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Assign Device (Datacenter)

Device Assignment Overview

Before devices can be assigned to a blueprint, they must have interface maps assigned to them (from the Device Profiles tab). When a device is assigned to a blueprint, it performs discovery configuration. During this phase all interfaces are changed to L3-only mode allowing interfaces to be up. There is no BGP configuration, no routing expectations, nothing that can influence the network. A device in discovery mode is benign; it does not participate in the datacenter fabric, and it does not forward any packets through it. You can then perform critical validations of network health including viewing statistics for cabling, LLDP, transceivers and more. Any issues, such as miscabling or physical link errors, cause a telemetry alarm. You can address and correct the anomalies before deploying the device.

It's common to have a committed blueprint without any deployed devices. You can deploy devices as required, in batches, one by one, or all in one go. If you want to assign devices without deploying them, set the deploy mode to Ready, which puts devices in the In Service Ready state. This configuration is called Ready Config (previously known as Discovery 2 Config).

Note:

When resetting system IDs (serial number) Discovery 1 configuration is re-applied. Before physically uninstalling the agent, it is good practice to fully erase the device configuration and uninstall the device agent.

Assign Device(s) (from Devices Build Panel)

Note:

You can also use apstra-cli to bulk-assign system IDs to devices either with a CSV text file or the blueprint set-serial-numbers command.
  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Build > Devices, and click the status indicator for Assigned System IDs (if the nodes list is not already displayed). Unassigned devices are indicated in yellow.
  2. Click the Change System IDs assignments button (below Assigned System IDs) and, for each node, select system IDs from the drop-down list. (If you don't see an expected serial number (system ID), you may still need to acknowledge the device (Devices > Managed Devices).)
  3. When you select a system ID, the deploy mode changes to Deploy by default. If you don't want to deploy the device yet, change the deploy mode here. When you're ready to deploy the device, return here to set the deploy mode back to Deploy.
  4. Click Update Assignments to stage the changes. Before the task is completed you can click Active Tasks at the bottom of the screen to see its progress.
  5. Commit changes to the blueprint to deploy device(s) into the active fabric. Device state changes to In Service Active and the configuration is called Service Config.

    As soon as you deploy a device, anomalies may appear on the dashboard. When telemetry data is verified against Intent, anomalies resolve themselves. This can take a fair amount of time in some cases, especially for BGP sessions and advertising routes.

    Deploying devices can have different implications depending on the device vendor. Juniper Junos devices, for example, have the following characteristics with regards to raising anomalies:

    • show interface commands don't list interfaces on ports that do not have a transceiver plugged in. This means Interface Down anomalies can't be raised for these interfaces. Such interfaces can be recognized using the show virtual-chasses vc-port, and have a status of 'Absent'.
    • If a virtual network endpoint is configured on a leaf interface, Apstra expects an EVPN type 3 route for that interface. If this interface is down, Junos does not advertise the RT-3, resulting in a "Missing Route" anomaly. If this anomaly is undesirable, we recommend that you remove the interface from the virtual network until the interface is up.

    After deploying devices a new running config is collected, called the Golden Config, which serves as Intent. Running configuration is continuously collected and compared against this Golden config. When a deployment fails, Golden Config is unset. Protocol related anomalies like BGP or LLDP are only raised if devices at both ends are deployed.

Assign One Device (from Devices Build Panel)

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Build > Devices; if you don't see the nodes list, click the status indicator for Assigned System IDs.
  2. From the Assigned System IDs list, click the name of the node that you want to assign. Device details are displayed (deploy mode, serial number, hostname rendered, incremental and pristine config, as applicable).
    Note:

    You can also select a node name in the Selected Nodes drop-down list (left-middle) to go to these device details.
  3. To assign a system ID, click the Edit button for S/N, select the system ID from the drop-down list, and click the Save button to stage the change. (If you don't see the expected serial number (system ID), you may still need to acknowledge the device (Devices > Managed Devices).
  4. To remove an existing S/N instead of assigning one, click the Edit button for S/N, then click the red square to stage the change.

Assign One System ID (from Selection Panel)

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Nodes and select a node name (not the check box). (You can narrow your search with the drop-down lists for planes, pods, and racks as applicable, as of Apstra version 4.0.)
  2. Click the Device tab in the right panel (if it's not already selected).
  3. Enter a different S/N. (You can also access configuration files from here: rendered, incremental, pristine).
  4. Click the Save button to stage the changes.