CML 2.7 - SD WAN license needed?

[harry101]

Dear Experts, 

I am planning to buy CML 2.7 Personal since it now provides SD WAN support. However i am confused from below link. I am not a partner and dont have access to local SE etc. Do i still need license to get SD WAN working in CML? 

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/modeling-labs/catalyst-sd-wan/#limitations

Excerpt from this link which is confusing me

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For vEdge support, you must also setup a Cisco.com account and a Smart Licensing account. The latter is used to generate license files to onboard vEdge nodes. Even though Smart Licensing is required to generate the license file, the fabric does not need to be connected to the Internet for operation.

Using Catalyst SD-WAN Nodes in CML

Unlike other nodes, such as IOSv or a standalone Cat8Kv, SD-WAN fabrics cannot include a full day-0 or initial configuration by default. Before edge nodes (those that form the dataplane of an SD-WAN fabric) can be bootstrapped, certificates must be generated and loaded into the SD-WAN Manager. Refer to the SD-WAN bring-up process to get a new fabric running.

It is also possible to automate the SD-WAN fabric bring-up. The SD-WAN DevOps GitHub repository provides an Ansible-based approach to automating the creation of a full SD-WAN fabric.

When this guide refers to the serialFile.Viptela file that you need to upload to the SD-WAN Manager in the WAN Edge List, you must first generate this file using the Cisco Smart License portal. Once you create a Smart License account, follow these steps to generate the .viptela file.

[Torbjørn]

Hi,

No you don't need any SD-WAN specific license to lab SD-WAN in CML. You will however need to use the PNP portal to get the serialFile.viptela for use with cEdges and a smart account for vEdges.

The other limitation you have quoted refers to that you are unable to supply full startup configs and you'll have to boostrap them manually.

[harry101]

Dear, 

please consider me noob as i have never played with CML or SDWAN before. You said no licenses but then you mentioned PNP and Smart licensing. Is it only for vEdge? why do i need vedge if i can use 8000v? 

My question is simple, can i build complete working SDWAN lab in CML to practice it as per CCNP course, do i need to have any type of access that requires special customer/partner privileges?

[Torbjørn]

I believe you should be able to use both the PNP portal(https://software.cisco.com/software/pnp/devices) and create a smart account in software central(https://software.cisco.com/) for the purposes of labbing SD-WAN without having any special privileges. I recommend this guide by Rene Molenaar to get started.

vEdges were WAN edges based on Viptela hardware, while cEdges are based on Cisco hardware running IOS-XE. cEdges are replacing the vEdge, check with your course but I would guess that you will be using cEdges.

[harry101]

I have my own domain so i tried creating the pnp account. After i created it and accessed your pnp link, i am getting this error

[Torbjørn]

You'll need to create a smart account first it seems. Are you allowed to do so?

[Inkmouse]

little late on this reply. However you do not necessarily need a smart account in order to do SDWAN in cml. The smart account is associated with licensing and Plug N Play connectivity when using SDWAN along with associating vBond profiles to your Plug N plug connections.

You can onboard edge routers that you design in cml manually by using the template csv file. You can get a blank default version of this file when you click the upload valid edge button inside vManage(SD-WAN Manager). There are also tons of videos out there that go over standing up an SDWAN lab and will cover this manual onboarding process. As far a licensing goes there is no limitation when it comes to not having licenses associated to your vEdges other then throughput. Which is generally not going to hinder your learning SDWAN in CML.