Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN AppQoE Configuration Guide, Release 26.x and Later

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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN AppQoE Configuration Guide, Release 26.x and Later

AppNav-XE components

Updated: March 10, 2026

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Describes the AppNav cluster, controllers, WAAS nodes, WCM, and vManage components.

An AppNav-XE component is a part of an AppNav-XE deployment that

  • groups AppNav controllers and WAAS nodes at a site,

  • intercepts network traffic and distributes it to one or more WAAS nodes for optimization, or

  • configures, manages, or monitors AppNav controllers and WAAS nodes.

AppNav-XE components

  • AppNav Cluster: A group of all AppNav controllers and WAAS nodes at a site. Typically, each enterprise site, such as branch and data center, has an AppNav cluster.

  • AppNav Controller: A device that intercepts network traffic and, based on an AppNav policy, distributes that traffic to one or more WAAS nodes (WNs) for optimization. The device in this context is a Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN device running AppNav-XE.

  • WAAS Nodes: Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) nodes or service nodes are WAAS optimization engines or vWAAS instances that optimize and accelerate traffic based on the optimization policies configured on the device.

    Note

    WAAS service nodes are outside the scope of this document.

  • WAAS Central Manager (WCM): WCM devices host WCM, a Web-based interface that allows you to configure, manage, and monitor AppNav controllers and WAAS nodes in your network. In AppNav-XE for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, WCM communicates with Cisco SD-WAN Manager, which is the network management system used to configure Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices. Cisco SD-WAN Manager then pushes the AppNav-XE configuration to the Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices. However, WAAS nodes in an AppNav cluster still receive their configuration through WCM. Monitoring of WAAS nodes and AppNav-XE on Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices is done directly through WCM.

  • Cisco SD-WAN Manager: This is the primary management system in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. Therefore, WCM sends the AppNav-XE configuration to Cisco SD-WAN Manager, which in turn pushes it to the AppNav-XE controllers.