Migration to Cisco SDA from legacy network

Raoul07 · ‎10-05-2019

Hi there,

I would like to know what are the ways to migrate catalyst 9k switches already running in the network which is configured with dot1x and needs to be migrated to Cisco SDA.

Current setup of the customer:

They have 4 branches and 1 HQ where the DNA is hosted. All the switches in the network are migrated to Cisco 9K. In the HQ, they have cat 9500 series switches and few IDFs with cat 9300. In the branches, they just have IDFs which are directly connected to the WAN router.

Customer wants to migrate these devices to SDA where they have DNAc and ISE in the HQ. All the cat 9k switches are enabled with Advantage licenses.

Can you please provide/share any link to meet any other pre-requisite and also steps to migrate to Cisco SDA.

Can this migration be done branchwise/IDF wise or should we consider to migrate the entire setup at once into a fabric?

Any leeds on this would really help me alot.

#Cisco SD-access #Catalyst 9k #DNA #Migration to SDA

Mike.Cifelli · ‎10-08-2019

IMO there are several ways to accomplish your end goal. Depending on your layer 1 situation you could migrate in parallel if fiber between your sites is not an issue and you have additional gear. However, based on the brief information it seems like you will need to schedule outages to support the migration. Some things to consider are:
-Are you planning to run multiple sites in DNAC?
-How are the branches & HQ connected? Are you talking a small campus network or actual remote sites across a wan? If true remote sites you will want to look into 3 options of extending your SDA. These options are typically ip-transit (manual bgp configuration between sites), extension of vxlan (good if you actually own the links), or SD-WAN (which with this you dont care about the means of transport)
-How many users are at each site? Could you run fabric in a box?
-What underlay routing protocol do you plan to use?
-I assume when you say the switches are enabled with advantage licenses that you mean network advantage + dna premier? You will more than likely need both if you want all the features DNAC/SDA offers.
I could go on and on. Consider those design/migration thoughts, and I would recommend reaching out to Cisco rep. Also, see here for the design guide:
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/solutions/CVD/Campus/CVD-Software-Defined-Access-Design-Guide-2019SEP.pdf
Good luck & HTH!