generated: '2026-08-19'
method: probed
source: https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/
docs: https://devnetsandbox.cisco.com/DevNet/catalog/aci-simulator-always-on
note: >-
  Cisco DevNet runs a free, always-on ACI sandbox: a live APIC controller on the public internet that anyone
  can call without owning hardware. Confirmed live on 2026-08-19 — https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/ returned
  200 and https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/api/class/fvTenant.json returned 403 (authentication required, so
  the API is answering). This is genuinely unusual for infrastructure of this class and is the single
  strongest developer-experience asset ACI has.
sandbox_available: true
model: shared-always-on-plus-reservable
environments:
- id: aci-simulator-always-on
  name: ACI Simulator (always-on)
  host: sandboxapicdc.cisco.com
  base_url: https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/api
  reservation_required: false
  cost: free
  catalog_url: https://devnetsandbox.cisco.com/DevNet/catalog/aci-simulator-always-on
  evidence:
  - url: https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/
    status: 200
  - url: https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/api/class/fvTenant.json
    status: 403
    detail: Auth-gated, as expected — an aaaLogin session is required.
  credentials:
    published: true
    captured: false
    detail: >-
      DevNet publishes the shared sandbox username and password on the sandbox catalog page. Those values
      were NOT transcribed into this repository: the catalog page at devnetsandbox.cisco.com is a
      client-rendered single-page application (the served HTML is a Monaco/JS shell, 5.5KB, with no
      credential text in it), so the values could not be read from the served document, and API Evangelist
      does not republish credentials it has not fetched. Read them from the catalog page.
    login_endpoint: 'POST https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/api/aaaLogin.json'
- id: reserved-aci-sandboxes
  name: Reservable ACI sandboxes
  reservation_required: true
  cost: free
  catalog_url: https://devnetsandbox.cisco.com/
  detail: >-
    DevNet also offers time-boxed reserved ACI environments for destructive testing. Reservation requires a
    free Cisco/DevNet account.
test_data:
  fixtures: false
  detail: >-
    No test fixtures, seeded objects, magic identifiers or trigger tooling are published. The always-on
    sandbox is a shared simulator carrying whatever tenants previous users left behind, which is a real
    caveat: tests cannot assume a clean fabric, and the environment is read-mostly by convention.
  test_vs_live_keys: false
  test_vs_live_note: >-
    There is no test-mode/live-mode key concept. The same aaaLogin flow and the same credentials model apply
    to a sandbox APIC and a production APIC — the only thing separating them is which hostname you point at.
simulator:
  name: Cisco ACI Simulator
  detail: >-
    Cisco also ships a downloadable/licensable ACI Simulator VM with its own release notes, for customers who
    want a private fabric to develop against.
  release_notes: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/dcn/aci/apic/6x/release-notes/cisco-aci-simulator-release-notes-615.html