Creating a new fabric intent: backbone

Before you create a new fabric intent, ensure you have done the following:

  • Created a region to which the backbone fabric intent can belongs; see Deployment regions.
  • Verified that the intended version of the SR Linux software is available in the software catalog, as described in Software and image catalogs.
  • Created and deployed the flexible leaf/spine fabrics and that are planned to fall under the new backbone fabric intent. You must select the participating flexible leaf/spine fabrics as part of the backbone fabric creation process.
Note: This procedure can be used to create a fabric consiting of nodes that use SR Linux. For non-SR Linux nodes (such as 210 WBX nodes), you must create a fabric using an imported topology as described in Manual fabric topologies
.

After you create some flexible leaf/spine fabric intents, you can use a backbone intent to help existing fabric intents to communicate with one another, and communicate with an external network through the backbone's uplinks.

This procedure describes how to create a backbone fabric intent intended for deployment to real hardware.

You can also create a virtual backbone fabric intent for testing in a virtual environment. For the small differences in the fabric design procedure for that purpose, see Digital Sandbox.

A fabric intent creates configuration files for all of the participating nodes based on the parameters you select for the fabric intent itself, and by default these configurations is the same for all participating nodes. To customize the configuration for one or more nodes within the fabric intent, you can create one or more configuration overrides. This process is described in Configuration overrides.

  1. Click to open the main menu.
  2. In the main menu, select Fabric Intents.
  3. Click the + CREATE A FABRIC INTENT button.
  4. Select the Back Bone template.
  5. Click the CREATE button.
    The New Fabric Intents page displays.

    At the top of the left-side panel, the name of the template you selected in step 4 displays as the "Reference Template".

  6. On the left-side panel, enter or select the basic parameters that define your intended fabric as described in Basic parameters for a backbone fabric intent:
    Table 1. Basic parameters for a backbone fabric intent

    Parameter

    Description

    Fabric Type

    Choose Real. This creates a fabric intent intended for deployment to real-world hardware.

    The Digital Sandbox option is used to create a virtual fabric to test and validating prospective designs. This option is described in Digital Sandbox.

    Fabric Intent Name

    Enter the name to identify this fabric.

    Description

    Optionally, add information to describe the fabric intent.

    Prefix Naming

    Enter a string to be added at the beginning of the name of the new backbone nodes in the fabric intent. The rest of the node name is automatically generated.

    For example, enter "A01" here to assign nodes names such as "A01-t3-1".

    Region

    Click the drop-down list and click an already-created region from the list. This identifies the region that contains the new fabric intent.

    You must create the backbone fabric intent in the same region as the flexible leaf/spine fabrics with which it is associated. The system supports only a single region.

    Software Catalog/Image ID

    Select the version of SR Linux software to load onto all of the nodes in the new fabric.

    Currently supported:

    • SR Linux 22.6.1-281
    • SR Linux 22.6.2-24

    Is Border Leaf

    Enable if this backbone fabric is serving as a "border leaf", able to carry EVPN workloads as well as provide access to an eternal network.

    Disable if this is a standard backbone that is not capable of carrying an EVPN workload.

    Node Type

    Select a supported type of hardware to act as a backbone node. If this backbone is a Border Leaf, the only eligible selection is 7220 IXR-D3.

    Number of Back Bone Nodes

    Specify the number of devices of the specified type to act as backbone nodes.

    Over Subscription Ratio

    Specify the ratio between the bandwidth of the downlink ports and the bandwidth of the uplink ports.

    Deploy Trigger Percentage

    Specify the minimum percentage of nodes within the fabric intent that must be physically installed before the system allows you to deploy the intent to hardware.

    For all real fabrics, this value is fixed at 0%.

    For a full explanation of the impact of this setting, see The Deployment Trigger Percentage setting.

    Fabric Intents

    Select the set of fabric intents that fall under this backbone intent.

    Completing this field is described in the next step of this procedure.

    Labels

    This area is disabled when creating the initial fabric intent.

    There are more, optional parameters you can use to fine-tune the fabric intent design at this stage. For more information about all parameters, see Appendix: Fabric intent parameters.
  7. Use the Fabric Intents field to select the already-deployed flexible leaf/spine fabrics that fall under the new backbone. Add fabric intents by doing the following:
    1. Click the Edit ( ) icon. The Fabric Intents list opens, filtered to show deployed fabrics.
    2. Check the box at the left edge of the row for each fabric you want to connect to the backbone.
    3. Click the SELECT INTENTS button. The Fabric Intents page closes, returning you to the Fabric Intent creation page.
  8. Click to save a fabric intent. The Generate Fabric button is enabled.
  9. Click the GENERATE FABRIC button.
The system generates a recommended topology for your fabric, based on the fabric template you selected and the parameters you provided. When generating the topology, the system also generates the various cable connections and the individual node configurations required to support this fabric topology. The resulting topology displays in the main area of the Fabric Intents page.

Now that you have created the fabric intent, you can proceed to any of the following:

  • Optionally, explore the fabric.

  • Optionally, view the fabric intent as code.

  • Optionally, add labels to objects in the fabric intent.

  • Associate some or all of the planned nodes in the fabric intent with real-world hardware.

  • Add the backbone intent to the region's deployment pipeline. From the pipeline you can then deploy the backbone intent.