Techniques are disclosed for providing a Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller with real-time or near-real time visibility of the operation of data center fabrics to determine whether the DCI was properly configured. For example, an SDN controller receives high-level configuration data that describes a desired state of a network managed by the SDN controller at a high level of abstraction. The SDN controller applies a transformation function to the high-level configuration data to generate a low-level configuration data for network devices configured to implement the desired state of the network. SDN controller configures the SDN controller as a peer to the network devices to obtain one or more routes exchanged between the network devices. The SDN controller sends the low-level configuration data to the network devices to cause the network devices to implement the desired state of the network.