Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller and Nexus Dashboard Insights Workshop (NDFC-NDI)

Overview

NDFC-NDI workshop has two main focuses.

  • EVPN deployment on Nexus 9K using Cisco® NX-OS using Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) formerly known Data Centre Network Manager (DCNM)
  • Nexus Dashboard Insights (NDI)

This workshop is aimed at highlighting the power of NDFC datacentre management combined with NDI analytics.

NDFC provides an advanced SDN solution with a policy driven architecture on advanced Nexus 9K switching platform. NDI provides valuable insights into network status, health and operations based on telemetry feeds streamed from the switches.

This is a technical workshop with a deployment, configuration and operational focus.

It is a three-days workshop combining lecture and labs with remote lab access.

Target Audience:

This technical workshop is intended for:

  • Network designers and architects
  • Partner and customer network professionals
  • Network Operational and support personnel

Suggested Pre-requisites:

It is recommended, but not required, to have the following skills and knowledge before attending this workshop:

  • Good understanding of networking protocols, routing, and switching
  • Understanding of Cisco data centre architecture
  • Familiarity with NX-OS

Duration:

3 days

Outline

Part A – EVPN

  • Implementing VXLAN
    • Under-/Overlay Technologies
    • VXLAN Introduction
    • VXLAN Data Flow
  • EVPN (VXLAN with BGP overlay)
    • Using BGP as VXLAN Control Plane
    • Endpoint Learning and Endpoint Communication
    • L2 switching and routing in the overlay
    • External network communication
    • Multiple sites interconnect
  • VXLAN Visibility
    • Network Abstraction
    • Operations and Troubleshooting

LABs:

  • A basic EVPN setup using the CLI

Part B – NDFC

  • Introduction Nexus Dashboard
    • Nexus Dashboard(ND) Overview
    • Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) Architecture
    • Data Centre Operation Lifecycle using NDFC
  • Installation
    • ND Installation and Setup
    • NDFC Installation and Feature Selection
  • Provisioning
    • LAN Fabric Provisioning
    • Interface Configuration
    • Tenant/VRF Deployment
    • Tenant Network Configuration
    • External Networks
    • External Services
    • Policies through Templates
  • Operations
    • Monitoring Fabric State
    • Resource Tracking
    • Endpoint Locator
    • Performance Monitoring

LABs:

  • EVPN fabric deployment
  • Overlay tenant configuration (VRFs, Networks)
  • External network integration
  • External service redirect

Part C – Nexus Dashboard Insights

  • Solution Overview
    • Drivers and Challenges
    • Cisco Product overview and positioning
    • Use Cases
  • Nexus Dashboard (ND) Platform Overview
    • ND sites
    • NDFC and NDI integration
  • Telemetry Overview
    • NX9k software telemetry overview
    • NX9k hardware telemetry overview
  • NXOS Telemetry Configuration
    • CLI syntax
    • Telemetry protocols
  • Network Dashboard Insights operations
    • Features Overview
    • GUI overview and Dashboard
    • Snapshot and time selection
    • Browsing resources and environment
    • Details of Nodes, interface, resources and environment
    • Anomalies, Alerts and Event Analysis
    • Compliance and Assurance
    • Endpoints and traffic Flow

Labs

  • Explore Key features in NDI

Optional dCloud Lab:

Multisite Fabric Deployment