The SD-WAN Application Intelligence Engine (SAIE) flow provides the ability to look into the packet past the basic header information. The SAIE flow determines the contents of a particular packet, and then either records that information for statistical purposes or performs an action on the packet.

Note	In Cisco vManage Release 20.7.x and earlier releases, the SAIE flow is called the deep packet inspection (DPI) flow.

Benefits include increased visibility into the network traffic, which enables network operators to understand usage patterns and to correlate network performance information along with providing usage base billing or even acceptable usage monitoring. The SAIE flow can also reduce the overall costs on the network.

You can configure the SAIE flow using a centralized data policy. You define the applications of interest in a Cisco vManage policy list or with the policy lists app-list CLI command, and you call these lists in a policy data-policy command. You can control the path of the application traffic through the network by defining, in the action portion of the data policy, the local TLOC or the remote TLOC, or for strict control, you can define both.

The following list of protocols are not supported in SAIE flow:

• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

• Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

• Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)

To configure the SD-WAN Application Intelligence Engine (SAIE) flow, use the Cisco vManage policy configuration wizard. The wizard consists of the following sequential screens that guide you through the process of creating and editing policy components:

• Create Applications or Groups of Interest—Create lists that group together related items and that you call in the match or action components of a policy. For configuration details, see Configure Groups of Interest.

• Configure Traffic Rules—Create the match and action conditions of a policy. For configuration details, see Configure Traffic Rules.

• Apply Policies to Sites and VPNs—Associate policy with sites and VPNs in the overlay network.

Following are the high-level steps for configuring a centralized data policy for the SD-WAN Application Intelligence Engine (SAIE) flow.

Note	In Cisco vManage Release 20.7.x and earlier releases, the SAIE flow is called the deep packet inspection (DPI) flow.

1. Create a list of overlay network sites to which the data policy is to be applied using the apply-policy command:

   vSmart(config)# policy
   vSmart(config-policy)# lists site-list list-name
   vSmart(config-lists-list-name)# site-id site-id

   The list can contain as many site IDs as necessary. Include one site-id command for each site ID. For contiguous site IDs, you can specify a range of numbers separated with a dash (–).

   Create additional site lists, as needed.

2. Create lists of applications and application families that are to be subject to the data policy. Each list can contain one or more application names, or one or more application families. A single list cannot contain both applications and application families.

   vSmart(config)# policy lists
   vSmart(config-lists)# app-list list-name
   vSmart(config-app-list)# app application-name
   
   vSmart(config)# policy lists
   vSmart(config-lists)# app-list list-name
   vSmart(config-applist)# app-family family-name

3. Create lists of IP prefixes and VPNs, as needed:

   vSmart(config)# policy lists
   vSmart(config-lists)# data-prefix-list list-name
   vSmart(config-lists-list-name)# ip-prefix prefix/length
   
   vSmart(config)# policy lists
   vSmart(config-lists)# vpn-list list-name
   vSmart(config-lists-list-name)# vpn vpn-id

4. Create lists of TLOCs, as needed:

   vSmart(config)# policy​
   vSmart(config-policy)# lists tloc-list list-name
   vSmart(config-lists-list-name)# tloc ip-address color color encap encapsulation [preference number]

5. Define policing parameters, as needed:

   vSmart(config-policy)# policer policer-name
   vSmart(config-policer)# rate bandwidth
   vSmart(config-policer)# burst bytes
   vSmart(config-policer)# exceed action

6. Create a data policy instance and associate it with a list of VPNs:

   vSmart(config)# policy data-policy policy-name
   vSmart(config-data-policy-policy-name)# vpn-list list-name

7. Create a series of match–pair sequences:

   vSmart(config-vpn-list)# sequence number
   vSmart(config-sequence-number)#

   The match–action pairs are evaluated in order, by sequence number, starting with the lowest numbered pair and ending when the route matches the conditions in one of the pairs. Or if no match occurs, the default action is taken (either rejecting the route or accepting it as is).

8. Define match parameters based on applications:

   vSmart(config-sequence-number)# match app-list list-name

9. Define additional match parameters for data packets:

   vSmart(config-sequence-number)# match parameters

10. Define actions to take when a match occurs:

    vSmart(config-sequence-number)# action (accept | drop) [count]

11. For packets that are accepted, define the actions to take. To control the tunnel over which the packets travels, define the remote or local TLOC, or for strict control over the tunnel path, set both:

    vSmart(config-action)# set tloc ip-address color color encap encapsulation
    vSmart(config-action)# set tloc-list list-name
    vSmart(config-action)# set local-tloc color color encap encapsulation
    vSmart(config-action)# set local-tloc-list color color encap encapsulation [restrict]

12. Define additional actions to take.

13. Create additional numbered sequences of match–action pairs within the data policy, as needed.

14. If a route does not match any of the conditions in one of the sequences, it is rejected by default. If you want nonmatching prefixes to be accepted, configure the default action for the policy:

    vSmart(config-policy-name)# default-action accept

15. Apply the policy to one or more sites in the overlay network:

    vSmart(config)# apply-policy site-list list-name data-policy policy-name (all | from-service | from-tunnel)

Use the following show commands for visibility in to traffic classification:

• show app dpi flows

• show support dpi flows active detail

• show app dpi application

• show support dpi flows expired detail

• show support dpi statistics