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Cisco SD-WAN#

Cisco SD-WAN controller components are identified with cisco_sdwan kind in the topology file. It is built using srl-labs/vrnetlab project and essentially is a Qemu VM packaged in a container format.

This kind supports all three Cisco SD-WAN controller components:

  • vManage: Orchestration and management
  • vSmart: Control plane controller
  • vBond: Orchestrator/validator

Hardware resource requirements#

Component vCPU RAM Disk
vManage 1 16 GB 30 GB + 50 GB data
vSmart 1 4 GB 30 GB
vBond 1 2 GB 30 GB

Managing cisco_sdwan nodes#

Note

SD-WAN components boot in 5-10 minutes. Monitor progress with:

docker logs -f <container-name>

Wait for System Ready or All daemons up message.

ssh admin@<node-name> Password: admin

To connect to a bash shell:

docker exec -it <container-name/id> bash

Credentials#

Default credentials: admin:admin

Component Types#

Specify the component type using the type parameter:

  • manager - vManage orchestrator
  • controller - vSmart control plane
  • validator - vBond orchestrator
topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-manager:20.16.1

    sdwan-controller:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: controller
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-controller:20.16.1

    sdwan-validator:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: validator
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-validator:20.16.1

Interface naming#

You can use interfaces names in the topology file like they appear in the device.

The interface naming convention is: ethX, where X starts at 1.

  • eth0 - Management interface (VPN 512)
  • eth1 - First transport interface (VPN 0)
  • eth2+ - Additional transport interfaces
links:
  - endpoints: ["sdwan-manager:eth1", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]

Features and options#

Startup Configuration#

The cisco_sdwan kind supports two configuration file formats:

zCloud XML Configuration#

topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      startup-config: sdwan-manager-config.xml

Example zCloud XML (sdwan-manager-config.xml):

<config xmlns="http://tail-f.com/ns/config/1.0">
  <system xmlns="http://viptela.com/system">
    <personality>vmanage</personality>
    <device-model>vmanage</device-model>
    <host-name>my-vmanage</host-name>
    <aaa>
      <user>
        <name>admin</name>
        <password>MyPassword</password>
        <group>netadmin</group>
      </user>
    </aaa>
  </system>
  <vpn xmlns="http://viptela.com/vpn">
    <vpn-instance>
      <vpn-id>512</vpn-id>
      <interface>
        <if-name>eth0</if-name>
        <ip>
          <dhcp-client>true</dhcp-client>
        </ip>
      </interface>
    </vpn-instance>
  </vpn>
</config>

Full Cloud-Init Configuration#

topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      startup-config: sdwan-manager-cloud-init.yaml

Example cloud-init (sdwan-manager-cloud-init.yaml):

#cloud-config
write_files:
- path: /etc/default/personality
  content: "vmanage\n"
- path: /etc/confd/init/zcloud.xml
  content: |
    <config xmlns="http://tail-f.com/ns/config/1.0">
      <!-- zCloud XML content here -->
    </config>

If no startup-config is provided, the component will boot with auto-generated default configuration.

Lab examples#

name: sdwan-controllers

topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-manager:20.16.1

    sdwan-controller:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: controller
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-controller:20.16.1

    sdwan-validator:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: validator
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-validator:20.16.1

  links:
    - endpoints: ["sdwan-manager:eth1", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]
    - endpoints: ["sdwan-controller:eth1", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]

name: sdwan-fabric

topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-manager:20.16.1

    sdwan-controller:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: controller
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-controller:20.16.1

    sdwan-validator:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: validator
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-validator:20.16.1

    edge1:
      kind: cisco_c8000v
      type: controller  # SD-WAN managed mode
      image: vrnetlab/vr-c8000v:17.11.01a

  links:
    - endpoints: ["sdwan-manager:eth1", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]
    - endpoints: ["sdwan-controller:eth1", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]
    - endpoints: ["edge1:Gi2", "sdwan-validator:eth1"]

name: sdwan-custom

topology:
  nodes:
    sdwan-manager:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: manager
      startup-config: configs/sdwan-manager-zcloud.xml
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-manager:20.16.1

    sdwan-controller:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: controller
      startup-config: configs/sdwan-controller-cloud-init.yaml
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-controller:20.16.1

    sdwan-validator:
      kind: cisco_sdwan
      type: validator
      image: vrnetlab/cisco_sdwan-validator:20.16.1