In this post, I’ll walk you through the integration of Arista CVP Studio with the DMF Controller.
As explained in my previous post about Arista CVP Studio, Studio is used to automate configuration deployment to Arista EOS switches in modern data centers.
Arista Networks previously acquired Big Switch Networks, a pioneer in network visibility and SDN (Software-Defined Networking) solutions. The Big Switch technology has now evolved into Arista DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) — a powerful, scalable platform for packet brokering and network traffic analysis.
DMF Topology Overview
A typical DMF topology consists of a DMF switch, Controller, Service node, Analytics node, and Recorder node, all working together to deliver advanced packet capture and traffic analysis capabilities.
In production networks, administrators must configure SPAN sessions (mirroring) to send traffic to DMF switches.
While SPAN configuration on a single device is straightforward, managing it across large-scale environments with dozens or hundreds of switches can be complex and time-consuming.
This is where automation becomes essential — and Arista CloudVision Portal (CVP) provides it through CVP Studio, enabling centralized configuration management and policy deployment.
Topology
DMF Contoller Policy Configuration
Click Integration>CloudVision Portal in DMF Controller and required information
Click Monitoring>Policies in DMF Controller , then create a policy as below
Policy will have SPAN config as below in its configuration part:
Checking CVP Studio
You will see workspaces in CVP as below, when you create or delete policy in DMF Controller:
Configuration Output in Arista Production Switch
CVP Studio will be triggered by DMF Controller when policy is created. Then configuration of SPAN will be as below in production switch automatically: Keep in mind that production switches must be sync as config and defined under inventory and topology studio of CVP.
Benefits
You can configure and push span config to large network via DMF Controller automatically.
The DMF Controller automatically detects the DMF switch port that corresponds to the destination port of SPAN config on the production switch. It then automatically sets that port to filter mode on DMF Controller. Otherwise, you have to configure it manually for each filter port on DMF Controller.