Search

Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNAC) and Assurance Workshop (DNACA5)

  • Overview

    Description, Pre requisites

  • Content

    Lessons, Course Structure

Cisco Catalyst Center provides a centralized management dashboard for complete control of this new network. Full automation capabilities for provisioning and change management are enhanced with intelligent analytics that pull telemetry data from everywhere in the network. In this hands-on workshop students will learn to provision and monitor intent based network using Cisco Catalyst Center.  Cisco Catalyst Assurance, which is the main component of Cisco Catalyst Center covered by this training, provides a comprehensive solution to assure better and consistent service levels to meet growing business demands.

Lab of this class runs Cisco Catalyst Center version 3.2.

Prerequisites:

The knowledge and skills that a learner should have before attending this course are as follows:

  • Practical network and LAN or WAN management experience
  • Cisco Inter-network Operating System (IOS) concepts

Course Objectives: 

  • Know and understand Cisco Catalyst Center concepts, features, benefits, role, terminology and the way this solution innovates common administrative tasks on today’s networks
  • Be familiar with workflow approach in Catalyst Center, Catalyst Center dashboard and its 4 Steps: Design, Policy, Provision and Assurance
  • List, describe and use the tools provided by Cisco DNA Center
  • Prepare, Install and Setup a Cisco Catalyst Center Appliance
  • Use Catalyst Center for network discovery, design and provision telemetry profiles
  • Realize the concepts, benefits and capabilities of Catalyst Center Assurance
  • Implement Assurance Services on Cisco Catalyst Center
  • Use Catalyst Center to monitor, troubleshoot and assure network, client and applications health
  • Use Catalyst Center to Integrate with ThousandEyes and Umbrella
  • Use Catalyst Center to for AI and Analytics and Machine Learning (ML)

Who should attend?

The primary audience for this course is as follows:

  • IT Solution Architects
  • Network Security Architects
  • Networking Admin and Operations
  • Networking Field Engineers

Duration:

5 days

 

Module 1: Introduction to Cisco Catalyst Center (DNAC)

  • Introduction to Cisco Catalyst Center
  • System Architecture
  • Key Features and Use Cases
  • CCC Licensing
  • Introduction to Cisco ISE and Catalyst Center-ISE integration
  • Lab 1: Installation of Catalyst Center from scratch. In this lab instructor will install DNAC from the scratch and configure various types of adaptors
  • Lab 2: Catalyst Center Cluster Configuration-> This would be again an instructor demo
  • Lab 3: Navigate the Catalyst Center GUI -> In this lab student will do a walkthrough of various GUI tabs to help them understand the GUI from a high level
  • Lab 4: Integrate Cisco ISE with Catalyst Center -> In this lab instructor will do ISE and DNAC integration.

Module 2: Design

  • Network design options
  • Sites
  • Creating Enterprise and Sites Hierarchy
  • Configuring General Network Settings
  • Loading maps into the GUI
  • IP Address Management
  • Software Image Management
  • Network Device Profiles
  • AAA
  • SNMP
  • Syslog
  • IP address pools
  • Creating Enterprise and Guest SSIDs
    • Creating the wireless RF Profile
    • Cresting the Guest Portal for the Guest SSIDs
  • Network profiles
  • Authentication templates
  • Lab 5: Design the Network Hierarchy and Configure Network Settings-> In this lab student will learn how to create network hierarchy, configure various options under network settings like DNS, DHCP, AAA server, NTP etc.

Module 3: Discovery and Provision

  • Device Discovery and Protocols
  • Plug and Play
  • Devices Onboarding
    • Assigning Devices to a site
    • Provisioning device with profiles
  • Templates
    • Templates for day 0
    • Templates for day N operations
  • Lab 6: Discover Wired manually in the Inventory, Assign to Site and Provision.  In this lab student will discover distribution switch manually and assign it to correct network hierarchy and then provision it with common settings.
  • Lab 7: Discover Wired Device using Plug and Play(PnP) using Template Editor. In this lab student will on board access switch using PnP, this will help student to understand both manual and automatic way of on boarding network devices in DNAC inventory
  • Lab 8: Discover and Provision C9800 WLC, Configure Wireless SSIDs and Network Profiles.  In this lab student will discovery C9800 virtual controller and AP’s will also show up automatically. Student will configure a Corp SSID using DOT1x authentication and a Guest SSID using webauth authentication.
  • Lab 9: Configure C9800 WLC using Template Editorà In this lab student will learn how to create templates for C9800 WLC configuration

Module 4: Monitoring Device, Client, and Application Health

  • Catalyst Center Telemetry
  • Monitoring Network Device Health and Performance
  • Monitoring Wired and Wireless Client Health and Performance
  • Monitoring Application Health and Performance
  • Lab 10: Configure Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance Telemetry Profiles and Apply to devicesà In this lab student will enable telemetry settings and application telemetry for specific devices.
  • Lab 11: Generate and Monitor application traffic on Catalyst Center for clientsà In this lab student will generate network application traffic like FTP,ICMP and SSH and will see the results under assurance section.

Module 5: Application Visibility and Catalyst Center-Umbrella Integration

  • Monitoring application visibility on Catalyst Center
  • Umbrella Introduction
  • DNAC Umbrella Integration and Use Cases
  • Lab 12: Application Visibility and generate client traffic to monitor top applications on Catalyst Center. In this lab student will enable CBAR on C9800 controller via Catalyst Center and then will create custom application and application set on DNAC and will push it towards C9800 controller. For Guest SSID Student will also generate traffic for custom application and well known application like youtube or facebook. The results of top applications will be visible on Catalyst Center.
  • Lab 13: Catalyst Center – umbrella Integration for DNS or SIG(Secure Internet Gateway)à In this lab student will integrate Catalyst Center with Umbrella using API keys. On Umbrella dashboard student will configure DNS policies to deny youtube or facebook traffic. From DNAC the configured umbrella policies will be pushed towards C9800 controller and then it should block those application traffic for the Guest SSID.

  Module 6: Troubleshooting Issues, Observing Insights and Trends

  • Detect Issues, Insights, and Trends in the Network
  • Catalyst Center integration with other tools for monitoring purpose
  • Lab 14: Assurance dashboards – Health, Issues and Wifi6 on Catalyst Center. In this lab student will learn different options available on assurance dashboard. Student will reproduce certain issues in lab which will generate certain meaningful data on the assurance dashboard. Student will also do integration of Catalyst Center with syslog server etc to receive the alert logs.

Module 7: Troubleshooting using Cisco DNA Center Assurance Tools

  • Catalyst Center Assurance Troubleshooting Tools
  • Using Sensor Tests
  • Using Intelligent Capture
  • Spectrum analyser
  • Lab 15: Intelligent Packet Capture and Spectrum Analysisà In this lab student will learn how to generate intelligent packet capture and do spectrum analysis from Catalyst Center
  • Lab 16: 1800s AP as Sensor -> In this lab student will learn how to work with sensor AP by creating different types of network and application test.

Module 8: DNAC and Thousand Eyes

  • Introduction to Thousand eyes
  • Thousand eyes Use cases
  • Catalyst Center  Thousand eyes Integration
  • Lab 17: Application Visibility with Thousand Eyes and DNAC: In this lab student will install TE enterprise agent on 9300 switch via Catalyst Center. Student will learn how to create basic network and http server tests from TE portal and see the test results performed by TE agent running on switch.

Module 9: AI analytics and ML on Catalyst Center

  • Overview of AI analytics and ML(machine learning)
  • Catalyst Center AI and ML use cases
  • Lab 18: AI Endpoint Analytics on Catalyst Center. In this lab student will learn advance AI/ML feature of DNAC using ISE integration

Module 10: Rogue and aWIPS

  • Overview of rogue AP’s and rogue clients
  • Overview of WIPS
  • Catalyst Center rogue and aWIPS features
  • Lab 18: Rogue detection lab

Module 11: Catalyst Center maintenance

  • Catalyst Center backup and restore
  • Catalyst Center Reports
  • Lab 19: Reporting on Cisco Catalyst Center
  • Lab 20: Catalyst Center configuration backup on external server

Module 12: Compliance Audit for Network Devices

  • Compliance Overview
  • Manual Compliance Run
  • View Compliance Summary
  • Types of Compliance
  • Compliance Behaviour After Device Upgrade
  • Lab 21: Configure standard template for devices
  • Lab 22: Compliance Check on CCC

Module 13: SWIM

  • Introduction to Cisco Catalyst Centre Image Repository
  • Defining the Golden Image
  • Deploying the Golden Image
  • Lab 23: IOS-XE device Upgrade/Downgrade using SWIM via DNAC

Module 14: Cisco Catalyst Centre RBAC

  • User Profiles and Roles
  • Create, edit, delete and reset an internal user
  • Configure Role-Based Access Control
  • Configure External Authentication
  • Two-Factor Authentication
  • Lab 24: Configure User, User Profile and Roles
  • Lab 25: Configure RBAC to manage Cisco Catalyst Centre

Module 15: Cisco Prime to Cisco Catalyst Centre Migration

  • Prime Data Migration Tool
  • Prerequisites for Prime Data Migration Tool
  • Migration from Prime to Cisco Catalyst Centre
  • Lab 26: Prime to Cisco Catalyst Migration