The Cisco SD-WAN course provides an in-depth understanding of how to design, configure, and manage wide area networks using Cisco’s software-defined architecture. The training focuses on the key SD-WAN components — vManage, vBond, vSmart, and vEdge — and the configuration workflows that ensure secure, scalable, and high-performance WAN connectivity across branches, data centers, and cloud environments.
This module introduces the Cisco SD-WAN architecture and its logical and physical topologies. Learners study the roles of control, data, and management planes, and understand how they interact within the SD-WAN fabric. The session includes the design of hub-and-spoke, full-mesh, and hybrid topologies based on enterprise requirements.
vManage is the centralized management dashboard for Cisco SD-WAN. In this module, participants learn step-by-step configuration of vManage, including system setup, controller registration, and template creation. They also explore its graphical interface for monitoring, automation, and policy management.
This session covers the role of vBond Orchestrator, which handles authentication and orchestration between SD-WAN devices. Learners configure vBond to ensure secure control connections between vManage, vSmart, and vEdge devices, enabling smooth communication within the SD-WAN fabric.
This module explains how to integrate vBond into the vManage system. It includes adding vBond to the controller list, configuring IP addresses, system parameters, and ensuring proper synchronization and certificate exchange for secure onboarding.
The vSmart Controller is the brain of Cisco SD-WAN. Students learn how to configure vSmart, which is responsible for centralized control, policy distribution, and route management. The module covers control plane setup, OMP (Overlay Management Protocol), and security functions.
This session teaches how to add and onboard vSmart controllers into the vManage platform. Learners practice integrating vSmart with other controllers, ensuring proper communication and verification through certificates and system parameters.
The vEdge Router is a data-plane device responsible for forwarding user traffic securely across the SD-WAN network. This module covers vEdge configuration, including interface setup, IP addressing, tunnel configuration, and communication with controllers.
Participants learn to onboard vEdge devices to vManage for centralized control. This includes device authorization, configuration templates, certificate installation, and establishing control/data plane connectivity.
This module focuses on PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and certificate management, which ensure secure communication between all SD-WAN components. Learners explore how certificates are generated, installed, and validated across vBond, vSmart, vManage, and vEdge.
Feature templates define the reusable configuration parameters applied to multiple SD-WAN devices. In this session, learners create and manage templates for interfaces, routing protocols, VPNs, and QoS policies, simplifying large-scale deployments.
Device Templates combine feature templates to create complete device configurations. This module guides learners through building, attaching, and pushing device templates to vEdge or cEdge routers using vManage, ensuring automation and consistency.
This section covers policy creation and management in Cisco SD-WAN. Students learn the difference between centralized control policies (applied via vSmart) and localized data policies (applied on individual devices). Topics include traffic steering, segmentation, SLA-based routing, and QoS enforcement.
This final module explains Direct Internet Access, a key SD-WAN feature that allows branch sites to connect directly to the internet instead of backhauling traffic through data centers. Learners configure DIA for cloud applications, optimize performance, and implement security policies for safe connectivity.
