Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Multitenancy Guide, Releases 26.x and Later

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Expand a multitenant deployment to support more tenants and tenant devices

Updated: June 21, 2026

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Guides users through expansion of a multitenant deployment, covering prerequisites, restrictions, and the process of scaling from a 3-node cluster to a 6-node cluster.

As a service provider, suppose you have deployed a cluster to the overlay to support up to 100 tenants and 5000 devices. From Cisco IOS XE Release 17.6.3a, Cisco vManage Release 20.6.3, you can expand the Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster and add additional Cisco SD-WAN Controllers to the overlay to support up to 150 tenants and 7500 devices.

Prerequisites to expand a multitenant deployment

A multitenant Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay that supports up to 50 tenants and 1000 devices, deployed according to the steps outlined in the Initial Setup for Multitenancy section of this document.

  • Expand the existing 3-node Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster to a 6-node cluster.

  • To support up to 100 tenants and 5000 devices, you must have 10 SD-WAN Controllers in the overlay. So, deploy 4 SD-WAN Controllers in addition to the 6 existing SD-WAN Controllers in the overlay.

  • To support up to 150 tenants and 7500 devices, you must have 16 SD-WAN Controllers in the overlay. So, deploy 10 SD-WAN Controllers in addition to the 6 existing SD-WAN Controllers in the overlay.

    • Create SD-WAN Controller instances. Refer to the information about deploying an SD-WAN Controller in the Overlay Network Bring-Up Process section of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.

    • Add Cisco SD-WAN Controllers to the overlay network.

    • You can now add more tenants or allow your existing tenants to add more devices subject to the relevant limits.

    • Starting from Cisco SD-WAN Manager Release 20.13.1, you can expand a single node cluster into 3 or 6 node clusters.

Restrictions for expanding a 3-node cluster to a 6-node cluster

You can only expand a 3-node Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster to a 6-node Cisco SD-WAN Manager cluster. Expansion of the 3-node cluster to other cluster sizes is not supported.

Expand a 3-node cluster to a 6-node cluster

Procedure

1.

Download the Cisco vManage Release 20.6.1 or a later release software image from Cisco Software Download.
2.

Create three SD-WAN Manager instances (for example, vManage1, vManage2, and vManage3) by installing the downloaded software image file. Refer to the information about deploying an SD-WAN Manager in the Overlay Network Bring-Up Process section of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.
3.

Complete the following operations on the first through third SD-WAN Manager instances (vManage1 through vManage3 in the example):

  1. Configure the following using the CLI:

    • System IP address

    • Site ID

    • Service Provider organization name (sp-organization-name)

    • Organization-name

    • Cisco SD-WAN Validator IP address

    • VPN 0 Transport/Tunnel interface

    • VPN 0 Out-of-band (OOB) interface: Ensure that you assign a static IP address to this interface. Do not enable DHCP.

    • VPN 512 Management interface

    • Configure only one default route in VPN 0.

    • Do not enable multitenancy on vManage1 through vManage3.

  2. (Optional) Using the CLI, install the Root CA certificate for vManage1.

    Skip this step if you are using a Symantec or Cisco PKI certificate.

  3. Complete these steps through the SD-WAN Manager:

    1. Generate a certificate signing request. Refer to the Certificate Management section of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.

    2. After getting the certificate signed, install the certificate.

    3. Log in to the SD-WAN Manager web application server. Refer to the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager How-Tos section of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.

    4. Ping the OOB interfaces on the other SD-WAN Manager instances and ensure they are reachable.

    5. Configure the cluster IP address of the SD-WAN Manager server. Refer to the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Getting Started Guide.

    Before proceeding to the next step, ensure that the Manager IP Address field on the Administration > Cluster Management page shows the OOB interface address.
4.

Log in to SD-WAN Manager on the existing 3-node cluster and add an SD-WAN Manager instance to the cluster.

  1. The instance reboots before being added to the cluster.

    While the instance is being added to the cluster, on the Administration > Cluster Management page, the Configure Status for the instance shows Pending. You can monitor the System Generated Cluster Sync transaction to check the progress of the adding the instance to the cluster.

    When the operation is completed, on the Administration > Cluster Management page, you can view the instance and its node persona listed along with the three SD-WAN Manager instances that were part of the original 3-node cluster.
5.

Repeat the previous step and add the remaining SD-WAN Manager instances to the cluster.