Implement an SD-Access Fabric with Cisco DNA Center

Moving a campus from VLAN-based policy to an SD-Access fabric is a high-stakes change. Misconfigured LAN automation or border handoffs can cause rework and outages. This course prepares network teams to plan, build, and operate a Cisco DNA Center–managed fabric with fewer surprises.

Role fit: Built for network administrators and Team Leads with three to five years of experience. The fusion router module covers VRFs, BGP address families, and VRF route leaking at a basic level only, so IT Directors should confirm those skills first or pair this course with BGP training.

Time investment: About 17 hours across 27 skills. Most learners finish over several weeks. Your team can also split it by phase: SDN, LISP, and VXLAN concepts; ISE and 802.1X/TrustSec; DNA Center Design, Policy, Provision, and Assurance; and API automation.

Change-management notes: The course starts at Day 0 with planning, discovery prep, and practical gotchas, such as LAN automation prerequisites and overlay sync troubleshooting. It treats the Policy workflow as where your business intent gets defined, which helps network and security stakeholders align before provisioning. The ISE skills include guidance for building a hands-on home or work lab.

Training Managers can assign the course as a Playlist that follows the implementation order. Review quizzes after each skill help learners find and close knowledge gaps before they work on production gear.

IT teams complete this training to move campus networks from VLAN-bound policy to identity-based SD-Access fabrics without the costly rework that comes from rushing deployment. The course follows a realistic path from an unopened DNA Center appliance on Day 0 through discovery, LAN automation, overlay provisioning, and Assurance. Your team sees what goes wrong along the way and how to fix it.

• Fewer failed rollouts: Engineers learn to prepare devices for discovery and LAN automation before clicking Start. That includes Layer 3 reachability to DNA Center, IOS XE licensing, and the multi-step factory-default process. Teams avoid the "blow up, undo, and re-prep" cycle the instructor warns about.
• Policy that matches business intent: Network Engineers practice defining groups and policies in the policy workflow. They also build 802.1X, MAB, and TrustSec controls in ISE, so access decisions follow users and devices instead of switchports and subnets.
• Confident fabric connectivity work: The course explains how virtual networks map to traditional networking concepts and how the fabric connects back to shared services. Teams work through the underlay and overlay reachability considerations that can make SD-Access deployments difficult to troubleshoot.
• Faster troubleshooting and automation: Teams use Assurance client and application health views, including latency and packet loss on business-relevant apps. They also learn DNA Center log commands for diagnosing sync issues and see how automation can query SD-Access fabric device information from inventory.

For IT Directors, the result is a team that can plan, deploy, and operate SD-Access internally with less reliance on outside contractors.

Knowledge

• How software-defined networking shifts policy from VLAN interfaces and switchports to the users and applications attached to the network
• The four layers of Cisco's SD-Access architecture: physical devices, controllers (DNA Center and ISE), overlay/underlay concepts, and network programmability
• How LISP works at the fabric control plane (map server, map resolver, ITR/ETR roles) and how VXLAN supports segmentation and addresses VLAN-scale limits
• ISE integration and Cisco TrustSec fundamentals for identity-based access in an SD-Access fabric
• DNA Center's four workflows (Design, Policy, Provision, Assurance) and why Policy is where business intent is defined
• Shared services and external connectivity considerations for SD-Access design, including how fabric domains connect to resources outside the fabric

Ability

• Plan Day 0 tasks for a new DNA Center appliance and prepare devices with the Layer 3 reachability needed for discovery
• Build a site hierarchy, define virtual networks and IP pools, and create dynamic authentication profiles that map to ISE policy
• Run device discovery and LAN automation, and work through common LAN automation pitfalls before they force a rebuild
• Design and deploy the SD-Access overlay, including wireless, and troubleshoot sync issues using DNA Center logs
• Use Assurance to review client, device, and application health, such as finding packet loss affecting business-relevant apps
• Call DNA Center platform APIs to perform CRUD operations and launch Device Discovery and Command Runner programmatically