Now, like most software-defined networking solutions,
one of the most important things about it
is to understand how it communicates to devices
or other platforms, or how we could create applications
that interact with it.
So in this particular Nugget, we're
going to talk about the fifth workflow, the platform, which
is all about the different types of APIs
that we can really work with within DNA Center.
We're going back to what we learned in the previous skill,
with north, south, east, and westbound.
Let's have some fun with it and get going.
So I mentioned this previously, and now I'm WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So I mentioned this previously, and now I'm
going to bring it up again.
There actually is a fifth and somewhat unknown
workflow called the DNA Center platform.
And what we're really talking about here is the APIs.
And you could see, this diagram is probably
setting up a somewhat familiar diagram
if you've been following along in this playlist.
That's right.
We've got the north and then south and then
east and then west.
And it absolutely follows the exact same design patterns
that we mentioned when we were talking
about how these directions work within a software-defined WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
about how these directions work within a software-defined
network.
You see, to the north, we have the intent-based APIs.
This is where we define our business intent.
This is where we define what it is
that we want DNA Center to do.
And this is also a way that we can extract data out
of the DNA Center appliance and figure out
what's really going on within our environment.
To the south, we actually communicate
to our network devices.
But this is also interesting to point out within DNA Center.
We actually have the ability to work with other products.
It doesn't have to be Catalyst 9K, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
It doesn't have to be Catalyst 9K,
although they typically can't deploy an SD-Access
fabric unless it's a Catalyst 9K appliance.
Still, we have the ability to bring
in other platforms into DNA Center's inventory and at least
leverage them for assurance and monitoring.
Of course, we have the outbound events and notifications
going to the east.
This is where we set up those webhook alerts,
like we were talking about.
And from the west, we have our integrations.
Of course, this is going to be ISE and IPAM, as well
as other items that we can integrate within DNA Center, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
as other items that we can integrate within DNA Center,
too.
And this list is growing as DNA Center evolves
and they add more functionalities to it.
So the big thing under the hood that you should really know
is that DNA Center is extraordinarily
programmatic and automated in a way
that it tries to make our lives easier.
It communicates automatically via APIs to ISE and IPAM
and to all of the devices within its inventory.
And we can tell it to send information out.
And we can create programs ourselves WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And we can create programs ourselves
that implement intent or alert notifications.
And if this is something that really strokes
your interest, what we can do is I can actually show you
where you can access documentation and learn
about the DNA Center APIs.
Of course, we have content dedicated
to this within CBT Nuggets as part of our SD-Access course
or the in auto certification course that we have here, too.
But at the very top again, we see Platform.
That's what we're talking about.
The DNA Center Platform is where we integrate with other devices
and services. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and services.
From the Developer Toolkit, this is where you can click on APIs.
The APIs are categorized.
This is where we can get to know your network,
what is in your inventory, and how is it behaving right now?
The Site Management is where we can
change our site information.
Think the design workflow in this case.
Connectivity, this is largely centered
around assurance, what is our client health,
how are things going right now?
And Operational Tasks are where, of course,
we can start looking into the actual fabric provisioning
itself.
And Policy is where we can look at our policy WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And Policy is where we can look at our policy
and implement policy changes.
If you expand each of these, like,
we'll expand Know Your Network here,
it tells you the different API requests that you can make.
Again, recall that REST APIs leveraged the best of the HTTP
protocol.
And that's what we're talking about here.
When you see GET in the little green block here,
we're talking about issuing HTTP GET request.
This is so that we can get data.
When you see POST, this is talking about issuing HTTP POST WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
When you see POST, this is talking about issuing HTTP POST
request.
This is so that we can create new data.
For instance, you see Create Site here has a POST request.
The description tells us what this request does.
And the URL tells us what URL, which HTTP URL
do we need to send this to.
This is what you tack on to the end of the IP address.
So the URL for creating a new site
would look something like, http://dnacenter
fullyqualifieddomainname/site.
But they actually make it easier than you just WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
But they actually make it easier than you just
having to piece this bit of information together yourself.
If we actually click on Create Site right here--
let me clear the screen--
it tells you exactly how to create a site.
It tells you this is the exact URL endpoint that I should use.
In my case, this is the IP address
of my DNA Center appliance.
And it tells you any attributes that you can or should
provide with you when you go to create your site.
So if I scroll down a hair--
I think this is pretty cool--
it shows you what data should we provide WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
it shows you what data should we provide
when we try to create a site and what can we expect the response
to look like?
This is the model or the outline of what
the data should look like.
It tells you what kind of data it's willing to accept.
Is it required, or is it optional?
And if you need to see an example of it,
you can click on the Model Schema right here.
Same thing with the response.
We can see exactly how the data should be structured.
Some even cooler things about it is we can click Try It,
and it will give us a little dialog
where we can try and create our own POST
request to create a site. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
request to create a site.
Or even better, we can have it generate the code for us
by clicking on Code Preview.
If we tell it, maybe we wanted to use Python, there we go.
There is our Python script right there.
All we have to do is add our own little data to it.
So here's the thing, you may be interested in getting
hands-on experience with DNA Center yourself.
And one of the cool things that Cisco does for us is they've
given us the DevNet sandbox, which is a great way that we
can learn and use DNA Center.
We can even use the APIs to perform GET requests WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
We can even use the APIs to perform GET requests
and gather data out of it.
So if I go to devnetsandbox.cisco.com,
I'll get signed in with a free account here from GitHub.
And what you see here under the Lab Catalog section--
here, let me clear this, right there--
all of these boxes are actual environments
of every Cisco platform that you can get hands on right now.
So when you see this Cisco DNA Center Always-Ons,
that means these are publicly accessible
and always on available for you to work with. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and always on available for you to work with.
So you'll click on Cisco DNA Center on the Always-On section
here, and it shows you a little topology of the devices
that you'll be working with.
On the left-hand side, if you scroll down,
it gives you a URL that you can connect to,
as well as a username and password.
So when you give this a click, it
takes you to the login page of a publicly accessible DNA Center
sandbox.
Now, this is read only.
This is where you'll only be able to browse and explore
the information.
But I highly encourage you to jump in
to the publicly accessible DNA Center sandbox, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
to the publicly accessible DNA Center sandbox,
and just poke around.
Get to know those four workflows and the API capabilities that
are here, ready for you to be accessed, for free.
I hope this has been informative for you.
And I'd like to thank you for viewing.