Network · 5 min

SD-WAN spoke readiness checklist

Most turn-up problems are not the tunnel. They are power, addressing, or missing ownership of alerts. Use this before the truck leaves.

1. 01Confirm power and rack/space for the edge device.
2. 02Primary and backup uplink circuits tested end-to-end.
3. 03IP addressing plan: LAN, management, and any transit VLANs documented.
4. 04DNS and NTP reachable from the spoke after tunnel up.
5. 05Firewall / security policy template assigned and reviewed.
6. 06Monitoring thresholds and alert routing defined (who gets paged).
7. 07Failover test plan: primary cut, recovery, and expected RTO.
8. 08Local contact and remote hands process written down.
9. 09Config backup and change window agreed.

Starlink or cellular backup changes the failure modes — test both paths and document which applications are allowed on the backup path.