Overview of Cisco SD-WAN Multitenancy
With Cisco SD-WAN multitenancy, a service provider can manage multiple customers, called tenants, from Cisco vManage. The tenants share the same set of underlying Cisco SD-WAN controllers: Cisco vManage, Cisco vBond Orchestrator, and Cisco vSmart Controller. The tenant data is logically isolated on these shared controllers.
The service provider accesses Cisco vManage using a domain name mapped to the IP address of a Cisco vManage cluster and manages the multitenant deployment. Each tenant is provided a subdomain to access a tenant-specific Cisco vManage view and manage the tenant deployment. For example, a service provider using the domain name managed-sp.com, can assign tenants Customer1 and Customer2 the subdomains customer1.managed-sp.com and customer2.managed-sp.com and manage them on the same set of Cisco SD-WAN controllers, instead of providing each customer a single-tenant setup with a dedicated set of Cisco SD-WAN controllers.
Following are the key features of Cisco SD-WAN multitenancy:
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Full enterprise multitenancy: Cisco SD-WAN supports multitenancy and offers enterprises the flexibility of segregated roles such as service provider and tenants. Service providers can use multitenancy to provide Cisco SD-WAN service offerings to their customers.
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Multi-tenant Cisco vManage
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Multi-tenant Cisco vBond Orchestrators
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Multi-tenant Cisco vSmart Controllers
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Tenant-specific WAN Edge Devices
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Overlapping VPN numbers: A particular VPN or a set of common VPNs is assigned to a specific tenant, with their own configurations and monitoring dashboard environment. These VPN numbers can overlap where they are used by other tenants.
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On-prem and cloud deployment models: Cisco SD-WAN controllers can be deployed in an organization data center on servers running the VMware ESXi 6.7 or later, or the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor. Cisco SD-WAN controllers can also be hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers by Cisco CloudOps.
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Tenant-specific Cisco vAnalytics: Cisco vAnalytics is a cloud-based service that offers insights into the performance of applications and the underlying SD-WAN network infrastructure. Each tenant can obtain Cisco vAnalytics insights for their overlay network by requesting a tenant-specific Cisco vAnalytics instance and enabling data collection on Cisco vManage. The service provider must enable cloud services on Cisco vManage in the provider view to facilitate the onboarding of the Cisco vAnalytics instance for the tenant overlay network.
Multi-tenant Cisco vManage
Cisco vManage is deployed and configured by the service provider. The provider enables multitenancy and creates a Cisco vManage cluster to serve tenants. Only the provider can access a Cisco vManage instance through the SSH terminal.
Cisco vManage offers service providers an overall view of the SD-WAN multi-tenant deployment and allows a provider to manage the shared Cisco vBond Orchestrator and Cisco vSmart Controller devices. Cisco vManage also allows service providers to monitor and manage the deployments of each tenant.
Cisco vManage allows tenants to monitor and manage their deployment. Through Cisco vManage, tenants can deploy and configure WAN edge devices. Tenants can also configure custom policies on assigned Cisco vSmart Controllers.
Multi-tenant Cisco vBond Orchestrators
Cisco vBond Orchestrators are deployed and configured by the service provider. Only the provider can access a Cisco vBond Orchestrator through the SSH terminal.
Cisco vBond Orchestrators serve WAN edge devices of multiple tenants as the devices are added to the overlay network.
Multi-tenant Cisco vSmart Controllers
Cisco vSmart Controllers are deployed by the service provider. Only the provider can create and attach device and feature templates to Cisco vSmart Controllers, and can access a Cisco vSmart Controller through the SSH terminal.
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When a tenant is created, Cisco vManage assigns two Cisco vSmart Controllers for the tenant. The Cisco vSmart Controllers form an active-active cluster.
Each tenant is assigned only two Cisco vSmart Controllers. Before a tenant is created, two Cisco vSmart Controllers must be available to serve the tenant.
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When more than one pair of Cisco vSmart Controllers are available to serve a tenant, Cisco vManage assigns to the tenant the pair of Cisco vSmart Controllers connected to the lowest number of forecast devices. If two pairs of Cisco vSmart Controllers are connected to the same number of devices, Cisco vManage assigns to the tenant the pair of Cisco vSmart Controllers serving the lowest number of tenants.
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From Cisco vManage Release 20.9.1, while onboarding a tenant to a multitenant deployment, you can choose the pair of multitenant Cisco vSmart Controllers that serve the tenant. After onboarding a tenant, you can migrate the tenant to a different pair of multitenant Cisco vSmart Controllers, if necessary. For more information, see Flexible Tenant Placement on Multitenant Cisco vSmart Controllers.
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Each pair of Cisco vSmart Controllers can serve a maximum of 24 tenants.
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Tenants can configure custom policies on the Cisco vSmart Controllers assigned to them. Cisco vManage notifies the Cisco vSmart Controllers to pull the policy templates. Cisco vSmart Controllers pull the templates and deploy the policy configuration for the specific tenant.
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Only the provider can view events, audit logs, and OMP alarms for a Cisco vSmart Controller on Cisco vManage.
Tenant-Specific WAN Edge Devices
A tenant or the provider acting on behalf of a tenant can add WAN edge devices to the tenant network, configure the devices, and remove the devices from the tenant network, or access the device through the SSH terminal.
A provider can manage the WAN edge devices only from provider-as-tenant view. In the provider view, Cisco vManage does not show any WAN edge device information.
Cisco vManage reports WAN edge device events, logs, and alarms only in the tenant and the provider-as-tenant views.
User Roles in Multitenant Environment
A multi-tenant environment includes the service provider and tenant roles. Each role has distinct privileges, views, and functions.
Provider Role
The provider role entitles system-wide administrative privileges. A user with the provider role has the default username admin. The provider user can access Cisco vManage using the domain name of the service provider or by using the Cisco vManage IP address. When using a domain name, the domain name has the format https://managed-sp.com.
The admin user is part of the user group netadmin. Users in this group are permitted to perform all operations on the controllers and the WAN edge devices of the tenants. You can add additional users to the netadmin group.
You cannot modify the privileges of the netadmin group. On Cisco vManage, you can view the privileges of the user group from the page.
Note |
When you create a new provider user in Cisco vManage, including a netadmin user, by default, the user is not allowed SSH access to the Cisco vManage VM. To enable SSH access, configure SSH authentication using a AAA template and push the template to Cisco vManage. For more information on enabling SSH authentication, see SSH Authentication using vManage on Cisco vEdge Devices. |
For more information about configuring users and user groups, see Configure User Access and Authentication.
Cisco vManage offers two views to a provider:
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Provider View
When a provider user logs in to multi-tenant Cisco vManage as admin or another netadmin user, Cisco vManage presents the provider view and displays the provider dashboard.
You can perform the following functions from the provider view:
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Provision and manage Cisco vManage, Cisco vBond Orchestrators and Cisco vSmart Controllers.
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Add, modify, or delete tenants.
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Monitor the overlay network.
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Provider-as-Tenant View
When a provider user selects a specific tenant from the Select Tenant drop-down list at the top of the provider dashboard, Cisco vManage presents the provider-as-tenant view and displays the tenant dashboard for the selected tenant. The provider user has the same view of Cisco vManage as a tenant user would when logged in as tenantadmin. From this view, the provider can manage the tenant deployment on behalf of the tenant.
In the provider dashboard, a table of tenants presents a status summary for each tenant. A provider user can also launch the provider-as-tenant view by clicking on a tenant name in this table.
Tenant Role
The tenant role entitles tenant administrative privileges. A user with the tenant role has the default username tenantadmin. The default password is Cisco#123@Viptela. We recommend that you change the default password on first login. For information on changing the default password, see Hardware and Software Installation.
The tenantadmin user is part of the user group tenantadmin. Users in this group are permitted to perform all operations on the WAN edge devices of the tenants. You can add additional users to the tenantadmin group.
You cannot modify the privileges of the tenantadmin group. On Cisco vManage, you can view the privileges of the user group from the page.
For more information about configuring users and user groups, see Configure User Access and Authentication.
A tenant user can log in to Cisco vManage using a dedicated URL and the default username tenantadmin. For example, the dedicated URL of a tenant could be https://customer1.managed-sp.com for a provider using the domain name https://managed-sp.com. When the user logs in, Cisco vManage presents the tenant view and displays the tenant dashboard.
Tip |
If you cannot access the dedicated tenant URL, update the subdomain details in the /etc/hosts file on the local machine. Alternatively, if you use an external DNS server, add a DNS entry for the tenant subdomain. |
A tenant user with administrative privileges can perform the following functions:
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Provision and manage tenant routers
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Monitor overlay network of the tenant
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Create custom policies on the assigned Cisco vSmart Controllers
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Upgrade the software on the tenant routers.