Introduction

Juniper Apstra is a powerful automation and operations solution that manages the entire life-cycle of data center switching fabrics. The life-cycle consists of the design, deployment, and operational phases of a network's life span. Apstra's Intent-Based Networking (IBN) approach helps network architects and operators automate the design, build, deployment, and validation of data center networks. This is accomplished by translating high-level business requirements (called "intent") into an operational data center network.

The IBN approach provides a framework for managing complex networks using reference designs and stateful orchestration. The Apstra architecture and reference designs solve some of the most difficult data center networking issues and provide significant benefits, such as:

• Helping operators deal with change reliably. This is possible through real-time query-able intent and operational context.

• Simplifying all aspects of the network service life cycle, including Day 0, 1, and 2 operations, and simplicity reduces the likelihood of operator error.

• Reducing operational risk through stateful orchestration, which leverages precondition validations, post-condition validations, automated configuration rendering, and automated expectations validation.

Apstra allows you to focus on scale and functionality while the system manages the low-level device configuration and operation. Designers input specifications via the Apstra user interface, where they are applied to the reference design and retained in a graph database. The specifications serve as the intended functionality of the network and are the Single Source of Truth (SSOT) in terms of what is expected. Apstra provides operational assurance by performing a continuous comparison of this model to the current state of all aspects of the network.