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Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
This document describes the features, limitations, and bugs for Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1.
Note: Catalyst Center Global Manager 1.2.1 is available in a phased rollout. Until the software becomes generally available, contact your Cisco sales representative to request this release.
Catalyst Center Global Manager is a platform that provides you with a single-pane-of-glass (SPoG) interface to easily manage multiple Catalyst Centers. Catalyst Center Global Manager integrates information from various Catalyst Center platforms into a single display.
For example, you might have several Catalyst Centers deployed throughout your enterprise, each serving a particular region. Instead of logging into each Catalyst Center separately, you can connect the Catalyst Centers to a single Catalyst Center Global Manager and monitor everything from there.
The benefits of Catalyst Center Global Manager are:
● Improved efficiency: By combining information and tools into a unified interface, IT teams can perform tasks more quickly without switching between systems.
● Improve Service Level Agreements (SLA): With a focus on Time to Resolution (TTR) metrics, Catalyst Center Global Manager improves SLAs without requiring an unsustainable increase in network management teams, even as the network footprint expands.
● Enhanced visibility: Catalyst Center Global Manager provides a comprehensive view of operations, allowing for an easier way to monitor and manage resources, identify issues, and make informed decisions.
● Simplified management: Centralizing control reduces complexity, making it easier for IT staff and managers to oversee systems and processes.
● Scalability: A single-pane-of-glass system scales to accommodate growth or changes within the organization.
Catalyst Center Global Manager allows you to:
● View network status changes summaries
● Monitor these summaries:
◦ Routing
◦ Switching
◦ Wireless
◦ Endpoints
◦ Software-Defined Access
Catalyst Center Global Manager provides a complete solution for managing global and large-scale deployments through a single, universally accessible dashboard. This platform provides an overview of network health across all branch offices and delivers full-stack visibility into campus, policy, and WAN environments. It also supports a global search of different Catalyst Center deployments, and their devices, endpoints, or users, allowing seamless cross-launch into Catalyst Center. This capability is especially beneficial for managing distributed, high-scale systems, ensuring network consistency and operational efficiency. It is ideal for large-scale networks, geographically dispersed networks, and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) with multiple Catalyst Center instances.
Catalyst Center Global Manager supports monitoring up to 25 controllers and 10 active users. Controllers will continue to function normally, monitoring and controlling their respective networks.
This section provides a brief description of the new and changed software features introduced in this release.
Table 1. New software features in Catalyst Center Global Manager 1.2.1
Product impact |
Feature |
Description |
Ease of setup |
First-time setup |
For the first-time setup on Catalyst Center Global Manager, registration of Catalyst Center with Catalyst Center Global Manager happens automatically using the Smart Account (SA)/Virtual Account (VA) workflow. Note: The first-time setup requires you to create and place an order to obtain a license through the Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW). After the license is obtained, a profile is automatically created in the Cloud Registration Service (CRS) dashboard. You can then use the same account to log in to the dashboard. For more information, see "Create an order and automatic generation of profile" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. |
Ease of setup |
Navigation after first-time setup |
After the first-time setup is completed, the streamlined enrollment navigation in Catalyst Center Global Manager allows you to identify and manage the absence of controllers. By default, this navigation shows an overview with workflow instructions for controller registration, system and activities. After the first-time setup, if you log in to the Catalyst Center controller, you are provided with general instructions to enroll a controller if there is no controller enrolled. After the controller is enrolled, all the Catalyst Center Global Manager features get enabled for the user. |
Ease of setup |
Controller registration |
Catalyst Center Global Manager allows you to:
● Register controllers with the Catalyst Center Global Manager using the account that you used for ordering the Catalyst Center Global Manager license through CCW.
For more information, see "Create an order and automatic generation of profile" in the
Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide.
● Register controller from Catalyst Center: There are two ways you can register a controller from Catalyst Center.
◦ Go to the Global Manager Integration settings window and click Enroll. At the cisco.com login, authenticate and register to Catalyst Center Global Manager. ◦ Go to the Cisco Catalyst Center settings page > Cisco Catalyst Cloud and click Register. A cisco.com login prompt will appear for authentication. After logging in, proceed to the Global Manager Integration settings window to enroll the controller in the Catalyst Center Global Manager. Note: Enroll with a cisco.com registered email. You will see a toast notification in Catalyst Center Global Manager for the newly enrolled controller, with a Refresh link to update the page and view data from the enrolled controller.
● Unenroll or enroll controller registration from the Global Manager Integration settings page in the controller.
● Deregister the Catalyst Center Global Manager from Cisco Catalyst Cloud settings page to unenroll all the controllers from Catalyst Center Global Manager and to unclaim the profile automatically from the CRS portal.
|
Ease of use |
Controllers |
The Controllers page provides detailed information on all registered Catalyst Center controllers. There are two ways to navigate to the Controllers page. From the Overview page, click the controller health status. Alternatively, from the System > Controllers page. Then select the controller name for more detailed information. Cross-launch is also supported by the Controllers page. Click the Controller name to view its details or cross-launch for more information. |
Ease of use |
Site Hierarchy selector |
The Site Hierarchy selector in Catalyst Center Global Manager offers an aggregated view of all sites across different controllers. When multiple controllers share the same site (for example, Global/USA/East Coast), those sites are combined and presented as a single node in the site selector. The content displayed on the pages will be filtered based on the site that you select. The Site Hierarchy selector lists the first 100 nodes at each level. You can search for a specific site by entering a string and then click Enter or the Search button to initiate the search. For more information on Site Hierarchy and Refresh Site Hierarchy, see "Site Hierarchy" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. You can rename sites in the Site Hierarchy from Site management for all related controllers. Note: You can only rename the buildings and areas; the global site and floors cannot be renamed. You can edit the sites if they are included in the site hierarchy, regardless of whether they are fabric sites or non-fabric sites. There is no support for fabric zones. It takes around 15 to 30 min for the new site name to reflect changes to propagate in controller assurance dashboard and also in overview and second-level pages in Catalyst Center Global Manager. |
Ease of use |
Overview |
The Overview of the Catalyst Center Global Manager now includes controller health and additional details about individual controllers. If you click on the controller's health status, it will direct you to the Controllers page with filtered data based on your selection. Catalyst Center Global Manager Overview page allows you to monitor these components on the network from all controllers enrolled in the Catalyst Center Global Manager:
● View the summaries on network status changes
◦ Critical Alerts ◦ Major Alerts ◦ Poor Sites
● Monitor the summaries and health of the devices:
◦ Routing: gives the health details about total alerts, alerting sites, physical, and virtual router device types. ◦ Switching: gives the health details about total alerts, alerting sites, core, distribution, and access switches. ◦ Wireless: gives the health details about minor alerts, alerting sites, wireless controllers, and access points. ◦ Endpoints: gives the health details about total alerts, alerting sites, wireless, and wired. ◦ Software-Defined Access: gives the health details about the fabric entities such as fabric sites, transits, Layer 3 Virtual Networks, and Layer 2 Virtual Networks. Note: If you click on any card or issue count, you will be directed to the corresponding second-level pages such as Alerts, Device Infrastructure > Health, Device Infrastructure > Software-Defined Access, and Endpoints where you can view the relevant details. Click Refresh to load the latest data from the controllers. Even after clicking Refresh, there is a lag of 20 minutes between an event occurring on the network and that event becoming visible in Catalyst Center Global Manager.
● Click
Customize to rearrange the dashlets within the monitoring sections.
● If a loading complete ERROR alert occurs, click the Loading status icon to view the error from the failed controller.
|
Software reliability |
Alerts |
The Alerts feature in Catalyst Center Global Manager allows you to view and explore details about network alerts that require your attention. This includes information on different alert types and analytics, highlighting the top site groups and segment types of individual alert. The alerts are categorized into these levels:
● Critical
● Major
● Minor
● Informational
To access more details about a specific alert, click any alert name under the Alert types at the bottom of the page. Additional information is displayed in the side panel. |
Ease of use |
Enhanced error reporting in user interface |
As part of Catalyst Center Global Manager enhancements in this release, a page level error reporting across all second-level pages is introduced. Enhanced error reporting displays various error messages specific to second-level pages such as unreachable controller, unauthorized user, insufficient permissions, and similar errors. You can view the number of errors that may require your attention. Click Expand to view details to view the details and click Collapse to details to close the view details. |
Ease of use |
Device health |
The Health in Catalyst Center Global Manager provides filtered details of health for each device, ensuring that all devices are functioning optimally and securely. To view the health status of each device, navigate to the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard and click Device Infrastructure > Health. The health status categories are:
● Poor health: Devices with a health score range from 1 to 3.
● Fair health: Devices with a health score range from 4 to 7.
● No health data: Devices with no data.
● Good health: Devices with a health score range from 8 to 10.
To see more information about a specific device, click the device name on Devices to cross-launch or navigate to their respective controller Device 360 page. |
Ease of use |
Software-Defined Access health |
The Software-Defined Access in Catalyst Center Global Manager provides filtered details of each Software-Defined Access health, ensuring that all the fabric sites, transits, layer 3 virtual networks, and layer 2 virtual networks are functioning optimally and securely. To view the health status of each fabric site, navigate to the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard and click Device Infrastructure > Software-Defined Access. The health status categories here are similar to those found in Device Health. To see more information about a specific fabric site, click the fabric site name or transit name or layer 3 virtual network or layer 2 virtual network on to cross-launch or navigate to their respective controller. |
Ease of use |
Endpoints |
Endpoints are now available on the second-level page of the Catalyst Center Global Manager apart from the endpoints dashlet on the Overview dashboard. It gives the health details about both wireless and wired endpoints. Both the wireless and wired endpoints populate top site groups and top metrics information. The Endpoints page, like other second-level pages in the Catalyst Center Global Manager, also provides additional health categories. To see more information about a specific endpoint, click the Endpoint name on the Endpoints page of wireless or wired endpoints to cross-launch to their respective controller page. To see more information about Connected AP, click the Access Point (AP) name on the Endpoints page wireless endpoints to cross-launch to their respective controller Device 360 page of the specific AP page. Similarly, to see more information about Connected Switch, click the connected switch name on the Endpoints page wired endpoints to cross-launch to their respective controller Device 360 page of the specific controller switch page. |
Ease of use |
Situational dashboard (beta) |
A situational dashboard enables you to design custom pages using pre-built dashlets available in Catalyst Center Global Manager. For more information, see "Situational Dashboard" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. |
Ease of use |
Create new notification |
Catalyst Center Global Manager provides you with the support to trigger notifications when certain events occur. To create a new notification, navigate to the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard and click Workflows > Create a New Notification. You can choose these notification channels:
●
EMAIL: Send an email notification.
●
PAGERDUTY: Post event notifications to PagerDuty.
●
REST: Send data via HTTP push API.
●
SNMP: Send data via an SNMP trap.
●
SYSLOG: Send data to a Syslog server.
●
WEBEX: Post event notifications to Webex.
|
API experience |
Developer toolkit |
The developer toolkit is designed to help you, and developers create and manage applications within the Catalyst Center Global Manager environment. To view the developer toolkit, navigate to the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard and click Platform > Developer Toolkit. This toolkit provides a new set of intent APIs:
● Authentication
● Event Management
● Know Your Network
● Site Management
● System
For more information on these APIs, see or download Swagger docs available on the APIs GUI. |
Ease of use |
Activities |
The Activities page allows you to view the audit log details of Catalyst Center Global Manager. To view the audit logs, navigate to the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard and click Activities > Audit Logs. It provides this information:
● Created date and time
● Description
● Category
● Severity
● User
For more information, see "Activities" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. |
Ease of use |
System 360 view |
The System 360 provides detailed information about the services running on the Catalyst Center Global Manager. You can use this information to assist in troubleshooting issues with specific applications or services. In the Catalyst Center Global Manager, the system 360 GUI support only monitoring under the cluster tools. In the Catalyst Center Global Manager, the System 360 GUI offers a view of cluster-level services under hosts and allows monitoring of services through cluster tools. It also provides system management operations such as software management and information about backups. Within backups, you can view the NFS storage configuration. Therefore, the supported functionalities are:
● Hosts
● Cluster Tools
● Software Management
● Backups
|
Ease of use |
System Health view |
From this release, the System Health section on the System page provides a topology view of the enrolled controllers, allowing you to view details and cross-launch to the respective controller system health page as needed. |
Ease of use |
Software management |
Catalyst Center Global Manager allows you to view all newly installed applications and track release activities, including the history of operations such as upgrades, package downloads, and downgrades. |
Software reliability |
Backup and restore |
Backups in Catalyst Center Global Manager includes system-level settings and information about enrolled controllers. Catalyst Center Global Manager allows both Network File System (NFS) and local backup to be configured in the backup configuration. It schedules a backup with 2 options: Now or Daily. Backups can be executed instantly or set to run on a predetermined schedule. Backups can either be restored to the same Catalyst Center Global Manager or restored to a different Catalyst Center Global Manager in the same train. |
Ease of use |
Settings |
Catalyst Center Global Manager provides you with these details:
● Certificates
● External Services
● System Configuration
● Terms and Conditions
● Trust and Privacy
For more information, see "System" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. |
Ease of use |
Users and roles |
Catalyst Center Global Manager uses both users and roles to manage access to the controller functionality. You can create users using the existing default roles. So, based on the users and roles, you can access the Catalyst Center Global Manager functionality, provided the same user has the required privilege on the controller side. On installation of Catalyst Center Global Manager, a user with super-admin privilege is created. The user in super-admin role will have the ability to create local users on Catalyst Center Global Manager. Note: Catalyst Center Global Manager does not provide support for creating custom roles. It only supports the built-in roles: (SUPER-ADMIN, NETWORK-ADMIN, and OBSERVER). Additionally, external authentication mechanisms are supported for Catalyst Center Global Manager logins.
● The
SUPER-ADMIN-ROLE has full control over the Catalyst Center Global Manager deployment, with all access permissions enabled.
● The
OBSERVER-ROLE has read-only access and cannot view certain sensitive data within the system settings.
● The
NETWORK-ADMIN-ROLE is a general-purpose role that does not have the capability to alter system configurations.
|
Ease of use |
Cross-launch |
Cross-launch is a single sign on authentication of the controller using the same login user as the Catalyst Center Global Manager. The Catalyst Center Global Manager enhancements eliminate confirmation pop-up windows when cross-launching to a specific page of the selected controller from the Catalyst Center Global Manager dashboard. This change enables faster navigation to the respective controllers. Cross-launch is available from all pages within the Catalyst Center Global Manager. |
Ease of use |
Global search across all controllers |
In Catalyst Center Global Manager, the feature for global search across all controllers has been upgraded to offer more comprehensive and efficient search capabilities. This enhancement now supports application, site and user-specific data. Catalyst Center Global Manager supports these global search categories:
● Devices
● Endpoints
● Applications
● Sites
● User
For more information, see "Global search" in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide. |
This Catalyst Center Global Manager release has no resolved bugs.
This software release may contain open bugs that apply to the current release and to earlier releases where they were first identified. To see additional information, click the bug ID to access the Cisco Bug Search Tool.
Open issues in Catalyst Center Global Manager
Table 2. Open issues for Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Bug ID |
Description |
When you attempt to cross-launch to the Catalyst Center 2.3.7.9 (both on-premises and virtual appliance) and 3.1.1 controllers, a 404 error may occur if the target controller has been logged out at least once in the browser tab where the Catalyst Center Global Manager GUI was accessed. |
|
The device health analytics filter in the Catalyst Center Global Manager is not working properly for devices with a "global" site type. This means that you may not be able to accurately filter or view the health analytics data for devices that are globally managed and currently unassigned within the system. |
|
Buildings created directly under the "Global" category in the Catalyst Center Global Manager cannot be selected using the site selector. |
|
The backup file size is not displayed for the Catalyst Center Global Manager backup as the backup size is calculated based on the disk size rather than the size at the folder level. |
|
The controller cross-launch from Catalyst Center Global Manager experiences a delay of over 20 seconds. |
|
The situational dashboard in Catalyst Center Global Manager currently lacks cross-launch support for dashlets when users click on text within the chart or data. |
|
The situational dashboard in Catalyst Center Global Manager does not display API failures for the failed controller. |
|
An error message appears repeatedly on the second-level page when switching between filters. |
|
The notification sent from Catalyst Center Global Manager to Webex is missing the IP address or hostname of the controllers, making it less effective in providing insight into which enrolled controller is affected. |
|
The notification sent from Catalyst Center Global Manager to Webex are missing key details such as the issue name, IP address and other relevant information that would make the notifications more informative and actionable. |
|
Use the Catalyst Center clients/summaryAnalytics API for the Catalyst Center Global Manager/query total count to verify that underlying queries are consistent. |
|
Client physical link connectivity on Catalyst Center Global Manager does not align with Catalyst Center for clients that are down. |
|
Clicking on a specific site within the poor sites card does not display any error after the controller goes down and comes back online. |
|
The description in the Platform Developer Toolkit is displaying 'wireless' for a switching API. |
|
The total number of Software-Defined Access fabric sites displayed is inconsistent when the user navigates from the overview page to the Software-Defined Access second-level page. |
|
Clicking on a specific site in the poor sites card does not generate any error when the controller goes down and then comes back up. |
|
The total count of Software-Defined Access fabric sites shows a mismatch, displaying higher numbers in the total matching results when navigating from the overview page to the Software-Defined Access second-level page. |
|
Capability to unregister a controller from Catalyst Center Global Manager if a registered Catalyst Center crashes or is unable to recover. |
|
When a proxy is configured with a '/' in Catalyst Center Global Manager, internet connectivity fails, preventing Catalyst Center Global Manager from reaching the cloud service and registering with CRS. |
Open issues in Catalyst Center which impacts Catalyst Center Global Manager
Table 3. Open issues for Catalyst Center impacting Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Bug ID |
Description |
The Alerts dashboard displays two critical alerts. However, when you look at the detailed table, only one of these alerts is listed. The Catalyst Center controller within the Catalyst Center Global Manager has a Priority 1 (P1) alert indicating that the "assurance telemetry status is poor." Despite this, there is no corresponding alert about this issue displayed in the Catalyst Center Global Manager. |
|
Selecting a site "Alaska" shows buildings which are not present in the selected site when multiple sites have the same prefix name (for example, Alaska, Alaska Airlines, and so on). |
|
SummaryAnalytics API intermittently fails due to incomplete or unavailable data. |
|
3-node scale cluster intermittently shows "Failed to load data" for Software-Defined Access and "Partial data loaded" for Network status in the home dashboard Loading status. |
|
Network status change is not getting updated when site is renamed for long time. |
|
The Endpoints Wireless client table on the second-level page shows no entries when health data is unavailable. |
|
Major alerts count is not shown in Catalyst Center Global Manager overview page when selecting site filter in network status change. |
|
The number of Endpoints Wireless clients shown in the health card does not match the total number of results displayed. |
|
The network summary in Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager fails to load for a 7-day time range, displaying the error: 'DSL query failed. |
This table lists the limitations for this release.
Table 4. Known issues for Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Issue |
Description |
Unsupported features |
Catalyst Center Global Manager does not support IPv6, FIPS, the Disaster Recovery variant of Catalyst Center, or air-gapped clusters. |
Limitation with Webex notifications |
The Webex notification for events does not show controller names or controller IDs. |
Usage of the same Smart Account (SA) and Virtual Account (VA) |
You need to use the same SA and VA that was used for ordering the Catalyst Center Global Manager license when integrating both the Catalyst Center Global Manager and the controller with Cisco Catalyst Cloud. This consistent use of the same SA/VA is required for successful integration and registration of Catalyst Center with Catalyst Center Global Manager. |
Catalyst Center Global Manager supports these form factors:
● Cisco Catalyst Center on-premises appliance (single node and three node)
● Cisco Catalyst Center on ESXi (single node)
This table shows the minimum supported compatibility for Catalyst Center Global Manager.
Table 5. Compatibility information for Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Controller |
Supported Release |
Catalyst Center |
2.3.7.9 |
Compatible browsers
The Catalyst Center Global Manager GUI is compatible with these HTTPS-enabled browsers:
● Google Chrome: Version 134 or later.
● Mozilla Firefox: Version 120.0.1 or later.
Screen resolution:
● Minimum: 1368 x 768 pixels
● Recommended: 1920 x 1080 pixels
We recommend that the client systems you use to log in to Catalyst Center Global Manager be equipped with 64-bit operating systems and browsers.
For Catalyst Center Global Manager scale numbers, see “Scale numbers” in the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide.
This section provides information about the release packages associated with Catalyst Center Global Manager.
Table 6. Packages for Catalyst Center Global Manager, Release 1.2.1
Package name |
Release 1.2.1 |
Release Build Version |
|
Release Version |
1.2.1-307234 |
Core |
|
System |
3.1.59 |
Core Platform |
0.10.187 |
Identity and Access Management |
5.4.43 |
Platform |
|
Managed Services |
0.10.19 |
Gateway Services |
0.10.8 -1 |
Core Addons |
0.10.42 |
Platform UI |
3.5.142 |
Identity and Access Management - UI |
5.4.25 |
DxHub Cloud Connectivity |
6.10.32 |
Cloud Connectivity |
6.10.11 |
Enterprise Integration |
6.9.42 |
API Catalog |
4.3.10 |
System Management Operations |
1.6.46 |
Telemetry |
4.7.18 |
Cloud Connectivity - Contextual Content |
7.0.7 |
RCA-Scripts Package |
0.5.6 |
Network Experience Platform - Core |
2.732.67038 |
Federation |
|
Federation |
2.732.306280 |
System Health |
2.732.65248 |
Assurance |
3.130.16038 |
See the Cisco Catalyst Center Global Manager Deployment Guide for additional information and guidance while deploying Catalyst Center Global Manager or getting started with the product.
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