Cisco Catalyst Center Administrator Guide, Release 3.2.x

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Enable visibility and control of configurations

Updated: July 7, 2026

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With the Visibility and Control of Configurations feature, you can enforce the previewing of device configurations and require ITSM approval before deploying them into your network. This feature allows you to further secure your devices.

The Visibility and Control of Configurations feature provides a solution to further secure your planned network configurations before deploying them on to your devices. With enhanced visibility, you can enforce the previewing of device configurations (CLI and NETCONF commands) before deploying them. Visibility is enabled by default. When visibility is enabled, you cannot deploy your device configurations until you review them. With enhanced control, you can send the planned network configurations to IT Service Management (ITSM) for approval. When control is enabled, you cannot deploy the configurations until an IT administrator approves them.

Note

If a provisioning workflow supports Visibility and Control of Configurations, this banner message displays when you schedule the deployment of your task:

This workflow supports enforcing network administrators and other users to preview configurations before deploying them on the network devices. To configure this setting, go to System > Settings > Visibility and Control of Configurations.

Before you begin

Make sure that ITSM is enabled and configured in Catalyst Center so that you can enable ITSM Approval. For information about how to enable and configure ITSM, see “Configure the Catalyst Center Automation Events for ITSM (ServiceNow) Bundle” in the Catalyst Center ITSM Integration Guide.

Procedure

1.

From the main menu, choose System > Settings > System Configuration > Visibility and Control of Configurations.
2.

Click the Configuration Preview toggle button to enable or disable visibility.

Enabling visibility means you must preview the device configurations before deploying them.

Disabling visibility means you are not enforcing the previewing of device configurations before deploying them. When visibility is disabled, you can schedule and deploy the configurations with or without previewing them.
3.

(Optional) Click the ITSM Approval toggle button to enable or disable control.

Enabling control means you must submit the planned network configurations to an ITSM administrator for approval before deploying them.

Disabling control means you are not requiring ITSM approval before the deployment of planned network configurations. When control is disabled, you can deploy the configurations without ITSM approval.

View, search, and filter for task and work item details

You can view, search, and filter for task and work item details on the Tasks window.

Procedure

1.

From the main menu, choose Activities > Tasks.

By default, the Tasks window displays all the upcoming, in-progress, failed, and successful tasks and existing, pending-review, and failed work items. All failed tasks have a trace ID that provides a hint to analyze the error log quickly. The left SUMMARY pane displays filtering options for you to refine the list of displayed tasks and work items. You can expand and collapse the SUMMARY pane by clicking the arrow icon.
2.

Use this table to view, search, and filter for task and work item details on the Tasks window.

Action

Steps

Filter for specific task and work item details.

  1. In the SUMMARY pane, under Type, click Task to filter for only tasks or Work Item to filter for only work items.

  2. Filter for task and work item details using the filter options available under Status, Review Status, Last Updated, Categories, and Recurring.

    The Tasks window displays the results of applied filters.

    Tip

    Under Categories, you can search for a specific category by clicking Show all and using the Search field.

Remove an applied filter.

  1. In the SUMMARY pane, under FILTERED BY, click x next to the applied filter.

    The Tasks window displays the results of removing the filter.

  2. You can also remove the Status, Review Status, and Categories filters by unchecking the check boxes.

Search for a task and work item by title or username.

By default, the Search field, searches tasks and work items by description. If any filters are applied when you search for a task or work item, the system searches within the applied filters. For example, if you applied the In Progress filter and search for all tasks and work items with “provision” in the name, the system searches only in-progress tasks and work items for this keyword.

  1. In the Search by description field, enter a description of the task or work item.

    The Tasks window displays the filtered list of tasks and work items based on the entered description.

  2. To search by username, in the Search field, do the following:

    1. Click the filter icon.

    2. Click username.

    3. Enter a username in the Search by username field.

    4. Click Apply.

Sort the list of tasks and work items.

By default, the tasks and work items are listed by when they were last updated. You can sort tasks and work items by their start time or update time.

  1. To the right of the Search field, hover your cursor over the sort drop-down list and choose a sorting option.

    The Tasks window displays the sorted list of tasks and work items based on the chosen sorting option.

View, edit, stop, and delete tasks

You can view information about all the upcoming, in-progress, failed, and successful tasks running on Catalyst Center.

A task is an operation that you or the system scheduled, which can reoccur. If you have a task, this means that you have no corresponding work items to complete for it to deploy as scheduled.

The information available in a task depends on its category, and there are a variety of categories. Common task categories include provision, config archive, inventory, and security advisories. However, all tasks display the following details: who initiated the task, its category, its completion status, its success status, and its start date, last updated date, and end date.

Procedure

1.

From the main menu, choose Activities > Tasks.

By default, the Tasks window displays all the upcoming, in-progress, failed, and successful tasks and existing, pending-review, and failed work items.

Note

If you enabled Site Settings for multiple devices in different time zones in a task, the Starts field displays the start time of the device in the earliest time zone based on your local time zone. For example, let’s say that you are in the Pacific Time Zone, and you have two devices scheduled to deploy on May 8, 2024, at 12 PM. One device is in San Jose, CA, and the other device is in Bengaluru, India. The Starts field displays May 8, 2024, at 12:00 PM, because your local time zone aligns with the device in the earliest time zone. If you are in Bengaluru, India, this field displays May 9, 2024, at 12:30 AM, because your local time is 12 hours and 30 minutes ahead of the device in the earliest time zone.
2.

Use this table to view, edit, or delete a task on the Tasks window.

Action

Steps

View a task.

  1. Click the task name to open a slide-in pane with more information.

    The task details depend on what type of task you’re viewing.

  2. In the slide-in pane, depending on the details displayed, you can do the following:

    • View device and provisioning details by clicking Device Details or Provision Details.

    • View more information about in-progress, completed, and failed tasks by clicking View Details or See Details.

    • Search for a task using Search Table.

    • Filter for a task using the filter icon in the top-right corner of the table.

    • Download an error report of a failed task by clicking Download Error Report.

      A tar file is created and saved to your local machine.

      Tip

      While creating a support case, you can attach the downloaded error report in addition to other details you may want to include.

Edit the schedule of a recurring task.

  1. Locate the task and click Edit.

  2. In the Edit Schedule slide-in pane, define the Start Date and Start Time.

  3. Using the Recurrence toggle button, click a recurrence interval.

  4. In the Run at Interval field, enter a value.

  5. (Optional) To schedule an end date and time for this task, do the following:

    1. Check the Set Schedule End check box.

    2. To end the task on a specific date, click End Date and choose the date.

    3. To end the task after a number of occurrences, click End After and in the Occurrences field, enter a numerical value.

  6. Click Preview to review the changes in the table.

  7. Ensure the table’s listed Site Time (the device’s time zone) and Local Time (your time zone) for each device reflect the intended scheduled time

  8. When you're ready, click Save.

Stop a task.

  1. Click the task name to open a slide-in pane with more information.

  2. Click Stop.

    Note

    Stop is disabled if the provisioning workflow doesn’t support this capability.

  3. In the Stop dialog box, click Yes to confirm the stoppage of the task.

    A task can only be stopped when it is in progress. When the system starts configuring devices, the task can't be stopped. Only the devices pending provisioning are stopped.

Delete a task.

  1. Locate the task and click Delete.

View and discard work items

If you enabled the Visibility and Control of Configurations feature, a work item is created when you choose Generate configuration preview during any workflow. When the configurations are reviewed and ready for deployment, the work item becomes a task.

To enable Visibility and Control of Configurations, see Enable visibility and control of configurations.

Procedure

1.

From the main menu, choose Activities > Tasks.

By default, the Tasks window displays all the upcoming, in-progress, failed, and successful tasks and existing, pending-review, and failed work items.
2.

Use this table to view and discard a work item on the Tasks window.

Action

Steps

View a work item.

  1. In the SUMMARY pane, under Type, click Work Item.

    The Tasks window filters for and displays only work items.

  2. Click the work item name to open a slide-in pane with more information.

    The first listed device's configuration preview is displayed.

  3. In the slide-in pane, you can do the following:

    • Preview a device's configurations by choosing a device in the left pane.

    • Filter the data in the configuration preview pane with the View by Configuration Source drop-down list.

    • View a side-by-side comparison view of the planned configuration and the running configuration or view only the planned configuration by clicking the view switcher ().

      Note

      Viewing YANG configurations in the side-by-side comparison view isn’t supported.

    • Click one command in one configuration to highlight the corresponding command in the other configuration when you’re in the side-by-side comparison view.

      Note

      Keep the following limitations in mind:

      • The system supports only side-by-side highlighting for first-level commands, not sublevel commands.

      • All commands must be a complete match for the system to display the side-by-side highlighting between configurations.

      • If you click any commands starting with No in one configuration, the system will ignore the No portion when checking for a match in the other configuration.

    • Search for a value in the displayed configuration with the Search configuration field.

    • Display the workflow progression view for the selected device by clicking Back to workflow progress in the top-right corner of the right pane. To return to the configuration preview pane, click Go to generated config.

      Note

      Back to workflow progress and Go to generated config are only available if the workflow supports the workflow progression view.

Discard a work item.

  1. Locate the work item and click Discard.

    You can also click the work item name to open a slide-in pane and then click Discard.

  2. In the Discard dialog box, do one of the following:

    • If you want to discard the work item and return to the current activity, click Discard.

      Note

      Discarding the work item means you can't recover it later.

    • If you want to retain any generated configurations and discard all other resources, check the Retain generated configs (if any) check box and click Accept.

      After retaining any generated configurations and discarding all other resources, the work item displays Exit instead of Exit and Preview Later because you've previewed all the configurations and chosen to discard the nongenerated ones.

      Tip

      Consider retaining any generated configurations and discarding all other resources if a configuration preview fails so that you or your IT administrator can further inspect the issue.

What to do next

To deploy the previewed device configurations or submit the planned network configurations for ITSM approval, see "Visibility and Control of Configurations Workflow," “Visibility and Control of Wireless Device Configurations,” or “Visibility and Control of Fabric Configurations” in the Cisco Catalyst Center User Guide.