Features in Cisco Viptela SDWAN release 20.8.x
Features in Cisco Viptela SDWAN release 20.8.x
Lets start with the Cisco Viptela SDWAN first and then we will discuss on the new feature sets in Cisco Viptela SDWAN release 20.8.x
Cisco Viptela SDWAN
SD-WAN so called Software Defined WAN solution, where control plane or management plane is separated from the physical devices, while in the Viptela solution we have following architecture, where we have data-plane on the physical devices (obviously), Control Plane by VSmart or VBond Management tool, Management Plane via VManage and Orchestration plane.
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| Fig 1.1- Cisco SDWAN Traffic Flow Design |
Features in Cisco Viptela SDWAN release 20.8.x
So let's talk about what new features has been added on the Cisco Viptela SDWAN release 20.8.x
- Verify OMP routes prefix is added to "show omp route <prefix>" CLI to validate the availability of route on Cisco vEdge devices.
- You can troubleshoot large policies with many sequence numbers using the Policy Checker on Cisco vSmart Controller. Cisco vSmart Controllers use this command to identify and display the sequence number that matches a specific input variable and policy name.
- Trackers can be attached to manually created GRE or IPSec tunnels to a SIG endpoint using Layer 7 Health Check for Manual Tunnels. This assists with traffic failover if a SIG tunnel fails.
- The use of Single Sign-On (SSO) with Security Assertion Mark-Up Language (SAML) allows you to access cloud applications more easily, quickly, and securely without storing passwords or requiring you to log into each application separately.
- Cisco Catalyst 9500-48Y4C switches support SVL port configuration on 100G Ethernet interfaces, enabling you to ensure high performance and throughput by configuring SVL ports on these interfaces.
- Cloud onRamp for SaaS can now monitor and determine the best network path for user-defined SaaS applications, thanks to User-Defined SaaS Application Lists. You can use this feature to create lists of SaaS applications together with the relevant application server for those SaaS applications. As with its predefined list of SaaS applications that it can monitor, Cloud onRamp for SaaS handles these lists in a similar fashion.
- Cisco SD-WAN edge devices have a software upgrade workflow that introduces a guided process that enables users to upgrade the software image on Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN devices and Cisco vEdge devices and to monitor the progress of the upgrade process.
- In the Bidirectional Packet Tracing feature, it is possible to understand how data packets are processed by edge devices in both directions. It will be easier for you to diagnose problems and troubleshoot them with bidirectional debugging.
- While routing a flow to its destination, routers often have a number of options for the next hop. By configuring router affinity groups, you can specify the order of preference among multiple devices that can serve as the next hop for a flow. A router will attempt to use a route to the next-hop device of the highest preference first, and if it cannot find that device, it will try to use a route to the next-hop device of the next lower preference. This functionality is enabled by affinity groups without requiring complex control policies.
