Ask Me Anything: Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance

[Brooke Hammer]

Ask Me Anything Event

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Monday, September 23, 2024 through Friday, October 4, 2024. Our colleagues Arpita Dash, Prateek Upadhyay and Udhay R. will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer any new questions that you may have. We are waiting for you!

More about this event:

Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can dive deep into Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance!

What is it?

Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance is a component of Cisco's Catalyst Center (formerly DNA) that provides comprehensive network visibility, insights, and automated troubleshooting capabilities. It leverages advanced analytics and machine learning to help network administrators ensure optimal network performance and user experience

• Proactive Monitoring: Continuously monitors the network to detect and address issues before they impact users.

• Network Insights: Provides detailed insights into network performance, user experience, and application behavior.

• Automated Troubleshooting: Uses machine learning and AI to identify root causes of network issues and suggest remediation steps.

• Health Scores: Offers health scores for network devices, clients, and applications to quickly assess the overall network health.

• User and Device Tracking: Tracks user and device activity to help identify and resolve connectivity issues.

• Historical Data Analysis: Analyses historical data to identify trends and recurring issues, aiding in long-term network planning and optimization.

By utilizing Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance, organizations can enhance their network reliability, improve user satisfaction, and reduce the time and effort required for network troubleshooting and maintenance.

Official Resources:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-assurance/2-3-5/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_5_ug.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-rogue-management-application/2-3-5/quick-start-guide/b_rogue_management_qsg_2_3_5.html

https://www.ciscolive.com/c/dam/r/ciscolive/apjc/docs/2023/pdf/BRKEMT-2397.pdf

Join us for this insightful Ask Me Anything session and gain valuable insights into the world of Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance. Let's uncover the solutions to your challenges and explore the vast possibilities in this dynamic field.

Our experts

Arpita Dash Technical Consulting Engineer

Prateek Upadhyay Technical Consulting Engineer

Udhay R. Technical Consulting Engineer

For more information, visit the Cisco Catalyst Center discussion forums . If you have questions or are experiencing technical problems with any of the Cisco products, post your question, request information or use the Cisco Community before opening a case with the TAC.

[neeraj-sharma]

Can we fine tune the AP's health which is poor due to interference. Can we dot it for single site?

[arpdash]

Hello,

Yes you can manage the health score setting KPI Assurance > Manage > Health Score Settings . Also To remove the KPI from the health score calculation, uncheck the Included in Device health Score check box. Currently the setting is availble only for global.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-assurance/2-3-5/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_5_ug/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_3_ug_chapter_0110.html#id_122231

[arpdash]

Hello,

Yes you can manage the health score setting KPI Assurance > Manage > Health Score Settings . Also To remove the KPI from the health score calculation, uncheck the Included in Device health Score check box. Currently the setting is availble only for global.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-assurance/2-3-5/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_5_ug/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_3_ug_chapter_0110.html#id_122231

[divrathi]

Hello, Can you please let us know why port 80 is required to be open between network devices and DNA?

[udr]

When the network device is on-boarded to catalyst center - the devices doesn't have access to the catalyst center's certificates to establish a secure connection over port 443. So the network device reaches out to catalyst center over port 80 to pull the certificates from the catalyst center. Once the devices have access to the catalyst center's certificates it can establish a secure connection over port 443.
Apart from this port 80 is used for Plug and Play (PnP), Software Image Management (SWIM) etc..

[neeraj-sharma]

Hi Team,

Can we fine tune the AP's health which is poor due to interference. Can we do it for single site/location?

[arpdash]

Hello,

Yes you can manage the health score setting KPI Assurance > Manage > Health Score Settings . Also To remove the KPI from the health score calculation, uncheck the Included in Device health Score check box. Currently the setting is availble only for global.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center-assurance/2-3-5/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_5_ug/b_cisco_dna_assurance_2_3_3_ug_chapter_0110.html#id_122231

[Olu802-11]

I have recently come across a white paper from Intel which talks about Intel Connectivity Analytics and how it enables client side wireless connectivity data to be displayed in Catalyst Center, what is the best way to take advantage of this feature? Are there any prerequisites in terms of software versions of Cat C? Is it only specific intel drivers that are able to provide this information?

Many thanks in advance!

[prateupa]

Intel Connectivity Analytics (ICA): This feature provides deep insights and advanced analytics for client devices using Intel Wi-Fi chipsets. Using Cisco DNA Center, you can gain insights into what OS is running, the driver versions, RF statistics, etc., for end-user devices based on Intel technology, and gain visibility to roaming, disconnect reason, and errors.

Next-Gen Wireless Client Visibility with Intel Connectivity Analytics!

https://blogs.cisco.com/networking/cisco-and-intel-next-gen-wireless-client-visibility-with-intel-connectivity-analytics

For clients supporting ICA you can view the details on the Intel Connectivity Analytics tab on the Client 360 Details page.

Below are the prerequisites:

 

[Azeem Mohamad]

How does Cisco Catalyst Center provide a reliable and secure method of connections? Are there any specific features that enhance its reliability and security?

[udr]

DNA offers High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) to achieve reliability.
High Availability (HA)
1. Cisco Catalyst Center supports high availability configurations, ensuring that if one node fails, another can take over without disrupting network management operations.
2. Disaster recovery adds another layer of redundancy to safeguard against network downtime. It responds to a cluster failure by handing off network management duties to a connected cluster.

To establish security:
1. Most communications between Cisco Catalyst Center and network devices are secured using protocols such as HTTPS, SSH, and SNMPv3, which offer encryption and authentication.
2. Supports software-defined access (SD-Access) which allows for micro-segmentation of the network, limiting the spread of threats and ensuring secure communication within different segments.
3. Integration with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for enhanced policy-based access control, ensuring that only authenticated and authorized devices and users can access the network.

[sherstep]

Question on User Defined Issues. Is there a list of all the sev 3 - 6 syslog messages that can be added as user-defined events? I know that sev 0 - 2 are free-form, but sev 3 - 6 have to be in the included database. 

[udr]

For all syslog events received by catalyst center we can create a user defined issue in the catalyst center. We can customize these issues with parameters like a priority and external notifications. By doing so DNA will treat those syslog events as issues and updates user accordingly.
https://blogs.cisco.com/networking/where-are-the-alarms-in-cisco-dna-center
Please refer to the above link for more details regarding User Defined Issues.

[sumit260398]

If MS teams is integrated with DNAC, the call quality matrics comes in realtime or there is some delay?

[prateupa]

Data related to MS team calls matrics may be delayed a few minutes, not more than that.

[hdubey8]

If a device’s healthscore is blank in inventory, what things I can check to fix this issue without going to TAC?