Cisco APICs utilize sharding to provide what function for an ACI fabric?

Sharding is a technique where the APIC cluster distributes segments of the ACI fabric's operational and policy data sets across multiple APIC instances. This distribution allows the cluster to handle larger data volumes and provides redundancy, enhancing both the scalability and fault tolerance of the fabric's state management.

While sharding supports policy distribution, its primary function is broader, focusing on the scalability and reliability of all data sets, not just policy replication.

APIC clusters use a leader election mechanism to determine the master for database operations, which is distinct from the data distribution function of sharding.

Sharding enables horizontal scaling for data processing, which includes policy management, but its core function addresses the scalability of all data sets, not exclusively policy management.