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Full Stack Design for Session Smart Routers

date_range 10-Mar-25

The Juniper® SD-WAN driven by Mist AI™ Full Stack design example is a follow-up to the Session Smart™ Router Mist WAN Assurance deployment documentation found in the Juniper Mist WAN Configuration Guide.

Overview

With this example you’re expanding network capabilities by integrating Mist APs and Juniper EX Switches. This is more than just WAN Assurance, it’s the Juniper AI Driven Enterprise. This full stack guide shows you how to set up your Juniper SD-WAN Session Smart WAN edge devices in concert with Mist wireless Access Points (APs) deployed in Wireless Assurance, and Juniper EX Series Switches deployed in Wired Assurance. This brings all your network devices into a cohesive onboarding, monitoring, and troubleshooting dashboard.

The Session Smart Full Stack Guide begins at the highest level of WAN Assurance, focusing on a key component known as the Session Smart Router. After completing the Juniper Validated Design (JVD) topology found in the Juniper Mist WAN Configuration Guide, you should already have this WAN Edge device deployed in a hub and spoke network. The Session Smart Router serves as the WAN edge device and foundation for building out your entire network. We'll evaluate and test the complete end-to-end solution to further optimize your network. This test encompasses the entire technology stack and is specifically designed for a branch that utilizes Juniper equipment.

For successful implementation of this guide, you'll need at least one Juniper EX Switch to onboard into the Mist cloud. If you plan to do advanced testing with virtual circuits, two EX Switches is ideal. Additionally, you can incorporate a Mist AP into the setup to enhance the wireless capabilities of the network. Onboarding those into your LAN network for Mist management gives admins the Juniper AI Driven Enterprise to monitor and manage their WAN edge, switches, and APs all in the Mist dashboard.

Figure 1 shows the Full Stack Juniper Mist WAN Assurance topology used in this example.

Figure 1: Juniper® Mist Validated Design - Mist WAN Assurance with Wireless and Wired Assurance

Requirements

To get started, you’ll need to alter some of the interfaces found in the Juniper Mist WAN Configuration Guide topology. We’ll show you how to do this using a Spokes configuration template found in the Mist WAN Configuration Guide. See Configure WAN Edge Templates for Session Smart Routers.

Desktop3 VM (VLAN1077) is re-used and no longer attached to Spoke3. Desktop3 VM is now a viewer for the Raspberry Pi, the Wireless Client. Alternatively, you could use a local notebook.
Desktop1 VM (VLAN1099) is no longer directly attached to Spoke1 and needs to be re-attached to the interface ge-0/0/0 of the new branch switch.

Create a New Spokes Configuration Template

To create a new spokes configuration quickly and efficiently, you can clone the template for an existing spoke and then make the necessary changes. It makes things much easier.

In the Juniper Mist™ portal, click Organization > WAN > WAN Edge Templates.
A list of existing templates, if any, appears.
Create a spoke template. You can create a new template or clone an existing template. In this example, create a spoke template using an existing template. Use the spoke template already created at Configure WAN Edge Templates for Session Smart Routers for cloning.
Click More and select Clone.
Figure 2: Selecting Clone Option for Template
Enter the name as Spokes-with-Switch and click Clone.
Figure 3: Saving Cloned Template

Tip:
Refresh your browser after cloning. This ensures objects displayed are truly refreshed.

Edit the LAN Interface

On the LAN interface configuration section, edit the existing interface (LAN1).
Figure 4: LAN Interface Configuration

Change the name of LAN interface as SPOKE-LAN1 and set the Interface to ge-0/0/2.

Figure 5: Modify LAN Interface Configuration
Continue to configure the SPOKE-LAN1 LAN interface:
Figure 6: Modify LAN Interface Configuration
- DHCP: Server
- IP Start: {{SPOKE_LAN1_PFX}}.100
- IP End: {{SPOKE_LAN1_PFX}}.199
- Gateway: {{SPOKE_LAN1_PFX}}.1
- DNS Servers: 8.8.8.8, 9.9.9.9
Figure 7shows the LAN interface you modified.
Figure 7: Summary of LAN Interface
Click Save to save your changes.

Assign the New Template to a Site

Scroll to the top of the WAN Edge Templates page and click Assign to Sites under Spokes panel.
Figure 8: Assign Spoke Templates to Sites
In the Assign Template to Sites pane, select spoke1-site template and click Apply.
Figure 9: Select Sites to Assign Spoke Templates
Review the Template Settings as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10: Details of WAN Edge Template

Change Spoke Variables in Preparation for Onboarding

In the Juniper Mist cloud portal, click Organization >Admin > Site Configuration. A list of existing sites appears.
Click on the site spoke1-site. This is the same site, to which you have applied the template in previous procedure.
Figure 11: Selecting Sites for Modifying
Scroll down the screen to the Site Variables settings pane and select the variable {{SPOKE_LAN1_VLAN}}.
Figure 12: Site Variables
Change the Value to 0 as you do not need a tagged VLAN, and then click Save.
Figure 13: Modify Site Variables
Review your changes in the Site Variable pane.
Figure 14: Site Variables
Save your changes.

Add Your Switch to the Topology

Now it is time to onboard your switch and add it to your infrastructure. For details on how to onboard your switch, refer to the product documentation for your switch in the Juniper TechLibrary.

For details on getting a new cloud-ready EX switch up and running in the Juniper Mist AI cloud portal, see Cloud-Ready EX and QFX Switches with Mist.

To assign a switch to a site:

In the Juniper Mist portal, click Organization > Admin > Inventory.
In the Inventory page, ensure the inventory view is set to org (Entire Org) and refresh your browser until you see all your devices.
Figure 15: EX Series Switch in Inventory
Select your new switch and click Assign to Site.
In the Assign Switches page:
- Select the spoke1-site.
- Disable Manage configuration with Mist option. You can enable this option at a later stage if required.
Figure 16: Selecting Site for Assigning Switch
Click Assign to Site.
Confirm the changes in the inventory once you assign the device to the site.
You can see spoke1-site under New Site.

Figure 17: Assigned Switch to Site Details
In the Juniper Mist portal, go to Switches and select spoke1-site.
Figure 18: Selecting Assigned Switch for Modification

The page displays the list of switches assigned to the site.
Click the switch to open the switch configuration page.
Verify the device name, then scroll down to Switch Configuration section and check Enable Configuration Management.
Figure 19: Configuration of Assigned Switch
Under Port Configuration, click Add Port Range.
Figure 20: Port Configuration of Assigned Switch
In the New Port Range page, configure the following options:
- Set the Port IDs as ge-0/0/1.
- Select the existing Configuration Profile as Uplink.
Figure 21: Port Configuration of Assigned Switch
Figure 20 shows the summary of port configuration.
Figure 22: Port Configuration of Assigned Switch
Save your changes.