Blog

Cisco vManage (now SD-WAN Manager) is the management plane of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. Templates, policies, dashboards, the REST API, HA model, and the operational realities at scale.

The four-component Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN (formerly Viptela) architecture: vManage, vSmart, vBond, and WAN Edge. OMP routing protocol, cEdge vs vEdge, fabric bring-up walkthrough.

Every SD-WAN platform shares the same three-plane architecture: management, control, and data. The vendor-specific components (vManage, vSmart, FortiManager, etc.) compared.

SD-WAN and MPLS are not pure substitutes. The technical differences, cost story without the marketing spin, when MPLS still wins, and the hybrid pattern most enterprises end up with.

MP-BGP (RFC 4760) is what lets a single BGP session carry IPv6, VPNv4, EVPN, and more. The AFI/SAFI model, route distinguishers, and how modern data center fabrics use MP-BGP for everything.

Classic 802.1D STP vs 802.1w RSTP. The convergence differences (30s vs sub-second), the port state and role changes, and the one-command Cisco migration from PVST+ to Rapid PVST+.