New and changed information
Feature | Description |
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Support for new APs for Wi-Fi 7 configuration |
Catalyst Center supports these APs for Cisco IOS XE Release 17.17.1 or later:
See Configure APs, Schedule recurring events for APs, and Supported hardware platforms. |
Enhancements to AFC integration with Standard Power Mode |
Catalyst Center supports configuring AP geolocation parameters through the AP configuration workflow. You can view and edit geolocation parameters for eligible APs, which are utilized for Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC). In addition, Catalyst Center supports new APs to be configured with AFC. |
Install applications in bulk using CSV |
Catalyst Center enables bulk installation of applications on multiple APs. |
File share support |
Catalyst Center supports the setup of NFS, Microsoft Windows, and HTTP-based file shares. In the Cisco Catalyst Center Administrator Guide, Release 2.3.7.x, see the "Set up a file share" section. |
Feature | Description |
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Requirement to Reauthenticate Cisco.com and Smart Account Credentials After Upgrade |
After you upgrade to Catalyst Center 2.3.7.9, you must reauthenticate your Cisco.com credentials (under ). To add a new user or change to a different user, you must open a private or incognito browser window (to avoid using previously cached credentials). To change the user, you must delete that user. Then, open a private or incognito browser window, click Add, and add the user. Then, under Add, enter the email address that's tied to your Cisco.com account. , link your Smart Account user and your Smart Account name to your Smart Licensing account. To add a Smart Account user, use a private or incognito browser window (to avoid using previously cached credentials). After you clickIf this Smart Account user now appears in both the Smart Account Credentials section and the Expired Smart Accounts section, you must delete it from the Expired Smart Accounts section. |
Enhancements to the Mobility Tab in the Device Details Window |
In the device details window, the Mobility tab for wireless controllers is now moved under the CONFIGURATION area. |
Enhancements to Wireless Automation to Support Cisco Networking Subscription Licenses for Wi-Fi 7 APs |
Wi-Fi 7 APs use the Cisco Networking Subscription (CNS) licenses. Wireless automation includes these enhancements to support the CNS licenses for these APs:
In the dialog box, you can click License Manager to open the License Manager window and enable the required licenses. See Display information about your inventory, Configure APs, Provision a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller, Provision Cisco APs on day 1, and Enable the Wi-Fi 7 configuration. |
Support of Mixed HA Clusters |
Catalyst Center 2.3.7.9 adds support for mixed three-node clusters that have HA enabled. A mixed cluster consists of both second- and third-generation Catalyst Center appliances. For more information, see the "Supported Appliances" topic in the Cisco Catalyst Center High Availability Guide. |
Enhancements to Wireless Maps to Support MLO Clients |
Wireless maps include these enhancements to support multilink operation (MLO) clients:
See 2D map toolbar, 3D wireless map toolbar, and Display details about APs and clients. |
Enhancements to Wireless Maps to Support CNS Licenses |
Wireless maps include these enhancements to support the CNS licenses:
See View a 2D wireless heatmap and 2D map toolbar. |
Enhancements to Wireless Maps GUI |
Catalyst Center enhances user experience in the window by adding Wi-Fi Band attribute in the hover-over menu, and details slide-in pane for Access Points. |
Learn Device Configuration Workflow Updates |
Learning the device configurations using these options is being deprecated:
To manage the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers with existing configurations, you can use the per-device configurations. See Provision Cisco AireOS controllers in the existing deployment, Configure Cisco Wireless Controllers on the existing infrastructure, Migrate Cisco AireOS Controller to Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller using Catalyst Center, and Learn device configurations from devices with pre-existing infrastructure. |
Support for Per-Device Configuration on Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers |
The Per-Device Configuration feature on Catalyst Center enables you to customize individual features or parameters for a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller running Cisco IOS XE Release 17.12 or later. By default, this feature is disabled for the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers on Catalyst Center. You can enable it using the Enable Per-Device Configuration option on the device details window. See Display information about a device and Per-Device Configuration for a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller. |
Parallel Redundancy Protocol |
The Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) provides high availability in Ethernet networks. This technology suits a variety of critical infrastructure and heavy industries that require continuous, high availability operation. See Parallel redundancy protocol and View the PRP topology status. |
Update Fabric Site for Fabric Events |
For fabric events such as IP address pool modification or addition of new stack members or line cards on existing devices in the fabric, a banner message is displayed in the fabric site window to reconfigure and update the fabric. See Reconfigure a fabric and Configure an authentication template for the fabric site. |
Feature | Description | ||
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12-Hour or 24-Hour Clock Format |
You can set a 12-hour or 24-hour display format for time across the GUI. |
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Automated Tagging for Flapping APs |
In earlier releases, flapping APs triggered traps that resulted in continuous synchronizations of the associated wireless controller to update the AP information. Effective with this release, Catalyst Center automatically tags flapping APs to discard any events on the AP and prevent unnecessary wireless controller synchronization. If the AP doesn't flap for 10 minutes, Catalyst Center automatically untags the AP. |
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Auto Locate APs on a Floor Map |
Using the Auto Locate Access Points feature, you can automatically position and locate APs on a floor map.
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Collect Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Data of Provisioning Failure |
The Support Bundle enables you to collect the RCA of provisioning failure and upload the RCA file to a Cisco TAC service request. See Collect and upload provisioning failure root cause analysis data. |
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Compliance Support for Out-of-Band Configuration Changes |
Catalyst Center allows you to view the details of an out-of-band configuration change. The details include username, IP address, terminal name of the user, configuration method used, and the event of the configuration change. |
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Device-Level Validations Precheck |
Catalyst Center does a Device Level Validations precheck before deploying the configuration on the devices. The check identifies and flags these issues:
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Enforcement of Group-Based Policy for VNs |
Catalyst Center provides an option to enable or disable the enforcement of group-based policies for your virtual network (INFRA_VN). |
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Enhancements to AP Discovery |
Effective with this release, the time taken for AP discovery is reduced. Catalyst Center can now discover the APs that have newly joined a wireless controller using an SNMP trap. |
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Enhancements to IOS CLI Generation in Configuration Preview for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller |
Effective with this release, you can now generate IOS CLI from YANG configuration in the configuration preview for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers running Cisco IOS XE Release 17.15.1 or later. |
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Enhancements to Enable Application Telemetry Workflow |
The Enable Application Telemetry workflow now supports:
See Enable Application Telemetry and Enable application telemetry for wireless controllers. |
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Enhancements to Fabric Site Configuration Update Messages |
The Fabric Sites window provides information on the outstanding configuration updates for one or more sites along with the available grace period to apply the updates. See Fabric site updates. |
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Enhancements to Remote LAN Configuration |
The Configure RLAN workflow has these enhancements:
See Configure Remote LAN. |
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Enhancements to Remote Support Authorization |
You can now create a remote support authorization without the SSH credentials and assign access roles for the Cisco specialists. See Create a remote support authorization and View the remote support authorization dashboard. |
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Enhancements to SSIDs for Multiband Operations Using the 6-GHz Band on Cisco IOS XE Devices |
For multiband operations using 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, and 6-GHz bands, these enhancements are introduced:
See Create SSIDs for an enterprise wireless network and Create SSIDs for a guest wireless network. |
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Enhancements to the Wireless SSID Workflow |
In the wireless SSID workflows for the enterprise and guest wireless networks, the settings are restructured to improve the usability. The workflows also have these enhancements:
See Create SSIDs for an enterprise wireless network, Configure site-level overrides for an SSID for enterprise networks, Create SSIDs for a guest wireless network, and Configure site-level overrides for an SSID for guest networks. |
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Factory Reset for APs |
Using the Factory Reset feature, you can clear the configurations on the APs. These options are available for resetting the APs:
After the AP configurations are cleared, the APs reboot. See Reset APs. |
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Media Redundancy Protocol (MRP) Ring |
Catalyst Center supports MRP ring for Cisco Industrial Ethernet (IE) 3000, 4000, 5000 Series Switches. MRP provides fast convergence in a ring network topology for Industrial Automation networks. See MRP ring for nonfabric deployment and View MRP ring status for nonfabric deployment. |
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SD-Access Application Scale Check |
The scale thresholds for fabric sites are monitored periodically and the status is displayed in the Fabric Sites window. See Fabric scale checks. |
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Support for New APs for the Wi-Fi 7 Configuration |
Catalyst Center supports these APs for Cisco IOS XE Release 17.15.2 or later:
These APs support the 320-MHz channel width for the 6-GHz band. See Configure APs, Schedule recurring events for APs, and Supported hardware platforms. |
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Support for Visibility and Control of Configurations for the Cisco Wireless Controller High Availability Configuration |
The Visibility and Control of Configurations feature is now supported for the wireless controller High Availability (HA) configuration. This feature is supported on Cisco AireOS Wireless Controllers and Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers. With enhanced visibility, you can enforce the previewing of device configurations before deploying them. With enhanced control, you can ensure only authentic and authorized configurations are provisioned onto your network devices through an IT Service Management (ITSM) check. See Configure high availability for the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller, Configure Cisco Wireless Controller HA, and Disable high availability configured device in the existing deployment. |
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Switch Refresh Workflow |
Catalyst Center supports refresh of Cisco Switches. Switch Refresh workflow allows you to replace an old switch with a new switch. Currently switch refresh is available for Cisco Catalyst 3650 and Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switches running on Cisco IOS XE. See Switch refresh. |
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View Device Certificate Status |
You can now view the device certificate status on the Catalyst Center home window, Device Certificate Issues tile. The detailed view is displayed on window, under the Certificate Status column. |
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Wi-Fi 7 Configuration on Catalyst Center |
Catalyst Center supports the Wi-Fi 7 configuration for the devices that are running Cisco IOS XE Release 17.15.2. To enable the Wi-Fi 7 configuration:
See Create an 802.11be profile, Create a feature template for Dot 11be status configuration, Add SSIDs to a network profile, Create a wireless radio frequency profile, Create an AI radio frequency profile, Upgrade a basic radio frequency profile to an AI radio frequency profile, and Enable the Wi-Fi 7 configuration. |
Feature | Description | ||||
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Enhancements to the AP Refresh Workflow |
The Access Point Refresh workflow now supports:
See AP Refresh workflow. |
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Enhancements to Configuring Global Device Credentials |
On the Device Credentials window, you can now only assign and unassign device credentials to and from sites. On the Manage Credentials slide-in pane, you can manage your device credentials using the Focus drop-down list. Depending on which focus you choose (Current site or System), you can perform specific actions. |
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Enhancements to Custom AP Groups and Flex Groups for Cisco AireOS Wireless Controller |
Instead of configuring and applying the newly added custom groups to the APs during wireless controller provisioning, Catalyst Center now configures and applies them during AP provisioning. Effective with this release, you can use the same AP groups and flex groups across multiple sites for Cisco AireOS Wireless Controller.
See Overview of AP groups, flex groups, site tags, and policy tags and Custom AP group and flex group reuse examples. |
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Enhancements to Device Onboarding and the Discovery Workflow |
The Add Device option in the Catalyst Center Inventory is enhanced to include options for adding both new and existing devices. The discovery workflow includes enhancements, such as:
See: |
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Enhancement to Device Resynchronization |
Prior to this release, restarting the inventory service would trigger resynchronization for all devices in the inventory. With this release, device resynchronization is triggered after the inventory service restart under these circumstances only:
See About Inventory. |
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Enhancements to Device Upgrade Readiness Check |
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Enhancements to Disaster Recovery Witness Site Upgrade Process |
Using an SSH client, you can upgrade a disaster recovery system's witness site using the witness upgrade command. In the Cisco Catalyst Center Administrator Guide, Release 2.3.7.x, see the "Implement Disaster Recovery" chapter's "Upgrade the Current Witness Site" topic. |
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Enhancements to LAN Automation Workflow |
The LAN automation workflow has these enhancements:
See LAN automation, Provision a network through LAN automation, Manage devices in strict discovery mode, and Edit hostname and loopback IP address of LAN automated devices. |
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Enhancements to Port Configuration Within Fabric Sites |
The Port Assignment tab for a fabric site now displays the authentication template configured for each port. If you don't configure the authentication template for an individual port, the port inherits these settings from the global authentication template configuration. Inherited settings are displayed with an inherit icon next to the setting. |
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Enhancements to WLAN Profile Name or Policy Profile Name Usage for SSIDs with Site-Level Overrides |
Effective with this release, if an SSID associated with a network profile has site-level overrides, Catalyst Center uses the WLAN profile name or policy profile name from the overridden SSID during wireless controller provisioning for the corresponding sites. This rule applies when the overridden site is associated with the wireless controller's network profiles and is managed by the same wireless controller. See Add SSIDs to a network profile, Configure site-level overrides for an SSID for enterprise networks, and Configure site-level overrides for an SSID for guest networks. |
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Progress Bar Support for Network Devices Provisioning |
The Task Progress bar on window, displays the progress of the ongoing provisioning task for your network devices. See Provision a Cisco sensor SSID for nonfabric deployment, Provision a Cisco AireOS Controller, Provision Cisco APs on day 1, Provision Cisco AireOS controllers in the existing deployment, Configure N+1 high availability from Catalyst Center, Provision a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller, Configure Cisco Wireless Controllers on the existing infrastructure, Provision Embedded Wireless on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches, Provision a Meraki device, Provision a router, Complete the provisioning process, and Visibility and control of device configurations. |
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Enhancements to SD-Access Compatibility Check |
Starting from 2.3.7.5, the SD-Access Image Compatibility Check feature introduced in 2.3.7.4 is enhanced to detect and block the user when a new device is being assigned a fabric role. It does not, however, block the user from any provisioning performed on existing fabric devices. This Add-to-Fabric validation can be turned off from the window. We recommend that you keep this validation turned on.See Add a device to a fabric, Add a device as a border node, and Steps to configure an extended node. |
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SD-Access Application Health Check |
The health of SD-Access application is checked periodically and the status is displayed on the System Health page. See Fabric Health Check. |
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Support for Displaying IOS CLI in Configuration Preview for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller |
For Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers running Cisco IOS XE Release 17.13.1 or later, you can generate IOS CLI from YANG configuration in the configuration preview. |
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Support for Standard Power Service |
For APs with the standard power capability, compliance with FCC regulations requires the activation of Automatic Frequency Coordination (AFC). The Standard Power Service toggle button in the Create Wireless Radio Frequency Profile and Create AI Radio Frequency Profile window enables you to activate AFC for the 6-GHz band within an RF profile.
When you provision the corresponding APs, the Summary window displays the standard power service configuration details. See Create a wireless radio frequency profile and Create an AI radio frequency profile. |
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Support for the Workflow Progression View in Visibility- and Control-Enabled Provisioning Workflows |
If a visibility- and control-enabled provisioning workflow supports the workflow progression view, the Preparing Devices and Configuration Models window displays the steps the system takes to prepare a listed device. |
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Support for Third-Generation Catalyst Center Appliances |
Catalyst Center supports these third-generation appliances, which are based on the Cisco UCS C220 and C240 M6 servers:
For more information, see the Cisco Catalyst Center Third-Generation Appliance Installation Guide, Release 2.3.7.x. |
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Support for Viewing and Editing Layer 2 Configurations of a Device |
You can view and edit the Layer 2 configurations of a device in the Catalyst Center inventory.
See Display information about a device, View and edit layer 2 configuration of a device. |
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Third-Party Devices Support |
Catalyst Center allows third-party devices to populate SNMP MIB-II values. |
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Weak Crypto Check |
To ensure a secure network connection Catalyst Center does a weak crypto check to evaluate the device configuration, and blocks the device provisioning/upgrade/site assignment for devices that are configured only with MD5 authentication for SNMP credentials. This is applicable only for devices with software image version or golden tagged image version 17.14.1 and later. See Discovery credentials, Add a network device, Update network device credentials, Add a compute device, Add a third-party device, Assign an unprovisioned device to a site, Add global SNMPv3 credentials, Provision a switch or router device, Provision a wireless or sensor device and Complete the provisioning process. |
Feature | Description | ||
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Name Change to Catalyst Center |
As part of our vision to converge our products around an integrated platform, we are changing the name of Cisco DNA Center to Catalyst Center in this release. The capability and functionality of Catalyst Center remains the same as Cisco DNA Center. This name change is part of our simplified branding for the Catalyst Center Stack. Cisco is now connecting the power and flexibility of the Catalyst brand across the entire enterprise networking stack with Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA Center), Catalyst Software and Licensing (formerly Cisco DNA Software and Licensing), Catalyst Wireless, Catalyst Switching, Catalyst Routing, and Catalyst SD-WAN (formerly Cisco SD-WAN or Viptela SD-WAN). |
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Enhancements to AP Provisioning for N+1 High Availability |
Effective with this release, if you are using N+1 High Availability (HA) and modify any nonflex SSIDs that are already provisioned on the primary and secondary controllers to flex SSIDs (or conversely), ensure that the states of WLANs are consistent across both the primary and secondary controllers on the corresponding site. |
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Enhancements to Custom Flex Profile Creation |
A custom flex profile is created during Cisco Wireless Controller provisioning (with feature templates) or during AP provisioning (without feature templates). In both scenarios, the custom profile is configured with settings that are similar to the default flex profile except for the Catalyst Center intent configurations. Catalyst Center also provides an option to autogenerate a flex profile name. See Overview of AP groups, flex groups, site tags, and policy tags and Add AP groups, flex groups, site tags, and policy tags to a network profile. |
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Enhancements to Default AP Profiles During Upgrade |
In earlier releases, the default AP profile was pushed to the wireless controller during upgrade. When you upgrade to this release from an earlier version, by default, Catalyst Center doesn't push the default AP profile to the wireless controller. To update the default AP profile on the wireless controller, you must explicitly save it on the window. After you save the default AP profile, if there is a difference between the current wireless controller configuration and the AP profile configuration saved on Catalyst Center, the default AP profile is pushed to the wireless controller during subsequent reprovisioning. See AP profiles. |
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Enhancements to the Embedded Wireless Controller Image Installation for Switches |
These are enhancements to the embedded wireless controller image installation process for switches:
See Add a device to a fabric and Provision Embedded Wireless on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Switches. |
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Enhancements to Preauthentication ACLs |
Preauthentication Access Control Lists (ACLs) have these enhancements:
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Enhancements to the Provisioning of Wireless Changes on Fabric Devices |
If the wireless capability is enabled for a fabric device in the SD-Access device slide-in pane and there are changes in the wireless settings, you must click Configure in the slide-in pane to push the changes to the device.
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Enhancements to the Catalyst Center Home Page |
The Catalyst Center home page displays a new welcome message and displays license and release banner messages relevant to Catalyst Center. The Tools area is removed and is accessible from the menu in the top-left corner. See Default home page. |
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Enhancements to the Menus |
To streamline workflows and standard nomenclature, we changed several menu option names, moved several submenu options, and added a secondary launch point for Interactive Help. The menu option changes include:
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Enhancements to the Configure AI-Enhanced RRM Workflow |
You can configure an AI-enabled radio frequency profile without device provisioning. |
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Enhancements to VLAN ID Configuration for Wireless Interfaces |
In earlier releases, the valid range for VLAN ID for wireless interfaces was from 0 through 4094. Effective with this release, the valid range for VLAN ID for wireless interfaces is from 1 through 4094.
See Create a wireless interface and Configure additional interfaces for a network profile. |
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Device Compliance and Pending Operation Prechecks for a Seamless Deployment |
To ensure a seamless deployment, Catalyst Center does a set of prechecks to ensure that any pending operations that conflict with the current task and any device compliance issues are addressed. |
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Log Collection for a Device |
When a resync is done for a specific device, the debug log is enabled automatically for that device, and XDE and device pack logs are collected. |
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Reconfiguration of a Fabric for IP Address Pool Changes |
When you modify the IP address pools that are used in a fabric, you must reconfigure the fabric.
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Software Image Compatibility Check for SD-Access Fabric Devices |
Starting from 2.3.7.4, Catalyst Center includes a Software Image Compatibility Check for SD-Access fabric devices. This feature checks for software image compliance of devices with fabric roles assigned based on the Cisco SD-Access Compatibility Matrix. This feature also checks for compliance of golden tagged images to ensure that the image version is a supported version as per the matrix. The results of these checks are shown in the Software Image Compliance section, in the Image Compliance column in the inventory window under the Software Images focus, and in the SWIMS Image Update Readiness checks. See Fabric readiness, image compatibility, and compliance checks and Types of compliance. |
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Unsupported SD-Access Configuration Detection on Fabric Devices |
You can detect any unsupported SD-Access configurations on fabric devices using the SD-Access Unsupported Configuration compliance check.
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Usability Enhancements to Previewing Configurations in Visibility- and Control-Enabled Workflows |
When previewing configurations in a visibility- and control-enabled workflow, you can display the device configurations in a side-by-side comparison view.
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Usability Enhancements to Support Service |
Support Service has these enhancements:
See View the remote support authorization dashboard and Create a remote support authorization. |
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Visibility and Control of AI RF Profile Configurations |
With the Visibility and Control of Configurations feature, you can preview AI RF profile configurations and send those configurations to IT Service Management (ITSM) for approval before deploying them. See Configure AI-Enhanced RRM, Assign a location to an existing AI RF profile, and Unassign a location from an existing AI RF profile. |