Links

Note

This page describes tasks that can be performed from the Links view of the staged blueprint. You can perform additional links-related tasks, such as adding, editing and deleting links, from the Topology view of the staged blueprint.

When you’ve built the blueprint, review the AOS-calculated cabling map and cable up your devices according to the map. If you don’t want to use the prescribed cabling from AOS you can have AOS discover existing cabling in the network. You can also change link speeds of existing links.

Links Example

In this example, each link is assigned a unique /31 subnet from the IP Pool, the smaller /31 IP is assigned to the spine interface, the larger /31 IP is assigned to the leaf interface. Subnets are assigned in increasing order in a spine-major order, that is, the links between spine1 and all leafs (in ascending order) are assigned subnets first, followed by links between spine2 and all leafs, and so on.

Importing Cabling Map

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Import cabling map button to see the dialog for importing a cabling map.
2. Either click Choose File and navigate to the file on your computer, or drag and drop the file onto the dialog window.
3. Click Import.

Exporting Cabling Map

Datacenter technicians may find a printed cabling map useful when wiring in switches, or remote network operators may find it useful for viewing IP assignments. It’s available in CSV or JSON format, and you can copy the contents or download the file to your local computer.

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Export cabling map button and select JSON or CSV.
2. Click Copy to copy the contents or click Save As File to download the file.
3. When you’ve copied or downloaded the cabling map, close the dialog to return to the Links view.

Cabling maps can also be exported from the Active / Physical / Links view.

Editing Cabling Map

Some of the applications where you might want to override existing cabling include:

• having AOS use existing network cabling to avoid recabling
• changing interface names or IP addresses in the existing network cabling map
• specifying a different port from the one that the AOS cabling algorithm selected
• avoiding the use of a defective interface

Warning

Overriding AOS-generated cabling can be disruptive to the network. Use with extreme caution. Please contact Apstra Support for assistance with production networks.

Overriding Cabling Using Web Interface

Device Profiles must already be assigned to Blueprint nodes.

Drop the Override

To drop the override for either an interface name or IPv4/IPv6 address, submit an empty value in the corresponding field.

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Edit cabling map button to see the dialog for editing a cabling map.

2. Change interface names and/or IP addresses, as applicable.

3. Batch clear override can be used to clear all Interface and IPv4/IPv6 values for a specific device type.

   

4. Click Update to stage the changes.

5. Click Uncommitted to see the diffs between Staged and Active.

6. Click the Commit button to save the changes to the Active Blueprint.

Overriding Cabling Using JSON

To change the cabling map with a JSON file, you’ll export the JSON file, edit the file, then import it back into AOS.

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Export cabling map button to see the dialog for exporting a cabling map.
2. Select JSON and click Save As File to download the file.
3. Change interface names (if_name) and/or IP addresses (ipv4_addr or ipv6_addr) in the file, as applicable. Do not change any other fields. If you do, the changes will be ignored or they will result in an error message.
4. From the cabling map (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Import cabling map button to see the dialog for importing a cabling map.
5. Either click Choose File and navigate to the revised file on your computer, or drag and drop the file onto the dialog window.
6. Click Import.
7. Click Uncommitted to see the diffs between Staged and Active.
8. Click the Commit button to save the changes to the Active Blueprint, or click the Revert button to discard changes and return to the previous cabling map.

Changing Link Speeds

Alternate Method

You can also change link speeds from the Topology view.

From the Links view of the Staged blueprint, you can change link speeds on leaf-server, external routers and MLAG peer links (as of AOS 3.2). To change link speeds on spine-leaf and superspine-spine you must change the Rack.

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Change link speeds button to see the dialog for changing link speeds.
2. To search for specific links, click the query box, enter search criteria and click Apply to see results.
3. From the Speed drop-down list corresponding to the link to be changed, select the new speed.
4. Click Update to update the link and return to the cabling map.

Fetching Discovered LLDP Data

Before AOS can discover existing cabling, all system nodes in the Blueprint must have system IDs assigned to them.

Warning

This is a disruptive operation. All links can potentially be renumbered.

1. From the links view (Staged / Physical / Links) click the Fetch discovered LLDP data.
2. If staged data is identical to LLDP discovery results, you will see a message with that statement. Your actual cabling matches the AOS cabling map. No further action is needed.
3. If staged data is different from LLDP discovery results, the message includes the number of links that are different.
4. Scroll to see details of the diffs (in red), or check the Show only links with LLDP diff? checkbox to see only the differences.
5. To accept the changes and update the map to match LLDP data, click Update Stated Cabling Map from LLDP. You might also need to Reset Resource Group Overrides.

Changing Link Name

If you have changes server names and/or hostnames for switches, any associated link names do not automatically update to match. This may cause confusion when reviewing an updated cabling map in the Uncommitted tab. New in AOS version 3.3.0, you can change link names to match your other name changes.

1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged / Physical / Links, then click the name of the link to change.
2. In Properties (right panel) click the Edit button for the link name.
3. Change the name and click the Save button to stage the change.