After completing the basic setup, the next major task is to create your first fabric in NDFC using an unified "Data Center VXLAN EVPN" fabric workflow for both the underlay and overlay. This can be a Greenfield (meaning new) VXLAN EVPN fabric or a Brownfield (meaning previously existing) VXLAN EVPN fabric. For your first fabric, you will be creating a fabric that is Greenfield. Your Site1 data center is unprovisioned aside from a Management IP addresses which is allocated to the mgmt0 interface. The switches in this lab are Nexus 9300V and 9500V switches hosted in a Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) environment. The first Day0 step in NDFC's lifecycle management of your Greenfield fabric is to create the fabric where you define the fabric settings such as BGP ASN, replication mode for BUM (Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast), the Underlay IGP, subnetting schemes for Underlay interfaces, Virtual Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) interfaces, etc. The configuration of the fabric is achieved via a powerful, flexible, and customizable template-based framework. Using minimal user inputs, an entire fabric can be brought up with Cisco recommended best practice configurations, in a short period of time. The set of parameters exposed when creating a fabric in the Fabric Settings allow users to tailor the fabric to their preferred underlay provisioning options.

Step 1 - Navigate to Fabrics

1. Click and expand Manage on sidebar
2. Then click Fabrics

Step 2 - Launch Create Fabric Wizard

1. Click Actions
2. Then, click Create Fabric

Step 3 - Name Your Fabric

In the Create Fabrics popup wizard:

1. Name the fabric: Site1
2. Then, click Choose Fabric

Step 4 - Select Fabric Template Type

NDFC has many built-in templates for different types of fabrics. "Data Center VXLAN EVPN" is used for NX-OS based VXLAN EVPN fabric, Campus VXLAN EVPN can be used to build VXLAN EVPN fabric on IOS-XE platform, BGP Fabric is usaually used for eBGP based IP fabric, etc. We will build Site1 as a VXLAN EVPN fabric, so in the Select Type of Fabric popup:

1. Select Data Center VXLAN EVPN
2. Then click Select

Step 5 - Define General Parameters

This next part of the workflow for creating a fabric is where you define the parameters that make up your fabric, both the underlay and the overlay. All these configuration parameters adhere to Cisco's best practices. As such, we will leverage several defaults that are part of the Easy Fabric template for an iBGP-based VXLAN EVPN fabric.

The first section is General Parameters where you define the fabric's BGP ASN, interface connectivity and peering type, i.e. p2p, Underlay routing protocol that can be OSPF or ISIS (OSPF for this lab), route-reflector count, Anycast Gateway MAC address shared by all leaf switches, etc. Again, you will leverage various defaults already adhereing to best practices, but some parameters need setting specific to this fabric:

1. Set the BGP ASN to 65111
2. Set the Underlay Subnet IP Mask to 31 for point-to-point

Step 6 - Define Replication Parameters

The second section is Replication parameters where you define whether the fabric will use multicast or ingress replication for BUM (Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast). You will use multicast for this lab. Again, you will leverage various defaults already adhereing to best practices, such as having two (2) Rendezvous-Points (RPs), but will set the parameter for RP Loopback identifier to make it specific to your Site1 fabric:

1. Select Replication tab
2. Change the RP Loopback interface to 251

Step 7 - Define VPC Parameters

The third section is VPC parameters where you define the overall VPC domain configuration and settings. For this lab, you will leverage the defaults for VPC as it already adheres to best practices for a VPC domain:

1. Click VPC tab to view the vPC configuration options

Step 8 - Define Protocols Parameters

The fourth section is Protocols parameters where you define the Loopback interfaces that will be used for iBGP EVPN neighbor peering and VTEPs. Additionally, configuration parameters specific to the routing protocol selected for the underlay in General Parameters can be found here. Examples of these optional configuration settings include the routing protocol tag (the process number or name), the OSPF area number identifier, routing protocol authentication, etc. For this lab, keep the Loopback interfaces as 0 and 1 respectively as per best practice for a greenfield fabric. Also, leverage the defaults for OSPF keeping the OSPF process name as UNDERLAY and everything in area 0.

1. Click Protocols to view the VTEP and underlay routing protocol configuration options

Step 9 - Define Advanced Parameters

The fifth section is Advanced parameters where you define the base configuration templates to be used. The templates that are selected are done so from choosing the Data Center VXLAN EVPN template when you started creating this fabric. It is in these templates where the Cisco best practices are embedded and highly reusable across switches and fabrics.

1. Click the Advanced tab
2. Scroll down until you find Greenfield Cleanup Option, then scroll down in the lab guide for the next instuctions and screenshot

3. Set the Greenfield Cleanup Option to Enable from the dropdown
This knob doesn't affect any function in this lab. For Greenfield, when this setting is disabled, a switch will be reloaded after first being imported into an NDFC fabric to bootup with clean configuration. However, it will take a longer amount of time. To save time in this lab, you can enable this option. When this option is enabled, NDFC will clean up the configuration on the switch with a best effort process without reloading the switch. For production networks, keep the option disabled to get a cleaner import.
4. Scroll back up to the top of the Create Fabric wizard

Step 10 - Define Resources Parameters

The last required section is Resources parameters that defines the IP addressing pools to be used for the routing Loopbacks used for the iBGP EVPN peering, the VTEP Loopbacks, the Spine RP Loopbacks, and the physcial interfaces used for the entire underlay. The latter and how those IP addresses are dynamically allocated out of the underlay subnet pool is dictated by the subnet mask selected in General Parameters previously. Use the information below to set the IP range for each:

1. Click the Resources tab
2. Underlay Routing Loopback IP Range: 10.11.0.0/22
3. Underlay VTEP Loopback IP Range: 10.111.0.0/22
4. Underlay RP Loopback IP Range: 10.251.251.0/24
5. Underlay Subnet IP Range: 10.1.0.0/16
6. Scroll down until you find VRF Lite Deployment

7. In the VRF Lite Deployment dropdown, select Back2Back&ToExternal
8. Check the Auto Deploy for Peer checkbox
9. Check the Auto Deploy Default VRF checkbox
10. Set the VRF Lite Subnet IP Range to: 10.31.0.0/16
11. Scroll back up to the top of the Create Fabric wizard

Step 11 - Define Manageability Parameters

The last section to update in this lab is the Manageability parameters that defines the DNS, NTP and syslog servers and how to reach them. These configurations apply to all the switches in the fabric. Use the information below to set the IP range for each:

1. Click the Manageability tab
2. DNS Server IP(s): 10.0.226.251
3. DNS Server VRFs: management
4. NTP Server IP(s): 10.81.254.202
5. NTP Server VRFs: management
6. Click Save at the bottom right.

Step 12 - Confirm Site1 Data Center VXLAN EVPN Created

Once clicking Save in the previous step, you will be redirected back to LAN Fabrics. Confirm your Site1 Easy Fabric is present and Healthy:

Step 13 - View Site1 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 Site1
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 Site1 fabric, click the expand button . You could also just double click the Fabric Name Site1 to navigate to the fabric

Step 14 - View Site1 Fabric Dashboard

You are presented with the overall fabric dashboard overview. At this point, the dashboard isn't very interesting, but in the next few sections, you will bring this dashboard to life!

For further reference, the full details and breakdown of every fabric parameter option can be found here.

Continue to the next section to discover and import your Greenfield fabric switches into your Site1 fabric.