External connectivity from data centers is a prime requirement. VXLAN EVPN based data center fabrics, like your Greenfield and Brownfield, are providing east-west connectivity by distributing IP-MAC reachability information. In your Greenfield fabric, the border leaf switch, Site1-BL1, is in place to provide external Layer 3 connectivity using VRF Lite or simply put, connecting out of the fabric. These steps show you how to create the External Fabric required by NDFC to extend a VRF to an external fabric device. NDFC can create External Fabrics and manage the external devices if they are Nexus 9000, 7000, or 5600 series switches or ASR9000 series or NCS5500 series routers. NDFC will not only generate and push the configuration required for the leaf switch(es) acting in the Border Leaf role, but also these platforms maintaining configuration compliance.

Step 1 - Exit Site2 Fabric

1. Navigate back to NDFC and in the top right corner, click the to close your Site2 fabric

Step 2 - Launch Create Fabric Wizard

In the LAN Fabrics pane, you should now see your Site1 and Site2 fabrics present. Navigate to the far right of the pane and locate Actions:

1. Click Actions
2. Then, click Create Fabric

Step 3 - Name Your External Fabric

In the Create Fabrics popup wizard:

1. Name the fabric: ExtL3
2. Then, click Choose Fabric

Step 4 - Select Type of Fabric

The fabric type for this fabric will be different than your previous two. This fabric will be an External Connectivity Network. In the Select Type of Fabric popup:

1. Click External Connectivity Network
2. Then click Select

Step 5 - Define General Parameters

The first section is General Parameters where you define namely the External Fabric's BGP ASN, i.e. the ASN to be configured to the external device(s). For the purposes of this lab, there is no additional Fabric Settings that are required. Subsequent parameters are sufficient for most environments as the Fabric Settings provide configuration parameters out of the box, e.g. a range of sub-interfaces for use on the Border Leaf and externally managed device.

1. Set the BGP ASN to 65333
2. Uncheck the checkbox for Fabric Monitor Mode
3. Click Save in the bottom right

Step 6 - View ExtL3 Fabric Sidebar

In addition to the Fabric Health column, you can click on any fabric listed to get a quick view sidebar that pops out on the right side of your screen with details about the fabric:

1. Click ExtL3
2. A sidebar should pop out on the right with more high-level information. This will populate more as you progress throughout the lab.
3. To navigate to your ExtL3 fabric, click the expand button . You could also just double click the Fabric Name ExtL3 to navigate to the fabric

Step 7 - View ExtL3 Fabric Dashboard

Once clicking the expand button in the fabric popout sidebar or double-clicking the ExtL3 fabric name, you are presented with the overall fabric dashboard overview. This dashboard looks slightly different, but like your previous fabrics, at this point, the dashboard isn't very interesting, but in the next few sections, you will bring this dashboard to life!

Continue to the next section to discover and import your external device into your ExtL3 fabric.