ACI AppCenter Apps and Tools

In this repo, you'll find some resources to get you quickly started on developing an ACI App.

• A sample stateless app (Cisco_DemoApp)
• A sample stateful app (Cisco_DemoStatefulApp)
• Tools provided by Cisco to develop an ACI App.
• Quick tutorial to use the tools.

Tools

Prerequisites

First, download the pacakge the ACI App Tools package from DevNet (cisco_aci_app_tools-1.1.tar.gz).

UNIX (Linux, macOS,...)

A few libraries and commands need to be installed prior to the usage of the tools.

• gcc
• g++
• make
• libffi-dev
• openssl-dev (or libssl-dev)
• python-dev
• zip
• libmagic
  • On macOS: Use the packet manager "Homebrew": $ brew install libmagic
  • Sometimes already present in Linux
• pip
• virtualenv

Also, we need to install the python libraries. The easiest way is to create a virtualenv (for python 2.7):

1. virtualenv aciapptools
2. source aciapptools/bin/activate
3. (aciapptools) pip install tools/resources/cisco_aci_app_tools-1.1.tar.gz

The tools are located in tools/resources/cisco_aci_app_tools-1.1.tar.gz. First, uncompress the archive. The tools are then located inside the tools/ directory.

Docker

Alternatively, you can use the docker image provided to run the tools.

To use it, a few steps are required to get started:

1. Install docker
2. cd into the tools directory of this repo.
3. Create the docker image. Run the command:

docker build . -t aciappcenter-tools:latest

4. Upon the successful completion of the docker build command, you can check that the docker image has been generated (docker images).
5. Run the container using the command:

docker run -it -d -v <LOCAL_FOLDER>:<FOLDER_IN_CONTAINER> --name aciapptools aciappcenter-tools:latest

This command uses the -v parameter to mount a local directory into the container. That way, any file created in <FOLDER_IN_CONTAINER> will be present on your machine (in <LOCAL_FOLDER>) and vice versa.

ACI App Creator

UNIX (Linux, macOS,...)

The creator is launched using this command:

python aci_app_creator.py -o <OUTPUT_FOLDER>

The -o parameter is optional.

Using docker container

1. Run the following command:

docker exec -it aciapptools python tools/aci_app_creator.py -o <FOLDER_IN_CONTAINER>

2. You'll find the resulting app in <LOCAL_FOLDER>

ACI App Packager

UNIX (Linux, macOS,...)

The packager is launched using this command:

python aci_app_packager.py -f <PATH_TO_APP_ROOT_DIRECTORY>

The -f parameter is mandatory.

Using docker container

1. Put your app in <LOCAL_FOLDER>
2. Run the following command:

docker exec -it aciapptools python tools/aci_app_packager.py -f <FOLDER_IN_CONTAINER>

3. You'll find the packaged add in <LOCAL_FOLDER>