Sastre Archive¶
The following steps are involved in uploading policies, device and feature templates from a Sastre archive and exporting them to another vManage or as a Sastre archive:
Upload¶
The user initially uploads a Sastre archive that they want to import device and feature templates, and policies from. The Sastre archive is parsed and validated by the SD-WAN Conversion Tool to ensure it conforms with the structure of the archive that Sastre tool deals with. The Conversion Tool extracts all the templates and policies from the Sastre archive and stores them so they can be used in the subsequent steps.
Activity Window¶
The activity window for the Upload step allows the following two options to the user to upload a Sastre archive:
- Drag and drop
- Manually browse for a file
Figure 1. Upload activity window¶
Upload Workflow¶
- The first step required by the user is to upload the Sastre archive from which templates and policies are to be extracted. The SD-WAN Conversion Tool supports two ways to upload the Sastre archive:
- Drag and Drop: To upload a file, simply drag and drop it to the activity window. The name of the file will be displayed next to the
icon, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 1. Sastre archive sample upload¶
- Manually Browse: To upload a file manually, click on the icon and browse the file in your computer’s directory.
Note
Currently, SD-WAN Conversion Tool supports Sastre archives with .zip, .tar, .tar.gz extension.
- Click on Next to upload the file on SD-WAN Conversion Tool. A loading screen will appear on the application window that indicates the beginning of the upload process in which the Sastre archive’s contents are validated and subsequently stored in the tool.
Figure 2. Uploading the Sastre archive¶
- After the upload process has completed successfully, the user will be taken to the next step of the workflow, which is defining the target environment and the target device type.
Figure 3. Target details screen¶
Target¶
Once the templates and policies are extracted from the Sastre archive by the Conversion Tool, the user will then provide details for the target device type and the environment that they want to export their policies and converted templates to. The device type will be used by the tool to verify which feature templates from the Sastre archive can be converted and exported. Based on the selected device type, the user can also opt whether to map vEdge ethernet interfaces to SVI interfaces.
In the case of vManage as a target, the tool connects to the target vManage and pulls in the feature template specifications from it. Else, it refers to template specifications housed offline within the tool. These specifications, along with the target device type are used in the verification process to determine which feature templates can be supported through the conversion process.
Activity Window¶
This section gives the details of the available functionalities for the Target step in the activity window. An example activity window for this step is shown in the figure below.
Figure 1. Target activity window¶
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Target Type | Type of target (Live vManage or Sastre archive) for the conversion. |
| Target Device Type | Lists the available SD-WAN device types. The selected device type will be used to verify the imported feature templates to see which templates can be converted. |
| Enable Interface Mapping | Toggle for enabling or disabling interface mapping. |
| vManage IP/New IP | This is the IP or domain name of the running vManage to which the feature templates will be exported. The user can either enter a new IP or select from the list of previously saved vManage IPs from the dropdown menu. This field is disabled when Sastre archive is selected as the target type. |
| vManage Port | This is the port of the vManage to which the feature templates will be exported. This field is disabled when Sastre archive is selected as the target type. |
| Username | This is the username of the vManage server. It is disabled when Sastre archive is selected as the target type. |
| Password | This is the password of the vManage server. It is disabled when Sastre archive is selected as the target type. |
Note
- All cEdge devices present in vManage 20.6 are supported as target device types in the Sastre archive workflow.
- Interface mapping toggle is enabled only if any ethernet templates for vEdge are present in the templates sourced.
Target Workflow¶
Once the templates and policies have been successfully extracted from the Sastre archive, the next step is for the user to define the target environment.
- Users are required to fill in the fields in the Target Details form to proceed with the verification process. An example of the filled out form in case of vManage as a target is shared in the figure below.
Figure 1. Target vManage example¶
- Once the relevant fields have been filled in, click on Next to proceed. A loading screen will appear on the application window that indicates the beginning of the verification process in which the device and feature templates are verified against the target device type and template specifications.
Figure 2. Target loading screen¶
- After the verification process with the target environment has completed successfully, the user will be taken to the next step of the workflow, which is selecting the templates and policies they want to export.
Figure 3. Templates and Policies¶
Select¶
The user defines which device and feature templates, and policies should be exported by selecting them in the tool’s UI. By default, all policies and supported templates are selected. The unsupported templates can not be selected and will be removed by the tool automatically during the export process.
Activity Window¶
This section gives the details of the available functionalities for the Select step in the activity window. An example activity window for this step is shown in the figure below.
Figure 1. Select activity window - templates¶
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Templates | The Templates tab is located on the top left of the activity window listing all the supported and unsupported templates. This tab is selected by default. |
| Policies | The Policies tab is located next to the Templates tab and lists all the policies extracted from the Sastre archive. |
| Device Templates | This is the first pane in the Templates tab view. The device templates extracted from the Sastre archive are displayed in this pane. |
| Feature Templates | This is the second pane in the Templates tab view. The feature templates present in the selected device template are shown in this pane. |
| Subtemplates | This is the third pane in the Templates tab view. If a selected feature template contains any subtemplates, they are shown in this section. |
| Template Information | The details around the user-selected template are shown in this panel. |
| Legend | The legend appears at the top right corner of the activity window and displays icons along with a brief description of what each icon represents. |
On selection of the Policies tab, the following activity window is shown.
Figure 2. Select activity window - policies¶
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Policies & Security | This is the first pane in the Policies tab view and displays the categories and subcategories of policies. |
| Policy Information | The details around the user-selected policy are shown in this panel. |
| Legend | The legend appears at the top right corner of the activity window and displays icons along with a brief description on what each icon represents. |
Note
The data in the second and third pane would vary based on the category and subcategory selected in the Policies & Security pane.
After the selection of templates & policies, if the user previously enabled interface mapping on Target step, the Interface Mapping screen is shown where ethernet interface templates are displayed to the user for selectively mapping them to SVI.
Figure 3. Interface mapping window¶
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Device Templates | This is the first pane in the view and displays the device templates. |
| Feature Templates | This is the second pane in the view and displays vEdge VPN and interface templates. |
| Interface Mapping Information | The interface mapping details for the user-selected interface template are shown in this panel. |
| Source Interface Type | The type of source ethernet interface name, which can be either constant or variable. |
| Source Interface Name | The name of the source ethernet interface. |
| Enable Interface Mapping | The toggle button which can be used to enable interface mapping. |
| Target Interface Type | The type of SVI interface name to map the ethernet interface to. This can be either constant or variable. By default, constant is selected. |
| Target Interface Name | The name of the SVI interface to map the ethernet interface to. |
Select Workflow¶
Once the feature templates have been verified, the user needs to select the templates and policies that they want to export to the target environment.
- After the verification process, the user is shown the following screen.
Figure 1. Selection screen¶
This contains information around all the templates and policies that were extracted from the uploaded Sastre archive in the respective tabs, with added information around which templates cannot be supported on the target device type. Templates with
icon cannot be converted to the target device type. Templates with
icon contain some unsupported templates. Templates and policies with
icon have already been exported to the target vManage. Templates with
icon are unsupported factory defaults which cannot be converted and are replaced with the corresponding factory defaults of the target device type during conversion. The user can click on a template or policy to view its information in the right-hand panel.
- The user can select which templates and policies to carry forward to the export process by using the checkboxes next to them. Unsupported templates or the templates and policies already exported cannot be selected for export. By default, all policies and supported templates are selected by the tool.
- After the selection of templates and policies, if the user has previously enabled interface mapping on the Target step, clicking on Next will take the user to the interface mapping screen where the user can selectively map ethernet interfaces to SVI.
Figure 4. Interface mapping¶
The user can selectively enable interface mapping for an ethernet template by switching on its toggle in the Interface Mapping Information section. The user can then provide a target interface name in two formats depending on the radio button option selected. In case constant is selected, the user can enter any number which will be prefixed with ‘Vlan’, e.g. Vlan3.
Figure 5. Interface mapping for constant target interface¶
In case variable is selected, the user can enter any variable name for the interface.
Figure 6. Interface mapping for variable target interface¶
Once the target interface names have been provided for all the interface templates with interface mapping enabled, user can click on Next to proceed to the export step, in which templates will be converted and exported along with the selected policies to vManage or as a Sastre archive.
Note
Interface name must be unique across interface templates present within a device template.
Export¶
The tool generates the policies and the converted feature and device templates for export to vManage or as a Sastre archive.
Activity Window¶
This section gives the details of the available functionalities for the Export step in the activity window. An example activity window for this step is shown in the figure below.
Figure 1. Export in progress¶
The activity window for the export step allows the user to select a category of either policies or templates and view the exported templates or policies of the selected category in list format in the right pane. Templates & policies with icon are those which successfully get exported to the target environment. Templates & policies with icon are those which fail to export to the target environment. Templates & policies with 
icon are those which do not get exported, rather their references in other templates & policies get updated to reuse an existing template or policy with similar definition present in the target environment.
Export Workflow¶
The view for export in progress will vary based on the target environment chosen earlier by the user. In case of vManage as a target, a screen similar to the following will be shown to the user where templates and policies are progressively shown to be exported to the target vManage.
Figure 1. Export loading screen for vManage¶
In the case of Sastre as a target, a loading screen will appear on the application window to indicate the export operation in progress.
Figure 2. Export loading screen for Sastre¶
After the templates and policies have been successfully converted and exported to vManage or as a Sastre archive, the details of the exported templates and policies will appear on the application window. In case of Sastre target type, the user will be additionally shown a Sastre archive available for download. The screenshots for both vManage and Sastre as a target are shown below.
Figure 3. Successful export to vManage¶
Figure 4. Successful export as Sastre archive¶
Note
In case of an error, refer to the Export Error: Live vManage/Sastre Archive Workflow section in Appendix A.
On the export successful screen, the following two buttons are available to the user:
- Convert: To perform another configuration conversion, click the Convert button. This will take the user back to the workflow selection screen.
- History: To view the history of the configuration conversion workflows, click the History button. This will take the user to the History tab.