- Cisco DNA Center is purchased preinstalled
on a hardware appliance, and is the heart
of Cisco's SDA product.
The Northbound interface has a comprehensive GUI
for administrators, as well as a REST API,
which will be discussed in a following chapter.
The Southbound interface supports legacy devices
with Telnet, SSH, and SNMP, while also supporting
newer systems via NETCONF and RESTCONF.
SDA's intent-based network is most clearly
demonstrated with ACLs.
As a network grows, so can an ACL based on
what it's filtering requirements may be at the time.
Generally, as these lists grow,
new entries are simply appended to the end
and old, forgotten entries sit at the top.
Troubleshooting these lists, or attempting to clean them
can be problematic as they get bigger,
and their original purpose becomes more obtuse.
Using DNA Center, an engineer can create policies
for various types of traffic, not even knowing
the underlying IP addressing being used.
The purpose of each policy can be clearly
documented within DNA.
As the policy is applied, removed, or updated,
DNA will automatically reach out to the proper devices
and make the adjustments, all without an engineer
ever touching the network infrastructure.
Comparing DNA Center to traditional management,
or management platforms can be a bit difficult
as everyone does things just a bit different differently.
DNA Center, for one, supports SDA,
whereas old Cisco management platforms,
like the Cisco Prime Infrastructure, PI, do not.
In fact, Cisco is working towards duplicating PI's features
in DNA and deprecating it over time.
DNA provides for easier deployment of quality of service,
the ability to detect security threats
and encrypted traffic flows, network time travel
which baselines client performance for review over time,
and path tracing abilities to see packet's true path.
Cisco is positioning DNA as the future
of enterprise administration.
DNA Center really is the heart of the whole SDA architecture
so I would fully expect to see questions
on its functions during the exam.