Cisco Cisco Prime Network Services Controller Adaptor for DFA White Paper

 

 

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Manual mode simplifies physical server deployment by automating several network configuration tasks instead of 

performing line-by-line configuration. This mode functions without the support of the DCNM auto-configuration 

profiles. 

Semi-Automation 

Semi-Automation mode can be used for end-hosts, either VMs or bare-metal servers. Depending on the virtual 

switch capabilities, the trigger to instantiate the relevant end-host (physical or virtual) network profiles using LDAP 

from DCNM is either data packet or VDP trigger: 

● 

A data packet trigger is based on a new MAC learn triggered by an incoming IEEE 802.1q tagged packet 

(could be ARP, DHCP, ND or any other packet for that matter). The leaf switch pulls down the associated 

network configuration profile from DCNM using the VLAN-ID and the Mobility Domain as the query identifier. 

● 

VDP is used to trigger the autoconfiguration based on the Segment ID. When the VM is coming up, the 

hypervisor vSwitch sends out a notification to the leaf switch, saying I have a workload coming up in 

Segment X and please allocate whatever resources those are necessary to be ready to accept traffic from 

this VM. The leaf switch pulls down the associated network configuration profile from the DCNM using the 

Segment ID as query identifier. 

Figure 13 shows the two relevant semi-automated autoconfiguration options. 

Figure 13.    Semi-Automated Workload Overview with Data Packet and VDP Trigger