Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Control Components and Device Management Guide, Releases 26.x and Later

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CLI templates for Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices

Updated: June 9, 2026

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Describes CLI templates, one method of configuring Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices.

Describes CLI templates, one method of configuring Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices.

You can configure CLI templates for Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices in the following ways:

Note

If you generate a CLI template in a higher version of Cisco SD-WAN Manager and then try to apply it in a lower version, it may not be supported depending on the configuration. In this case, Cisco SD-WAN Manager might also deny access and generate an error message. It is recommended that you use a CLI template generated in an earlier version of Cisco SD-WAN Manager. For example, if you are using Cisco vManage Release 20.7.x, you can use a CLI template generated in Cisco vManage Release 20.6.x and earlier releases.

Benefits of CLI templates

  • You can reuse any Cisco vEdge-specific Cisco SD-WAN Manager feature templates for Cisco IOS XE Routers. When you create a device template using Cisco XE SDWAN Feature Templates, Cisco SD-WAN Manager displays the intent-based configuration (vEdge CLI syntax) and the corresponding device-based (Cisco XE SDWAN Routers) configuration. You can examine the intent-based configuration and repurpose that to create a separate CLI template for XE SDWAN routers.

  • You can make multiple changes to a CLI template in a single edit.

  • You can use a single configuration across multiple devices of the same device models. Variables can be used for rapid bulk configuration rollout with unique per-device settings. Common configurations like system-IP, site-id, hostname, IP addresses, and so on, can be defined as editable variables in the template and the same template can be attached to multiple devices.

  • You can define custom length for variables in CLI Templates.

  • You can use any existing IOS-XE device intent configuration as input for CLI template.

  • Content of a CLI template can be used across multiple IOS-XE device types (common CLIs like VPN, VPN interface, BGP, OSPF and so on).

Restrictions of CLI templates

Auxiliary ports: When using a CLI template for Cisco Integrated Services Routers that have an auxiliary port, do not include commands for auxiliary ports, such as line aux 0. Doing so results in an error. These commands may be executed directly on the device.

When you import the CLI template configuration using the command, show sdwan running-config, you need to add quotes manually for the CLI template on the Cisco SD-WAN Manager.

From Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN Release 17.12.x, policies configured using a Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller template are ignored. To configure policies, navigate to Configuration > Policies > Custom Options > CLI Policy, add the policy and activate it for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller.