1 00:00:01,002 --> 00:00:03,006 - [Instructor] As we examine network automation further, 2 00:00:03,006 --> 00:00:06,007 we want to look specifically at Cisco's DNA Center, 3 00:00:06,007 --> 00:00:10,001 so let's take an overview of exactly what the solution is 4 00:00:10,001 --> 00:00:11,004 and why it's useful. 5 00:00:11,004 --> 00:00:13,007 Cisco DNA Center provides us with both 6 00:00:13,007 --> 00:00:17,003 a command line interface and a graphical interface 7 00:00:17,003 --> 00:00:18,009 for network interaction. 8 00:00:18,009 --> 00:00:22,005 This includes network design, device configuration, 9 00:00:22,005 --> 00:00:25,000 the automatic provisioning of our devices, 10 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,004 and the ability to monitor and troubleshoot the network. 11 00:00:28,004 --> 00:00:31,007 DNA stands for Digital Network Architecture, 12 00:00:31,007 --> 00:00:34,001 and this can be either a physical appliance 13 00:00:34,001 --> 00:00:35,008 deployed in your infrastructure 14 00:00:35,008 --> 00:00:38,007 or there are cloud deployment options as well. 15 00:00:38,007 --> 00:00:40,008 You probably know that this isn't the first 16 00:00:40,008 --> 00:00:42,005 graphical interface that Cisco 17 00:00:42,005 --> 00:00:44,008 has introduced for network management. 18 00:00:44,008 --> 00:00:48,007 Even the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance firewall line 19 00:00:48,007 --> 00:00:51,002 provided a really good graphical interface, 20 00:00:51,002 --> 00:00:54,009 but Cisco DNA Center is far and away the most useful 21 00:00:54,009 --> 00:00:58,000 and in-depth GUI that Cisco has offered to date. 22 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,004 With Cisco DNA Center in your network, 23 00:01:00,004 --> 00:01:02,006 this has the capability of controlling 24 00:01:02,006 --> 00:01:06,003 all of the Cisco devices found throughout that network. 25 00:01:06,003 --> 00:01:07,001 From the main menu, 26 00:01:07,001 --> 00:01:10,001 there are four main sections that we want to examine, 27 00:01:10,001 --> 00:01:14,009 those being design, policy, provision, and assurance. 28 00:01:14,009 --> 00:01:16,004 The Design section allows you 29 00:01:16,004 --> 00:01:18,007 to create both logical topologies 30 00:01:18,007 --> 00:01:20,002 and physical maps 31 00:01:20,002 --> 00:01:22,007 as a visual reference when you're designing. 32 00:01:22,007 --> 00:01:25,001 We mentioned it previously that the GUI interface 33 00:01:25,001 --> 00:01:26,009 isn't new in the Cisco world, 34 00:01:26,009 --> 00:01:29,007 and likewise, a central management platform 35 00:01:29,007 --> 00:01:31,005 isn't a new concept either. 36 00:01:31,005 --> 00:01:35,001 You may be familiar with Cisco Prime Infrastructure 37 00:01:35,001 --> 00:01:38,008 or the end-of-life product called Cisco's APIC-EM. 38 00:01:38,008 --> 00:01:41,009 If you're a user of either of these platforms, 39 00:01:41,009 --> 00:01:44,006 Cisco DNA has the ability to import 40 00:01:44,006 --> 00:01:49,003 existing topologies and maps directly from these platforms. 41 00:01:49,003 --> 00:01:51,001 Also, DNA Center can leverage 42 00:01:51,001 --> 00:01:54,003 the Cisco Discovery Protocol, or CDP, 43 00:01:54,003 --> 00:01:56,005 to automatically discover devices 44 00:01:56,005 --> 00:01:59,005 and begin building a topology from scratch. 45 00:01:59,005 --> 00:02:02,007 The Policy section allows you to create both user 46 00:02:02,007 --> 00:02:05,001 and device policies for enforcement. 47 00:02:05,001 --> 00:02:06,002 The great thing about this 48 00:02:06,002 --> 00:02:08,007 is that with all of your Cisco devices 49 00:02:08,007 --> 00:02:10,009 under the control of DNA Center, 50 00:02:10,009 --> 00:02:12,009 when you create secure access 51 00:02:12,009 --> 00:02:15,004 or network segmentation policies, 52 00:02:15,004 --> 00:02:18,005 DNA Center will automatically translate those 53 00:02:18,005 --> 00:02:21,007 into device specific configurations 54 00:02:21,007 --> 00:02:24,003 and push those out to the appropriate devices. 55 00:02:24,003 --> 00:02:26,000 This means that you don't have to go 56 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,006 to each individual device in your network 57 00:02:28,006 --> 00:02:31,001 and alter anything like virtual networks 58 00:02:31,001 --> 00:02:33,001 or access control policies, 59 00:02:33,001 --> 00:02:35,007 application policies, all of those things. 60 00:02:35,007 --> 00:02:37,006 You don't have to do that manually anymore. 61 00:02:37,006 --> 00:02:39,004 Everything is taken care of 62 00:02:39,004 --> 00:02:42,006 by DNA Center in an automated manner. 63 00:02:42,006 --> 00:02:45,009 The Provision section is where policies are associated 64 00:02:45,009 --> 00:02:49,001 to users, devices, or applications. 65 00:02:49,001 --> 00:02:52,000 Here you would create categories of identities, 66 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:53,006 and in the graphical interface, 67 00:02:53,006 --> 00:02:56,002 you would simply associate a policy 68 00:02:56,002 --> 00:02:59,006 with an identity group in order to assign that policy. 69 00:02:59,006 --> 00:03:01,006 So it's really, really simple. 70 00:03:01,006 --> 00:03:03,009 Let's say you had a list of identities 71 00:03:03,009 --> 00:03:06,006 that included all employee laptops 72 00:03:06,006 --> 00:03:09,000 and you created a policy previously 73 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,002 to limit access to social media 74 00:03:11,002 --> 00:03:13,005 while they're on the enterprise network. 75 00:03:13,005 --> 00:03:16,000 You would simply associate that policy 76 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:17,007 with the identity group 77 00:03:17,007 --> 00:03:19,004 and DNA Center would automate 78 00:03:19,004 --> 00:03:21,003 all of the configuration for you 79 00:03:21,003 --> 00:03:24,009 and make sure that the security policy is enforced. 80 00:03:24,009 --> 00:03:26,009 A big way this simplifies things 81 00:03:26,009 --> 00:03:30,002 is that these policies will always follow the identity, 82 00:03:30,002 --> 00:03:32,007 no matter where they're at in the network, 83 00:03:32,007 --> 00:03:34,005 they'll always be tied together. 84 00:03:34,005 --> 00:03:37,002 So this eliminates the need for redesigning networks 85 00:03:37,002 --> 00:03:41,001 or for having a lot of complicated VLANs in many cases. 86 00:03:41,001 --> 00:03:44,000 Any new devices introduced into the network, 87 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,000 let's say a new Cisco switch, 88 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,002 would automatically be provisioned 89 00:03:48,002 --> 00:03:50,005 and assigned the appropriate policy, 90 00:03:50,005 --> 00:03:53,001 what's called zero-touch provisioning. 91 00:03:53,001 --> 00:03:55,006 As you can imagine, this would be super helpful 92 00:03:55,006 --> 00:03:58,008 when you're provisioning remote office resources. 93 00:03:58,008 --> 00:04:00,007 And the Assurance section 94 00:04:00,007 --> 00:04:04,001 is where network monitoring and troubleshooting takes place. 95 00:04:04,001 --> 00:04:05,006 This of course deals with 96 00:04:05,006 --> 00:04:07,008 reactive monitoring and troubleshooting 97 00:04:07,008 --> 00:04:10,006 when you receive reports of an issue on the network, 98 00:04:10,006 --> 00:04:13,009 but also proactive and predictive tools 99 00:04:13,009 --> 00:04:16,005 through advanced artificial intelligence 100 00:04:16,005 --> 00:04:18,000 and machine learning. 101 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,000 DNA Center continually collects data analytics 102 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,007 on your network and uses those for assurance purposes. 103 00:04:24,007 --> 00:04:26,003 Things DNA Center can do 104 00:04:26,003 --> 00:04:29,001 with this full visibility into a network 105 00:04:29,001 --> 00:04:32,003 include the ability to predict performance issues 106 00:04:32,003 --> 00:04:33,006 before they happen 107 00:04:33,006 --> 00:04:35,008 and to assist in troubleshooting 108 00:04:35,008 --> 00:04:39,009 with suggested remediation steps when problems are detected. 109 00:04:39,009 --> 00:04:44,004 Let's jump into Cisco's DNA Center Sandbox environment now 110 00:04:44,004 --> 00:04:46,004 found on the DevNet website 111 00:04:46,004 --> 00:04:50,000 and take a look at this graphical interface. 112 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,008 Here on the main landing page, 113 00:04:51,008 --> 00:04:54,002 we get an overview of everything relevant to us 114 00:04:54,002 --> 00:04:55,002 in the network. 115 00:04:55,002 --> 00:04:57,007 We can see summaries of our policies. 116 00:04:57,007 --> 00:04:59,006 We can see the network devices, 117 00:04:59,006 --> 00:05:02,001 the network profiles, and so on. 118 00:05:02,001 --> 00:05:03,005 Up at the very top, 119 00:05:03,005 --> 00:05:06,001 you can see those four main structures 120 00:05:06,001 --> 00:05:08,002 that we already talked about earlier. 121 00:05:08,002 --> 00:05:11,003 And if you scroll down to the Network Configurations 122 00:05:11,003 --> 00:05:12,009 and Operations section, 123 00:05:12,009 --> 00:05:15,003 you can see those outlined here as well. 124 00:05:15,003 --> 00:05:17,005 If we take a look at the Design section, 125 00:05:17,005 --> 00:05:18,009 let's click on that. 126 00:05:18,009 --> 00:05:21,000 You can see that you can zoom in 127 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,004 on a particular section of the map 128 00:05:23,004 --> 00:05:25,006 and you can create your own site. 129 00:05:25,006 --> 00:05:28,000 And from here you can add buildings, 130 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,004 you can add different floors, 131 00:05:29,004 --> 00:05:32,005 you can create physical maps that we discussed earlier. 132 00:05:32,005 --> 00:05:34,008 You can also see the import option 133 00:05:34,008 --> 00:05:37,005 to import existing topologies as well 134 00:05:37,005 --> 00:05:42,001 if you're a Cisco Prime Infrastructure user or APIC-EM user. 135 00:05:42,001 --> 00:05:43,005 In the Policy section, 136 00:05:43,005 --> 00:05:44,006 if we go there, 137 00:05:44,006 --> 00:05:47,005 we can see the number of our current policies 138 00:05:47,005 --> 00:05:48,009 that we have in place, 139 00:05:48,009 --> 00:05:51,003 and we'll see the different category groups 140 00:05:51,003 --> 00:05:52,008 for each one of those. 141 00:05:52,008 --> 00:05:55,003 Also helpful is the Policy History page 142 00:05:55,003 --> 00:05:57,000 so that you can scroll down 143 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,005 and see a list of, 144 00:05:58,005 --> 00:06:00,009 a history of revisions that have been made 145 00:06:00,009 --> 00:06:02,004 and the scope of those revisions 146 00:06:02,004 --> 00:06:05,004 just in case you need to roll back any changes. 147 00:06:05,004 --> 00:06:07,009 The Provision section is populated 148 00:06:07,009 --> 00:06:10,001 with our inventory of devices 149 00:06:10,001 --> 00:06:12,004 that are available for provisioning. 150 00:06:12,004 --> 00:06:14,003 Notice that once this loads, 151 00:06:14,003 --> 00:06:16,008 there's going to be an Upgrade Readiness button. 152 00:06:16,008 --> 00:06:19,002 We see that right here. 153 00:06:19,002 --> 00:06:20,007 We have an Upgrade Readiness button 154 00:06:20,007 --> 00:06:22,006 that will allow us to perform a check 155 00:06:22,006 --> 00:06:24,000 for any upgrade needs, 156 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:25,002 which is very helpful. 157 00:06:25,002 --> 00:06:28,005 If we actually click on an inventory device, 158 00:06:28,005 --> 00:06:30,006 we can immediately see all kinds 159 00:06:30,006 --> 00:06:32,007 of important information about the device, 160 00:06:32,007 --> 00:06:36,000 including the IP and MAC address and lots of other things. 161 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,003 The final section is the Assurance section, 162 00:06:39,003 --> 00:06:41,001 and from here we'll first see 163 00:06:41,001 --> 00:06:43,005 a general health report about our network. 164 00:06:43,005 --> 00:06:46,005 We can see the number of devices that we have 165 00:06:46,005 --> 00:06:49,001 and the type of each device we have in our network, 166 00:06:49,001 --> 00:06:53,003 and including a breakdown of wired versus wireless clients. 167 00:06:53,003 --> 00:06:56,000 We can click the Network Health button, 168 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,002 if we do that View Network Health. 169 00:06:58,002 --> 00:07:00,008 Once that loads, we will see the network health 170 00:07:00,008 --> 00:07:04,003 of our network and we'll see a rating from 0 to 100. 171 00:07:04,003 --> 00:07:06,004 And of course, ours is rated at 100 172 00:07:06,004 --> 00:07:09,000 this being Cisco's Sandbox environment. 173 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,007 At the top, under the Health dropdown menu, 174 00:07:11,007 --> 00:07:14,008 if we look there, we can see the same reports 175 00:07:14,008 --> 00:07:17,004 for both Clients and Applications. 176 00:07:17,004 --> 00:07:20,000 These metrics are part of the machine learning 177 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,005 that DNA Center uses in order to predict issues 178 00:07:23,005 --> 00:07:25,006 and to suggest remediation steps 179 00:07:25,006 --> 00:07:27,006 for any issues that are found. 180 00:07:27,006 --> 00:07:30,007 So that's an overview of Cisco DNA Center. 181 00:07:30,007 --> 00:07:32,000 In our subsequent videos, 182 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,009 we'll look more closely at some of the different pieces 183 00:07:34,009 --> 00:07:38,000 of this architecture.