New and Changed Information
The following table summarizes the new and changed features in Catalyst Center 2.3.7.5 and tells you where they are documented.
Feature | Description | ||||
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Enhancements to the AP Refresh Workflow |
The Access Point Refresh workflow now supports the following:
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 the following circumstances only:
See About Inventory. |
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Enhancements to Device Upgrade Readiness Check |
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Enhancements to Editing LAN Automated Devices |
In the Edit Devices window, you can now edit the hostname for the devices that are discovered through LAN automation. See LAN Automation 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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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 a Cisco AP—Day 1 AP Provisioning, 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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SD-Access Compatibility Check |
A device is added to the SD-Access fabric only if the device runs a software release that is compatible with the Catalyst Center release. See Add a Device to a Fabric, Add a Device as a Border Node, 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. See Visibility and Control of Wireless Device Configurations. |
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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. See Visibility and Control of Device Configurations, Visibility and Control of Wireless Device Configurations, and Visibility and Control of Fabric Configurations. |
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Support for Third-Generation Catalyst Center Appliances |
Catalyst Center now supports the following 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 Layer 2 Configuration of a Device, 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. See, Add a Third-Party Device. |
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Weak Crypto Check |
To ensure a secure network connection Catalyst Center performs 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, Add a 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. |
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Enhancements to the 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. See the "Upgrade the Current Witness Site" topic in the Cisco Catalyst Center Administrator Guide, Release 2.3.7.x. |
The following table summarizes the new and changed features in Catalyst Center 2.3.7.4 and tells you where they are documented.
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 model configurations) or during AP provisioning (without model configurations). 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 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 |
Following are the 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 the following 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 performs 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 Fabric Devices |
To ensure the network devices (before and after a fabric deployment) are compatible with the recommended or supported software image versions based on the Catalyst Center package version, Catalyst Center performs an Image Compatibility check to evaluate the network devices. 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.
See Visibility and Control of Device Configurations, Visibility and Control of Wireless Device Configurations, and Visibility and Control of Fabric Configurations. |
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Usability Enhancements to Support Service |
Support Service has the following enhancements:
See View the Remote Support Authorization Dashboard, Configure SSH Credentials, 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. |