Lab Guide 1 - Juniper

Blueprints

Now we’ll take the elements that we created in previous sections (and some others that were predefined for you) and bring them together to create a Blueprint. Then we’ll configure our network in the staging area. Some configuration changes require a series of incremental changes. You add these changes to the staged blueprint, to ensure that required resources and devices are available, and validate that the changes are safe and in compliance with intent before you configurations are built. Let’s create a blueprint now.

Create Blueprint

Click Blueprints, then click Create Blueprint.
Name the blueprint apstra-pod1 or you may replace apstra with your own name if you like.
From the template drop-down list, select apstra_junos. This is the template you created just earlier. The default selections are fine for this exercise because we are building a data center reference design using IPv4. A preview of the intent we created earlier appears in the view.
Click Create to create the blueprint and return to the blueprint summary view.
Click the blueprint name you just created to see it’s dashboard. Once complete, this view is where you will check the overall health of the network and quickly see where any anomalies may be. But first, we’ll need to finish our work on this fabric inside the blueprint. Then we will deploy. So, let’s get started. Click on the blueprint you have just created.

This is how the incomplete blueprint will appear.

Empty Blueprint

Assign Resources

The first thing you’ll notice is that there are some red indicators and there is very little information in the Dashboard. This will change as we make our assignments, so we can making them now.

From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Build > Resources.
Click the red status indicator next to one of the required resources, then click the Update assignments button to see available resource pools.

Select the pool as specified in the table below for the required resource that you are assigning:

Table 1. Table Pool Resources
Resource Requirement	Resource Pool
ASNs - Spines	vpod-evpn-asn-pool (You created this one.)
ASNs - Leafs	vpod-evpn-asn-pool
Loopback IPs - Spines	spine-loopback (This was created for you.)
Loopback IPs - Leafs	leaf-loopback (This was created for you.)
Link IPs - Spines <>Leafs	spine-leaf (This was created for you.)

If you don’t see the required pool, you may need to click the directional arrow to see additional pools.

Click the Save button. When the resource has been successfully assigned, the red status indicator turns green.
Repeat the steps for each resource requirement.

Assign Interface Maps and Perform Our First Commit

To the right of the Resources tab, select the Device Profiles tab.
Click the red status indicator next to virtual-7x10-1, then click the Change interface maps assignment button.

Select interface maps for each device as shown in the table below.

Table 2. Table Interface Map Assignment Values
Name	Value
evpn_esi_001_leaf1	Juniper_vQFX__slicer-7x10-1
evpn_esi_001_leaf2	Juniper_vQFX__slicer-7x10-1
evpn_single_001_leaf1	Juniper_vQFX__slicer-7x10-1
spine1	Juniper_vQFX__slicer-7x10-1
spine2	Juniper_vQFX__slicer-7x10-1

Click Update Assignments to assign the device models and return to the build page. After a moment the red status indicator turns green indicating that the assignment was successful. (Note: You do not need to assign device profiles for the aos-2x10-1 and aos-1x10-1 since they are generic systems (in this case servers), and not under Apstra control.)

Assign System IDs

To the right of the Device Profiles tab, select the Devices tab.
Click the yellow status indicator next to Assigned System IDs, then click the Change System IDs assignments button

Select values as shown in the table below replacing yoursubnet# with the subnet for your own lab. You can find it on your CloudLabs portal, and it will also be in the System ID drop-down lists.

Table 3. Table System ID Values
Name	Value
spine1	172.20.yoursubnet.11
spine2	172.20.yoursubnet.12
evpn_esi_001_leaf1	172.20.yoursubnet.13
evpn_esi_001_leaf2	172.20.yoursubnet.15
evpn_single_001_leaf1	172.20.yoursubnet.14

sys_assign

Ensure that each system is set to Deploy mode while noting the last octet of each device’s IP address. They are not contiguous. Click Update Assignments to assign the System IDs and you are returned to the Build page. If you had any difficulty making these assignments, make sure you performed the interface map assignments correctly (previous step). Now, let’s commit everything we have done so far into the new blueprint.
Click the Uncommitted tab and see all the elements that are staged. The information you see is logical difference in the blueprint state since the last Commit was made. Since this is the very first one, this view shows us everything we have added since we instantiated the blueprint from the template. You can see even more details about the staged changes by clicking the Full Nodes Diff tab. Have a look around this screen to become familiar with how things appear when changes are complete and ready to be pushed to the Active network.
After you have looked about, click the Commit button in the upper right.
Pressing Commit brings up a screen where you can place a description of the changes. Notes and details of the stages changes should be entered to describe what is being added to the blueprint. The more descriptive you are, the better it will be when you wish to move between fabric snapshots using the Time Voyager feature.
Once the description is entered, press the Commit button and watch as the Active network is configured. This will take some time. You can enter the Active to watch the network come to life. Over time, the objects will turn green and the anomalies will dissipate. Be patient as the agents configure each device and telemetry begins to flow. Once everything turns green, you are ready to move to the next step.

This is how your network should appear before moving on to the next exercise, where we add the external connections to the fabric.