Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela)
A working Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela) control plane (vManage, vSmart and vBond running together) is out of reach for almost any home lab: three control components plus a WAN edge, licensed and networked correctly, before you can even open the Manager UI. LabFabric gives you all of it live, so you go straight to bringing sites under management instead of bootstrapping controllers.
Not a mockup, this is the real topology
The problem
A CSR1000v WAN edge looks powered on and configured, but it won't come up in vManage: its control connections to the SD-WAN control plane never establish.
What you'll practice
- Bring a CSR1000v WAN edge under vManage control
- Verify control connections and certificate status between vBond, vSmart and vManage
- Read live site, tunnel and device health from SD-WAN Manager
- Inspect TLOC and BFD session state for a WAN edge
- Diagnose a WAN edge that fails to reach the control plane
The topology
A vManage/vSmart/vBond control-plane cluster oversees a CSR1000v WAN edge, which reaches the transport network over a biz-internet link, the same validator/controller/manager split and edge onboarding flow used in a real Cisco SD-WAN deployment.
Topology diagram
Inside a real session
More genuine captures from this lab running on the platform, at full size so the console text stays readable.
Frequently asked
Do I need my own vManage/vSmart/vBond licenses?
No. The full control-plane cluster is already deployed and licensed. You work on bringing edges under management, not standing up controllers.
Is this the same Cisco SD-WAN Manager UI used in production?
Yes. This is the real Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, not a mockup, so device inventory, tunnel health and certificate status behave exactly as they would on production controllers.
Ready to run this lab yourself?
No setup, no image sourcing. Book a session or ask for a live demo.