Configuring the SaaS Express Policy

You can create a policy for a SaaS application that is present in HPE Aruba Networking Central. By default, Branch Gateways support a set of applications and application categories. The built-in application and application category lists include a set of SaaS applications; for example, Adobe, DropBox, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Slack, Webex, and so on. A default application profile is configured for the SaaS applications that are already available on the Branch Gateways.

To create a SaaS Express policy, complete the following steps:

  1. In the WebUI, set the filter to a group that contains at least one Branch Gateway.

    The dashboard context for a group is displayed.

  2. Under Manage, click Devices > Gateways.

    A list of gateways is displayed in the List view.

  3. Click the Config icon.

    The gateway group configuration page is displayed. SaaS Express configuration is available in both the Basic Mode and Advanced Mode. The Advanced Mode is recommended as it provides all the options.

  4. Click WAN > SAAS Express.
  5. Click SAAS Application.
  6. In the SAAS application with optimized routing table, click + to add a new application profile.

    The Create New Application section is displayed.

  7. Configure the following parameters:
    • Application—Select the application from the drop-down list.
    • Mode—Select one of the following modes of deployment for the SaaS application:
      • Optimize—Optimizes the performance of the SaaS application by steering traffic and finding the best exit for the SaaS application (This option requires an Advanced Gateway license). The probing frequency used in this mode is two probes for every 10 seconds.
      • Monitor—Monitors the SaaS application performance by actively probing the application probe-URI to gather performance statistics on all the available uplinks. However, the performance of your SaaS applications is not optimized. The probing frequency used in this mode is two probes for every 60 seconds.
    • Exit Profile—Select an exit profile. The exit profile allows you to define an exit criterion for SaaS application traffic based on the best available path. The exit profile defines a primary link for all SaaS application traffic, and secondary and tertiary uplinks as fallback options if the primary path does not meet the SLA configured for the SaaS application. By default, the BestforSaaS exit profile is available on Branch Gateways. You can also configure a custom exit profile and associate it with the SaaS application profile.
    • SLA—Select an SLA profile.

      Click show more to display all the parameters.

    • FQDN—Add the FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name. FQDN is a complete domain name that identifies a computer or host on the Internet. of the SaaS application site.
    • Health check URI—Enter the health check probe URI Uniform Resource Identifier. URI identifies the name and the location of a resource in a uniform format.. Branch Gateways use the health check probe URI to gather a set of servers for the SaaS application.
  8. Click Save Settings.

The following figure illustrates the predefined SaaS application profile creation workflow.

Figure 1  SaaS Express Policy Creation

To know how to monitor your SaaS applications, see SaaS Express Monitoring Dashboards.