Course Overview
This five-day course provides students with the foundational knowledge required to manage data center networks with Juniper Apstra software.
This class will provide attendees with the knowledge to operate and manage Juniper Apstra software. Attendees will be given a background on
modern data center design and intent-based networking concepts.
The course covers the Juniper Apstra architecture and its data center reference
architecture including the designing, building, deploying, and automation of a threestage IP fabric with Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) overlay. The course goes on to
cover navigation of the Juniper Apstra UI including creating resources, designs,
templates, and instantiating blueprints (a running network). After teaching you to use
Juniper Apstra to build a running data center, the course reviews the operational
tools for managing a system with Juniper Apstra including basic troubleshooting,
global and blueprint UI walkthroughs, role-based access control, drain mode, adding
and removing nodes from a fabric, rolling back an entire network (Time Voyager),
creating on-box and off-box agents, configuring security policies, connectivity
templates, querying the graph database, and performing intent-based analytics (IBA).
Through demonstrations and hands-on labs, students will gain experience in
configuring and monitoring an IP fabric using Juniper Apstra. This course is based on
Juniper Apstra Release 4.0.1.
Who should attend
- Networking architects and operators, system engineers, DevOps and IT professionals
- Individuals responsible for configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting modern spine and leaf data centers of any size leveraging networking vendor hardware or operating system
Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of networking and data center designs
- Understanding of Clos IP fabrics
- Routing protocol design, configuration, and performance
- Overlay/underlay routing designs
- Basic automation design and workflows
- An understanding of network device configuration via CLI
- BGP knowledge is recommended but not required
- Completion of the Introduction to Juniper Data Center Networking (IJDC) course or equivalent knowledge
Course Objectives
After successfully completing this course, you should be able to:
- Describe what is meant by intent-based networking.
- Describe the Juniper Apstra architecture.
- Navigate the global Juniper Apstra UI.
- Configure role-based access control.
- Describe an IP fabric architecture
- Explain VXLAN functions and operations.
- Describe Ethernet VPN (EVPN) routing and bridging.
- Describe the Juniper Apstra data center reference design
- Describe IP fabric usage in the data center reference design.
- Describe host connectivity in the data center reference design
- Describe the life cycle of the management of devices using Juniper Apstra.
- Create and use System Agents to manage devices.
- Configure Resources.
- Configure tags
- Describe basic device abstractions used by Apstra
- Describe logical devices.
- Describe device profiles.
- Describe interface maps
- Configure a rack type.
- Configure templates
- Build and deploy a blueprint
- Navigate the blueprint UI.
- Perform basic fabric device operations and troubleshooting.
- Configure and apply property sets and configlets.
- Configure connectivity templates.
- Describe the multitenancy capabilities of Juniper Apstra.
- Describe the purpose of root cause identification.
- Create and manage security policies.
- Describe the security policy functionality and terminology
- Describe the security policy workflow.
- Describe the security policy conflict resolution.
- Describe management of security policies.
- Create a device profile.
- Create a logical device.
- Create an interface map
- Add a spine and a rack to an existing blueprint.
- Add a generic system to an existing blueprint.
- Use the Graph Explorer to traverse the graph datastore
- Describe the function of an IBA probe
- Create an IBA probe.
- Configure logging to a remote syslog server.
- Describe how Apstra integrates with vCenter.
- Describe how Apstra can enable a DCI.
Course Content
Day 1
Module 1: Course Introduction
Module 2: Intent-Based Networking
- What Do We Mean by Intent?
- Where is Juniper Apstra positioned?
Module 3: Juniper Apstra Overview
- Juniper Apstra Server
- Juniper Apstra device agents
Module 4: Apstra UI Walkthrough
- Navigate the global Apstra UI
- LAB 1: Apstra UI Walkthrough
Module 5: Role-Based Access Control
- Configure users, roles, and providers to enable local and remote authentication
- LAB 2: Configuring RBAC
Module 6: IP Fabric Architecture
- IP fabric options including collapsed (spineless), three-stage, and five-stage fabrics
- IP fabric routing strategy
- EBGP fabric
- IP fabric best practices
Module 7: VXLAN Overview
- VPN terminology—control planes and data planes
- VXLAN broadcast domains
- VXLAN control plane evolution
- VXLAN fundamentals
- Hardware VTEPs and software VTEPs
Day 2
Module 8: EVPN Protoco
- Overview of the EVPN protocol in a VXLAN environment
- Route targets (policy)
- Route distinguishers
- EVPN route types and usage
- Edge routing using Type 2 routes
- Edge routing using Type 5 routes
Module 9: Data Center Reference Design
- Overview of using rack types to design your network
- Overview of using templates to design your network
- Host connectivity options
- Life-cycle management (design, build, deploy, validate)
Module 10: Device Management
- Device profiles as a hardware compatibility list
- Install off-box agents
- Install on-box agents
- Perform ZTP
- Lab 3: Managing Devices
Module 11: Resources
- Create IP, VNI, and ASN Pools
Module 12: Tags
- Tags
- LAB 4: Configuring Resources and Tags
Module 13: Logical Devices, Device Profiles, and Interface Maps
- Describe Logical Devices
- Describe Device ProfilesObjects
- Describe Interface Maps
- Lab 5: Logical Devices, Device Profiles, and Interface Maps
Module 14: Design: Racks
- Create Custom Rack Types
Module 15: Design: Templates
- Create Custom Templates
Day 3
Module 16: Build and Deploy: Blueprints
- Build and deploy a blueprint
- Lab 6: Design, Build, and Deploy a Blueprint
Module 17: Navigating the Blueprint UI
- Navigate the tabs—Dashboard, Analytics, Staged, Uncommitted, Active, and Time Voyager
- Describe layered views of the staged and active networks
- IBA probe versus service anomalies
Module 18: Basic Blueprint Operation
- Use the Active tab to determine the status of a blueprint
- Select a node to see neighbors, links, headroom, telemetry, device, properties, tags, and virtual settings
- Query the blueprint (MAC, ARP, and VM)
- Find by tags
- Troubleshooting example
- Make changes to your blueprint
- Revert changes
- Use Time Voyager
- Lab 7: Navigating and Operating a Blueprint
Module 19: Property Sets and Configlets
- Configure Property Sets
- Configure and Deploy Configlets
Module 20: Connectivity Templates
- Connectivity templates overview
- Example: Enable a BGP session between border leaf and external router
Module 21: Virtual Networks
- Configure overlay virtual networks
- Lab 8: Configuring Configlets, Connectivity Templates, and Virtual Networks
Day 4
Module 22: Root Cause Identification
- Explain and enable RCI
Module 23: Security Policies
- Describe security policy functionality and terminology
- Describe the security policy workflow
- Use conflict resolution
- Lab 9: Configuring Root Cause Identification and Security Policies
Module 24: Creating Device Profiles
- Create a custom device profile
Module 25: Creating Logical Devices
- Create a custom logical device
Module 26: Creating Interface Maps
- Create a custom interface map
Module 27: Post-Deployment: Adding a Spine and a Rack
- Add a spine and a rack to an existing blueprint
Module 28: Post-Deployment: Adding a Generic System
- Get familiar with global versus embedded rack types
- Add a generic system to an existing blueprint
- Lab 10: Working with Interface Maps, Racks, and Generic Systems
Day 5
Module 29: Graph Database
- Use Graph Explorer to visually inspect a blueprint’s graph and its schema
- Use the Graph Explorer to learn to query the graph database
Module 30: Intent-Based Analytics—Overview
- Describe the basics of an IBA probe
Module 31: Create an IBA Probe
- Create a predefined IBA probe
- Create a new IBA probe
Module 32: Syslog
- Configure and Monitor logging to a remote syslog server
Module 33: VMware vCenter Integration
- Integrate Apstra with vCenter
- Lab 11: Configuring IBA Probes, Syslog, and vCenter Integration
Module 34: Data Center Interconnect
- Describe a L2 DCI
- Describe a L3 DCI
- Lab 12: Configuring DCI