Network as Code (NaC) is designed to help customers define and implement operational changes to their Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN networks through a Developer Operations (DevOps) process. By leveraging the well-established Infrastructure as Code methodology, along with industry-standard practices and developer toolsets, network administrators can achieve greater discipline and efficiency in managing changes to their SD-WAN infrastructure.

Rather than manually configuring an SD-WAN infrastructure over a GUI, the intended configuration is digitally represented in a YAML file and stored in a source code repository. With the configuration centrally stored in a version-controlled system, modifications can be easily made by creating a “branch,” similar to the process used in software development. This configuration aligns with a predefined data model of the SD-WAN environment, facilitating easier SD-WAN onboarding and provisioning. This approach significantly simplifies the process of implementing changes to an SD-WAN network.

This lab will provide you with an introduction to the Network as Code solution for the SD-WAN solution.

Although the lab design and configuration examples can be used as a reference, for design-related questions, please contact your representative at Cisco or a Cisco partner.

From your workstation after establishing a VPN connection or from the dCloud Web UI, open an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) session to the following host named “Ubuntu Jump Host” using the credentials below.

• IP: 198.18.134.1
• Username: dcloud
• Password: C1sco12345

This lab leverages the Cisco dCloud setup, where we are using Cisco Modeling Labs for simulating the SD-WAN infrastructure.

We are going to cover two scenarios in this setup:

• Day 0-1

  • Initiate the SD-WAN setup as a Day 0 deployment.
  • Validate the SD-WAN deployment using the GUI.

• Day 2

  • Add a new application as part of the deployment.
  • Add partial or incorrect parameters so that it fails in the validation step during the creation of the application.
  • Validate that the configuration was pushed correctly using robot tests (check the outputs).

The topology of the infrastructure we are running is a small setup where we have:

• 1 Manager
• 3 WAN Edge devices
• 2 Controllers
• 1 Validator