Configure your multicast WAN for OTV

It is easy to find design and configuration guides about OTV implementations on Nexus 7000 switches, ASR and CSR routers. But it is much harder to find some information about the requirements for your WAN.
Please read my previous blog posts about OTV here, here, here and here. I’ll cover the OTV device configurations in those posts. But for now, lets start with the DCI WAN for OTV.
First of all, there are two OTV deployment options:

  • Unicast mode
  • Multicast mode

The WAN requirements in unicast mode are simple: deliver unicast connectivity between the join interfaces of all OTV edge devices. This is just a simple straight forward configuration, I will not cover this in this blog post.
The multicast deployment is a bit harder to configure and requirements are less easier to find. This blog post will cover the required WAN configuration in a multicast deployment. In this particular scenario, we use dark fiber / DWDM connections as DCI to get a more clear understanding about the requirements and configuration.
First, a drawing to get a view on this deployment scenario:

OTV WAN multicast  layout

OTV WAN multicast layout


This blog will provide you with the most easiest way to get your OTV multicast deployment up and running. There are some more finetune options available, but that will not be covered in this blog.
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Cisco ISE Part 3: Active directory

This is a Cisco ISE blog post series with some how-to’s for configuring the ISE deployment, This blog post series exists of 10 parts.
The blogpost Agenda:
Part 1: introduction
Part 2: installation
Part 3: Active Directory
Part 4: High Availability
Part 5: Configuring wired network devices
Part 6: Policy enforcement and MAB
Part 7: Configuring wireless network devices
Part 8: Inline posture and VPN
Part 9: Guest and web authentication
Part 10: Profiling and posture
This week, part 3: Active Directory
Microsoft Active directory is the mostly used directory. Cisco ISE can get membership in only 1 AD forest in ISE 1.1.x.
Check the following requirements:

  • Correctly configured NTP
  • Firewall ports: tcp: 389, 636, 445, 88, 3268, 3289, 464
  • Firewall ports: udp: 389, 123
  • All firewall ports are needed for the policy nodes
  • NAT is not supported!!

A local identity store is desired as a fallback in the event that the external identity store cannot be contacted. This is optional.
Local Identity
Click Administration – Identity management – Groups and click Add to add a new group. (Bulk import is available)
newidentitygroup
Under Administration – Identity management – identities – users, users can be created and linked to the usergroup.
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