New Features

Device Life-Cycle Management

Device life-cycle management (LCM) extends over the entire life cycle of a device. As part of device LCM, you install the device onsite, bring the device under management, monitor the device when it is in production, and finally decommission the device.

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional device LCM features:

• Validate a candidate network implementation plan before provisioning—Routing Director creates a candidate (draft) of the network implementation plan when you create or edit a network implementation plan. The candidate network implementation plan enables you to stage and validate configuration without affecting the devices.

  Commit a candidate to save it as a network implementation plan and provision the plan to apply the configuration on the devices.

  [See Network Implementation Plan Overview, About the Network Implementation Plan Page, and Add a Network Implementation Plan.]

Observability

You can use Routing Director to view your entire network topology in real time and monitor network health. Additionally, you receive notifications about network anomalies and troubleshooting guidance.

With observability, Routing Director monitors and analyzes the network and its components by using key performance indicators (KPIs), device logs, and metrics. Observability includes alerts and alarms that notify you about network issues.

Routing Director also runs connectivity tests using synthetic traffic to identify connection issues between devices in your network. In addition, the real-time routing dashboard enables you to actively monitor the overall routing health of your network. Timely detection of anomalies enables you to take prompt action and minimize the impact of any issues.

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional observability feature:

• Integrate Grafana with Routing Director for telemetry data—View Routing Director's telemetry data (stored in VictoriaMetrics) in an external Grafana instance.

  Grafana is an open-source visualization tool that lets you create dashboards, charts, and graphs to monitor device status and analyze data. Grafana provides more customization options to view telemetry data compared with Routing Director's built-in views. Grafana also enables combining metrics of different time periods into a single graph for richer analysis.

  You can securely integrate Grafana into Routing Director through the standard REST APIs available in Routing Director. Routing Director provides read-only access to Grafana, ensuring that Grafana can only retrieve monitoring data but cannot modify any Routing Director configurations. After successful integration, you can use the Grafana GUI to query and visualize telemetry data.

  [See Integrate Grafana with Routing Director for Telemetry Data Visualization.]

Trust and Compliance

Routing Director helps protect the network from threats and vulnerabilities by periodically checking whether a target's configuration, integrity, and performance comply with predefined security benchmarks. The term target refers to a device or a device component. Routing Director distills the outcomes of these checks into a single trust score that you can use to determine how trustworthy a device is.

There are no new features in Release 2.10.0.

Service Orchestration

Service orchestration is the process of designing, configuring, validating, deploying, and monitoring a network service. Routing Director automates the entire life cycle of a network service by providing workflows that execute the tasks required to deliver a service. You can provision various network services by using predefined service designs. The service catalog is an inventory of service designs, which are templates that provide guidelines and parameters for instantiating a service. A service instance defines the elements of a service. A service order includes the instructions to create, modify, or delete a service instance. After you initiate and provision a service order, Routing Director activates the automated workflow to provision the service in the network. After provisioning, Routing Director automatically monitors network health and measures service quality.

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional service orchestration features:

• Upload a customized service design—Upload customized service designs to Routing Director by using the service orchestration cMGD CLI.

  Note:

  To create and customize service designs, contact Juniper Networks Professional Services.

  You can view the uploaded service designs on the Service Designs page (Orchestration > Service > Service Catalog) and use them to provision corresponding services in the network.

  [See Upload a Custom Service Design.]

• Roll back service instances and network implementation plans —Use the Rollback option to revert a service instance or a network implementation plan, along with the associated service design version, to an earlier version.

  Access this option on the Service Instances page (Orchestration > Instances > Service Instances) or the Network Implementation Plan page (Inventory > Device Onboarding > Network Implementation Plan).

  Each modification or provisioning of a service instance or network implementation plan creates a rollback table entry. These entries enable you to track changes and select specific versions to which you can revert.

  This feature helps recover from any failure in service provisioning, plan provisioining, or service design version upgrade without rebuilding the service or plan.

  [See About the Service Instances Page and About the Network Implementation Plan Page.]

• Allocate or release network resources for service instance candidates after updating placements—After you update placements, you can commit or discard the allocated network resources for a service instance candidate. Use the Commit Changes option to allocate and reserve network resources added to a candidate or release deleted resources back to the pool. Use the Discard Changes option to discard updates, release resources to the pool, and restore the candidate to its last committed state.

  [See Add L3VPN Service Post Update Placements Site Network Access Parameters, Add EVPN Service Post Update Placements Site Network Access Parameters, Add EVPN-VPWS Service Post Update Placements Parameters, and Add L2 Circuit Service Post Update Placements Parameters.]

• Upgrade service design versions for service instances and network implementation plans in bulk—You can upgrade service design versions for multiple service instances and network implementation plans in bulk. You can perform bulk upgrade from the Service Instances page (Orchestration > Service Catalog > Service Designs) and the Network Implementation Plan page (Inventory > Device Onboarding > Network Implementation Plan).

  Service design versions are grouped into sections based on their dependencies, enabling you to review and upgrade the versions in a linear sequence. You can also perform a dry run to validate the upgrade workflow before executing the upgrade.

  After a successful upgrade, the Design Version column displays the upgraded service design versions.

  [See Manage Service Design Versions and About the Network Implementation Plan Page.]

• Enable local subnet filtering for control packets in L3VPN—Enable Local Subnet Only under Traffic Protection on the Add Connection page of the Add L3VPN wizard (Orchestration > Service > Instances > L3VPN) to accept only control packets exchanged between directly connected IP subnets. With this feature, Routing Director automatically generates firewall filters based on the protocols configured for the service. This feature ensures improved network security by protecting routing protocol traffic from unauthorized sources.

  [See Add L3VPN Site and Site Network Access Details.]

• Configure QoS profiles for L3VPN services—Configure QoS profiles under the Modify Resource Instance-Name page (Orchestration > Service > Resource Instances > VPN Resources > QoS Profiles) to define how traffic is classified and treated in the network. Select one of the following options to classify traffic:

  • forwarding-class—Statically assign all ingress traffic on an interface to a single service class.

  • classifier—Classify ingress traffic based on packet markings such as DSCP or inet-precedence, and map traffic to forwarding classes.

  You must preconfigure the QoS forwarding classes and the classifiers on the device.

  After the QoS profile is configured, you can apply the profile to a service from the Add Connection page of the Add L3VPN wizard (Orchestration > Service > Instances > L3VPN).

  [See Configure Resource Pools for Resource Instances and Add L3VPN Site and Site Network Access Details.]

• Control route advertisement using eBGP AS path filtering—Use the Reject eBGP Learned Routes option on the Add L3VPN wizard (Orchestration > Service > Instances > L3VPN > VPN Service) to prevent the advertisement of routes learned from eBGP peers. When this option is enabled, the autonomous system (AS) path entries configured in the AS Paths table are included in the rejection list and are not advertised. By default, the rejection list also includes peer autonomous system numbers configured on the Add Connection page of the Add L3VPN wizard (Orchestration > Service > Instances > L3VPN > Customer Site Settings) for the BGP protocol. This feature provides additional control over which routes are advertised.

  [See Add an L3VPN Service Instance.]

Network Optimization

Routing Director's network optimization use case helps you optimize resource utilization, boost network performance, and ensure reliable, efficient data delivery. By using an intent-based approach, Routing Director optimizes the network through active life cycle management of label-switched paths (LSPs).

You can create a path intent using the Routing Director GUI. Path intents are specific LSP configurations that define how traffic is steered through the network. In traditional methods, you configure and provision each path in a tunnel individually with all its attributes. With path intent, you can create sub-profiles of attributes that can be reused for creating paths. This modular approach reduces redundancy and streamlines the process of provisioning multiple tunnels.

When you apply the path intent to the network, Routing Director interprets these intent-based sub-profiles and automates the creation, modification, and deletion of tunnels and LSPs. By autonomously executing the required actions, Routing Director aligns the network state with the specified intent. Routing Director ensures that LSPs are established based on network policies, traffic engineering constraints, and service level agreements (SLAs).

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional network optimization features:

• Enhanced filtering options to improve topology map organization—You can declutter your network topology map on the Topology page (Observability > Network > Topology) by using the following options that are available when you right-click the topology map:

  • Grouping > Auto Grouping—Automatically group devices into device groups by defining site rules and regular expressions. You can also group the devices manually using the Group Selected Devices option.

  • Grouping > Devices & Groups—View the device groups and ungrouped devices.

  • Show Filtered Devices in Map—View only those devices filtered in the Device tab on the topology map. You can reset the topology map by using the Show All Devices and Links option.

  • Layout > Calculate Layout—Reorganize the topology map to reduce clutter.

  • Hide Unrelated on Selection—Hide the unrelated devices, links, tunnels, demands, and Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLGs) from the topology map. This option enables you to focus on the selected components of the topology map.

  • Blur Unrelated on Selection—Blur the unrelated devices, links, tunnels, demands, and SRLGs from the topology map. This option enables you to focus on the selected components of the topology map without removing the unrelated components.

  [See View Network Topology Details.]

• View comprehensive details for nodes, clustered nodes, and bundled links—On the Topology page (Observability > Network > Topology), you can view the various details:

  • In Node View, hover over a node to see details such as hostname, IP address, MAC address, management IP address, model name, serial number, and site.

  • In Cluster View, hover over clustered nodes to view component nodes, device IP address, model name, and site. Hover over bundled links to see endpoints, interface identifiers, and link utilization.

  By hovering over nodes, clustered nodes, or bundled links, you gain faster access to critical topology and device information without navigating away from the topology map.

  [See View Network Topology Details.]

Planner

Planner is used for offline visualization and detailed architectural planning of any production network. Planner enables you to forecast the impact of changes to your network, such as additional traffic, shifts in traffic flows, and new capacity or services.

Planner generates a topology view of a network, enabling you to add, remove, and reconfigure network elements. Using the network topology view, you can model and visualize dynamic, explicit routing paths, designed to operate within end-user defined constraints. The effects of these changes and other traffic scenarios can be simulated without affecting the production network.

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional planner features:

• Enhanced filtering options to improve topology map organization—You can declutter your network topology map on the Offline Models page (Planning > Offline Models > Working-Model > Open > Offline Models) by using the following options that are available when you right-click the topology map:

  • Grouping > Auto Grouping—Automatically group devices into device groups by defining site rules and regular expressions. You can also group the devices manually using the Group Selected Devices option.

  • Grouping > Devices & Groups—View the device groups and ungrouped devices.

  • Show Filtered Devices in Map—View only those devices filtered in the Device tab on the topology map. You can reset the topology map by using the Show All Devices and Links option.

  • Layout > Calculate Layout—Reorganize the topology map to reduce clutter.

  • Hide Unrelated on Selection—Hide the unrelated devices, links, tunnels, demands, and Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLGs) from the topology map. This option enables you to focus on the selected components of the topology map.

  • Blur Unrelated on Selection—Blur the unrelated devices, links, tunnels, demands, and SRLGs from the topology map. This option enables you to focus on the selected components of the topology map without removing the unrelated components.

  [See View Network Topology Details.]

• View comprehensive details for nodes, clustered nodes, and bundled links—On the Offline Models page (Planning > Offline Models > Working-Model > Open > Offline Models), you can view the various details:

  • In Node View, hover over a node to see details such as hostname, IP address, MAC address, management IP address, model name, serial number, and site.

  • In Cluster View, hover over clustered nodes to view component nodes, device IP address, model name, and site. Hover over bundled links to see endpoints, interface identifiers, and link utilization.

  By hovering over nodes, clustered nodes, or bundled links, you gain faster access to critical topology and device information without navigating away from the topology map.

  [See View Network Topology Details.]

• View link utilization changes on the topology map using the enhanced link change report—Use the enhanced Link Change report to view and analyze utilization changes resulting from a what-if failure simulation directly on the topology map (Planning > Networks > Offline Models > Model-Name > Open). Select the Demand or Tunnel layer to view layer-specific utilization data. Additionally, you can switch between Util and Diff views to see either the updated utilization values or the difference between the original and updated utilization values, respectively.

  After you run the what-if failure simulation, access the Link Change report tab from the Reports page (Planning > Networks > Offline Models > Model-Name > Open > Simulation > Reports).

  This view helps you identify links affected by what-if failure simulation, compare utilization changes across layers, and assess the impact of simulated device, link, or SRLG failures more effectively.

  [See About the Reports Page (Offline Topology Map).]

Active Assurance

Active Assurance is a programmable test and monitoring solution that generates synthetic traffic across underlay and overlay networks (for example, L3VPN), to provide continuous insights into network quality, availability, and performance. Active Assurance uses Test Agents, which are measurement points in your network. Test Agents generate and receive synthetic traffic, and enable you to continuously monitor and validate the infrastructure. You can deploy Test Agents at strategic locations in your network and install them on routers running Junos® OS Evolved, x86 hardware, or on virtual machines (VMs). Routing Director uses RPM to collect metrics data for Juniper Networks® MX Series Universal Routers and Juniper Networks® PTX Series Routers.

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following additional Active Assurance feature:

• Manually specify an IP address for a Test Agent interface—You can now manually enter an IP address for a selected Test Agent interface, bypassing the restriction of using only IP addresses reported by the Test Agent. By manually specifying the IP address, you can:

  • Configure Measurements before deploying the Test Agent, that is, even when no IP addresses have been reported yet.

  • Configure third-party devices that don't report interface IP addresses to Routing Director.

  • Configure the Test Agent's IP address even before its status changes to online.

  To manually specify an IP address, use the Clients field on the Plug-in-Name page (Observability > Active Assurance > Measurement Designer > + Create blank Test or Monitor > Task > Plug-in-Name).

  [See Supported Plug-ins.]

LLM Connector

LLM Connector is an AI-driven capability integrated with Routing Director that enables users to interact with their network through natural language queries. It securely connects to large language models (LLMs) to provide actionable insights, generate configuration recommendations, and assist with troubleshooting. By simplifying access to network intelligence, LLM Connector allows operators to monitor and troubleshoot networks without relying on traditional command-line interface (CLI) commands.

There are no new features in Release 2.10.0.

Administration

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following administration-related feature:

• Replace a device in your network—A superuser can replace a device in the inventory with another device of the same model, software version, and hardware configuration. When replacing a device, Routing Director copies all configurations under the paragon-service-orchestration group from the old device to the new device..

  To replace a device, use the Replace Router option present on the Inventory page (Inventory > Devices > Network Inventory > More). If the replacement operation fails, you can retry the operation using the Retrigger Device Replacementoption under More. This option enables you to resume and complete the device replacement without having to restart the process.

  [See Replace a Device.]

Juniper Routing Director Installation

Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0 provides the following installation-related feature:

• Upgrade Routing Director from any cluster node of release 2.9.0—You can upgrade Routing Director to release 2.10.0 from any cluster node (primary or worker) if you are upgrading from release 2.9.0. If you are upgrading from release 2.8.0 or earlier releases, you must upgrade from the installer primary node.

  [See Upgrade Routing Director.]

Beta Features

There are no Beta features in Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0.

Deprecated Features

The following features are deprecated in Juniper Routing Director Release 2.10.0:

• Interfaces Accordion—The Interfaces accordion on the Test Agent-Name page (Inventory > Test Agent > Test Agent-Name) is no longer available. Interface-related details continue to be available on the Interfaces tab of the Test Agent-Name page, which is unaffected by this change.

• SHA1-based Webhook signature header—The SHA1-based X-Mist-Signature header is deprecated due to weaker security of the SHA1 hashing algorithm. Webhook requests now include the following headers to indicate the deprecation:

  Update your webhook validation logic to use theX-Mist-Signature-v2 header, which uses the HMAC-SHA256 algorithm, and discontinue reliance on the legacy X-Mist-Signature header. Migrating to X-Mist-Signature-v2 ensures uninterrupted webhook validation when the legacy header is retired.

• Deprecated APIs—The following MAC address-based device APIs have been deprecated:

  • /orgs/{org_id}/devices/{mac}/applications

  • /orgs/{org_id}/devices/{mac}/remote_management/health

  • /orgs/{org_id}/devices/{mac}/profile/state

  • /sites/{site_id}/devices/{mac_id}/inventory

  Instead, use the equivalent UUID-based APIs by replacing {mac} and {mac_id} with {uuid} in the request path.