Introduction to CloudVision

CloudVision is a turnkey solution for network-wide workload orchestration and work flow automation. It was specifically designed to complement SDN (virtualization) controller solutions that orchestrate virtual network overlays, by focusing on work flow visibility, automation tasks, and initial or ongoing network provisioning across the underlying physical network.

CloudVision components are packaged as a virtual appliance and operate as a highly available cluster with role based privileges integrated into existing authentication tools (AAA, RADIUS, TACACS). For maximum operational flexibility, CloudVision can be managed with the interactive CVP command line interface (CLI), the open API for granular programmatic access, or a web-based portal interface.

The foundation of CloudVision is an infrastructure service, sharing, and aggregating working state of physical switches running EOS to provide network visibility and central coordination. State from each participating EOS node is registered to CloudVision using the same publish/subscribe architecture of the EOS system database (SysDB). By communicating to each participating switch instance using a high performance binary API, CloudVision will actively synchronize state relevant to network-wide operational tasks.

The CloudVision web-based portal combines the most common operational tasks into a dashboard view decoupled from the underlying hardware. Workflow automation in CloudVision permits operators to execute common deployment and configuration tasks from a single visual touch point. The portal includes a turnkey solution for Arista's Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) and extends that from automating initial device provisioning to also include automating ongoing change controls over the operational life cycle of the device.

Using CloudVision, operators can organize devices in logical hierarchies through the use of containers and list of configlets for rapid categorization of devices by role, type, or other specification. Configurations can be broken down into more manageable configlets that are built and stored directly on CloudVision, ready for network-wide or group-specific provisioning. The CloudVision database also keeps historical data, including a history of network state, configuration and software versions. This state can be used for taking a network-wide snapshot for change control verification of the network, helping to simplify the change management process and reduce maintenance window times.

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