Provisioning VXLAN EVPN Fabrics with Cisco NDFC: Easy Fabric Workflow Explained

Cisco NDFC (Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller) is the platform that provisions, manages, and monitors VXLAN BGP EVPN data center fabrics. If you've been using DCNM, heads up — it reaches end-of-support in April 2026. NDFC replaces it entirely, running as a microservices-based application on the Nexus Dashboard platform. This guide walks through the complete Easy Fabric workflow: from fabric creation to overlay deployment, with the actual NX-OS configs NDFC generates under the hood. What Changed from DCNM to NDFC? DCNM was a standalone Java monolith. NDFC is containerized microservices on Nexus Dashboard, sitting alongside Nexus Dashboard Insights (NDI) and Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (NDO). Feature DCNM NDFC Deployment Standalone VM/OVA Service on Nexus Dashboard Architecture Monolithic Java Microservices, containerized Fabric types Easy Fabric, VXLAN, classic LAN Same + Campus VXLAN, External Multi-site Via DCNM Via NDO (separate service) Assurance Basic monitoring Integrated with ND