At the time of this recording, I would
venture to say that most network engineers have never
even seen DNA Center, let alone worked with it.
So by the end of this Nugget, my goal
is to explain what SD Access and DNA Center are really
all about, and what the assurance workflow really does,
and how it fits into the big picture.
Let me jump on a whiteboard so that we can explain
what this stuff really does.
When we talk about DNA Center, what we're really talking about
is something really incredible called SD Access. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
is something really incredible called SD Access.
Here's the very, very overly simplified
version of what SD Access is.
Pretend for a moment that you are on a college campus
and you work in, say, Building A. Here's you,
right here, working on your computer.
And let's pretend for a moment that your computer exists
on VLAN 10, so maybe you connect into a network switch.
And you access a resource on a server that is also in VLAN 10.
Maybe that's within your building,
or maybe VLAN 10 runs all the way over to a data center, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
or maybe VLAN 10 runs all the way over to a data center,
and you access a server that's in VLAN 10 in that data center.
Now pretend, for a moment, that you, on your journey
to go visit someone all the way across campus,
all the way over here in Building Z.
You make it all the way over there,
you sit down on a computer in Building Z,
can you access the same resources that you
were accessing and VLAN 10.
For instance, you log into this computer,
can you get back to the server here or to the data center WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
can you get back to the server here or to the data center
here?
The answer there is a big fat maybe.
In order to make that work, we would
have to extend VLAN 10 all the way across campus.
The network would effectively be configured on a building
by building basis.
And that is the way the majority of enterprise networks
were configured for years, and years, and years.
Now, of course, that is, again, a simplified version of it,
they're a little more complicated than that now.
But SD Access seeks to get rid of this status quo.
Now, whenever you log into your computer in Building A, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now, whenever you log into your computer in Building A,
here, you are assigned an IP address from a DHCP pool.
But wherever you roam, throughout
the entire organization, that IP address follows you.
If you pick up your laptop, for instance,
and walk all the way over to Building Z,
using what's called the SD Access Fabric, your network
configuration, and all of your access, all of the policies
that are attached to your user account, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that are attached to your user account,
follow you wherever you go.
This SD Access Fabric uses a combination of technologies,
things like IS-IS in the underlay protocol,
LISP, VXLAN, and Trust Sec in the overlay protocol,
to ultimately allow all of your users,
with all of their devices, to be onboarded into the network
and then maintain their same network configuration
everywhere on the campus.
So instead of focusing on building a network that WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So instead of focusing on building a network that
allows connectivity, you can now focus on people and endpoints.
This SD Access Fabric is completely
created, from scratch, by DNA Center.
And you don't have to bore yourself down
with all of these technical details,
you can now focus on users and endpoints.
So now that begs the question, how does DNA Center do it?
When it comes time to sit down at the computer
and configure your SD Access Fabric and your entire DNA
Center environment, the way it works WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Center environment, the way it works
is using, kind of, a guided workflow.
There are four workflows that come to creating your DNA
Center environment.
And I know you're thinking, like, this
is about troubleshooting an assurance,
don't worry, we're going to get there,
it's coming up in just a moment.
The first workflow is called Design.
This is where you actually design the physical layout
of your environment.
You identify the addresses of your buildings
and your locations around the world.
The next workflow is called Policy,
this is where you identify your users and end points WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
this is where you identify your users and end points
and who is allowed to access which resources.
The third workflow is called Provision.
This is where you actually discover your network devices,
and onboard them, and then create
the SD Access Fabric, again, using, basically,
a guided, Gooey Wizard.
And then lastly, once it's up and running,
this is what we're here to talk about,
the fourth workflow is called Assurance.
This is where you monitor and troubleshoot
everything that's going on in your network.
Now, I'll just go and throw this in here now,
there is a fifth workflow that's not necessarily hidden. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
there is a fifth workflow that's not necessarily hidden.
But in some DNA Center environments,
like in the sandbox, you may not see it,
this is called the platform.
This is the API where you would perform
programmability options, as well as integrate
DNA Center with your other platforms,
like an IPAM or Active Directory solution.
But this is the one that we're here
to talk about today, Assurance.
So what makes Assurance so stinking special.
Let's clear the screen.
The way DNA Center works is the DNA Center streams and server WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
The way DNA Center works is the DNA Center streams and server
communicates to all of our network devices,
things like wireless APs, switches, routers,
and firewalls, intrusion devices, and so on.
Typically, these devices are running
a platform called iOS XE.
So this would include things like the Catalyst 9000 series
devices, something like a 9300 or 9500.
This also includes the catalyst 3850s as well as the 3650s.
The routers could be the ISR 4400, for instance. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
The routers could be the ISR 4400, for instance.
The wireless Lan controllers could
be something like the 3800.
And pretty much every AP works with this, something
as simple as the Aironet 1700s or 1800s, for 80211
AC and 80211 AX.
The point is, is that these devices are running iOS XE
and DNA Center communicates to them using programmability,
protocols, Netcomf and Restcomf. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
protocols, Netcomf and Restcomf.
Now, there are ways to make DNA Center communicate
to older devices, but again, we're
here to focus on Assurance and what makes Assurance really pop
is when we use these protocols.
When DNA Center uses these protocols, Netcomf and Rescomf,
it can create what's called a Telemetry Subscription.
This is a fancy way of saying that these devices can stream
data into DNA Center, things like CPU and RAM usage, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
basically any interface counter you can think of,
ACL counters, any counter really, things like OSPF
misconfigurations.
Effectively, if you can get it in a show command,
it can be streamed back to DNA Center and, specifically,
the Assurance workflow.
So as data is getting streamed from these devices
into DNA Center, DNA Center, the moment it receives this data,
stores it and logs it in a database.
So the exact date and time that, say, a CPU usage was counted, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So the exact date and time that, say, a CPU usage was counted,
interface counters were stored, ACL counters were logged.
For every device in the entire platform
and every client in the entire platform,
it's now stored in time.
The end result is that we can see
what is happening on our network over a period of time.
This is really useful in an enterprise grade environment,
because, oftentimes, issues get reported to us
and we can't get to them immediately. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and we can't get to them immediately.
And by the time we do get to them,
maybe the issue has resolved itself
or something else is changed and we can't reproduce the issue.
But now that we have a historical record of everything
that's happened on our network, we can go back in time
and investigate what happened at the exact moment
that it happened.
This is particularly incredible, because it doesn't just
apply to the network devices themselves,
this also applies to our clients.
We can see when a user was onboarded, where they roamed, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
We can see when a user was onboarded, where they roamed,
any issues that their user account experienced
at the same time too.
There are a great number of other tools
that DNA Center Assurance provides
to us that helps us troubleshoot what's
going on in a large enterprise.
And that's what the next couple nuggets are going to uncover.
But before I wrap up, there's one last thing
that I'm going to tell you about DNA Center Assurance that
makes it so stinking incredible, and that's this.
It uses machine learning to determine what
is normal in your environment. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
is normal in your environment.
Machine learning is basically using a variant of AI
to build baselines and normalities for what happens
in your entire enterprise.
And when something bad happens, the machine
learning algorithms in DNA Center
can detect these anomalies and create alerts or issues
for you.
Beyond that, if you tell it to, you
can actually take proactive steps
to resolve any issues before it even comes up to your plate.
So DNA Center is a proactive, learning, and monitoring WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So DNA Center is a proactive, learning, and monitoring
solution that can even resolve issues
without involving humans.
So now that we understand what DNA Center does,
what SD Access does, and where the Assurance workflow fits in,
it's time to jump into an environment
and see it in action.
And that's what the next Nugget's all about.
In the meantime, this has been understanding
what DNA Center SD Access and Assurance are all about.
I hope this has been informative for you,
and I'd like to thank you for viewing.