AMA: Demystifying Cisco Catalyst Center PnP and LAN Automation

[Brooke Hammer]

Ask Me Anything Event

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Friday, March 15, 2024 through Friday, April 5, 2024. Our colleagues Pandian Ponnuswamy, Gautami Sinai Neureker and Sankkar R will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer any new questions that you may have. We are waiting for you!

More about this event:

Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can dive deep into Cisco Catalyst Center Plug-and-Play (PnP) and LAN Automation!

What is it?

• Cisco Catalyst Center offers innovative features to streamline network management.
• PnP simplifies device onboarding, eliminating manual configuration for new Cisco Catalyst switches. Imagine powering on a new switch and having it automatically discover its role and configure itself - that's the magic of PnP!
• LAN Automation builds upon PnP, automating the configuration of your entire underlay network, saving you hours (or even days) of manual configuration.

Get Expert Advice!

• This AMA session is your chance to get expert insights on these powerful features.
• Whether you're a seasoned network pro or just starting out, feel free to ask any questions you have about PnP, LAN Automation, or Cisco Catalyst Center in general.

Official Resources:

• Onboard and Provision Devices with Plug and Play

• Cisco Catalyst Center SD-Access LAN Automation Deployment Guide

• Youtube: Cisco Catalyst Center - PNP

• Youtube: Cisco Catalyst Center - LAN Automation

Note: Please post your post as a comment below no later than March 29, 2024.

Post your question below by clicking "Reply"

(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!

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Our experts

Pandian Ponnuswamy Leader, Customer Delivery

Gautami Sinai Neureker Technical Consulting Engineer

Sankkar R Technical Consulting Engineer

For more information, visit the Cisco Catalyst Center discussion forums . If you have questions or are experiencing technical problems with any of the Cisco products, post your question, request information or use the Cisco Community before opening a case with the TAC.

[bdevi]

What makes LAN Automation different from PnP? Do they have similar workflows and configurations?

How does PnP handle software image management for newly onboarded devices in Cisco DNA Center?

[gpairait]

While PnP and LAN Auto, both server the purpose to onboard the devices in DNAC, there is a difference in the workflow and the configuration pushed to the devices in both cases.

In PnP, DNAC will onboard the device with minimal configuration [Day0] needed to add it to the network and get it discovered in DNAC. You can subsequently push the rest of the configs through template deployments at a later point.

You do not need to give any additional parameters while you claim the device from PnP.
The image selection and the user defined templates are optional.

In LAN Auto however, the DNAC will build the topology and configure the point to point links.
you need to configure per-requisites like IP pools, provide the seed device details. the seed device should be present in DNAC inventory.
for detailed understanding you can refer guide : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/tech_notes/b_dnac_sda_lan_automation_deployment.html#id_92033

Regarding the Pnp handling image management, you can select the image to be deployed during the claim process.
or alternatively do it using the SWIM workflow.

[faafridi]

What role does PnP play in automatically provisioning newly onboarded devices with predefined configurations in Cisco DNA Center?

[gpairait]

PnP [Plug and Play] is a way to onboard greenfield devices [out of the box] or devices with erased config into DNAC.
This is with minimal or no user intervention.
When the device is plugged into the network, the PnP agent on the device will connect to DNAC using either of the 3 options.
DHCP option 43
DNS or
Cloud Connect.

Once DNAC detects the device in its PnP page, you can claim the device and DNAC pushes the per-configured Day-0 template on the device. The Day-0 config is based on the device type being onboarded and is a CVD.

You can also configure templates as per your requirement and assign it to the workflow when provisioning the device. This however is optional.
Ideally you should let the provisioning go through with the pre-configured template to avoid any on-boarding issues due to the user defined template. You can always push the templates at any later point it in time after a successful provisioning.

[arsadana]

Could you describe the workflow of LAN Automation in Cisco DNA Center, from device discovery to configuration deployment?

[sankkr]

This is a very short summary of the process to onboard devices using LAN Automation in Cisco Catalyst Center (CC). I would recommend to go through the full documentation here for more details.

Plan and Design:

• Choose the right IP pool size based on your site hierarchy and how many devices you are planning to onboard using LAN Automation.
  • Configure/reserve it in Design > Network Settings > IP Address Pools section for LAN Automation.
  • Ensure that this subnet is reachable from Catalyst Center and not used elsewhere in the network.
• Choose a seed device, which is already configured, to act as the DHCP server to onboard the other devices.
• Optional: Goto Design > Network Settings > Image Repository and select the golden image for the platforms

Clean / Reset Devices:

• Ensure the devices to be onboarded are in a factory default state.
• Default the configuration of the downstream ports on the seed device, where new devices will be connected.

Start LAN Automation:

• Go to Provision > Inventory > Actions > Provision > LAN Automation.
• Choose the primary site where your seed device resides.
• Select the seed device.
• Choose the ports on the seed device connected to the new switches.
• (Optional) Configure hostname prefix for new devices, that will be onboarded.
• Select the IP pool you created for LAN Automation.
• Optionally enable multicast for LAN Automation.
• Start LAN Automation.

Discovery and Configuration:

• Catalyst Center pushes a DHCP configuration with option 43 (PNP information) to the seed device.
• New device receives IP addresses from the pool on seed device and connects with Catalyst Center using PnP protocol.
• Catalyst center pushes the configuration to the new device.
• If there is a golden image selected for the platform, the new device will be upgraded to that image.

Stop LAN Automation:

• Once configuration is complete, stop the LAN Automation process.
• This triggers conversion of Layer 2 connections between Edge and seed device to Layer 3 with routing protocols (like ISIS).
• The new devices are now onboarded and managed by Cisco Catalyst Center.

[swrangan]

Pnp for ie5000 is dependent on license feature ? Does lanbase have to be enabled for successful onboarding ?

[sankkr]

For IE5000 switches, Catalyst Center Essentials license is required for Plug-and-Play onboarding.

Please refer to tables 8-11 in this data sheet for details on the features supported with different license levels for IE5000 series switches.

[NKT]

How to push configurations to multiple Cisco Switches from DNAC

[sankkr]

Cisco Catalyst Center (Formerly DNA Center) allows you to manage all your network devices, with intent-based configuration.

This intent for your network can be configured under the various options available in the Design, Policy and Provision sections of Catalyst Center.

Apart from this intent-based configurations, Catalyst Center allows you to automate pushing custom configurations to managed devices in bulk. This is done using the Template Provisioning feature.

Following is a short summary of the steps to be followed to achieve this:

Create the template:

• In Catalyst Center GUI, navigate to "Tools > Template Editor" or "Design > CLI Templates" (after version 2.3.7.x)
• Create a new template and add the requried commands to push to devices.

Link the template to the devices where the configuration needs to be pushed:

• Navigate to "Design > Network Profiles" and create a new network profile.
• Attach the Day-N-template to the network profile.
• Link the network profile to required sites where this configuration needs to be pushed.

Push the configuration to the devices:

• Navigate to "Provision > Inventory" and select the devices where the configuration needs to be pushed.
• Select the "Actions" button and choose "Provision" and select the network profile created in step 3.
• If you have specified any variables in the template, you will be prompted to enter the values for these variables.
• Enter the values and proceed with deployment.

For more details, refer to this documentation.

[Gaur Samal]

if you are using DNAC only for assurance and do not want to provision the devices from DNAC, then below script could help doing it. 

https://github.com/gaur-samal/bulk_cli_exec_cisco_devices.git

[varusrin]

While provisioning or performing PnP on a catalyst switch or WLC, is it possible to for DNAC to also configure smart licensing or choose license level on these devices ? If yes, could you share the procedure?

[gpairait]

You can auto enable smart licenses on your devices being added on DNAC.
You can follow the below steps for the same. 
When you onboard any new device to DNAC and if you have the below option enabled, SL will be auto configured.
Step 1
Log in using a Cisco DNA Center system administrator username and password.
 
Step 2
In the Cisco DNA Center GUI, click the Menu icon and choose System > Settings > Cisco Accounts > Smart Account.
 
Step 3
Click License.
 
Step 4
Check the Auto register smart license enabled devices check box.
 
Step 5
Choose a virtual account.
 
Step 6
Click Apply.

Refer doc : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-2-2/admin_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_2_2/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_2_2_chapter_0101.html#id_82772

You can also change license from DNAC.
Whenever you change a device's license level, Cisco DNA Center automatically downloads and applies your licenses behind the scenes, using your Smart Account.
Since applying a license level change requires a device reboot, License Manager prompts you to confirm that you want to reboot the device as soon as the license level change is complete. You can choose not to reboot with the license change, but you will need to schedule the reboot at a later time, or your license level change will not be applied.

[vinothk3]

why do we use Plug and Play method ?