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pbagga
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

A fabric site is a portion of the fabric which has its own set of control plane nodes, border nodes, and edge nodes.

Key characteristics of a single fabric site are:

  • A given IP subnet is part of a single fabric site (except when VN anchoring is in use)
  • L2 extension is only within a fabric
  • L2 / L3 mobility is only within a fabric
  • No context translation is necessary within a fabric

A fabric site is, in principle, autonomous from other fabric sites from the connectivity perspective.

The diagram below depicts a fabric site.

221.png

 

Once Cisco DNA Center has provisioned the SD-Access devices to sites, the SD-Access fabric can be created.  In the Cisco DNA Center UI, navigate to Provision > Fabric.  This is where you create and manage your fabric domains and transits.]

Click on Fabric under Provisioning.1.png

 

Click on +  Add Fabric or IP Transit to click on Fabric to create a fabric site

2.png

Name the Fabric SJC. Click on building - SJC-22. Click on Add.

3.png

You should get a successful message.4.png

 

Transits are used to carry segmentation between sites within a Fabric Domain.

IP Transit leverages a traditional IP-based (VRF-LITE, MPLS) network, which requires remapping of VRFs and SGTs between sites.  This Transit requires manual configuration on the devices between the fabric domains and non-fabric sites.

SD-Access Transit enables a native SD-Access (LISP, VXLAN, CTS) fabric, with a domain-wide Control Plane node for inter-site communication.  This Transit is fully automated between the fabric sites.

In this article, we will be using IP Transit between the Borders and the Fusion Routers.  Cisco DNA Center will automate the uplink (external interface[s]) configuration and provide the configuration details that we will manually configure on the next hop (in this article, a fusion router).

Click on +  Add Fabric or IP Transit to create an IP transit for the fabric site as shown here.  Click on Add Transit.

5.png

Use the following details for the Transit configuration:

Name: SJ-Transit

Transit Type: IP-Based

Routing Protocol: BGP

Autonomous System Number: 65000

Click Save.

6.png

Add Devices to the Fabric

Click the newly created SJC Fabric from the Provision > Fabric Dashboard.

7.png

All the devices that were provisioned to Building SJC-22 will show here.  You will notice the topology here.  The placement of the devices in the topology is dependent on the roles that you defined earlier in the Inventory tool.

8.png

To assign fabric roles click on the devices and choose the appropriate role as mentioned below.

Border-cp-3850 switch will be assigned as CP + Border. Since Borders are the entry and exit point for the Fabric, there are different types based on what type of network domain they are connecting to.  Cisco DNA Center allows you to configure an Internal border (a Border that connects to known IP prefixes/ Rest of Company), an External Border (a Border that connects to unknown prefixes/Outside World) and an Internal & External Border (a Border that connects to unknown and known prefixes/Anywhere).  In this article, we will be configuring an External Border. 

Click on Border1-9500 and a new window opens on the right. Go to the Fabric section and click on Control Plane radio button and then click on Border Node radio button.

9.png

In the resulting window, enter the following information:

Check – Default Border if this is Border is the exit point of your network.

Local Autonomous Number: 65001

Select IP Address Pool: BorderHandoff-Pool

Transit: SJ-Transit

Note: Do not select “connected to internet” this is required only for SD Access transit and is used to advertise Default Gateway to other Borders in the Fabric Domain.

10.png

Expand Transit.  Select IP: SJ-Transit.  Click on Add.

11.png

Once the Transit is selected, expand the Arrow next to the SJ-Transit and click on Add interface.

We will be selecting the uplink interface that is connected to our Fusion Router. 

12.png

Select External Interface Ten Gig 1/0/29. This is one of the border interfaces connecting to the Fusion1.

Cisco DNA Center will configure each VN as a Switch Virtual Interface (SVI).  SVI’s are configured from Cisco DNA Center for switches and sub-interface for routers.  When multiple VN’s are selected and saved at one time, Cisco DNA Center will configure the SVI’s and associated IP addresses in no specific order.  For the ease of this article, we suggest following the VN selection in the following order.  Cisco DNA Center Select the VNs that will be handed off to the Fusion node via BGP.

Select INFRA_VN first, add, save, and then edit the border.  This is used to establish BGP neighbors between the Border(s) and Fusion Router(s).  Next select Campus_VN, add, save, and then edit the border.  Next select IoT VN, add, save, and then edit the border.  Finally, select Guest_VN, add, save, and then edit the border.  We will not be handing off the Default_VN as we have not used this VN.

13.png

Click Save.

We can have redundant links between the Borders and Fusion Routers. We can add other interface in similar way. Select External Interface Ten Gig 1/0/2. (this connects Border1 to Fusion2). Fill in the information as shown below.

14.png

Click on Save and then Click Add to confirm the configuration.

15.png

Click Add again. Cisco DNAC allows you to push the Fabric configuration at a set time. Click Save.

16.png

For this article, we will apply the configuration now.  Click Apply.

17.png

A small green message appears on the lower right, indicating that fabric provisioning succeeded.

18.png

Devices turn solid blue, indicating that they have been added to the SJC fabric.

Do the same for Fabric Edge Switches – FE1-9300-03 and FE2-9300-04 and assign them Edge Node Role and click Add on bottom right.  

Click on Save and then Click Apply to confirm the configuration.

 

A small green message appears on the lower right, indicating that fabric provisioning succeeded.

Devices turn solid blue, indicating that they have been added to the SJC fabric.

 

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