Summarized on September 30, 2026
To verify active controller status, after the Cisco team has configured and deployed the SD-WAN Controllers, an email containing SD-WAN Manager information is sent. Note: Only Cisco Cloud-Hosted deployments will receive a welcome email. On-premise deployments access the SD-WAN Manager via the local management IP. You then log in to Cisco SD-WAN Manager using the default credentials to begin the onboarding process [1].
To transfer device information from the Cisco Plug-and-Play (PnP) portal to SD-WAN Manager, you must sync your Smart Account or Virtual Account within SD-WAN Manager. This requires Cisco credentials with the Virtual Account administrator role. Note that every time new devices are added to the PnP portal, SD-WAN Manager must be resynced with the Smart or Virtual Account for those new devices to appear.
The authorized WAN Edge serial number list can be retrieved manually or synced automatically from SD-WAN Manager by a user with a valid Cisco account and access to the appropriate Smart Account and Virtual Account. Once the file is uploaded or synced to SD-WAN Manager, it is distributed by SD-WAN Manager to all control components [2]. When loading the authorized serial number list, there is an option to validate devices — if the checkbox to validate is selected before import, all devices are set to Valid by default; if not selected, all devices are Invalid by default and must be individually set to Valid before a router can form control connections and join the SD-WAN network.