• Downloads
• Provisioning Process Overview    

• Related Topics
• Discovering Devices
• Discovering and Assigning All N-PE Devices
• Discovering and Assigning N-PE Devices with Exceptions
• Predefined Service Definitions
• Creating a Point-to-Point Ethernet Service Definition
• Creating a VPLS Service Definition
• Unpublishing a Service Definition
• Adding a New Customer
• Creating a Point-to-Point Ethernet Service Order
• Creating a Multipoint Ethernet Service Order
• Deploying a Service
• Validating a Service

Provisioning Process Overview

Provisioning is a process that makes services available to customers. It is a multistep process.

The Getting Started panel in the Junos Space user interface provides the steps involved in provisioning a service, including not only the provisioning work itself (steps 4 through 9), but also the steps that are necessary before you can begin the provisioning process (steps 1 through 3). The following example shows the Service Provisioning assistant in the Getting Started panel:

Creating a service definition is a task that is usually performed by a highly privileged user, typically a service designer. Adding a customer, creating a service order, scheduling a service for deployment, and validating services are tasks generally performed by a less privileged user, typically a service provisioner.

Network Operator Tasks—Provisioning Prerequisites

Network operators are usually responsible for performing the prerequisite tasks before the service designer or service provisioner can perform their tasks. Specifically, these tasks include:

1. Discovering devices
2. Launching role discovery
3. Assigning N-PE roles

Discovering devices is the process for bringing your network devices under Junos Space management. See Device Discovery Overview for more information.

Launching role discovery and assigning N-PE roles are collectively known as prestaging tasks. Prestaging finds the N-PE devices among those already under Junos Space management and assigns appropriate MPLS N-PE roles to these devices and user-to-network interface (UNI) roles to their interfaces. Once these roles are established, the devices are ready for provisioning. See Prestaging Devices Overview for more information.

Service Designer Tasks

The service designer is responsible for the service definitions that the service provisioner will use as the basis for creating a service order.

A service definition specifies the attributes that are common among a group of service orders that have similar service requirements. For example, a service definition might specify a port-port service, whether the associated VCID should be assigned automatically from a predefined pool or specified by the user, and what range of bandwidths can be assigned to the service order. The service definition also defines which attributes of the service can be edited in the service order.

The Junos Space product provides several standard service definitions which support most needs. If the standard service definitions do not support your needs, then the service designer needs to create new, customized service definitions.

Service Provisioner Tasks

Service provisioner tasks include the following:

1. Creating the customer
2. Creating the service order
3. Deploying the service
4. Performing a configuration audit
5. Performing a functional audit

A service order is an instance of the service definition that completes the definition for a specific customer’s use. The service order always specifies the customer and the endpoints that link the customer sites through the MPLS network. For each endpoint, the service provisioner specifies the N-PE device and the UNI on that device that connects the customer site to the N-PE device. The service order can also specify any additional attributes that are configured in the service definition as editable in the service order. These attributes might include the VCID, MTU for the UNI, MTU for the connection across the network, VLAN-ID, and rate limiting bandwidth.

Deployment of a service order pushes a service to the network devices. Before deployment completes, a series of prevalidation checks takes place. If the prevalidation checks indicate that the service is valid, the deployment proceeds. If the prevalidation checks indicate an invalid service, the service provisioner must re-create the service order correctly before trying again to deploy it.

After the service is deployed, a functional audit establishes whether the service is up or down. If the functional audit reports that the service is up, the customer can begin using the service.

Once the service is active, the service provisioner can monitor the health of the service by running a configuration audit.