300-440 - Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity (ENCC)

A fully meshed topology with SD-WAN technology, using dynamic routing and BGP as the routing protocol, meets the requirements of the company because it provides the following benefits:

• It allows direct and secure connectivity between any two branch offices, without the need for a central hub or intermediary devices12. This reduces the latency and improves the performance of the critical business applications.
• It leverages SD-WAN technology to optimize the traffic flow and application quality of service (QoS) across the WAN13. SD-WAN can dynamically select the best path for each application based on the network conditions and policies13. SD-WAN can also provide redundancy, security, and visibility for the WAN13.
• It uses dynamic routing and BGP as the routing protocol to exchange routing information and establish connectivity between the branch offices14. BGP is a scalable and flexible protocol that can support multiple address families, such as IPv4 and IPv6, and multiple routing policies, such as local preference and route filtering14. BGP can also enable seamless integration with the cloud service providers (CSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs)14.

References :=

• 1: Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity (ENCC, Track 1 of 5) (Cisco U. login required)
• 2: Cisco SD-WAN Design Guide

Step 1 = Create the groups of interest. Step 2 = Configure the topology. Step 3 = Create the application-aware routing policy. Step 4 = Apply the application-aware routing policy to a specific VPN and sites.

The process of configuring an application-aware routing policy in Cisco vManage involves several steps12.

• Create the groups of interest: This is the first step where you define the applications or groups that the policy will affect1.
• Configure the topology: This involves setting up the network topology that the policy will operate within1.
• Create the application-aware routing policy: After setting up the groups and topology, you then create the application-aware routing policy. This policy tracks network and path characteristics of the data plane tunnels between Cisco SD-WAN devices and uses the collected information to compute optimal paths for data traffic31.
• Apply the application-aware routing policy to a specific VPN and sites: Finally, the created policy is applied to a specific VPN and sites. This allows the policy to affect the desired network traffic1.

References :=

• Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity (ENCC) v1.0
• Learning Plan: Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity v1.0 (ENCC 300-440)
• Information About Application-Aware Routing - Cisco
• Configuring Application-Aware Routing (AAR) Policies | NetworkAcademy.io
• Policies Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Releases 16.11, 16.12

The configuration of cloud connectivity with Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) in active/backup mode involves several steps. After configuring the SIG Credentials and SIG Feature Templates, the engineer must:

• Select the SIG provider for the primary tunnel: This is the first step in setting up the active/backup mode. The primary tunnel is the main connection path for the cloud connectivity.
• Add the secondary tunnel: The secondary tunnel serves as a backup in case the primary tunnel fails. It ensures that the cloud connectivity remains uninterrupted even if there are issues with the primary tunnel.
• Create one high-availability pair using primary and secondary tunnels: This step involves pairing the primary and secondary tunnels to create a high-availability pair. Thisensures that the cloud connectivity will switch over to the secondary tunnel seamlessly if the primary tunnel fails.
• Edit the service-side VPN template to inject a service route: The final step involves modifying the VPN template on the service side to include a service route. This ensures that the traffic is correctly routed through the primary or secondary tunnel as needed.

References :=

• Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity (ENCC) v1.01
• Learning Plan: Designing and Implementing Cloud Connectivity v1.0 (ENCC 300-440) Exam Prep2
• Configure Umbrella SIG Tunnels for Active/Backup or Active/Active Scenarios - Cisco3