Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
ON THIS PAGE
 

What are Logical Devices

Logical devices are abstractions of physical devices. They define device capabilities without defining any vendor-specific information. This enables you to design your network fabric based on a common set of form factors (ports, speeds and roles) before selecting underlying hardware. Some applications of logical devices include:

  • Specifying speed and roles for specific ports (For example, the 48th port is always a leaf, or the speed of the 10th port is always 1 Gbps).
  • Preparing for port speed transformations (For example, transforming one - 40 GbE port into four - 10 GbE ports).
  • Using non-standard port speeds (For example, for a 1 GbE SFP in a 10 GbE port, the underlying hardware is automatically configured correctly.)
  • Solving for automatic cable map generation that takes into account failure domains on modular systems (for example, a line card).

Logical Device Details

Logical devices include the following details:

Name The name is a unique identifier for the logical device.
Panel Logical devices include one or more panels. A panel is the port layout based on IP fabric, forwarding engine, line card (slot) or physical layout. A panel contains one or more port groups.
Port Group A port group is a collection of ports with the same speed and role(s).
Number of ports Port groups specify the number of ports in that group.
Speed Port groups specify the speed of the ports in that group.
Roles
  • Superspine - For superspines facing spines on 5-stage Clos data center fabric.
  • Spine - For spines facing leaf devices, or for spines facing superspines on 5-stage Clos data center fabric.
  • Leaf - For leaf devices facing spine or generic systems.
  • Access (Junos only) - Port is configured to face an access device. To learn more about this feature and its limitations, contact Juniper Support .
  • Peer (link between two leaf devices) - Used for MLAG domains to provide a trunk between two leaf switches.
  • Unused - Configuration is not rendered and ports are not allocated (use to specify a dead port, for example).
  • Generic - Certain roles are not specified in logical devices (for example, a firewall, external router, bare metal server, or load balancer).

Logical devices are used in interface maps, rack types and templates in Day 0 operations. They are also used in Day 2 operations.

Logical Devices in the Apstra GUI

From the left navigation menu in the Apstra GUI, navigate to Design > Logical Devices to go to the logical devices table in the design (global) catalog.

To see how design elements and device profiles are related to each other, click Show relationship (new in Apstra version 5.0.0). This is helpful if you're new to the Apstra environment.

Many logical devices are predefined for you. To search for a logical device by its name and/or capabilities, click the Search button (magnifying glass) and enter your criteria.

Click a logical device name to go to its details.

You can create, edit and delete logical devices.