User Workflow

The high level user workflow for the tool is depicted in the diagram below followed by additional description of each step in further detail.

Figure 1. User workflow for SD-WAN conversion tool

Upload

User initially interacts with the web-based UI to upload a Cisco IOS XE config file, which is parsed and validated by the tool to ensure it is a valid Cisco IOS XE configuration.

The uploaded config file is stored by the tool as part of a new user transaction using a unique ID. This ID is used to perform subsequent user operations on this configuration file and also to maintain the user state throughout the workflow.

SD-WAN Conversion Tool then validates each command present in the uploaded configuration and displays any syntax errors to the user. In order to perform this operation, a pre-validation module in the tool parses the config file to identify individual parent and child config blocks. It then checks the commands from each block by creating a connection with Cisco NSO, which pushes each command to a Cisco IOS XE NED (these components and their functionality are described in more detail in the Architectural Implementation section). In case of any errors, the line numbers of the errors and the string containing the error messages are returned to the UI for the user to identify and fix the specific issues in the uploaded config.

Verify

SD-WAN Conversion Tool displays the individual features and interface properties extracted from the user provided IOS XE config by performing a validation process on it to highlight supported and unsupported config to the user. Any unsupported configs are not included in the IOS XE to SD-WAN conversion process.

UI displays the individual features and interfaces extracted from the config in separate tabs with each parent element containing a child config block specific to it. Parent config with unsupported children are uniquely marked for the user to identify them. The supported and unsupported lines are displayed in green and red colors respectively and are highlighted within the text editor for better visibility and identification.

Modify

The tool provides users the options to add or remove tunnel interfaces and other system properties for SD-WAN specific config before the actual conversion process. It modifies the CSR SD-WAN config based on the values provided by the user in order to prepare it for conversion from IOS XE to SD-WAN config.

Convert

The tool converts the IOS XE config to vManage compatible SD-WAN configuration using Cisco NSO NEDs and Service Package. The conversion service returns the converted SD-WAN config in XML format, which is consumed by the feature template generator to export the config to a vManage device. The specific implementation details for this process is explained in detail in the Architectural Implementation section.

Export

The tool generates feature templates using the converted SD-WAN config, creates these templates in user selected vManage controller, and attaches them to a device template for consumption from vManage UI. The credentials provided for specific vManage nodes can be saved by the user for subsequent workflows in the future.