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- So let's go over what is pxGrid.

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And basically pxGrid stands
for the platform exchange grid.

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And it's a technology

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that Cisco created to
integrate Cisco products

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like the Cisco identity service engine

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with third party solutions.

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And it basically,

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it allows you to maintain
threat visibility

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and accelerates the
capabilities of instant response

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in order for you to of course,
detect, investigate, contain

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and recover security incidents.

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Right? So now the Cisco pxGrid
provides a unified method

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of publishing and subscribing
to relevant context, you know

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with the platforms that
actually support it

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for those third party integrations.

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So for example, you can
actually integrate, you know

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non Cisco products with the Cisco eyes

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and other Cisco products as well.

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Now I have provided here a
few links that provide detail

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information about pxGrid and
the supported integration.

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However, I also want to at least, you know

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go over a few of the highlights

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of the protocol and also
invite you to visit Devnet

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as I've been reminding
you throughout the course

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because you actually
have different exercises

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that you can actually
complete and tons and tons

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of details on how to
actually use pxGrid with ice.

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And also with, you know,
other implementations

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using web sockets, using
rest APIs, using things

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like the stump protocol or the
simple text oriented message

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protocol. And they also have,
you know, XMPP examples and

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and some other ones.

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Now, as far as the architecture, let's go

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over the architecture.

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Now, in this example, I have a
high level architecture where

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two pxGrid servers, basically
controllers, communicate

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with different participant notes, right?

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Now in pxGrid.

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A participant note does
not communicate directly

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with pxGrid server.

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Basically they make
programmatic calls to the grid

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client library or GCL, right?

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And then the GCL will actually
communicate and connect

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to the pxGrid server.

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Now some deployments may actually
have only a few notes, but

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in large organizations, we may
actually encounter thousands

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upon thousands of notes, right?

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So it, it can actually
scale, you know, fairly

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fairly significantly.

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Now there are two different
types of pxGrid clients.

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A pxGrid, service consumer,
and a pxGrid service provider.

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Now here I'm actually
illustrating or, you know

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demonstrating the typical
pxGrid, client flow.

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Now all pxGrid clients
need to authenticate using

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certificate based
authentication or using a user

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name and password, right?

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Now you can generate passwords
with a pxGrid account

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create API.

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However, SSL based authentication we use

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in certificate is far more
secure or stronger, right?

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And it is recommended by Cisco

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as the way to authenticate
pxGrid clients, right?

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So at all possible, you know

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if you can actually
perform certificate bases

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as authentication,
definitely do that, right?

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Now in Cisco ice, you can generate

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and reuse certificates for
pxGrid clients as well.

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Now, all pxgrid clients must request to

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activate their accounts on the
pxGrid server via REST API.

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And these clients poll

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on this REST API call
using an enabled message

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that is actually received from the server.

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Now, service providers use the register

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and on register service APIs to provide

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and update the necessary URLs

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from which their services
are basically accessible

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for other pxGrid clients.

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All the clients use the server lookup API.

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And basically this is
actually done to dynamically

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discover all available provider services

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and their locations.

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Now pxGrid clients can then
perform rest based API queries

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via the service query and subscribed API

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or they can actually
build socket connections

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to receive, you know, information
from these participants.

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Now Cisco provides sample Java go

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and Python code that can be obtained

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from this (inaudible)
repository that I'm highlighting

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in the screen.

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You don't actually have to go

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into the details and,
you know, because some

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of the concentrations
exams like the S auto, and

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of course the CCIE go into
very, very detailed, you know

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examples and expect you to
actually program in there.

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But at least at the, for the core exam

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you need to become familiar

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with the high level
architecture of pxGrid.

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What are the pxGrid servers
and clients and controllers

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and also, you know, at least
recognize some example code

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on what is actually doing.

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And in this case, of course, you know

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to integrate with different
APIs, like the Cisco is API.