Course contents

Cisco SD-WAN

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN from first principles: what it replaces, the four components and how they trust each other, how tunnels and routes are built, how VPNs separate traffic, how routers are onboarded, and how to check and fix the fabric. The ten units follow Cisco's published ENSDWI 300-415 topics and end in a build-it lab.

Intermediate · 27 lessons

Covers Controllers and WAN Edge, TLOCs and colours, OMP, Service VPNs, BFD and IPsec and Troubleshooting.

The course uses one lab throughout, taken from the course plan: a Manager, a Controller and a Validator, two hub routers in two data centres, and branches on different transports. The system IPs below come from that plan; the site IDs, colours and prefixes the lessons use are examples written for teaching. Lessons say when a command or output depends on the router model or software release, and every sample output is labelled as an example, not a capture from a device. Some lessons are still planned; they appear greyed in the outline until they are written.

Summary table
Summary tableNode; Role; System IP. MANAGER: Management 10.255.0.10 CTRL-01: Controller 10.255.0.11 VAL-01: Validator 10.255.0.12 HUB-01: Primary data centre 10.255.1.1 HUB-02: DR data centre 10.255.1.2 BR-01: Branch with two transports 10.255.2.1 BR-02: Internet-only branch 10.255.2.2 BR-03A / BR-03B: Branch with two edge routers 10.255.2.3 / 10.255.2.4NodeRoleSystem IPMANAGERManagement10.255.0.10CTRL-01Controller10.255.0.11VAL-01Validator10.255.0.12HUB-01Primary data centre10.255.1.1HUB-02DR data centre10.255.1.2BR-01Branch with two transports10.255.2.1BR-02Internet-only branch10.255.2.2BR-03A / BR-03BBranch with two edge routers10.255.2.3 / 10.255.2.4

On small screens, swipe sideways or focus the diagram and use the arrow keys.

Read each row across: the left box names the item, the others describe it.

New to the ideas? Start with Unit 1. If you already work with SD-WAN, the TLOC and OMP lessons in Units 3 and 6 are the core of how the fabric behaves. BGP is not required, but it helps in the BGP course when you reach service-side routing.

What's in this course

10 modules · 27 lessons available, 30 more planned · about 5 hours of reading

Module 1: WAN and SD-WAN fundamentals

What a traditional WAN costs and where it falls short, what SD-WAN changes, and how Cisco's products got here.

Module 2: Core Cisco components

The Manager, Controller, Validator and WAN Edge, and how the secure control connections tie them together.

Module 3: Underlay, overlay and TLOC

Transport reachability, the overlay on top of it, colours, device identity and the TLOC that names each tunnel endpoint.

Module 4: VPNs and segmentation

VPN 0 for transport, VPN 512 for management, and service VPNs for user traffic.

  • 4.1VPN 0: transport interfacesComing soon
  • 4.2VPN 512: out-of-band management contextComing soon
  • 4.3Service VPN/VRF architectureComing soon
  • 4.4VLAN interfaces, VRF routing and addressingComing soon
  • 4.5Inter-VPN route leaking and access-policy implicationsComing soon

Module 5: Onboarding and trust

Certificates and trust, onboarding by PnP/ZTP or manual bootstrap, and how configuration reaches a router.

Module 6: OMP and service routing

How the Controller learns and shares prefixes, TLOCs and services, and how routes from the LAN reach the overlay.

Module 7: IPsec and BFD

IPsec tunnels, BFD liveness and measurement, forwarding, MTU, and what happens when a transport fails.

  • 7.1Transport encapsulation and IPsec securityComing soon
  • 7.2BFD roles, sessions and telemetryComing soon
  • 7.3TLOC-based tunnel discovery and eligibilityComing soon
  • 7.4Packet forwarding, MTU and tunnel encapsulationComing soon
  • 7.5Transport failure and traffic convergenceComing soon

Module 8: Management and basic policies

Operating the Manager, the three policy types, topology choices, application-aware routing and QoS.

Module 9: Monitoring and troubleshooting

Dashboards, show commands, and a method for control, OMP and tunnel faults, plus backup and change windows.

  • 9.1Operational monitoring and health dashboardComing soon
  • 9.2WAN Edge show commands and interpretationComing soon
  • 9.3Control connection and certificate diagnosticsComing soon
  • 9.4OMP/BFD route and tunnel fault isolationComing soon
  • 9.5Backup, change windows and lifecycle fundamentalsComing soon

Module 10: Guided deployment

Build a lab with a Manager, Controller, Validator and edges, connect two transports, onboard and verify, then troubleshoot.

  • 10.1Lab environment, licensing and compute requirementsComing soon
  • 10.2Install/build a controller-and-edge labComing soon
  • 10.3Connect mixed transport linksComing soon
  • 10.4Onboard and verify overlay servicesComing soon
  • 10.5Final troubleshooting assessmentComing soon

Start the first lesson →