Contents

Introduction

Background Information

DRE Optimization

Control Connections

Steps to Build an AppQoE DRE Setup with ISN and ESN

1. System (Interfaces and Hardware) and Topology

1.1. Topology and Interfaces

1.2. Disk Requirement

1.3. Adding Devices to SD-WAN Fabric

2. Branch: AppQoE ISN Configuration

3. DC/Hub: AppQoE ESN Configuration

4. DC/Hub: AppQoE SC Configuration

5. Centralized Traffic Data Policy

A. Branch ISN

B. DC/Hub SC

Verification - CLI

Branch ISN

DC/Hub SC

DC/Hub ESN

Verification - Dashboard

Branch ISN

DC/Hub SC

DC/Hub ESN

Introduction

This document describes how to create and configure a setup for Data Redundancy Elimination (DRE) optimization.

Background Information

This document aims to serve as a starting point for guidance on how to create and configure a setup for DRE which is part of an Integrated Application Quality of Experience (AppQoE) Solution, offering an End-to-End Consistent Policy Framework and Monitoring, for a Multitude of Deployment Use Cases.

Building blocks of AppQoE Solution:

- Forward Error Correction (FEC) and Packet Duplication (PD): Addresses Packet Loss issues. See for FEC.

- TCP optimization: Addresses WAN latency issues. See  for a single-sided TCP Opt Use Case.

- DRE optimization: Addresses Low Bandwidth issues. Typically DRE Optimization is used together with TCP Optimization.

Existing CCO DRE documentation does not contain a full end-to-end process description. This document provides a step-by-step end-to-end description of the DRE solution.

A deep technical explanation of DRE functionality is out of the scope of this article. If you want to learn more about technical details and DRE functionality, please use this documentation.

DRE Optimization

DRE is a dual-sided solution that removes redundant data by caching previously seen patterns. Combined with the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) algorithm, which provides compression to reduce the amount of data over WAN, the DRE feature offers a fully secure and integrated solution with Unified Threat Defense (UTD) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) proxy.

It is Application and Protocol agnostic and is a Cloud-ready solution which offers around 60-90% WAN traffic reduction.

Different deployment scenarios are supported to achieve a scalable solution.

- The integrated solution provides a one-box solution for deploying branch services, termed as an Integrated Service node (ISN).

- External Service Nodes (ESN) are decoupled from intercepting edge routers or Service Controller (SC) in External Service Node deployment, typically at Data Centers and Hubs. Redirection of flows based on application traffic is achieved using a Data Policy.

Control Connections

Note: The ESN does not form any control connection with the Controller (formerly known as vSmart). The ESN has a control connection to the SD-WAN Manager.

Steps to Build an AppQoE DRE Setup with ISN and ESN

1. System (Interfaces and Hardware) and Topology

1.1. Topology and Interfaces

The ESN requires the following interfaces:

- A VPN0 Interface connectivity to the Controllers (Manager and Validator [transient]).

Connectivity from ESN to Controllers can be directly or via SC. The recommendation is via SC since this avoids the need for an additional WAN circuit on the ESN.

- Another VPN0 Interface for connectivity to the Service Controller.

- Optional: A VPN512 Management interface.

1.2. Disk Requirement

For a lab setup, a 150GB disk is good enough, for the DRE optimization to work.

This holds good only for functional verification in a lab environment, and is not meant for production. For accurate disk and other recommendations, please check this CCO link.

Note: This additional disk requirement is only for the ISN and ESN. It is not required on SC.

1.3. Adding Devices to SD-WAN Fabric

- Using templates (available from 20.6/17.6 onwards): AppQoe Feature template which can be specified in the Device Template as an Additional Template.

- Using Configuration Groups (available from 20.14/17.14 onwards): AppQoE Feature parcel available in Service/LAN profile in Configuration Group.

1.4. C8000v Details

If you are using c8kv, please ensure to enable app-heavy CPU profile configuration. Useful article.

2. Branch: AppQoE ISN Configuration

Create an AppQoE feature template (using templates as shown here) for the device model.

Then, specify this Feature template in the Device template.

3. DC/Hub: AppQoE ESN Configuration

Create an  AppQoE Feature Template   for the device model.

Then, specify this Feature template in the Device template.

4. DC/Hub: AppQoE SC Configuration

Create an AppQoE Feature Template for the device model.

Then, specify this Feature template in the Device template.

5. Centralized Traffic Data Policy

- Two different policies are required: one for the Internal Service Node (ISN) and the second for the Service Controller (SC). See the difference below.

- The Policy direction must be "All" for both

- The Service-node-group must be blank for ISN and specified for the SC.

- DRE optimization is typically used along with TCP optimization.

In this example, a Web Client on a Branch location is defined and a Web Server on the DC site, you might want to adjust it for your traffic of interest accordingly.

A. Branch ISN

UI - Template

Sequence 1 - from Client 10.107.1.10 to Server 10.109.1.10:

Sequence 2 - from Server back to Client:

CLI:

ISN# show sdwan policy from-vsmart

from-vsmart data-policy _CorpVPN_DRE-data-policy-ISN-2

direction all

vpn-list CorpVPN

sequence 1

match

source-ip 10.107.1.10/32

destination-ip 10.109.1.10/32

action accept

tcp-optimization

dre-optimization

sequence 11

match

source-ip 10.109.1.10/32

destination-ip 10.107.1.10/32

action accept

tcp-optimization

dre-optimization

default-action accept

from-vsmart lists vpn-list CorpVPN

vpn 1

B. DC/Hub SC

UI - Template

Sequence 1:

Sequence 2:

CLI:

SC# show sdwan policy from-vsmart

from-vsmart data-policy _CorpVPN_DRE-data-policy-SC_ESN-2

direction all

vpn-list CorpVPN

sequence 1

match

source-ip 10.107.1.10/32

destination-ip 10.109.1.10/32

action accept

tcp-optimization

dre-optimization

service-node-group SNG-APPQOE

sequence 11

match

source-ip 10.109.1.10/32

destination-ip 10.107.1.10/32

action accept

tcp-optimization

dre-optimization

service-node-group SNG-APPQOE

default-action accept

from-vsmart lists vpn-list CorpVPN

vpn 1

Verification - CLI

Branch ISN

ISN# show sdwan appqoe dreopt status

DRE ID                                           : 52:54:dd:2a:74:d7-018eafaa99e1-f9ff51aa

DRE uptime                                       : 04:10:59:59

Health status                                    : GREEN

Health status change reason                      : None

Last health status change time                   : 04:10:59:59

Last health status notification sent time        : 1 second

DRE cache status                                 : Active

Disk cache usage                                 : 2%

Disk latency                                     : 25 ms

Active alarms:

None

Configuration:

Profile type                               : S

Maximum connections                        : 750

Maximum fanout                             : 35

Disk size                                  : 60 GB

Memory size                                : 2048 MB

CPU cores                                  : 1

Disk encryption                            : ON

ISN# show sdwan appqoe flow active

T:TCP, S:SSL, U:UTD, D:DRE

Flow ID         VPN ID    Source IP       Port  Destination IP  Port  Tx Bytes        Rx Bytes        Services

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

54382538667     1         10.107.1.10     55340 10.109.1.10     80    263663268       640416          TD

ISN# show sdwan appqoe dreopt statistics

Total connections                  : 4

Max concurrent connections         : 1

Current active connections         : 1

Total connection resets            : 0

Total original bytes               : 3570 MB

Total optimized bytes              : 1633 MB

Overall reduction ratio            : 54%

Disk size used                     : 2%

Cache details:

Cache status                       : Active

Cache Size                         : 59132 MB

Cache used                         : 2%

Oldest data in cache               : 01:22:02:49

Replaced(last hour): size          : 0 MB

DC/Hub SC

SC# show service-insertion type appqoe service-node-group

Service Node Group name         : SNG-APPQOE

Service Context             : appqoe/1

Member Service Node count   : 1

Service Node (SN)                   : 10.115.1.10

Auto discovered                     : No

SN belongs to SNG                   : SNG-APPQOE

Current status of SN                : Alive

System IP                           : 10.1.90.2

Site ID                             : 90

Time current status was reached               : Sat Apr  6 07:26:16 2024

Cluster protocol VPATH version                : 2 (Bitmap recvd: 3)

Cluster protocol incarnation number           : 1

Cluster protocol last sent sequence number    : 1714282683

Cluster protocol last received sequence number: 1931795

Cluster protocol last received ack number     : 1714282682

Health Markers:

AO       Load State

tcp           GREEN 0%

ssl  RED/NOT AVAILABLE

dre           GREEN 0%

http  RED/NOT AVAILABLE

utd chnl  RED/NOT AVAILABLE

DC/Hub ESN

ESN# show sdwan appqoe dreopt status

DRE ID                                           : 52:54:dd:c3:40:17-018eb15f4fc3-49ee2d0f

DRE uptime                                       : 04:11:28:50

Health status                                    : GREEN

Health status change reason                      : None

Last health status change time                   : 04:11:28:50

Last health status notification sent time        : 1 second

DRE cache status                                 : Active

Disk cache usage                                 : 2%

Disk latency                                     : 10 ms

Active alarms:

None

Configuration:

Profile type                               : S

Maximum connections                        : 750

Maximum fanout                             : 35

Disk size                                  : 60 GB

Memory size                                : 2048 MB

CPU cores                                  : 1

Disk encryption                            : ON

ESN# show sdwan appqoe flow active

T:TCP, S:SSL, U:UTD, D:DRE

Flow ID         VPN ID    Source IP       Port  Destination IP  Port  Tx Bytes        Rx Bytes        Services

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20022800299     1         10.107.1.10     55340 10.109.1.10     80    2998777         1074725760      TD

ESN# show sdwan appqoe dreopt statistics

Total connections                  : 4

Max concurrent connections         : 1

Current active connections         : 1

Total connection resets            : 0

Total original bytes               : 4294 MB

Total optimized bytes              : 1634 MB

Overall reduction ratio            : 61%

Disk size used                     : 2%

Cache details:

Cache status                       : Active

Cache Size                         : 59132 MB

Cache used                         : 2%

Oldest data in cache               : 01:22:04:08

Replaced(last hour): size          : 0 MB

Verification - Dashboard

To view the AppQoE DRE data in the SD-WAN Manager Device dashboard, ensure the following:

- Controllers and Devices time is synchronized by configuring Network Time Protocol (NTP). You can also use the  Clock set  command to set the clock manually.

- Add these CLIs to the Device configuration (ISN/SC/ESN):

policy ip visibility features multi-sn enable

policy ip visibility features dre enable

policy ip visibility features sslproxy enable - (for SSL traffic)

Note: On-demand Troubleshooting should be enabled to view these dashboards. Note that the dashboard screens shown here do not show real-time information.

To get the latest data, you might want to navigate to  Tools > On Demand Troubleshooting , select the appropriate Device and "DPI" as Data Type and retrieve the DPI statistics for the last 3 hours as shown here:

Branch ISN

Approximately 900MB of data was downloaded (3 x 200MB files and 3 x 100MB files) - Original Traffic (YELLOW).

The optimization resulted in only 8.07MB of traffic sent over the WAN, around 90% bandwidth usage reduction - Optimized Traffic (BLUE).

DC/Hub SC

If there are multiple ESNs, then the  Controllertab shows the cumulative data and the  Service Nodetab shows the individual ESN data.

DC/Hub ESN