Cisco Catalyst 8500 and 8500L Series Edge Platforms Software Configuration Guide

Deploy IOS-XE and SD-WAN

Updated: February 6, 2026

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Overview

Autonomous or controller mode
Switch between controller and autonomous modes
PnP discovery process

Overview

Explains how to manage device operation modes using a single software image. Learn how to switch between autonomous and controller modes to enable SD-WAN functionality or utilize the Plug and Play discovery process for automated mode selection. You can use the universalk9 image to deploy both Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN and Cisco IOS XE on Cisco IOS XE devices. This helps in seamless upgrades of both the SD-WAN and non SD-WAN features and deployments.

Autonomous or controller mode

Access the Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN functionality through Autonomous and Controller execution modes, respectively. The Autonomous mode is the default mode for the routers and includes the Cisco IOS XE functionality. To access Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN functionality switch to the Controller mode.

For more information, see Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.

Switch between controller and autonomous modes

The default mode of the device is autonomous mode. Use the controller-mode command in Privileged EXEC mode to switch between controller and autonomous modes.

The controller-mode enable command switches the device to controller mode.

The controller-mode disable command switches the device to autonomous mode.

For information see Cisco SD-WAN Getting Started Guide

PnP discovery process

You can use the existing Plug and Play Workflow to determine the mode of the device.

The PnP-based discovery process determines the mode in which the device operates, based on the controller discovery and initiates a mode change, if required. This discovery is based on the controller profile attached to the device UID in the smart account/virtual account. The mode change results in a reboot of the device. Once reboot is complete, the device performs appropriate discovery process.

Plug and Play (PnP) deployment include these discovery process scenarios:


Boot up mode	Discovery process	Mode change
Automomous	Plug and Play Connect Discovery or on-premise plug and play server discovery	No Mode change
Controller	Plug and Play Connect Discovery or on-premise plug and play server discovery	Mode change to autonomous mode

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