What is the role of vBond in the SD-WAN fabric provisioning process?

• A. It authenticates and bootstraps devices into the fabric to enable enrollment
• B. It routes user traffic
• C. It replaces vManage for control plane
• D. It acts as firewall

Answer: (A)

In SD-WAN fabric provisioning, the first step for a new device is to bootstrap and authenticate so it can enroll in the fabric. vBond serves as the initial rendezvous and authentication point. When a device powers up, it uses bootstrap credentials or certificates to prove it’s allowed to join. vBond validates the device and then directs it to the correct control-plane endpoint (the vSmart controllers) and helps establish the secure control-plane path. This enables the device to enroll and obtain its fabric configuration from the management plane through the vSmart/vManage trio.

vBond isn’t responsible for routing user traffic, nor does it replace the management plane. Its job is to enable enrollment and orchestration by authenticating the device and guiding it to the appropriate control-plane peers. It also assists with establishing initial connectivity in environments with NAT or dynamic addressing. The actual data-plane routing and policy distribution happen through the other fabric components (vSmart and vManage), not by vBond.