SD Access extended nodes.

[KevinR99]

Hi

I have a customer wanting to use spare Cat9300 switches as extended nodes essentially to supply 24 ports of connectivity to small areas that are not cabled back to the Border nodes.  So they want to hang a 24 port switch off a nearby edge switch.  When I look at the design guide it says IE3k/4k/5k models as well as Cat3650 nodes are supported as extended nodes.  Does this mean we can’t use any other switches such as Cat9300 and if so what is it that stops these being used?

Thanks, Kev.

[jedolphi]

Hi Kevin, C9300 can be on-boarded as an Extended Node if you wish. The C9300 w/ Network Advantage can also function as an SD-Access Fabric Edge Node. You can have daisy chained Fabric Edge Nodes if you wish, Fabric Edge Nodes don't have to cable to the Border Nodes. The advantage of Edge Node over Extended Node is Edge Node is part of a routed underlay which means there no L2 extension (Trunk Ports) be default. Regards, Jerome

[KevinR99]

Thank you.  I wasn't aware I could hang an Edge off an Edge.  In this case, can I do LAN automation and designate the Edge as the seed device and the ports the 2nd Edge will connect on as the seed ports ?

[balaji.bandi]

yes i believe  as long as they reachable to seed port.

[jedolphi]

Hi Kevin, yes, you can start an LAN-A session where EN1 (Fabric Edge Node 1) is the seed, and it will automate the onboarding of the new downstream factory default switch. As Balaji points out all the underlay routing needs to be in place so that DNA Center can push configuration to the DHCP IP address of the factory default switch.

[Ciro G Mele]

Hi jedolphi,

Can you help me with a question, a client needs to connect 2 extended nodes between them.

Can an extended be connected against another extended, we never carry out this type of configuration, only towards a fiab, can it be done?

Thanks in advance.

Ciro Gustavo Mele

[balaji.bandi]

i have replied other post you made :

https://community.cisco.com/t5/discusiones-routing-y-switching/how-to-connect-an-extended-node-with-another-extended-in-sd/m-p/5088864#U5088864

[balaji.bandi]

we have tested you can use Cat 9300 as Extended Node if you have spare one.

[Ciro G Mele]

Hi  jedolphi,

The equipment being used for the 2 extended nodes are Cisco Catalyst 3560-CX Series Switches.

Thanks a lot.

Ciro Gustavo Mele

Can this connection be made?

[jedolphi]

Chain of C9K or IE Extended Nodes is supported. HOWEVER, when we added support for EX chain, 3560-CX was EOS (End of Sale), thus it's not supported to chain 3560-CX Extended Nodes. When we add feature support to SDA, we test the feature internally against a range of combinations and situations. Generally speaking the testing methodology only tests current switches, not EOS switches, I hope it's clear why this is the case: testing all legacy switches (4500, 3560, 3850, etc.) for new capabilities significantly decreases the feature velocity, and if issues are found they cannot be fixed because the EOS switch O/S is in maintenance mode. Regards, Jerome

[Ciro G Mele]

Hi, Jerome.

Your information is of great help!!

I ask you the following, if in the dnac I add a template so that it only makes configurations in some ports or only one can be applied to a certain Extended or send the template to all the extended that make up the fabric...

Thanks a lot !

Regards.

Ciro Gustavo Mele.

[jedolphi]

Hi, the template engine in DNAC/Catalyst Center does allow you to assign templates to certain types of switches by matching the device types and tags. The tags are created and assigned to switches by the you from the Inventory menu.