Crosswork Workflow Manager in the real world​

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the today's session.00:11Today's is workflow automation in the real world and based on CNC workflow automation seven point .2 crosswork workflow manager solution to 2.1 and today today's session will demonstrate how Cisco CNC workflow automation.00:16And Orchestrate the entire network stack in a single modular and ended to end automation process. Let's summarize what, the three session that we provide the two sessions that we provided so far and the 3rd session that you are participating today. So shall.00:33Number one that was held on September the 10th and was getting started with the CCWM some some fundament fundamentals of the CWM.00:53And what is new in the release 2.1 2nd session one week before in September the 17th, prebuilt and the customer workflow for change management that was held on the the name was building a workflow. Today we have the 3rd and the last session for this series.01:04And we will speak about CWM with the rest of the network stack.01:24Let's just walk through a little bit on the the agenda 1st why workflow automation CWM methods in the real world. Second, the solution stack, owned box CNC, Webex workflow automation.01:33Work together, the 3rd discover the design and the workflow. The 4th part of this agenda is the model architecture automation build as models, not as a single monolithic script.01:51And the 5th are the latest one, the key takeaways for today, some plus a quick recap of the vocabulary or and the brief review of the key terms that we are used during the today's session at the end and to summarize what is the capabilities of the entire solution.02:08Before to start, let me differentiate between and the terminology that we will use today and in our portfolio. So, workflow manager is divided by in two different.02:28Application. On the right, we have the standalone, the standalone application that is the baseline. This is the 1st development that Cisco did. The look and feel from the the user interface is exactly the same on the tools, so.02:46But on the, on the right we have the standalone solution. In this in the left, we have the CNC workflow automation that is the cross role of work for manager development included as an application.03:06In Cisco Network controller. We will see this a little bit, not in detail, but in little bit, what is that that concept. But for look and feel the application feature functionality both of them are the same.03:22The only thing that is changed is the platform where these applications are installed. One is the standalone on the right and is called the CBM CWM, sorry. And on the, on the left, we have the one that we will work.03:38Today with you that is.03:59Cisco Network controller workflow automation. The like I said, look and feel is the same, functionality is the same, everything is the same. Just a matter of different type of installation. And today we will even if I will call.04:01All CV CWM, Cisco workflow manager, but everything is related to CNC workflow automation today. So the platform that I will use for all the demos is a crosswork network automation plus workflow automation that is embedded as an application.04:21The Section number one, so the 1st part of the agenda, workflow automation in the real world, what and this isn't just an introduction as a CWM is as a network as a platform.04:41Before we talk about tools, let's start with the how we look at the other network. To automate the network and do end, we have to stop considering the network as a collection of boxes and start treating it as a platform. One single consistent set of network capabilities that.04:58That any process or application can use.05:17This letter in this presentation has five ranks and we will climb them in order at the bottom a simple, a simple cost efficient architecture at the baseline and capability of the network to scale and adapt.05:20Capability of the capability of the network to scale and adapt and adapt to on demand. Network operation that are automated and orchestrated, then the step, the 4th, the step that change everything. The network is.05:39Those two standard interfaces.05:59E.g., open API, open models, the network needed to be open, open to the standards and to the to the public standards. At the top, a programmable, a programmable network where intent is written and deployed like a code.06:02When we reach the top level, the processes, system, application, and people finally work as a single or one entity that where Cisco workflow automation lives, lives on the top. And today we will show you we will show you.06:20How we can run live all these capabilities.06:39Let's start with the with the a a classical network building block at the 1st, at the baseline, the network, at the bottom, the the routers, real devices, real traffic. This is the baseline for the building block.06:57The protocols above them above the network, we will talk about different different protocols, different capabilities of the network. E.g., what we have here in the, in the, in the presentation.07:16SNMP CLI, NetFlow, streaming telemetry, BGPLS, PSAP, netconf, netconf yang, CLI, all power powerful protocol, but each of them are different.07:36Device abstraction and the NET that we will check just now the Net and SRPC try to hide these protocol differences. Net handle, the per vendor detail.07:55SRPC layered the topology and computer path. Collection and the service, the data gateway turn raw telemetry that's received by by the system, by the, by the network.08:13Into some usable data, interesting data for, for the system. NSO turned a service model into the right configuration on every device in a consistent way. Network extraction.08:33In the network substruction CNC bring all the things together. One view of the network device management, topology service, health exposed through APIs. Workflow automation, workflow automation and.08:51And at the top we have cross work group of automation the layer that we will focus today, it orchestrated the whole stack, it read the work order from netbox.09:08To deliver the service and the retry and approvals and the report back on OSS PSS systems or Webex in our demo today. So each layer hide complexity.09:28Each of these layer either complexity of the of the layer below. CVM, workflow automation is where all this extraction becomes one single process. The.09:43All this consideration today, the demo, the presentation are based on a specific use case to demonstrate the capability of the solution. This is just a demo, just a excuse of the design of the project for today.09:59The component that we are choosing to collaborate with workflow manager is just for for this project today, like CNC NSO.10:18Webex Netbox are just provider or adapters that are being used by workflow manager. In any project, different project, these different design, the same capabilities can be used for sure. This is the baseline.10:34But others can be added, others can be modified and the capability of the solution workflow automation has a very set, very powerful set of adapters to call to communicate with external system, external tool workflow.10:53There is a special SDK that is possible to integrate any other multi vendor program multi vendor solutions that are possible to be incorporated in the, in the entire stack. So today for for to reduce the.11:13The time we.11:33We chose some of these adapters, some of the solution, some of them are Cisco products, others are external product and the idea today is combined all together with entire solution to provide an end to end provisioning system.11:34From the baseline from the from the from the routers, from the network up to OSS BSS interface systems. The demo, we will have capabilities we will have.11:55Some part that will be in the slide where with the PowerPoint. The rest will be demo real demo and is a real lab, physical lab, multi vendor lab. We have a different multi vendor collaborating together in the same laboratory.12:15We will I guess that we have 15 nodes on the on the on the lab up and running. We will choose four of them just for the real provisioning today and for the scope of the presentation today. But the the laboratory is real is a real.12:33Network. Real network with the real protocol, all of them that are in 2nd layer in the, in the protocols abstraction.12:52All of them are, use it, is we will not explain detail all of them, we will use it and and the demo is a very is a real is a real network capabilities within.13:01In this session, we will look at what is possible when workflow manager work together with the rest of the network stack. The key point is this. Everything workflow managers is a standard API.13:25So whatever is sit outside, outside of the system outside outside the crossword network controller system plus workflow workflow manager, workflow automation is like possible to be a pipe.13:41Transcript Java application.14:00Linux Unix call CLI call, or could be a postman or a very complex OSSPS system. All of these entities call the same the same interface.14:03No custom integration code is needed for the for these calls, NO special PI path is required. So all these tools can collaborate with the CNC and the crosswork workflow automation in the same way.14:22A standard API calls. Workflow automation is based on open API standards, so it's a is a standard is an open standard public open standard.14:42The solution stack, we will check now just before to move to the demo just a brief overview about what is the key component of the solution today. Netbox CNC, Webex and workflow automation integrating to trans.14:55Sport five instant system into single and automated process. Okay.15:15The architecture, the architecture relies on five core components that work together. 1st 1st is the crosswork network controller. This is the multi, this is the Cisco multi vendor IPSDN controller is a baseline for our solution.15:22For the SDN SDN integration in the, in the network. CNC integrate NSO. NSO is another application that is possible that is standalone but also included and incorporated in the suite of the crossword network controller.15:39NSO translate service intent into configuration and.15:59CNC use SRPC, segment routing part computation engine for on demand path computation. So this is the key core component of the solution for, all the traffic engineering circuit to establish all.16:04All the traffic is in your circuit to discover topology and so on. So there is, it does a lot of feature and a lot of capabilities.16:24CNC also leverages the data gateway for real time telemetry. This is something is an application that is embedded in CNC. We will just not we will check together today just the collection of the information.16:35Next, next box, next box is is open standard 3rd party solution that is a centralized source of truth housing the work order in our case, in our design today.16:51And but as many other capabilities mainly is called as IPAM, IPAM tools very powerful. Many of the service provider is adopting and we also adopted on our demo today.17:07Like ipam. IPAM is the external database for collecting or.17:28Storing all the network, information for the service provisioning or for many others application, we will have just a quick check during today demo what is the capabilities of Netbox just in some check up. Finally, Webex we integrated Webex.17:33It's just a collaboration tool and Webex is a Cisco Webex space, Cisco Webex teams sorry and these tools we are using for communication.17:53It keeps teams connecting by delivering status update and in our project and the delivery that resulted directly to the people that needed them. So we we'll create a space inside of Webex, Cisco Webex and to collaborate with.18:12CWM CNC and all the logic for the today provisioning that we will speak just now about that workflow work order that we will present today in the demo. So, Webex is the collaboration tool to receive.18:29Give information about what the status of the network during the provisioning.18:49Don, I will leave this as a presentation. I will not go through all the these details just to say that the ended to end design flows inside of presentation today, the demo has some level complexity. This complexity.18:59Is even by the to the user because we have these overlays different software overlays.19:18Like NSO CNC, CWM, the IPAM, netbox, et cetera, et cetera, so all these overlays that even the complexity of the network. But the network itself is complex, for sure, as every network.19:27Every talk and every.19:47A part of the network, all the stack of the process to have the the full end to end provisioning in a simple way and but all the stack is complex. Let's see netbox. Let's see just some of them. Netbox netbox, all the requests, so.19:49Today the demo will be based on layer three VPN plus traffic engineering tent and some other capabilities of the solution like assurance.20:09Service assurance is included in the solution. The, all the other thing, all the other thing of the of the provisioning of the layer three PN is stored in the netbox. Netbox is pre populated, the Netbox database is pre populated.20:24We simulated the prep population of this networks via our own external business system.20:45We used to prep populate this netbox. We use different tools. We can we use CWM. We use the external API calls tools like Postman, Bruno, core.20:51So on. So this net box has been like documented, has been populated simulation of the pre population by an external system like process PSS done by standard tools.21:11CWM pick up and call CNC over the rest REST protocol. CNC provision the service to NSO and NSO pushes the configuration to the device over netconf, and or NETCLI depending on the solution that we choose.21:25In parallel CNC works with SRPC for path computation and SRPC SRPC policy optimization. SRPC itself learn the topology from IGP BGPLS and manage the path through towards the.21:44The device component through this app. Then the data come back. The device stream telemetry through the data gateway into CMC, SNMP CLI, GNMI, all these protocol are are being used by the by the network to communicate with with the system.22:03Since he returned the operation and validation result to CWM and CWM closed the loop. It updated the work order in the box and notified the people who needed to know in Webex. This is the.22:24The entire logic of the solution based on our design, what we designed for this demo today and the designer and the flows are all, all of them collected in this single slide.22:38With all the foundation with all the foundation and main pillars defined in the design, let's move now into the live demonstration to see all of these component functional in.22:59The, that are working in one unified process. So now we move to the to the to the to the demo and I will show you what is the entire solution simplified by a single click and let's go, let's go on.23:19On the demo. 1st of all, we needed to log in on the system, like I commented. This is a real lab is based on CNC crosswalk network controller 7.7.23:38.2.23:59At the moment this is the the initial dashboard with the traffic engineering at the top SRMPLS SRV 63 seed. We see that we have seven SRMPLS deployed SRMPLS and policy deployed.24:02Let's just, in the administration crosswork manager, these are, so crosswork network controller, is a platform.24:21Based on standards like on top of this infrastructure, we have different applications and one application let me highlight is workflow manager, the application that we will check today, but there is many other application that has been.24:38Installed in the system to permit the system to work and to provisioning a service and do with service health, active optimization engine, active topology and so on. All these applications are working together.24:57We have a special menu for workflow automation. We seen some inside of the workflow automation menu, we are still calling workflow Cisco workflow manager solution jobs. We have a data terminology.25:16Between workflow automation, workflow manager that are combining together.25:34And we have a special special part of the of the of the solution that is the workflows. Before we click in the workflows, we see all the workflow that has been included are included in the system already is out of the box. Some are out of the box.25:39Workflows so provided what during the installation and in this case we have our expert inside the session tree workflow that has been created for for the solution today.26:00So we'll the solution permit this this combined number of workflow provide the the entire the entire stack to.26:22Provisioning a layer three and service.26:38Let's 1 s go to the VPN service itself, just to check. So this is the environment like a commented let me zoom in a bit on, on the topology itself. This is a real laboratory based on different.26:41Is a multi vendor environment.27:01Different vendors are are collaborating together in this laboratory. We will use today four Cisco NCSS nodes and just to show you that we have four VRF already provisioning.27:03This is a real laboratory using for different purpose for different demonstration. Our VPN is called VPN 101 and eleven, so at the moment it's not provisioned at all. So there is NO provision of that VPN.27:24The system is, is working the system is like I commented, it's pre populated with for different demonstration is not is not only for us and we are to coexist with other with other.27:43VRF or VPNs.28:03The service, we see that we have four, some good, some are in different healthy states and just for just for demo and we will at the end just after the provisioning of ours solution our implementation, we will have the.28:055th that is VPN.28:26111 let's jump in on netbox. Netbox, if you close the IPAM menu. So the netbox is just a network database for, for storing.28:27Many different, logics and applications.28:48And informations. So we can have VPN visualization circuit our main database today is just the IPAM, IP administration.28:52Management. We have the pre populated IP addresses, the tenant, the customer is just called lab tenant alpha. We have a different for the VPN eleven 111. We have different IP addresses allocated.29:11To this VRF to this VPN.29:31Normally this operation, this provisioning is is created by an, by an OSSBS system when the customer order the the the solution when ordered the VPN.29:34That is prep populated after the order. We have different different information that are stored in the system like the VRF name, the VLAN associated to it. We have different for for to be provisioned on on the attachment circuit toward this.29:52It's customer CP.30:12That are simulated here in the in the in the netbox. So netbox is prepopulated with all the informations that is required for, for our provisioning of the entire work work order and the workflow to provision the the solution.30:13Let me just go 1 s to the, to one of the nodes that will be included in the solution.30:34So let me now.30:54They're monitoring. So we the the the scope today is to provision the layer three VPN in four different nodes and I am connecting in a single node. Since the VRF layer two VPN service is equal to the four node I just connecting to the to the.31:03To the 1st one. This is the entire network. Let's go now to the workflow Let's go to our.31:21Main workflow, I'm use that then I will explain in detail when we go back to the powerpoint. But I am using one workflow that is the parent orchestrator that call all the rest of the workflows and.31:41In a simple way, right now I will only show you what is the application of the workflow and what is the process to provisioning the entire layer three VPN service ended to end. So in a simple click we enter.32:01We see, this is the code, is based on JSON format code is based on standard. There is a specific standard.32:18Open open standard that doesn't is used.32:37Included in in the Cisco workflow manager. The standard then we will speak about a little bit about about it, but this is an open standard. Everything is is based on this open standard.32:42The way to programs is we have two different approach or sorry, we have more, more than two.33:00Two that are embedded in in the in the web interface of the Cisco workflow manager. The others are the capabilities of external systems to to program these workflows or all the components in the Cisco workflow.33:10Workflow manager with external systems. But inside of the of the web interface, we have two ways that is the code standard code implementation.33:292nd is that the designer. We have a designer capabilities to create to create the all this call out of the entire solution.33:43If we zoom, we see the different steps that the solution has been designed. There is an entry, an entry and entry step, then there is a different.33:59Different boxes. One of them, all of them are for a different input. When we have the default, we are treating errors, we are treating input we are we are managing.34:16The different part of the of the workflow design is possible like I commented in a graphic way is possible to be implemented via the code. When we, in my case, I.34:36Created the code and then passed pasted here so included here and in automatic way the graph is populated in the right way. Connecting the.with a different, different component of the solution on the design.34:54And, to create the workflow, the entire workflow. So this is this is the orchestra orchestrator workflow. This is the parent, is our entry point for provisioning the service.35:13At the end, we will see that we have two ones and one of them is the Webex. So we have the last, the last entry is the notification to via Webex. But later on this code, ok? So we have also the capability to split in the window in twos. One is the.35:31Is the, is the graph and the other one is the is the is the code itself. But let now let me move a bit, let them now run the workflow.35:51So, to run the workflow, there is a very different, there is just a couple of input. There's a general time the general is the description of the workflow if we have to add some tags.36:09The level of the logs in case that we need the logs, there is a many different up to debugging. Then we have the input session, so every workflow can accept inputs. In my design, in the design today, the the.36:26The orchestrator, the parent workflow has not input, but all the rest of the child workflow that this main workflow is calling, all the rest as as parameters and then we will check about them. The time when.36:44Run directly, so right now to schedule for a specific to have a cron. But let's run the the job.37:04So the job is running, let now we go to the to the jobs. We see that on top we have this just the.37:11The workflow that we we show before let let me refresh that in a few second in few seconds the job is done.37:27And inside of the workflow itself or the main workflow, we have the the sub workflow that are the child, and all of them are so in in an order.37:45Okay and order that I def designed and define it in the in the master in the orchestrator parent workflow. All of them are completed and has been executed.38:01You you saw that we spent some second but on this sub second in the many in 2nd, the system, the entire solution started to contact the netbox, retrieve all the information.38:22Generate populated database of information, call the the child to provisioning the the service to this to the to the entire system collecting input before, after the after the net box collection.38:39Of the information. This the next step.38:59Is live via this specific workflow, this one, we get device VRF name using the Cisco CNC adapter directly from, from CNC to collect all the VRF information that are.39:01That are in the system. To verify that the VRF or VPN eleven our VPN eleven 111 is not present to not override. Then when this is this check is done.39:21The system asked provisioning the six the the entire the entire the entire configuration to the to the tool to the to the device. Let's let's go to the.39:39Okay, so, I have a termonitoring in one of the of the routers. We see, we see all the.39:55And all the logs for all the activities that has been generated by the system, by the provisioning. So, we see many many of them. So e.g., interface, this is interface for the P to the C to the customer to the.40:11Customer node. We have all the traffic engineering policy that is in downstate, then in app, so it's configured and then in upstate.40:31And we see GNMI collection for the client. We see many different change of status for the all the protocols that we saw before. Show configuration.40:41And Commit changes last one, the one that has been generated by the system. So this is the configuration that has been.40:58And Provided in automatic way collecting all the information, all the, all this information, all this name, VPN policy, everything, the color that we used for the SRT policy, the RD, BGP, VRF name, all this info.41:14Information are stored in the netbox. The system collected this information and generate the final configuration and push the configuration in six steps, I will explain later why these six steps and to the to the to the device. Let's now go to see.41:34The result in the in the.41:54In the dashboard, in the crossword network controller dashboard. So now we see that we have the our VPN. And if we click on our VPN, we see the VPN provisioned in this different node is that we have aP1.41:56P2B 9P10. If we go on details of, of the VPN.42:16Oh, we see again the VPN itself, let me let me zoom a little bit to see the the the four.42:32The four node that or the VPN itself, and if we go to transport associated to the VPN, we see.42:52All the service policy that has been that has been deployed or provisioned for the intent. What is the intent of the solution is to have a traffic engineering or low latency in the part side of the network.43:04So the layer three VPN is connected, is steered the traffic that between the, the four node in the layer three PN is still on a specific overlay transport overlay that is segment routing MPLS with the intent specific intent.43:23Tended to have low latency or traffic engineering policy.43:43And traffic engineering metrics. If I now we have let me check just one of them because we have multiple and we have a full mesh of SR policy because we SR policy is only directional, so between all the north.43:47Needed to be a full mesh.44:07Of segment routing, but like you saw before, everything is populated via single click when we do the provisioning that just click on single one on the 1st one. So at the end is aP1 and point is aP10. So we have all this.44:09Different intermediate node that is crossing the the traffic and the policy and the traffic itself. We are moving from aP10 P1aP2P4P5P8 and P ten again. So if we check another one, let me go.44:29P two to P ten, e.g., this one, we are crossing different P4P5P8, so we are crossing the same. Let me check if we have a e.g. P ten to P one.44:48Yeah, now we have aP6P3 and P six that is crossing between the two endpoints. If we select all of them, so we we can see that all the all the mesh.45:06That has been configured by the system and this is like commented single click we provision in in in seconds we provisioning the layer three PN, the intent, the traffic engineering intent over seven.45:21We configured the the P2C.45:42And Attachment circuit, so the interfaces from the our network so for the service provider network to the customer environment, to the customer P we configure it on top of this one we have an assurance capability, so.45:46We are monitoring continuous monitoring the, the, the healthy of the network and and the layer three VPN itself, so everything is configured and we are missing quality service with time provisioning quality service as well in the in another in another demo. It's just a model.46:03To add to the system and we see we see now in some details we go back to the PowerPoint just to explain.46:24What is the design and the flow that we, we, we consider is is based on our design on our project. This is not a strict.46:41Way to provision the things. So workflow manager has the capabilities and the and the the power to be very flexible. This is just a matter of the design decision, how to design the the solution.46:57In our case today we choose to to have six six different models inside of the provisioning.47:15To interact with the and the devices, we split in six in six in six in six parts just because of simplicity, just because we can in any moment to interchange any.47:31Of this component to a different one?47:51To, to have a modular solution. So when we design we divide and conquer a solution, entire solution with the different models, then interchange the model is very easy. There is not dependency between the models. The models are orchestrated by the by.47:56The parent orchestrator, the workflow that we launched all in a single click all the.48:15Entire solution and but in the in the deep of the programming we choose to to divide in six, ok? And let's just comment in a simple way, what is this six modular.48:23Steps. But the recommended could be one, could be ten, could be 20. So this is total open.48:43It's possible to be, to create a monolithic script only single, we can divide that monolithic and different that is what what has been done for this demo. So 1st one and one we created the sample SR MP.48:49LST on demand next up colors.49:094111 under 4102. So this is we take this information from the net box, what is the color? 2nd is the destination prefix. The this is the PC links for the customer subnet.49:14SMPLS policy, the SMPLS policy is the is the SRMPLS naming that is associated with the VRF for the for the our intent today that was low latency traffic so the VPN is a.49:31Low latencing traffic VPN.49:51The 5th is on the mandate stop template and the 6th, the the latest one, the most complex one is the layer to VPN provisioning do all my service across the four P with with service assurance. Service assurance means that.49:54We attached to the layer to VPN a special a special capabilities of a network control Cisco network controller to have to maintain an assurance monitoring assurance live status of the.50:14Healthy of the network and especially of the layer three PN service and just an explanation why we design in this way and this is not.50:32The best one is not the worst one, is our implementation today. This can be done in a different way. This is just a demonstration how CWM.50:50And the creation of the workflow using the different application inside the CWN is very flexible, and it's not based on any strict logic. The logic is just based on solution design done by the developers.51:05Why the solution is building this way because it's self contained. So each step is a complete workflow. It's own name also its own input clear success and failure.51:28Nothing hidden in the code. Everything it does is written inside it. So the code is very transparent, very clear based on standard. The standard is the one that is on the bottom in the left serverless workflow specification. This is a version.51:420.8 for workflow manager 2.1. This will change with the workflow manager versions. This is strict based standard, so everything that is in the documentation.52:00For how it's implemented, serverless workflow specification documentation is good. We are pointing our documentation as well, our.52:16Our implementation is based on the standards so everything is written. So let me finish this slide and then I will check if there is any specific question that we have to others. I see some question that is entering your answering let me know if there is but let me finish and then we go to that one. So nothing needed in the.52:33Code everything is written inside. Contract input, every step declare what is accepted, check it before anything reaches the network. So the input are controlled, are parsed in against the rules, internal code rules.52:53There is not even links between these modules. E.g., step three never called step two and back. So this is not there is not connection between the models. The connection is the.53:13Parent workflow itself, the one that I executed today.53:33Safe to rerun. It's possible to rerun any of these different workflow or steps or modules, let me call modules. It's possible to rerun any of them in the any order, just need it.53:40The only thing that is needed to be considered if that rerun has been is permitted by the system by the endpoint by the network system, maybe sometimes it's not permitted to rewrite a specific configuration, but if this this is model is possible to re.53:56Done in any moment. And the order, the order of the models lives in one place or in one place in the orchestrator. So the orchestrator is the is is where the sequence of models is designed.54:16And then none of them none of these models are tied to VPN 111 111 is just an input. So could be any.54:36Any VPN that the the customer has, has ordered. So there is not direct, direct combination direct link between this sequence of modules and the VPN itself.54:52New mo new VPN, new service. So this is the way to provision all the service, just a matter of populate the networks with the different values and to generate multiple VPN in the same way.55:12Then these modules that the six modules is possible to be reused by the other other orchestrators to generate different different intent to different outcomes. Imagine that instead of having a segment.55:27That is a different segment routing technology.55:49So you have to drop out only the model that is related to do segment routing MPLS and to include again a new model on the same logic with the SRV six. But this is like I comment, this is just a design and just a way to design it is our project today.55:54This could be totally different for any operator that that is will be in front of workflow workflow workflow automation architecture. Okay.56:15Oh, ok if you have any, please let me know if you have any question and I can I I see some there was a question Georgia that just was answered by Rosman, they were asking if the child workflows were built from scratch and the ones that you were.56:34Showing. Yes, sure. It's built from scratch, everything is from scratch for this for this demo and yeah I used very simple. I used.56:54I used not to write the code via the the graph I'm used to write the code in the with the standard CLI. And I want to say just the one things and I didn't write any light of code.57:12So let me go back. Let me go back to the, e.g., we go to the just that we are here let let me demonstrate let me demo.57:31Only 1 s, Netbox work order, ok? So this is a workflow. This is a workflow. And let me go to the code. The code is this one.57:56I didn't write, so if I, let me say I write 10 % of this code by myself, the rest has been done via artificial intelligent tools that are generated the code.58:10So the idea is, and we will have the next session in the coming months to demonstrate how we can program everything with a NO code. On for this demo, I use that logic.58:27And, I write modify 10 % of the code. All the rest has been done directly by the by by the agentic AI tools. Why? Because this is based on standards.58:46So, the different artificial intelligent llmiss as that information included. And they are able since they have the Json logic in mind.59:03They have capabilities to to provide a correction code. It's not unnecessary if you see here if you see here, NO errors in the definition, so every time that we change.59:21We changed something needed to be validate by the validation, you see validation definition in the right so the JSON code that needed to validate before anything else if this code is written by, by a system, by, by a user by.59:39The programmers with the help of the artificial intelligence.59:59Json logic is included, so it's not unnecessary to to check the Json the Json indent the Json everything so everything is is very, very well embedded in the system.01:00:05Because this is a Json is a is a standard. Also, like we commended we have a serverless serverless workflow specification and for the more advanced LMs seems to be included as well. We have what we are doing we are doing on the moment test. We have internal LLM.01:00:22So Cisco as well.01:00:42We are using external, free of charge. I don't recall what is what is the day the right specification for NO, not token, NO token LMs as well. So we have many different solutions but like I commented my job to create this workflow has been is it only time.01:00:43Hundred percent, the rest has been done in an automatic way.01:01:03For sure for for the for the client for the master or for the parent and the and the client logic that is specified on the servers workforce specification. So that is included. I used that part.01:01:07I receive that information from our developers what is the standard to be used and this is included in the serverless. So it's we are specific part of the serverless workflow specification that define how to use the the calls between the parent and the and the client. So.01:01:25But let me just that I have this netbox, work order retrieval, just doing a run. So like I commented, we need input on this workflow. This workflow is designed to have input. Let me go back to the workflow was.01:01:44Second again.01:02:04Nextbox work order. Let me put a graph yeah in the graph we have the 1st step, the 1st the 1st step that these are the solve get VRF.01:02:11We have a rest rest call to get this VRF and to check the VRF. Let's run this code and then we have all these different different if the VRF input is missing.01:02:28VRF not found and error. If we have the VRF input, we go to the part in the right and and we go through the workflow in the right way. Let me run that workflow.01:02:46I run directly, run the job. Okay. Input data is invalid, so we have not input data. Let me insert the input data. I needed to go 1 s.01:03:04Input data, very simple, VRF name. Okay, so I need also to include the tenant name and the VRF name, but for this demo I just included the VPN VRF name.01:03:22And we run the job. The job is running, we go to the jobs, it's completed. Let me go to the work order. Let let's do.01:03:39How many events this workflow as generated is 125. Very simple work order, sorry, very simple workflow generated 125. Different event and we have the entire history for, for them. None of them is in error. None of them is in red.01:03:55And the execution completed. Now we have the results, all the data from, from netbox. So.01:04:14By generating input an entry that is VPN 111 and the the system collect all the information from networks, the one that is in the database to provisioning the entire solution.01:04:29We see here all that information links, IP and the assurance service assurance. We have also this one that is rule L three and M new customer. This is the.01:04:45The rule that is included in the solution to permit the service assurance. The interface ID, the local address, neighbor address, PR address, and node ID, everything is included. So I collected.01:05:01This information was the 1st and this.01:05:21This database on information that is in in will be will be in the orchestrator then is moved to to the different different child for the entire provisioning.01:05:26Let me go back to the presentation. So I answered the question Christy I guess ok good thanks. Thank you, thank you Georgia. Okay, good. Perfect. Let's go to this, to the next one.01:05:43Now let's see how the orchestrator is designed. So like I said based on standard, we have that capabilities to have a parent and child workflows, that part is everything is designed by with the standards.01:06:05The, they our design respect these these different steps, pre audit, check order, provision step post audit, Webex report, request work order.01:06:24I missed let me go ok at the end I will I will check the Webex for you and to past in some way the Webex result. It's missing at the moment to show you what is the.01:06:40The Webex but we have a Webex Webex message that has coming in. So this is the design of the of the parent and.01:07:00And the parent, the orchestrator is if they decide how that the provisioning should go. Let me move to the next slide. Some.01:07:17Just let me, we are at the at the end of the presentation today this part is just the recap of the previous sessions, recap a bit what is the component that we use today?01:07:37To you transparent for this for the operator but still used still maintenance still required and at the end some key takeaways for for today's call. So let's start before to go any any in any other way by words.01:07:59During today we used four of them and let agree what, what they mean. So a workflow is a receipt, state action, design ones is possible to be reused. You will find under design workflow, a job is one run of that.01:08:21For the site.01:08:40It's own input, we see that we can generate an input, its own M and D story. What something goes wrong this is there is a management of the error part this is under operated job a form is possible to create a form.01:08:41We'll we will check in the, in another session adapter.01:09:01Is a plugin that knows how to talk to external system, netbox, NSO, Webex, Italy under administration adapters. Adapters is one of the key component of the solution for me, one of the best one.01:09:06And we have out of the box vanilla adapter. I use it, I use it the Webex one. I use it the Webex is out of the box, CNC adapter is also, out of the box will be.01:09:24And C7.two.01:09:44Is a prototype on CNC eight zero will be included and all the APIs that are very very a lot of them are included in the adapter itself and supported by by the system. If any other other adapters.01:09:46Are not available. We have a special SDK. I use it to to to customize the CNC seven two adapter to include some calls.01:10:06For me it's quite easy compared to some other vendors. The adapter creation is very simple. We have a Webex, we have a YouTube explanation how to use it.01:10:24SDK since everything is based on standard, like you commented, also an adapter can be created by, with the support of tools like artificial intelligence, NO way, NO problem.01:10:39Very ok so very powerful. Also the SDK is very, very simple to be used. Activity. Let me go just for that we are speaking about the adapters, so let me go to the 1 s or to the management of the.01:10:54Adapters like I commented, many of them generic arrest cross work EMF EMS, Cisco NSO, Cisco Webex generic email, generic CLI, genericed generic DB.01:11:14Are out of the box. What has been created and included for this demo is this CNC adapter. We see what is the activity that is supported. We have all the restconf, feature line.01:11:32Like delete.01:11:52Get patch post put, this is an example how to use directly the APIs for the system, a part of the restconf. This is the API so And this we have under yeah this is a vendor Cisco and we have this.01:11:53Activity. So the adapter that we use is all of them or many of them.01:12:13On adapters so we use let me check we use the rest for sure. We use the Webex, we use the CNC, yeah, we use this mainly this this three one today.01:12:19Let me go back to the workers resources. We create specific resources for for the for the for the demo, two of them, three of them sorry netbox, cross work and cross work with the Cisco CNC.01:12:35But these resources are, where the credential are stored. There is NO credential inside of the workflows, the credential are here and the credential are, are protected password protected, all the information are protected, so to to modify we have to.01:12:55Already the, the information inside of the credentials, let me go back to the presentation 1 s to finish activity. The activity is one way that adapter responds, get patch put all everything in the toolbox.01:13:15Another five words, workflow NO sorry it's let me go to 2nd one. A worker is the process that that will actually does the work, the secret is the credential by the platform.01:13:41Never by the workflow. The resources is a stored the connection profile. State is one box on the canvas in operation switch, the callback sleep. The state is the is the.01:13:56Is a, is a component of the workflow. Event is an external signal, something that the work wait for. This could be a human, a human press button, so it's possible to insert the.01:14:13External evidence as well. Key takeaways, let me, we are just in time. Key takeaways, four takeaways, one from one.01:14:29Workflow layer, the whole stack is connected. The CW and orchestrate CNC and the box delivered the solution. These are simple examples of of layers. Everything can be modified, just.01:14:50Demo for today, nothing, nothing strict. Everything is can be reused, modify the capabilities are build once reused everywhere. So if you create some modularity like demonstrate today, it's possible to be reused in any part of the solution.01:15:09Any system say partners, the adapter connected to external system out of the box or with the SDKs, very powerful, any, any, any let's say any tool that expose.01:15:29Api's is possible to be is another adapter. E.g. Netbox is one of the ipam available but could be many of them. So every, every system.01:15:44Software system that expose API could be a potential adapter, and if that adapter is generated by SDK, by CWM SDK, that adapter can be onboarded on workflow manager to be used.01:16:00As commented and I show you before we go to the adapter and the adapter details, we see what is the.01:16:21And the the action that that adapter is capable of and this is generic to any adapter .4 from intent to network, this is the key point of to.01:16:28Day as well. So we have a specific intent generated on the netbox. That intent was to use a layer to generate to create a layer to VPN with a specific transport intent or traffic SRMPLS traffic engineering.01:16:48To a low latency path to use low latency path between all the four nodes in the network and this is have been generated in an automatic way. So for real automation and today we proven live that this is possible.01:17:07And the most important for me key point to remember, everything that you see today is vanilla out of the box functionality, zero custom code, a part of the workflow themselves, and even those.01:17:25Workflow are built with the help of everyday IE tools. So I spent really hours to generate what you saw today. Because I use a standard. I use it out of the box functionality in CNC CVW and NSO, SRPC and so on.01:17:44It's it's important to is not important for CV CWM point of view, but it's important for the entire solution based on Cisco network controller. Cisco network controller.01:18:05And service provisioning for layer two VPN, layer two VPN, traffic engineering is based on RFCs. So we have specific RFCs that was draft one year ago, but now are RFCs and our system, our tools are based on that RFCs.01:18:21So there is a specific RFCs in the market that multi vendor agreed the way to provisioning a layer two VPN service, layer two VPN service and the traffic engineering. So and our.01:18:41Tool are based on that standard. So since we have everything is based on standard CWM, CWM is based on on the standard. CNC is based on standard. If everything is is based on standard.01:18:57We have capabilities to write very an entire solution zero custom code, with help.01:19:15Of items. We will see, we open a topic for a next session in the future when we are ready for demonstrate how to generate.01:19:29All the solution with the help of tools. Thank you very much for your attention and please I don't know if there is any question that needed to be un answered.01:19:47Thank you. Let me check in the chat, but apparently everything has been responded just the last one that Rasman was answering about if that specific workflows were available in seven.one and seven.two, which some of the capabilities that as Rasman mentioned here in the.01:20:04Chart are available in seven.two, but everything can be be written right in the code.01:20:24Serverless workflow and it's possible that integrations if you have the adapters. So there is NO other question, not sure if you have something on your side, but I think everything was covered. Yeah, I think we we managed to answer all the questions. There was an ask for providing.01:20:31The the code behind the workflows you had to just so have to look into that because there's more custom build for, you know, for the demo today, but we will follow up I think Jerry was the one asking that question that question.01:20:51And I posted two links for, the locations where you can find the documentation. As Georgia mentioned at the beginning, you know, crosswork workflow manager and CNC workflow automation, they're basically the same product. It's just that, in CNC.01:21:07I see it's a module, but the documentation is valid for both, right? So use e.g. crosswork workflow manager two zero documentation for 7.1. I've seen a lot of questions related to 7.1 today and crosswork workflow manager 2.1 for version 7272.01:21:27In more towards the end of the year, I think we're gonna have crossword workflow manager three zero and CNC eight zero as well, right? And documentation will be made available then, seven two did introduce the workflow designer, which makes it easier, right? To combine the two.01:21:48Five workflows with the with like the master workflow, let's call it or I think it was the orchestrator in in Georgia's demo. If not, then that needs to be done through in in the code window basically.01:22:08Yeah, I think I think those were most of the questions. We recognize that you know there.01:22:27It's more difficult in 7.1 to to to create these workflows from scratch because yeah some of the user interface you know features that makes the life easier were introduced in 7.2. So ideally would.01:22:34Beyond that version. There were enhancements on fleet upgrade as well on golden config, you know, all the pre built solutions. But yeah, we recognize that some of the people in the call are on 7.1 and for that you have to default to the.01:22:54Documentation or engage our delivery services and, and work with them to help you build that you know the the the the personalized use cases. For me I think the.01:23:14The important thing is to really understand the use case that you want to build the workflow around, like Georgia was sharing in here, right? He has created this from scratch. He did use AI tools, but he had the use case very clear in mind in what what he wanted to do. So as long as you have clarity on what you.01:23:31You want to do it can be captured in in a workflow.01:23:51An end to end workflow like like Georgia demonstrated today. And that will be all from my side. Absolutely. Thank you very much for that. And again, just to conclude Georgia, we will have the the recordings available in the community page for the ones that would like to have it before the recordings.01:23:58You can send us an email and we can send them as well via via email if you would like to have them available. But otherwise you can find them here in this community page right in the section of this specific series and there will be available on demand the recording of those sessions.01:24:18Okay, so over to you, I think we can conclude Georgia. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for Sorry, sorry David go ahead. Thank you very much for your attention. Just to remember that at the end you will receive a survey via email just to yeah to comment about how to improve this time.01:24:38Type of sessions in for the future. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you and David for support and thank you all for the, for your attention today.01:24:58