topic Re: Legacy switches interaction with border node in Software-Defined Access (SD-Access)

Legacy switches interaction with border node

Amo2019 — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 11:02:05 GMT

Hello,

I have two catalyst 9500 planed to act as SDA border / Control plane nodes.

My question can i connect some traditional legacy switches ( 2960x , 3650 ) and configure them using CLI traditional method ( L2 trunks ) on the same border nodes while these borders are routed L3 underlay and fabric enabled using DNA Center

Is there any limitation or conflict for such type of this deployment.

Thanks in advance

Re: Legacy switches interaction with border node

faylee — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 11:42:18 GMT

Hello,

No there is no issue with connecting these devices to a CP/B node.

HTH,

Fay-Ann

Re: Legacy switches interaction with border node

Mariusz Kazmierski — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 11:50:44 GMT

Hi,

DNA-Center fully manages devices within SD-Access fabric (which means that you should not do any configuration changes via CLI to avoid conflicts with the configuration managed by DNA-Center). On the other side, all devices (including the ones that you mentioned) that are outside of the fabric, can be configured via CLI / have your custom configuration as they are not controlled (from fabric perspective) by DNA-Center.

Regards, Mariusz

Re: Legacy switches interaction with border node

Mike.Cifelli — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 14:19:13 GMT

Keep in mind that you would need some sort of device/s acting as fusion router/s with vrf-lite and ebgp connected to your EBN/s. Essentially this would allow you to control your route leaking between VNs, and fuse legacy beyond the fabric and your SDA fabric. Another option would be to deploy an IBN (internal border node) that essentially is an ibgp connection back to your EBN/s that allows you to advertise your "legacy" networks hanging off your traditional legacy switches. See here for compatibility matrix for supported SDA gear: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/software-defined-access/compatibility-matrix.html