Apstra Test Drive Guide

Day 2 Operations with Apstra

Now that we’ve explored how Apstra enables you to design and deploy a network, let’s dive into where Apstra truly shines: ongoing operations and management of your data centre fabric.

For this section, we’ll use a pre-configured blueprint called something like Robert_Lancaster_02010_Jun_SE_Demo_611_1f8e8a31eb2a - evpn-vex-virtual. The "SE Demo" blueprint contains a fully operational data center, consisting of virtual devices. This allows us to focus on the operational capabilities without performing the full deployment process.

Switching to the SE Demo Blueprint

  1. Return to the Apstra main menu and navigate to Blueprints

  2. Find and select the pre-existing blueprint that contains SE Demo in the name.

  3. You’ll now see the dashboard for this operational network

Blueprint Dashboard

Understanding the Dashboard

The dashboard gives you an immediate view of your network’s health and status. Let’s explore what we’re seeing:

Blueprint Dashboard

Key components of the dashboard include:

  • Health Status: Overall fabric health at a glance

  • Anomalies: Any issues that require attention

  • Fabric Devices: Status of all switches in the fabric

  • Uncommitted Changes: Work that has been staged but not yet committed

  • Recent Activity: History of changes and events

Take a moment to explore the dashboard. Notice that everything is green, indicating a healthy network with no current issues.

What We’ll Cover Next

Over the next 90 minutes or so, we’ll explore how Apstra makes day-to-day network operations dramatically simpler and more reliable. We’ll cover:

  1. Scaling your network:

    1. Adding a new rack to expand capacity

    2. Adding new virtual networks

    3. Defining connections for new servers

  2. Network Connectivity:

    1. Setting up external BGP peering

    2. Managing routing and switching configurations

  3. Network Management:

    1. Using Time Voyager to roll back fabric changes

    2. Troubleshooting and resolving issues

  4. Analytics and Visibility:

    1. Exploring built-in analytics

    2. Creating custom analytics probes

    3. Understanding how analytics stay in lockstep with your network intent

Let’s begin by exploring how to expand your operational data center without disrupting existing services!