support VCF 9.1 with their ACI VMM integration.

Resolution

Upgrade to VCF 9.x with Cisco ACI VMM

• Existing vSphere 8.x customers can upgrade to VCF 9.x using standard upgrade procedures. This could be either using the VCF upgrade process or the vSphere upgrade process. Please refer to upgrade documentation for further details on how to perform the upgrade.
• Please note that customers will need to deploy VCF Operations as part of the upgrade process to VCF 9.x (for license activation).
• After upgrading to VCF 9.x, customers are advised to use vCenter for all host and cluster operations, and avoid using SDDC Manager to change configuration managed by Cisco ACI VMM.
• Customers who want to use the SDDC Manager can use a dedicated VDS for the SDDC Manager and a second dedicated VDS for Cisco ACI VMM so there is no management conflict between the two solutions.

New Installation of VCF 9.x with Cisco ACI VMM

• For new installations of VCF 9.x with Cisco ACI VMM, customers should leverage “VCF installer” to deploy full-stack VCF. Customers can then deploy Cisco ACI VMM.
• After Cisco ACI VMM is deployed, customers are advised to use vCenter for all host and cluster operations, and avoid using SDDC Manager to change configuration managed by Cisco ACI VMM.

Additional Information

KB Article on support of third-party software:  https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/324518