Cisco ASR-920-12CZ-A User manual

Autonomic Networking Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.5.1
(Cisco ASR 920 Series)
Autonomic Networking 2
Finding Feature Information 2
Prerequisites for Autonomic Networking 2
Restrictions for Autonomic Networking 3
Information About Autonomic Networking 3
How to Configure Autonomic Networking 7
Configuration Examples for Autonomic Networking 10
Additional References for Autonomic Networking 10
Feature Information for Autonomic Networking 10

Revised: December 6, 2017,
Autonomic Networking
Autonomic Networking makes network devices intelligent by introducing self-management concepts that simplify network management
for the network operator.
Finding Feature Information
Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest caveats and feature information, see
Bug Search Tool and the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in
this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the feature information table.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature
Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Prerequisites for Autonomic Networking
•The Autonomic Control Plane (ACP) is built automatically only across Ethernet ports. It utilizes only IPv6 addressing.
•If the device has no start-up configuration, all interfaces are up by default, to exchange the adjacency discovery (AD) messages.
•The ACP is automatically built between two adjacent devices supporting the autonomic networking infrastructure. The interfaces
on both devices need to be up (and be Ethernet interfaces). The device either needs to be unconfigured (greenfield rollout) or
have an autonomic networking configured explicitly.
•The ACP can also automatically be built between two adjacent devices if there is an intervening non-autonomic layer 2 cloud
such as a Metro-Ethernet service. This is achieved by the Channel Discovery protocol (CD) on the autonomic devices, which
probes for working VLAN encapsulations.
•To build the ACP across intervening non-autonomic L3 devices, you need to explicitly configure a tunnel between the autonomic
devices and enable autonomic adjacency-discovery on this tunnel.
•Autonomic Registrar, commonly known as registrar, is required for the Autonomic Networking Infrastructure (ANI) feature
to work. At least one device in the network must be configured as a registrar to enroll new devices into the autonomic domain.
In a network where all required devices are already enrolled into the autonomic domain, a registrar is not required.
•Each registrar supports only one autonomic domain. The registrar is needed only when new autonomic devices join the domain.
•All new devices must have a physical connectivity to at least one autonomic device to contact the registrar for authentication
and authorization.
•A device can only be enrolled into one autonomic domain. Two devices enrolled into different domains will not build the
autonomic control plane between each other.
•For autonomic intent, the registrar must be configured with domain ID.
•For Zero Touch Bootstrap to happen, there must be no startup-config file and the config-register must remain
default i.e, 0x2102.
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Restrictions for Autonomic Networking
General Restrictions
•Autonomic networking only supports unique device identifier (UDI)-based devices.
•Autonomic networking and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) are different zero touch solutions. It is recommended that you do
not test or use autonomic networking and ZTP at the same time.
Information About Autonomic Networking
Overview of Autonomic Networking
The aim of autonomic networking is to create self-managing networks to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of the Internet
and other networks to enable their further growth. In a self-managing autonomic system, network management takes on a new role:
instead of controlling the network elements individually and directly, the administrator defines network-wide policies and rules that
guide the self-management process.
The following diagram provides a high-level architecture of an autonomic network.
Figure 1: High-Level Architecture of an Autonomic Network
Autonomic Networking is controlled by a separate software entity running on top of traditional operating systems that include
networking components, such as IP, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), and so forth. Traditional networking components are unchanged
and unaware of the presence of the autonomic process. The autonomic components use normal interfaces that are exposed by the
traditional networking components and interact with different devices in the network. The autonomic components securely cooperate
to add more intelligence to devices so that the devices in an autonomic network can autonomically configure, manage, protect, and
heal themselves with minimal operator intervention. They can also securely consolidate their operations to present a simplified and
abstracted view of the network to the operator.
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Autonomic Networking Infrastructure
The Autonomic Networking Infrastructure (ANI) feature simplifies the network bootstrap functionality by removing the need for any
kind of prestaging, thereby allowing devices to join a domain securely, after which devices can be configured. The goal of the
Autonomic Networking Infrastructure feature is to make new and unconfigured devices securely reachable by an operator or network
management system. This is carried out in the following steps:
1One device is defined and configured as the registrar. The registrar is the first autonomic domain device.
2The network administrator collects a list of legitimate device identifiers of the devices to be added to the network. This list controls
the devices that are added to the autonomic domain. Devices are identified by their unique device identifier (UDI). The list is
compiled as a simple text file, one UDI per line. This step is optional because in the absence of a whitelist, all devices are allowed
to join the domain. A whitelist is an approved list of entities that is provided a particular privilege, service, mobility, access, or
recognition. Whitelisting means to grant access.
3The whitelist of known devices is uploaded to the registrar as part of its configuration. This step is optional.
4Any new autonomic device that is directly connected to the registrar, or another already enrolled domain device, will automatically
receive a domain certificate from the registrar.
5The autonomic control plane is automatically established across the autonomic domain to make new devices reachable.
The benefits of Autonomic Networking Infrastructure are as follows:
•Autonomic discovery of Layer 2 topology and connectivity by discovering how to reach autonomic neighbors.
•Secure and zero touch identity of new devices by using the device name and domain certificate.
•A virtual autonomic control plane that enables communications between autonomic nodes.
Autonomic behavior is enabled by default on new devices. To enable autonomic behavior on existing devices, use the autonomic
connect command. To disable, use the no form of this command.
The components of autonomic networking are as follows:
•Registrar—A domain-specific registration authority in a given enterprise that validates new devices in the domain, provides
them with domain-wide credentials, and makes policy decisions. Policy decisions can include whether a new device can join a
given domain based on a preloaded whitelist. The registrar also has a database of devices that join a given domain and the device
details.
•Channel Discovery—Used to discover reachability between autonomic nodes across nonautonomic Layer 2 networks.
•Adjacency Discovery—Used to discover autonomic neighbors. Adjacency discovery is done on Layer 3. It is also possible to
discover autonomic neighbors across pre-established Layer 3 generic routed ncapsulation (GRE) tunnels.
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New Device Joining the Autonomic Network
The figure below illustrates how a new device joins an autonomic network.
Figure 2: New Device Joining the Autonomic Network
1The new device sends out a hello message to the neighbor. In this case, the neighbor is part of an autonomic network domain.
2The hello message includes the unique device identifier (UDI) of the new device.
3The autonomic device acts as a proxy and allows the new device to join this autonomic network domain. The autonomic network
device advertises itself with the domain information to its Layer 3 neighbors.
4The new device is validated with the autonomic registrar on receiving the autonomic network hello message from the neighbor
and thereby detecting the UDI information.
5The new device advertises its domain certificate in its hello message with all neighbors. The neighbor information is exchanged
every 10 seconds.
If the neighbor information changes, the entry is deleted and neighbor discovery is restarted. In the absence
of a domain certificate and devices working with UDI, UDI is exchanged at a 10-second interval.
Note
Working of the Registrar
One device in the network is configured as the registrar to validate all new devices locally; and to accept all devices that try to join
the domain managed by the registrar. The registrar issues a domain certificate to devices using the domain name provided by the
administrator.
The domain name is a group of devices in the network managed by the same set of rules. Any neighbor
communicating with the registrar using the UDI certificate is sent an invitation to join the domain by
registrar.
Note
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Currently, the registrar validates the new devices based on an optional list of UDIs that is specified when configuring the registrar.
The list specifies a set of devices that are allowed to join the network.
Figure 3: Provisioning Registrar in an Autonomic Network
The registrar maintains a database of all devices that join or fail to join the domain. The failed devices can try to join the domain
again. The registrar database tracks all devices in the domain and associates each device with the following states:
•Accepted—Devices that successfully join the domain.
•Pending—Devices that are in the process of joining the domain.
•Quarantine—Devices that failed to join the domain.
Channel Discovery in Autonomic Networking
Service Discovery in Autonomic Networking
Autonomic networking uses the multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) infrastructure to discover various services required by the
devices in the autonomic networking domain. Few of the services discovered by the network using the mDNS infrastructure are: the
AAA server, the configuration server, the syslog server, and the autonomic networking registrar. Autonomic networking listens to
the mDNS advertisements on all the devices in the domain. Autonomic networking initiates the mDNS advertisements from the
devices hosting the services.
Autonomic Control Plane
When a new device in the domain receives a domain certificate, it exchanges the domain certificate in the hello messages with its
neighbors. This creates an autonomic control plane between two autonomic devices of the same domain. There are different types of
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autonomic control planes that can be created based on the different capabilities of the devices. The autonomic control plane is
established by using the following mechanisms:
•Configuring a loopback interface.
•Dynamically assigning an IPv6 address to the loopback interface.
•Configuring an autonomic VPN routing and forwarding (VRF).
How to Configure Autonomic Networking
Configuring the Registrar
Procedure
PurposeCommand or Action
Enables privileged EXEC mode.enable
Example:
Device> enable
Step 1
•Enter your password if prompted.
Enters global configuration mode.configure terminal
Example:
Device# configure terminal
Step 2
(Optional) Connects a nonautonomic management device, such as
an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server, or a
syslog server, to the autonomic network.
autonomic connect
Example:
Device(config)# autonomic connect
Step 3
Enables a device as a registrar and enters registrar configuration
mode.
autonomic registrar
Example:
Device(config)# autonomic registrar
Step 4
Represents a common group of all devices registering with the
registrar.
domain-id domain-name
Example:
Device(config-anra)# domain-id abc.com
Step 5
(Optional) Specifies the Unique Device Identifier (UDI) of a
quarantined device to be accepted in the autonomic domain.
device-accept “udi”
Example:
Device(config-anra)# device-accept
"PID:A901-12C-FT-D SN:CAT1902U88Y"
Step 6
•udi—Must be entered in double quotes to ensure that spaces
and special characters are inclusive in the argument.
This command is not required when configuring the
registrar. It is required only after the registrar is enabled to
accept previously quarantined devices.
Note
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PurposeCommand or Action
(Optional) Allows loading a file on the local device that contains a
list of devices to be accepted in a given domain.
whitelist filename
Example:
Device(config-anra)# whitelist
flash:whitelist.txt
Step 7
•The file must contain one UDI entry per line.
If this command is not configured, all devices are accepted
into the domain.
Note
PID:A901-12C-FT-D SN:CAT1602U32U
PID:A901-12C-FT-D SN:CAT1604U92B
Enables the autonomic registrar.no shut
Example:
Device(config-anra)# no shut
Step 8
Exits registrar configuration mode and returns to global configuration
mode.
exit
Example:
Device(config-anra)# exit
Step 9
Exits global configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC
mode.
exit
Example:
Device(config)# exit
Step 10
Verifying and Monitoring Autonomic Networking Configuration
Procedure
Step 1 enable
Example:
Device> enable
Enables privileged EXEC mode.
•Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2 show autonomic device
Example:
Device# show autonomic device
UDI PID:A901-12C-FT-D SN:CAT1602U00U
Device ID 0006.f6ac.3be0-2
Domain ID manual-cisco
Domain Certificate (sub:)
ou=manual-cisco+serialNumber=PID:A901-12C-FT-DSN:CAT1602U00U,cn=0006.f6ac.3be0-2
Certificate Serial Number 04
Device Address FD8F:E354:CCF9:0:6:F6AC:3BE0:2
Displays the current state of an autonomic device including the global details.
Step 3 show autonomic neighbors [detail]
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Example:
Device# show autonomic neighbors detail
UDI: "PID:A901-12C-FT-D SN:CAT1602U0C3"
Device ID 0006.f6ac.3be0-4
Domain ID manual-cisco
State Nbr inside the Domain
Credential Domain Cert
Credential Validation Passed
Last Validated Time 2014-07-21 12:42:57 IST
Certificate Expiry Date 2015-07-21 12:42:48 IST
Certificate Expire Countdown 31535585 (secs)
Number of Links connected 1
Link:
Local Interface: Vlan4086(GigabitEthernet0/7)
Remote Interface: Vlan4026
IP Address: FE80::4255:39FF:FE8D:C93B
Uptime(Discovered Time): 00:06:36 ( 2014-07-21 12:43:07 IST)
Last Refreshed time: 7 seconds ago
Displays information about the discovered neighbors.
Step 4 show autonomic registrar devices [accepted |quarantine |whitelist]
Example:
Device# show autonomic registrar
Domain ID manual-cisco
Whitelist
Database URL nvram:
Status Autonomic Registrar Live
Address FD8F:E354:CCF9:0:6:F6AC:3BE0:1
Certificate (sub:) cn=ANRA-CS
Displays information about the autonomic registrar.
Step 5 show autonomic control plane [detail]
Example:
Device# show autonomic control-plane
VRF Name cisco_autonomic
Device Address FD08:2EEF:C2EE::D253:5185:547A
RPL Type = Node, Inst-Id = 0, OCP = 0, Mode = Storing
Neighbor ACP Channel ACP Security
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PID:A901-4C-F-D SN:CAT1611U085 Tunnel100000
Displays information about the autonomic control plane.
Step 6 show autonomic interfaces
Displays information about the interfaces in the autonomic domain.
Step 7 debug autonomic {bootstrap |neighbor-discovery database |registrar |services} {aaa |all |ntp |events |packets}
{info |moderate |severe}
Enables debugging autonomic network.
Step 8 clear autonomic {device |neighbor UDI}
Clears or resets autonomic information.
•The clear autonomic device command clears or resets all the device specific AN information, including the information
obtained in bootstrapping process.
•The clear autonomic neighbor command clears the neighbor-related information learned in the neighbor discovery.
If no neighbor is specified, it clears the entire neighbor database.
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Configuration Examples for Autonomic Networking
Example: Configuring the Registrar
Device> enable
Device# configure terminal
Device(config)# autonomic registrar
Device(config-anra)# domain-id abc.com
Device(config-anra)# whitelist flash:anra-domain.txt
Device(config-anra)# end
Additional References for Autonomic Networking
Related Documents
Document TitleRelated Topic
Cisco IOS Master Command List, All Releases
Cisco IOS commands
Cisco IOS Autonomic Networking Command Reference
Autonomic Networking commands
Technical Assistance
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Use these resources to install and configure the software and
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Feature Information for Autonomic Networking
The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the
software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent
releases of that software release train also support that feature.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature
Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
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