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DNA Center vs Prime Infrastructure vs APIC-EM

DAVID
Level 3
Level 3

Now that Cisco is pushing DNA center why do I need to replace my PI and APIC-EM.  Exactly what does DNA center do that these are not already doing.  It seems that DNA is already limited to the Cisco devices it can manage.  So what is my reasoning for switching over to DNA Center beyond the marketing campaign

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There is no official announcement that Prime Infra. will be end of life, I think it will take years for prime to retire ( for enterprise ), as DNA center will not replace Prime, until the Catalyst 9K replaces other catalyst models. 
It is too early to say it will go away. 

 

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Mohammad Roos
Level 1
Level 1

Hi David, 

we can say it is next generation of APIC-EM, with more functions, and more automation, like trustsec, and better ISE integration. 
in fact you have a valid question. depends on your scenario and cost,  APIC-EM might be enough for you until DNA center has a major difference. 

Any Cisco Prime slowly and quietly just goes away????

There is no official announcement that Prime Infra. will be end of life, I think it will take years for prime to retire ( for enterprise ), as DNA center will not replace Prime, until the Catalyst 9K replaces other catalyst models. 
It is too early to say it will go away. 

 

I am new to DNA and I have to say that the information available regarding DNA is a little confusing overall.

 

In reference to the question posed here "DNA Center vs Prime Infrastructure vs APIC-EM"; I am not familiar with DNA Center but I am going through the "Digital Network Architecture Implementation Essentials" training on Cisco's On Demand E-learning. The training covers APIC-EM (no mention of DNA Center) and according to the training materials, APIC-EM relays on Prime Infrastructure for such things as Analytics etc.

 

So I was confused since the question seems to compare DNA Center vs Prime Infrastructure vs APIC-EM.

 

I would assume that as long as APIC-EM is used Prime Infrastructure is required.

 

Also, I am assuming that DNA Center does not relay on Prime Infrastructure for any functions.

 

Are these assumptions correct?

 

Thank you in advance....

 

Hi Allen,

 

Actually I understand  the source of confusion.

DNAC was based on the APIC-EM appliance, lets say from HW point of view. 

when the DNA was initially released the term ' APIC-EM' was still used, but now, no more mention for APIC EM in the recent documents and trainings.

so we can safely say, that prime has nothing to do with DNA, and APIC-EM term is not anymore used with DNA solution.
so your assumptions are correct,
I recommend you to have account at Ciscolive, and search for the sessions about SD-Access, DNA.
it will help you a lot to have a good overview for this solution.

 

This was how I learned the differences between APIC-EM and DNA Center.

 

Everything I had heard was that DNA Center was part of APIC-EM 2.0. I ‘assumed’ (you know what they say about ‘assuming’) that DNA Center would become available when you upgraded an existing APIC-EM to 2.0 code or when you buy a new APIC-EM and put 2.0 code on it.

 

But when I tried to build an APIC-EM in CCW, the only s/w versions available on it are 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5. 2.0 is NOT an option for the traditional APIC-EM SKUs.

 

 

In a nutshell, DNA Center (DNAC) is an appliance. SKU is DN1-HW-APL. It runs DNA-C 1.0. There is NO mention of APIC 2.0 but that is what it is.

APIC-EM 2.0 = DNA-C 1.0

DNA-C 1.0 = APIC-EM 2.0

As far as Prime vs DNA Center...........others have already mentioned that Prime isn't going away anytime soon. 

Thank you Mohammad and Doug for the information.

OK but the Catalyst 9K is sold with DNA licenses, and the customer is still using Prime Infrastructure, as Management, can the use the DNA likens as a TOKEN for PI, or do they also need to buy a PI Token?

Hi Ken,

 

The customer needs to buy PI token licenses on the top of DNA licenses.

 

Regards,

Tarun

mohammade1986
Level 1
Level 1

Thanks all for the information.

 

One major point i want to add, that for the new ordering, Cisco mentioned that Cisco Prime Infrastructure is not required for Cisco SD-Access.

 

You can read this at the first page of the following Cisco SD-Access Ordering Guide:-

 

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/enterprise-networks/software-defined-access/guide-C07-739242.pdf

 

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