Summarized on September 30, 2026
The Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay network bring-up process is divided into a user-driven portion and an automatic portion. [1] The user portion involves planning the network, creating device configurations, deploying virtual machine instances for control components, and configuring certificates. Once hardware routers are powered on and connected to the WAN, the Plug and Play (PnP) process takes over, allowing devices to authenticate and receive their full configurations from Cisco SD-WAN Manager without further manual input.
The high-level steps to bring up the overlay network are:
- Start Cisco SD-WAN Manager, configure certificate settings, and generate a certificate.
- Start Cisco SD-WAN Validator, add it to the overlay network, and generate and install its certificate.
- Start Cisco SD-WAN Controller, add it to the overlay network, and generate and install its certificate.
- Upload the router authorized serial number file, mark routers as Valid, and create and attach configuration templates.
- Connect AC power to hardware routers and boot them; they automatically join the overlay network via PnP.
For the PnP process to succeed, the edge router at the site must be able to reach the PnP server via DNS, and a network cable must be connected to the designated PnP interface. When a hardware router powers on, it contacts a DHCP server, resolves the PnP server hostname, connects to the PnP server, authenticates with the SD-WAN Validator, and then receives its full configuration from SD-WAN Manager. For isolated sites without internet access, a Day-0 bootstrap configuration file can be generated from SD-WAN Manager and applied via USB or console to onboard the device manually.
For branch deployments where automated DHCP is unavailable and WAN uplinks require static IP addressing, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager provides the Quick Connect workflow to expedite onboarding:
- In Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, navigate to the Quick Connect onboarding workflow and select the target router from your authorized device inventory.
- Assign the appropriate Configuration Group or Device Template to the router.
- Define baseline device parameters, including system IP, site ID, host name, static WAN interface IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway.
- Generate and download the bootstrap configuration file (cisco_bootstrap.cfg).
- Copy the bootstrap file to the root directory of a FAT32-formatted USB drive, insert it into the WAN Edge router, and power on the device.
- The router boots, reads the static IP configuration from the USB drive, establishes reachability to the SD-WAN Validator, authenticates, and connects to SD-WAN Manager to receive its complete configuration.