Cisco 300-415 Implementing SD-WAN Solutions (ENSDWI) Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 10 Q136-150
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Question 136
Which type of policy in Cisco SD-WAN is used to enforce application-aware routing decisions across the overlay network?
A) Centralized Data Policy
B) Centralized Control Policy
C) Application-Aware Policy
D) Local Policy
Answer: C) Application-Aware Policy
Explanation:
Centralized Data Policy is designed to influence how data traffic flows through the SD-WAN fabric, often by controlling service insertion, traffic engineering decisions, or advanced flow manipulations at a global level. It plays a major role in steering traffic among WAN transport connections and dictating how specific data flows are handled once they enter the overlay network. Even though data policies contribute to path selection under specific circumstances, their primary purpose is not dedicated application-aware routing. These policies are enforced from a centralized perspective but do not offer the granularity required to dynamically route applications based on performance metrics or business intent.
Centralized Control Policy modifies routing decisions before routes enter the routing table. It focuses on overall path or topology visibility, route manipulation, and network-wide routing policy distribution. It is not responsible for making routing decisions specifically tied to application classification or requirements. Instead, it influences learned routes and determines which ones are advertised or accepted. Although control policies help shape overall route accessibility and define high-level routing logic, they do not handle real-time application performance requirements such as steering VoIP over low-latency links.
Application-Aware Policy specifically targets application-level routing using business intent overlays. This type of policy allows the SD-WAN network to identify applications and map them to transport connections that meet their performance needs. It integrates SLA-monitoring data like latency, jitter, and loss metrics to guide decision-making dynamically based on application criticality. When an application exceeds its performance thresholds on the current link, the policy triggers a path change to an alternative link that meets the performance and SLA requirements more effectively. This policy supports real-time adaptability and aligns network routing with enterprise operational priorities, ensuring mission-critical services like collaboration tools or ERP systems receive premium network handling. Therefore, it is the specific policy responsible for enforcing application-driven routing behaviors across the overlay.
Local Policy applies rules to traffic at the local vEdge or C-Edge routers without centralized orchestration. Local policies influence QoS marking, ACL enforcement, and shaping actions at a particular branch location. While local enforcement is necessary for on-site handling, it does not offer the global coordination required for organization-wide application routing optimization. Local policies lack integration with system-wide SLA metrics, meaning routing decisions influenced by local policy may not account for real-time application performance deviations across other WAN paths.
The correct choice is Application-Aware Policy because it uniquely enforces routing based on application identification and associated business intent. These policies make use of performance measurements from SLA monitoring and trigger Dynamic Path Selection actions to preserve performance standards for critical services. This ensures that applications operate efficiently and users have consistent performance independent of WAN degradation. As a result, the policy plays a foundational role in achieving essential SD-WAN outcomes such as agility, reliability, and enhanced user experience.
Question 137
Which technology used in Cisco SD-WAN helps devices behind NAT successfully establish secure control connections with controllers?
A) IPsec BFD
B) OMP
C) NAT Traversal
D) TLOC Extension
Answer: C) NAT Traversal
Explanation:
IPsec BFD is used to monitor tunnel performance over encrypted IPsec-based data plane connections. It provides rapid detection of path failures and degradation, but does not assist devices in overcoming NAT boundaries. BFD accelerates route convergence and informs Dynamic Path Selection, yet plays no role in establishing initial control connections across firewalls or private networks. Without NAT capabilities, BFD alone cannot facilitate the onboarding process for devices located behind NAT environments.
OMP, or Overlay Management Protocol, carries control plane information consisting of routes, TLOCs, and service chaining data between vSmart controllers and edge devices. Although OMP supports secure policy and routing updates, it cannot be exchanged until a secure channel is already formed. Therefore, OMP does not resolve NAT obstacles; instead, it depends on a previously established connection facilitated by other mechanisms.
NAT Traversal is the feature that helps SD-WAN devices located behind firewalls, or NAT translate their private IP addresses so they can communicate with vBond, vManage, and vSmart controllers. NAT traversal ensures that secure DTLS or TLS control channels are established even if the path traverses home routers, enterprise firewalls, or ISP-provided NAT environments. As a result, devices without public IP assignments can still authenticate into the SD-WAN overlay. The system often uses pre-shared certificates and port flexibility to successfully punch through NAT layers during the onboarding process. NAT traversal ensures overlay reachability essential for scalable deployments, cloud extensions, and remote branches.
TLOC Extension connects WAN transport availability from an external device by linking TLOC information between two adjacent routers inside the branch. While TLOC Extension supports multi-transport resilience and sharing physical uplinks among multiple SD-WAN routers, it has no direct function in bypassing NAT restrictions for SD-WAN controller connectivity. It is a site-level redundancy solution rather than a NAT solution.
The correct answer is NAT Traversal because it specifically enables control connections from devices behind NAT environments to controllers, ensuring onboarding and secure overlay participation in environments lacking public address allocation.
Question 138
Which SD-WAN role ensures secure connectivity by distributing security parameters and maintaining traffic encryption across the overlay network?
A) vManage
B) vBond
C) vSmart
D) vAnalytics
Answer: C) vSmart
Explanation:
vManage provides centralized management, configuration, and monitoring. It allows administrators to define business policies and visualize the health of the overlay network. While vManage plays a crucial role in visibility and policy orchestration, it does not manage secure key distribution for data plane operations. Its responsibility centers on administration rather than establishing traffic confidentiality across the overlay.
vBond enables authentication and secure onboarding, but does not handle continuous distribution of encryption or security information. While vital for discovering control plane components and establishing trust, its role diminishes once devices join the overlay.
vSmart is responsible for orchestrating secure connectivity across the SD-WAN. It distributes encryption keys that enable IPsec-protected tunnels among edge devices. vSmart enforces policies and ensures secure path establishment aligned with business intent. It also sends real-time route updates and security parameters so that devices maintain confidentiality and trust relationships. By coordinating encryption across the overlay, vSmart guarantees consistent security, enabling dynamic changes such as link failover without compromising protection.
vAnalytics focuses on analytics for performance monitoring and reporting. Although valuable for optimization, it does not handle real-time encryption.
The correct answer is vSmart, as it drives secure data exchange by distributing the encryption keys and policies required to maintain protected overlay communications.
Question 139
What is the primary role of the Cisco SD-WAN vSmart controller within the overlay network?
A) To perform device onboarding and initial authentication
B) To manage and configure network devices through a GUI
C) To serve as the centralized control plane distributing routing and policy information
D) To forward user traffic and establish data-plane tunnels
Answer: C) To serve as the centralized control plane distributing routing and policy information
Explanation:
In a software-defined WAN overlay, each functional element plays a specific role that contributes to centralized control, enhanced automation, simplified deployment, and better security. The first element listed serves a key purpose in establishing initial trust and identity between devices entering the network. It helps authenticate new systems and ensures that they are authorized to join the WAN before connecting them to controllers. Although critical for secure onboarding, its function does not extend into continuous dissemination of routing updates or policy decisions. Instead, once validation is completed, its involvement becomes minimal, leaving ongoing management and routing tasks to other controller components that maintain ongoing responsibilities inside the architecture.
The second element in the list is a management system for administrators that provides complete visibility and enables simplified large-scale configuration workflows. It is the central operational dashboard where device health, alarms, analytics, templates, and provisioning tasks are controlled. It interacts with policies and distributes configurations to devices, allowing teams to efficiently push changes or deploy hundreds of routers automatically. However, while this platform is essential for orchestrating and monitoring the environment, it is not responsible for populating data-plane devices with routing intelligence or enforcing real-time policy adaptations based on network conditions. Its intelligence is managerial rather than dynamic or topological in nature.
The correct component in this question is the heart of the control-plane architecture within SD-WAN. It maintains centralized intelligence for topology awareness, security policies, segmentation instructions, and application routing logic. It gathers routing information and transport-locator data from WAN edges and applies control-plane computations to determine the most efficient and secure paths. It automatically propagates these updates to all relevant devices so they can take immediate advantage of optimized connectivity. It also enforces business intent, ensuring that application classes or traffic types are handled according to priority, SLA constraints, or service insertion requirements. If a link fails, performance drops, or topology changes, this controller reacts by recalculating and pushing new instructions so that WAN edges can seamlessly adapt without human intervention.
The fourth listed item executes forwarding functions by sending packets over encrypted tunnels, monitoring link performance, and applying policies received from the centralized controller. It participates in the network fabric by establishing secure overlay tunnels across transport mediums like MPLS, broadband, and LTE. It does not hold ultimate authority for routing calculations or global coordination of policy dissemination. Instead, it relies on the control component to provide routing information that aligns with enterprise intent. Therefore, while it is extremely important to safeguard and transport data, it does not match the centralized control role described in the question.
Centralizing the control plane into a dedicated controller increases scalability and operational efficiency. It eliminates the complexity of traditional WAN distributed routing, where each router makes independent decisions. With central intelligence, the network behaves consistently and predictably, and all routing or segmentation adaptations occur with full awareness of the global environment. This improves the user experience because optimized paths are consistently selected. It also enhances security by tightly regulating how segments communicate, enforcing encrypted overlay communications, and applying zone-based isolation policies that align with business structure.
Another advantage comes from simplified troubleshooting and change management. Because routing logic resides centrally, administrators can adjust policies once and see effects deploy everywhere rather than individually modifying each device. The controller communicates securely using specialized overlay management protocols designed for dynamic control-plane distribution. These control messages ensure continuous synchronization across the WAN fabric. Additionally, the controller is key to intent-based operation, translating high-level goals into real-time network behavior.
Ultimately, the value of SD-WAN stems from its centralized approach to routing decisions, policy enforcement, and segmentation. That responsibility is fulfilled by the correct answer identified here. Without this controller, the network would lose its self-driving features, making automation, application-aware routing, and dynamic adaptation impossible. The centralized control-plane component is what truly differentiates SD-WAN from legacy routing deployments, bringing modern intelligence to a multi-transport WAN design and allowing organizations to support cloud modernization and distributed connectivity more effectively.
Question 140
Which feature enables Cisco SD-WAN to steer applications across multiple WAN transports based on real-time performance metrics?
A) BFD session labeling
B) Application-Aware Routing
C) Zero-Touch Provisioning
D) Service VPN mapping
Answer: B) Application-Aware Routing
Explanation:
Application performance is a major focus in modern enterprise WAN environments, and software-defined solutions are designed to ensure that business-critical services remain available and responsive. The first element listed contributes to transport monitoring by evaluating path liveliness, loss, delay, and jitter. It provides precise performance telemetry that helps forwarding devices understand when a tunnel is degraded. However, this feature does not include the intelligence required to match specific traffic types with transport decisions. It simply measures and reports transport conditions rather than enforcing application policy rules. It supports the decision-making capabilities of SD-WAN but is not the mechanism that selects paths based on application needs.
The correct capability in this question is a powerful SD-WAN feature that actively inspects traffic flows, maps them to identified applications, and selects the most suitable link for each session or class of traffic. It allows the WAN to dynamically adjust path selection when network quality fluctuates. If a preferred path no longer meets SLA thresholds, traffic automatically shifts to an alternate link that better supports performance. Because it uses real-time data to guide forwarding choices, users experience improved responsiveness, especially for video, voice, SaaS, and mission-critical cloud services. It enforces policies consistently throughout the network without requiring repeated manual adjustments.
The third listed item simplifies onboarding devices into an SD-WAN fabric. It automates initial deployment by having routers automatically download their configuration based on predefined templates as soon as they connect to the network and establish trust. While extremely valuable for rollout efficiency, it is not related to ongoing dynamic application steering. This function only applies during activation and does not control transport path decisions after provisioning is complete. It does not influence how the WAN selects paths according to real-time performance.
The final listed item establishes structure within the SD-WAN architecture by segmenting various service networks and isolating traffic into dedicated spaces. It allows enterprises to separate internal services like guest networks, voice systems, or sensitive data into distinct overlays. Although segmentation is necessary to enforce security and architectural structure, it does not evaluate application behavior against transport characteristics nor influence routing based on performance feedback. It is static segmentation rather than dynamic decision-making for application experience.
Application steering in SD-WAN significantly improves business outcomes by guaranteeing that services remain aligned with enterprise expectations, even when network availability or bandwidth conditions degrade. Traditional routing methods are oblivious to application identity and rely solely on static routes or cost metrics that do not account for user experience. In contrast, SD-WAN introduces awareness that recognizes thousands of applications using Layer-7 intelligence. With that visibility, it enforces granular policies that extend performance protection benefits beyond the data center and into cloud-based services, which are increasingly crucial for operations.
This dynamic approach eliminates the frustration caused by congestion or provider issues because the WAN adapts instantly rather than waiting for manual intervention. It ensures that latency-sensitive services remain prioritized and that lower-priority traffic only consumes better transport when spare capacity exists. The WAN becomes a more efficient and intelligent resource, reducing operational cost and improving productivity across distributed locations. Moreover, this feature contributes to service assurance by ensuring compliance with SLA thresholds defined within policy templates.
Overall, the correct answer provides a foundation for intent-based routing behavior in software-defined environments. By using monitored transport conditions and application classification, the WAN stays continuously optimized to deliver the best experience possible.
Question 141
Which Cisco SD-WAN security feature ensures that all control and data-plane communications across the overlay are authenticated and encrypted?
A) OMP route filtering
B) TLS and IPsec fabric encryption
C) vManage device inventory
D) TLOC color assignment
Answer: B) TLS and IPsec fabric encryption
Explanation:
A key element of any software-defined WAN is the capability to secure communication between distributed resources. The first item listed is a mechanism used to limit which routing advertisements are allowed across the overlay. It is useful for controlling reachability and ensuring that unintended prefixes do not propagate through the network. While important for stability and segmentation, this feature does not involve encryption or authentication of tunnel traffic. It focuses on restricting learned routes rather than protecting data inside or between tunnels. Therefore, it does not satisfy the complete security role described in this question.
The correct choice provides end-to-end cryptographic protection across both control and data communication. Secure overlay tunnels protect application payloads as they traverse untrusted public networks and ensure that sensitive data remains confidential. Authentication functions verify device identity so rogue systems cannot join the fabric. Encryption prevents interception, tampering, or unauthorized inspection of transported packets. These protections apply not only to traffic-carrying applications but also to signaling messages that control routing behavior within the WAN. By securing these channels using industry-recognized cryptographic protocols, the overlay remains resilient against many common external threats. Cisco SD-WAN applies certificate-based trust, strong cryptography algorithms, tunnel integrity checks, and automated key refresh procedures to protect enterprise communications at scale. Because these protections are integrated into the architecture, there is no reliance on separate complex security deployments to secure remote connectivity.
The third element listed supports operational management by storing device details, monitoring connectivity, and enabling template-driven provisioning. It helps provide structure during configuration tasks, but does not implement cryptographic functions. It is a platform centered on operational oversight, health monitoring, and policy deployment. The ability to track devices is useful, yet it does not ensure that traffic sent across transport networks remains private, verified, and encrypted against intrusion attempts.
The final element mentioned defines characteristics applied to specific transports in the WAN. It provides a classification label to indicate link type, such as private MPLS or public internet. These labels help control-plane operations and influence path selection. However, these attributes do not include any encryption or identity validation for overlay communications. They categorize transport paths but do not secure them. The ability to classify paths is important, especially when applying performance-based steering, yet it does not address the threat of exposure when traffic traverses external provider networks.
Because hybrid WAN architectures make extensive use of public networks, encryption becomes mandatory to preserve data confidentiality and safeguard access. The correct feature ensures that every edge device forms secure tunnels before exchanging any information. This design prevents eavesdropping by ISP infrastructure or malicious actors. Additionally, control-plane encryption ensures that routing decisions cannot be manipulated or observed unlawfully. These protections align closely with regulatory standards across multiple industries, enabling organizations to adopt SD-WAN confidently with strong trust guarantees. The result is a secure overlay fabric where integrity, authenticity, and privacy are embedded at the architectural level rather than added as an afterthought.
Question 142
In Cisco SD-WAN, which component is responsible for centralized configuration, monitoring, and device orchestration across the fabric?
A) vManage
B) vSmart
C) vBond
D) vEdge
Answer: A) vManage
Explanation:
The item listed as the first choice serves as the main management and orchestration tool in a software-defined WAN architecture. It provides administrators with a unified interface for configuring policies, pushing templates to large numbers of devices, gathering operational statistics, and performing troubleshooting tasks across the entire overlay network. Through a graphical dashboard, API access, automated workflows, and centralized policy handling, it simplifies operational complexity. It stores device configurations, governs network behavior through centralized intent, and ensures modifications are consistently distributed across every applicable router in the overlay. It also integrates analytics, alarms, logs, device inventory, and performance monitoring, making it essential for network lifecycle operations.
The second listed item is the core control-plane brain of the SD-WAN architecture. It is responsible for distributing routing information, enforcing segmentation rules, and applying centralized policies throughout the fabric. Instead of handling user traffic or providing administrative visibility, it signals secure control updates to the edge routers. It maintains topology intelligence and assures consistent policy enforcement. However, it does not provide a front-end interface for configuration or the operational management features required by administrators to oversee network performance and health. Its responsibility is focused purely on control-plane communication.
The third device listed is responsible primarily for secure onboarding and authentication of WAN edge devices joining the network. It establishes the initial control connections and ensures that every router attempting to join the overlay is legitimate and authorized. Once devices successfully authenticate and establish secure channels with the controllers, this onboarding component steps out of the ongoing operational process. It does not perform long-term management, telemetry, or configuration distribution duties. Therefore, its role is limited to establishing trust and connectivity at the beginning of installation.
The last item listed is the data-plane device responsible for forwarding user traffic, applying policies learned from the centralized control-plane controller, and maintaining secure, encrypted tunnels across the WAN. It does not have broad management visibility nor the ability to distribute or orchestrate configuration at scale. Instead, it executes routing and forwarding tasks based on instructions and policy delivered from other components in the controller layer. Its operational focus is delivering reliable connectivity for applications and users.
The correct selection for this question is the centralized network management solution that provides orchestration, monitoring, configuration distribution, and operational control. It represents the command center for all deployment, maintenance, and troubleshooting tasks. Without it, administrators would be forced to configure each WAN edge device individually, greatly increasing complexity and reducing consistency. While the other components provide critical functions for control-plane distribution, secure onboarding, and data forwarding, only one component acts as the single pane of glass for administrators, serving as the management hub for the entire SD-WAN environment. Therefore, the correct answer is vManage.
Question 143
Which control-plane device in Cisco SD-WAN is responsible for securely distributing routes and policies to all SD-WAN edge devices?
A) vEdge
B) vManage
C) vSmart
D) vBond
Answer: C) vSmart
Explanation:
The first item listed is the data-plane device deployed at a branch, data center, or cloud location. It is responsible for forwarding traffic, building secure tunnels using IPsec or DTLS, enforcing locally applied policies, and measuring transport path performance. While it receives routing and policy information from a control-plane device, it does not calculate or distribute this information itself. Its focus is execution of instructions rather than policy distribution, and it relies entirely on controllers for the intelligence required to maintain a consistent overlay fabric. Therefore, it cannot be considered the correct component for securely distributing routes and policies.
The second listed item is the centralized management system. Its primary role is configuration management, telemetry collection, analytics, monitoring, and orchestration. Administrators use it to create templates, define business intent policies, view network health, and push configurations to devices. Although it interacts with vSmart and vEdge devices to orchestrate deployments, it does not participate directly in routing calculations or propagate control-plane updates. Its function is operational oversight, not control-plane intelligence, and therefore it does not distribute routes or enforce policy in real time across the network.
The correct device is the control-plane controller that maintains topology awareness, distributes routes, propagates policies, and ensures secure communication among all edge devices. It gathers information about WAN paths, overlays, and transport locators, computes optimal routing decisions, enforces segmentation rules, and disseminates policies to every SD-WAN device consistently. By acting as the centralized intelligence hub, it ensures that routing decisions align with business intent and performance objectives. It also manages encryption key distribution for secure tunnels, so that all overlay communication between vEdge routers remains protected. Without this controller, the overlay would lack centralized policy enforcement, routing coordination, and secure distribution of critical control information.
The fourth listed element is the orchestrator responsible for initial device onboarding. It authenticates new devices, establishes trust, and redirects them to the appropriate controllers. While essential for secure entry, it does not maintain ongoing routing intelligence or distribute policies once the device has joined the network. Its role is foundational but temporary, and it does not fulfill the control-plane duties required to propagate routes or enforce network-wide policies.
The control-plane controller is critical for consistent and automated network behavior. It reduces administrative complexity, ensures consistent policy enforcement, secures communications, and enables scalable deployment across hundreds or thousands of sites. Centralizing control-plane decisions allows SD-WAN to dynamically adapt to WAN conditions, enforce business intent, and provide application-aware routing. The device ensures traffic is steered along optimal paths and that segmentation and security policies are applied consistently, forming the backbone of the overlay. Therefore, the correct answer is vSmart.
Question 144
Which Cisco SD-WAN component is responsible for authenticating devices during onboarding and facilitating secure initial connections to controllers?
A) vManage
B) vBond
C) vSmart
D) vEdge
Answer: B) vBond
Explanation:
The first listed system provides centralized management, configuration orchestration, monitoring, and visibility across the SD-WAN overlay. Administrators use it to push templates, define business intent policies, monitor alarms, and collect telemetry. While critical to operations, it does not handle initial device authentication or redirect devices to the appropriate controllers for overlay entry. Its function begins after devices are already onboarded and authenticated, which makes it unsuitable for the onboarding process described in the question.
The second listed element is the orchestrator, specifically designed to authenticate new devices entering the overlay. It verifies certificates, ensures devices are legitimate and authorized, and establishes trust for secure communication. Once validated, it directs devices to connect with the control-plane (vSmart) and management-plane (vManage) components. This guarantees that devices cannot join the overlay without proper identity verification and secure connectivity. The orchestrator also supports NAT traversal, enabling devices behind firewalls or private IP networks to reach controllers safely. It ensures seamless onboarding regardless of network topology, which is a critical security and operational requirement.
The third item is the centralized control-plane device responsible for distributing routing information, policies, and encryption keys across the network. While essential for policy enforcement and topology coordination, it does not perform initial authentication of new devices or handle secure redirection during the onboarding process. Its functions are ongoing and assume that devices have already been verified and trust has been established by the onboarding orchestrator.
The fourth item is the data-plane device that forwards traffic and enforces policies locally. While it participates in the overlay, it does not authenticate itself or other devices in the initial setup process. Its security functions and tunnel establishment depend on control-plane instructions and prior onboarding by the orchestrator. Therefore, it cannot fulfill the initial authentication requirement.
The orchestrator is essential for ensuring security and trust at the start of a device’s lifecycle in the overlay. By authenticating devices, managing certificate validation, and facilitating connectivity to controllers, it establishes the foundation for secure, scalable, and automated SD-WAN deployment. Without this component, devices could not securely join the fabric, and the overlay would be vulnerable to unauthorized access. Its role is temporary in duration but critical in establishing trust and enabling subsequent operations. Therefore, the correct answer is vBond.
Question 145
Which Cisco SD-WAN device forwards application traffic, establishes encrypted tunnels, and enforces locally received policies?
A) vBond
B) vManage
C) vSmart
D) vEdge
Answer: D) vEdge
Explanation:
The first item is the onboarding orchestrator. It authenticates devices, ensures trust, and redirects them to controllers, but it does not forward user traffic, build tunnels, or enforce policies. Its primary function is to facilitate secure initial connectivity. Once devices are onboarded, they do not maintain an ongoing role in data forwarding or local policy enforcement.
The second listed system is the centralized management platform. It provides configuration templates, monitoring dashboards, telemetry collection, and analytics. While administrators rely on it for orchestration and insight, it does not handle packet forwarding, apply real-time policies locally, or maintain data-plane tunnels. Its interaction with traffic is indirect and primarily administrative.
The third device is the control-plane controller responsible for distributing routing information, policies, and encryption keys. Although it provides the intelligence and instructions to edge devices, it does not itself forward application traffic or establish tunnels at branch or cloud sites. Its role is centralized decision-making, not data-plane execution.
The fourth item is the WAN edge device. It forwards traffic across the overlay using secure, encrypted tunnels established through IPsec or DTLS. It applies locally enforced policies received from the control-plane controller, steers traffic according to SLA metrics, monitors path performance, and enforces segmentation rules. It connects to multiple WAN transports, including MPLS, broadband, and LTE, ensuring application performance and reliability. It also performs application-aware routing, quality-of-service enforcement, and tunnel monitoring, making it the operational backbone for actual data delivery within the overlay network. Its role is continuous and critical, executing instructions while maintaining security, performance, and availability across all connected sites. Therefore, the correct answer is vEdge.
Question 146
Which Cisco SD-WAN feature allows branch devices to automatically retrieve configuration and provisioning details upon first connection without manual intervention?
A) Cloud OnRamp
B) Zero-Touch Provisioning
C) Routing Redistribution
D) VRRP Failover
Answer: B) Zero-Touch Provisioning
Explanation:
Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is a key feature in Cisco SD-WAN that simplifies the large-scale deployment of WAN edge devices. The first listed item is a cloud optimization solution that improves SaaS and cloud connectivity performance through path selection and traffic steering. While it enhances user experience and ensures efficient cloud access, it does not automate device onboarding or retrieve configuration details automatically, so it cannot serve as the mechanism for initial provisioning. The second item, Zero-Touch Provisioning, is designed to automatically provide WAN edge devices with configuration parameters, certificates, and controller addresses immediately after powering up and connecting to the network. This eliminates the need for engineers to manually configure IP addresses, routing, or policy templates at branch locations, which significantly reduces deployment time, operational costs, and the potential for human error. Upon first connection, a device using ZTP securely contacts the orchestrator or bootstrap server, downloads its configuration and templates, authenticates with certificates, and establishes secure control-plane and data-plane connectivity with vSmart and vBond controllers. This process ensures a consistent and secure deployment across all locations, even for sites without dedicated technical staff. The third item, routing redistribution, is a technique used to share routes between different routing protocols within a network. It ensures compatibility between OSPF, BGP, EIGRP, and other protocols but does not automate device provisioning. Routing redistribution operates after devices are already deployed and focuses on network reachability rather than initial configuration. The fourth item, VRRP failover, is a high-availability mechanism that allows two or more routers to share a virtual IP address so that if one router fails, the other can maintain service continuity. While important for resilience, it does not handle initial configuration, onboarding, or certificate retrieval. Zero-Touch Provisioning integrates with SD-WAN security and control-plane features to ensure that devices not only receive configuration automatically but also securely authenticate with controllers before participating in the overlay. This feature enables organizations to scale rapidly, deploy hundreds of branch routers with minimal staff, and maintain consistent policies and templates across the WAN. It is particularly valuable for global enterprises where manual configuration would be time-consuming, costly, and error-prone. By combining ZTP with certificate-based trust and automated template distribution, SD-WAN ensures that new devices are fully operational within minutes, connecting securely to the overlay, enforcing policies, and beginning traffic forwarding without requiring on-site intervention. This level of automation is critical to modern WAN architectures that prioritize agility, security, and operational efficiency. Therefore, the correct answer is Zero-Touch Provisioning, as it fulfills the exact role of automating configuration and onboarding for SD-WAN devices.
Question 147
Which SD-WAN mechanism assigns a logical identifier to each transport connection to enable topology-aware path selection?
A) Color
B) BFD
C) Cloud OnRamp
D) SD-WAN AAA
Answer: A) Color
Explanation:
Transport identifiers, known as colors, are essential in Cisco SD-WAN for categorizing WAN links and supporting topology-based path selection. The first item, color, represents a logical label assigned to each WAN connection, such as MPLS, broadband, or LTE. These labels allow the control plane to differentiate links, enforce policy, and construct the overlay topology accurately. Colors help define preferred paths, segment traffic based on service-level requirements, and integrate with application-aware routing to ensure critical traffic is directed over the most suitable transport. Each color corresponds to a transport type or quality level, allowing vSmart to calculate optimal paths and vEdge devices to forward traffic according to policy. The second item, BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection), monitors the health of paths in real time by detecting failures or performance degradation. While BFD provides vital telemetry for path selection, it does not classify or identify links in the overlay. Its role is purely performance measurement and failure detection. The third item, Cloud OnRamp, is a feature that optimizes connectivity to SaaS and cloud services by selecting the best-performing path dynamically. It improves application experience but does not assign logical identifiers to transports for topology awareness. The fourth item, SD-WAN AAA, provides authentication, authorization, and accounting for devices joining the overlay. While critical for security and onboarding, it does not influence path classification or topology construction. Using colors, SD-WAN ensures consistent overlay topology across all devices, enabling intelligent routing decisions, supporting service-level agreements, and integrating with application-aware policies. Colors allow administrators to control how traffic is steered, segregate link types, and enforce priority rules for different applications. By combining color with SLA measurements, vEdge devices can dynamically select optimal paths, providing resilience and improved performance. This mechanism is foundational to intent-based routing and the SD-WAN’s ability to adapt to multiple transport types while maintaining reliability and predictability. Therefore, the correct answer is Color.
Question 148
Which Cisco SD-WAN device forwards application traffic, establishes encrypted tunnels, and enforces policies locally received from controllers?
A) vBond
B) vManage
C) vSmart
D) vEdge
Answer: D) vEdge
Explanation:
The first element listed is the onboarding orchestrator responsible for authenticating devices and redirecting them to the proper controllers during initial deployment. While it establishes trust and enables devices to join the overlay, it does not forward traffic or enforce policies locally. Its role is foundational but temporary and limited to the onboarding phase. The second element is the management platform that provides administrators with templates, monitoring, analytics, and configuration tools. While it orchestrates device behavior and manages policies centrally, it does not directly handle data-plane traffic or apply policies on a local basis. The third device, the control-plane controller, distributes routing and policy information, maintains topology awareness, and enforces segmentation rules across the overlay. While it supplies instructions to the data-plane devices, it does not perform actual forwarding or tunnel establishment. The correct element is the WAN edge device, which executes the local enforcement of policies, builds encrypted IPsec or DTLS tunnels to other edge devices, and steers application traffic across multiple transports. It monitors path performance, applies SLA-based path selection, and ensures reliable delivery of mission-critical applications. By combining local execution with centrally defined policies, the edge device maintains performance, security, and compliance across the network. vEdge devices connect to multiple transport types, enforce segmentation, perform quality-of-service classification, and monitor link health continuously. They ensure that traffic follows the intended paths defined by business intent while maintaining encrypted communication for security. This makes the vEdge device the operational backbone of the SD-WAN data plane, translating central control-plane decisions into actionable forwarding and policy enforcement. Therefore, the correct answer is vEdge.
Question 149
Which Cisco SD-WAN feature allows the network to dynamically steer application traffic across multiple WAN links based on real-time path performance metrics such as latency, jitter, and loss?
A) BFD
B) Application-Aware Routing
C) Zero-Touch Provisioning
D) TLOC Color Assignment
Answer: B) Application-Aware Routing
Explanation:
The first listed item is a protocol used to detect failures in network paths quickly. It measures reachability and liveness between devices but does not analyze or steer traffic based on application-specific performance metrics. While BFD is essential for detecting path outages and informing the network of downed links, it does not perform dynamic application steering, classify traffic, or select optimal paths for specific application flows, which are required for intent-based routing. The second item, Application-Aware Routing, is the correct mechanism that enables SD-WAN to actively monitor WAN link performance and make real-time forwarding decisions for different application types. This feature uses metrics such as latency, jitter, and packet loss to dynamically determine which path is best suited for each application or service, allowing mission-critical applications to receive priority and ensuring optimal performance for latency-sensitive traffic like voice or video conferencing. It continuously evaluates all available WAN transports, including MPLS, broadband, LTE, and other connections, and adjusts the forwarding behavior of the vEdge devices to match current network conditions. By combining real-time telemetry, business intent policies, and SLA thresholds, Application-Aware Routing ensures that traffic always follows the most suitable path. It is integrated with the centralized control-plane intelligence provided by vSmart, which distributes policy instructions and maintains an updated overlay topology. The third item, Zero-Touch Provisioning, automates device configuration and onboarding but does not influence ongoing traffic steering or path selection. It is a deployment automation feature rather than a runtime traffic management mechanism. The fourth item, TLOC Color Assignment, classifies WAN transport links with logical identifiers to help define topology and influence policy application, but it does not dynamically adjust traffic based on performance. Colors allow path differentiation and policy enforcement, but lack the real-time intelligence required for dynamic application steering. Application-Aware Routing operates in conjunction with transport performance telemetry, SLA monitoring, and centralized policy to make dynamic, automated forwarding decisions. It ensures that performance objectives are met and that applications are delivered optimally across multiple WAN connections. By using this feature, SD-WAN reduces latency, improves user experience, enhances reliability, and prevents congestion on suboptimal paths. It is particularly critical in hybrid WAN deployments where multiple transport types exist, and performance variability must be managed effectively. This mechanism allows IT teams to guarantee application performance without manual intervention and enables automated adaptation to changing network conditions. Therefore, the correct answer is Application-Aware Routing.
Question 150
Which SD-WAN component ensures that all control-plane and data-plane communications between devices are authenticated and encrypted, maintaining overlay security?
A) OMP Route Filtering
B) TLS and IPsec Fabric Encryption
C) vManage Device Inventory
D) TLOC Color Assignment
Answer: B) TLS and IPsec Fabric Encryption
Explanation:
The first item listed, OMP route filtering, is a mechanism to control which routing updates are advertised or accepted between devices. It ensures proper route selection and security in terms of reachability, but does not encrypt or authenticate the actual control-plane or data-plane traffic traversing the overlay. Its function is related to logical control-plane policy enforcement, not cryptographic protection or tunnel establishment. The second item, TLS and IPsec Fabric Encryption, is the correct feature that guarantees confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of all SD-WAN communications. Data-plane traffic between vEdge devices is encrypted using IPsec or DTLS, protecting user applications from interception or tampering across public or private WAN transports. Control-plane communication, including routing updates, policy distribution, and signaling between vSmart, vBond, and vEdge devices, is encrypted using TLS to prevent unauthorized access and eavesdropping. Certificates and key management are integral to this process, ensuring that only authenticated devices can participate in the overlay. This security mechanism protects against a wide range of threats, including MITM attacks, unauthorized data access, and manipulation of routing information. It is applied automatically to all tunnels in the fabric, providing end-to-end encryption for both overlay control messages and user application traffic. The third item, vManage device inventory, is an operational feature that maintains records of devices in the overlay, tracks their status, and helps administrators manage assets. While essential for configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting, it does not encrypt traffic or enforce authentication for control or data-plane communications. The fourth item, TLOC color assignment, is used to classify WAN transport links for path selection, topology awareness, and policy enforcement. It categorizes connections but does not provide cryptographic protections. By combining TLS for the control plane and IPsec for the data plane, SD-WAN ensures that all communication is secure, preventing interception or modification by unauthorized actors. It provides a scalable, automated, and transparent security layer across the entire overlay, regardless of transport type. This mechanism ensures that SD-WAN deployments are resilient to external threats while maintaining operational efficiency and compliance with regulatory standards. Therefore, the correct answer is TLS and IPsec Fabric Encryption.