This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
MPLS is a private service with a contract. SD-WAN is an overlay that may ride internet circuits. They can also be combined. The cost calculator drafts a comparison from numbers you type. It is not a quote.
Write the application that cares: voice, a backup, or ordinary web. A cheaper path that misses the delay budget is not cheaper for voice.
Do not cancel a circuit from this page. A migration is a project with a rollback to the path you still have.
One application, one site. The rest of the WAN can wait.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the application and the site.
- Write the delay and the bandwidth it needs.
- Draft a cost with labeled guesses.
- Say which path meets the delay.
- Do not cancel a circuit.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
SD-WAN vs MPLS goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A circuit cancelled from a draft.
- Voice and bulk backup given the same path without a sentence.
- Guesses presented as a quote.
- Every site redesigned.
Decisions to write down
One decision for SD-WAN vs MPLS: One application is named. The need is delay or size. The cost is labeled a draft. No circuit was cancelled. And one site.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The choice is a sentence. The draft numbers are marked as guesses. The current path remains. No order was sent. And a second person can name the application. If one of those fails, stop.
One application. A draft is not a quote.
Do not cancel a circuit from this page.Before you leave the device
SD-WAN vs MPLS ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
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