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Add External Generic System

When you want to connect your Apstra-managed fabric to a system that's not managed in the Apstra environment, you use generic systems and external generic systems. These systems can be external routers, firewalls, or whatever else you want; you specify their roles with tags. If the system is part of a rack topology, we call it a generic system. If the system is not part of a rack topology, we call it an external generic system. This page shows you a couple ways that you can add external generic systems.

Add External Generic System (from Topology View)

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Topology and select the node to add the new external generic system to.
  2. Select the node check box to see the operations available for that node (and that you have permissions for).
    Note:

    You can also get to the selection page from the Nodes view. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Nodes, click the node name in the table, then click the node name that appears at the top of the Selection panel (on the right side of the page).

  3. Click Add external generic and enter a unique label and (optional) hostname.
  4. Select the representation for the new node (none, logical device, or logical device with interface map), then select it from the drop-down list as applicable. (Selecting a logical device allows you to define port roles.)
  5. Enter tags (optional) to identify the role(s) of the new external generic system, then click Next.
  6. Select an available port and transformation. The gray Add Link button turns green.
  7. Click Add Link. The link is added to the link table.
  8. Click Create to stage the change and return to the Topology view.

When you're ready to activate your changes, commit them from the Uncommitted tab.

Add External Generic System (from Nodes View)

  1. From the blueprint, navigate to Staged > Physical > Nodes and click the Add external generic systems button to open its dialog.
  2. Enter a hostname, and if you want to be able to define port roles select a logical device from the drop-down list.
  3. Enter tags (optional) to identify the role(s) of the new external generic system.
  4. Click Create to stage the changes and return to the Nodes view.