Free Cisco 300-420 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 3

The vSmart controller provides the centralized control plane in a Cisco SD-WAN deployment. It establishes secure control connections with WAN Edge routers and exchanges routing, topology, security, and policy information using OMP. The vSmart controller does not forward user data traffic; data-plane forwarding occurs directly between WAN Edge routers over IPsec or other supported encapsulations. Its function is to distribute reachability information, TLOC information, service routes, centralized policies, application-aware routing policies, and segmentation information that determines how the overlay operates. vBond orchestrates onboarding, authentication facilitation, and NAT traversal for control connections. vManage provides centralized management, monitoring, configuration templates, and operational GUI/API functions. vEdge or Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN routers provide the branch or site data plane and local routing functions. Therefore, among the choices, the vSmart controller is responsible for the centralized control plane of the SD-WAN network. Correctly separating orchestration, management, control, and data-plane roles is a core Cisco SD-WAN design principle.

The correct IS-IS design combines tuned SPF/PRC behavior with a proper Level 1 and Level 2 hierarchy. Reducing SPF and PRC intervals, within platform and stability limits, helps routers react more quickly to topology changes after a link failure. However, fast timers alone are not enough; the hierarchy must contain instability so physical link flaps in the access layer have limited impact on the rest of the network. Access routers should form Level 1 adjacencies inside their local area, while aggregation routers should operate as Level 1/Level 2 routers to connect the access area to the Level 2 backbone. This design gives access routers a simple local view and uses aggregation as the interarea boundary. Running all access and aggregation routers as L1/L2 across the network increases the size of the backbone and exposes more routers to wider flooding, which is the opposite of the requirement. Redistributing Internet routes into Level 1 is also poor design because it bloats the access area. Therefore, the right choices are C and E. Reference topics: IS-IS hierarchy, L1/L2 design, SPF and PRC tuning, access-layer convergence, fault containment.

GETVPN is the correct transport-encryption design for this environment. The company is using a private MPLS-based service and requires encryption without maintaining permanent point-to-point tunnels. GETVPN was designed for private WAN environments where routing remains native and packets are encrypted without adding GRE or IPsec tunnel overlays between every pair of sites. It uses group-based keying, typically with key servers that distribute security policy and rekey material to group members. That supports dynamic key rotation and spoke-to-spoke communication while avoiding the operational burden of building and maintaining individual tunnels. DMVPN also supports dynamic spoke-to-spoke tunnels, but it is still a tunnel overlay using mGRE, NHRP, and IPsec, and it is usually selected for Internet or mixed transport overlays. Standard IPsec VPN requires maintaining tunnel relationships, and GRE VPN alone does not provide encryption. GETVPN therefore best matches tunnel-less encryption across a private MPLS WAN with centralized security policy and direct site-to-site forwarding. Reference topics: GETVPN, group encrypted transport, tunnel-less IPsec, private MPLS WAN encryption, group keying.

PIM-SSM with IGMPv3 is the correct multicast design. Source-Specific Multicast requires receivers to identify both the multicast group and the permitted source, normally through IGMPv3 membership reports. That source-specific join model prevents unauthorized or spoofed sources from injecting traffic into the group because receivers do not simply accept traffic from any source for a group address. It also improves bandwidth efficiency because the network builds forwarding state only for the requested source and group pair, without requiring shared trees or rendezvous point discovery. PIM-SM with MSDP can interconnect multicast domains, but it is built around Any-Source Multicast behavior and does not provide the same source-specific anti-spoofing property. IGMPv2 cannot signal source-specific joins, which is why IGMPv3 is required for SSM. Since the network may merge with another multicast domain later, SSM also reduces integration complexity by avoiding RP and MSDP dependencies. Therefore, PIM-SSM and IGMPv3 meet both the security and efficiency requirements. Reference topics: PIM-SSM, IGMPv3, source-specific joins, multicast security, bandwidth efficiency.

LISP is the control-plane protocol responsible for Endpoint Identifier to Routing Locator mapping in Cisco SD-Access. In the SD-Access architecture, an endpoint address is treated as an EID, and the fabric node location is represented by an RLOC. The fabric control-plane node performs LISP map-server and map-resolver functions so edge nodes can register local endpoints and resolve the current location of remote endpoints. This separation allows the overlay to support host mobility, anycast gateway behavior, and segmentation without depending only on traditional subnet-bound forwarding. VXLAN is the fabric data-plane encapsulation used to carry traffic across the fabric and preserve policy information, but it does not provide the EID-to-RLOC mapping function. CEF is the local forwarding mechanism inside Cisco devices, and GBAC is not the SD-Access mapping protocol. Therefore, LISP is the correct answer because it provides the SD-Access fabric control plane. Reference topics: Cisco SD-Access control plane, LISP, EID, RLOC, map-server, map-resolver.

TLOC information is the OMP update that allows Cisco SD-WAN to build an overlay over any public or private transport without depending on the actual underlay link addressing. Cisco OMP advertises route reachability along with Transport Location mappings. A TLOC represents where and how a WAN Edge can be reached in the transport network, using attributes such as system IP, transport color, encapsulation, and next-hop information. Remote WAN Edge routers use this information to form secure data-plane tunnels to the correct transport attachment. RLOC is a LISP locator term associated with SD-Access and LISP designs, not the SD-WAN OMP construct. DTLS is the secure transport used for control connections, but it is not an OMP route information type. LISP PITR is unrelated to Cisco SD-WAN OMP. The secure overlay is built by combining OMP routes, TLOCs, policy, and encrypted tunnel establishment. Reference topics: Cisco SD-WAN OMP, TLOC routes, transport color, overlay routing, secure data-plane tunnels.

Dual stack is the migration topology that supports IPv6 while preserving existing IPv4 services during the transition. In a dual-stack design, hosts and network devices run IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel, allowing applications and services to move gradually from IPv4 to IPv6 without forcing an immediate cutover. That matches the customer’s plan: keep the current IPv4 topology and services, introduce IPv6 connectivity, migrate services, and eventually decommission the IPv4 topology. 6VPE is used to carry IPv6 VPN routes across an MPLS IPv4 provider core, which is a service-provider VPN use case rather than a general enterprise migration topology. 6to4 is an automatic tunneling mechanism and is not appropriate as a stable enterprise migration plan. NAT64 enables IPv6-only clients to reach IPv4 resources through translation, but it does not preserve the complete IPv4 topology while services migrate. Cisco migration guidance treats dual stack as the cleanest operational model when infrastructure supports both protocols, because it avoids translation side effects and allows DNS and application behavior to determine which protocol is used.

The border node provides connectivity between the SD-Access fabric and networks external to the fabric. In Cisco SD-Access, fabric edge nodes connect endpoints, intermediate nodes provide underlay transport, and control-plane nodes maintain endpoint-to-location mappings. Border nodes sit at the boundary of the fabric and connect the overlay to external Layer 3 networks such as WAN, data center, Internet edge, shared services, or other fabrics. They de-encapsulate VXLAN traffic leaving the fabric and advertise or import reachability using VRFs and routing protocols. A border can be internal, external, or anywhere border depending on whether it connects to shared services, outside networks, or both. Intermediate nodes do not provide external fabric exit; they only transport traffic within the underlay. Edge nodes connect endpoints but are not normally the external gateway for the whole fabric. Control-plane nodes provide mapping services, not external connectivity. Reference topics: SD-Access border node, fabric exit, VRF mapping, external connectivity, overlay-to-underlay boundary.

MSTP is the correct spanning-tree choice for a Layer 2 design with many logical ports, multiple trunked VLANs, and a subsecond convergence requirement. Rapid PVST+ provides rapid convergence, but it creates a separate spanning-tree instance for every VLAN. With 30 VLANs on trunks and hundreds of active ports, the number of logical STP ports can grow quickly and increase CPU and memory load. MSTP maps many VLANs into a smaller number of spanning-tree instances while still using rapid convergence behavior based on IEEE 802.1w principles. This makes it more scalable for large Layer 2 domains than PVST+ or Rapid PVST+ when many VLANs are present. CST provides a single instance but lacks the flexibility and convergence characteristics expected in modern enterprise designs. The design needs both scalability and fast convergence, and MSTP is the standards-based protocol that best satisfies both requirements. Reference topics: MSTP, Rapid STP, logical STP ports, VLAN-to-instance mapping, Layer 2 scalability, convergence.

The SD-Access underlay must run a routing protocol to establish IP connectivity between infrastructure devices. Cisco SD-Access uses a routed underlay to provide basic reachability among fabric edge nodes, border nodes, control-plane nodes, and intermediate nodes. Cisco design documentation states that all network elements in the fabric underlay must have IP connectivity through routing. Catalyst Center LAN Automation commonly deploys IS-IS for this purpose, although the underlay can be built manually with another supported routing design. The user endpoints and client subnets are not part of the underlay; they belong to the overlay, where fabric services, segmentation, and policy are applied. CEF should not be disabled, because efficient IP forwarding is necessary for the routed underlay. Two or more switches are not required merely to avoid spanning-tree loops; the SD-Access underlay is normally Layer 3 routed and avoids large Layer 2 loop domains. Reference topics: Cisco SD-Access underlay, routed access, LAN Automation, IS-IS, fabric node reachability.