SDA border nodes deployment

[aleopoldie]

Hello there,

I would like to know how are the different ways to onboard a border node to the DNAC, I mean the way that the device will be added on the inventory, not how it is added to the fabric.

For me there are basically 2 ways :

- manually configure the device with an initial deployment VLAN so that the DNAC can reach it, then add the device on the DNAC's inventory (or via discovery), then run LAN automation so it can get it's Lo0 IP address and ISIS configuration, change the device IP address from the initial deployment VLAN SVI to the Lo0 on the DNAC's inventory, then remove this initial deployment VLAN once the device is added in the DNAC's inventory

- using pnp with option 43 pushed using the DNAC's IP address on the device

Any advise is more than welcome, I can't really find an official documentation dealing with this subject.

Thank you,

AL.

[Torbjørn]

You are correct. To add a device to your inventory you have 3(or 2, depending on how you count it) options:

1. Add the device manually or through discovery
2. Onboard the device using PNP
3. Onboard the device using LAN Automation(requires that it is connected to an existing fabric node)

For a border node in a greenfield deployment you would typically use PNP to onboard the device, then add it to your fabric. After getting the first fabric node in place you can use LAN Automation to provision the rest.l

[aleopoldie]

Hello Torbjørn,

Thank you for your answer. It's clear.

Last question, for a border node in a greenfield, once it is added to the inventory (either via PnP or manually/discovery), is it possible to run LAN automation only on this device as a seed device so it can get the ISIS configuration ? Otherwise, how to get the ISIS configuration pushed ?

AL

[Torbjørn]

I must admit that I haven't tried, but I don't believe LAN Automation will configure ISIS routing if the seed device doesn't have a neighboring device that is to be on-boarded. If you run LAN Automation with the new border as a seed device to provision other nodes it should configure ISIS.

If you need to have the ISIS configuration in place before running LAN Automation you should be able to configure this in your onboarding template.

[jedolphi]

Hi, typically an SDA BN peers EBGP with the fusion device, I mention this in case your intention is to get ISIS running between the BN (or rather the switch that will be BN later) and the fusion device. But to answer the question, yes, if you start and stop LAN-A on a seed device then ISIS will be started/configured on that seed device. Regards, Jerome