Catalyst Center Onboarding - Ask Me Anything

[Brooke Hammer]

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Friday, January 17, 2025 through Friday, February 7, 2025. Our colleagues Alex Guckin, Bryan Fenlason, Jason Wiatr, Zuhair Bedwan, Daniel Angelini and Jignesh Shah will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer any new questions that you may have.

Need a little help getting started with Catalyst Center?

Whether you are preparing for your onboarding journey, ready to install your physical appliance, or deploying a virtual appliance, our Specialists are ready to help. In this Ask Me Anything hosted by our NX Customer Success Specialist team, our Specialists are ready to answer any questions you may have about the first phase of your Catalyst Center deployment.

The live discussion board will be open from January 17th-February 7th. During this time, you will have the opportunity to:

• Ask onboarding specific questions and get direct answers from Cisco Specialists
• Bookmark self-serve resources such as the Catalyst Center Resource Repository
• Gain insights about features and capabilities of Catalyst Center
• Network with other Catalyst Center users including Cisco Specialists, partners, and peers

How to participate:

• Visit the Community Catalyst Center AMA discussion forum
• Log in with your CCO ID
• Start commenting with your Catalyst Center onboarding questions

Note: Please post your post as a comment below no later than February 6, 2025.

Post your question below by clicking "Reply"

(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!

Our experts - CX Customer Success Specialists

Alex Guckin

Bryan Fenlason

Jason Wiatr

Zuhair Bedwan

Daniel Angelini

Jignesh Shah

[Ray G]

Hi we have so many Catalyst 1000 series switches and soon to purchase their replacement Catalyst 1300 switches and want to know why they aren't support in Catalyst Center?  We use them for small office build outs.   We mainly just want to use Catalyst Center to be able to upgrade their IOS software but they are seen as third party devices and not in the compatibility matrix.   Are they expected to be supported on Catalyst Center or at least can you put in a request for them to be supported.  There is a precedent in the compatibility matrix for Cisco switches with no DNA license to be required but still supported by Catalyst Center.

[aguckin]

Hello Ray,

The C1000 Series switches now have Visibility Support in the Cisco Catalyst Center starting in the 2.3.7 release. Please note that these are classified as Third Party MIB-II devices and Visibility Support for these includes Discovery, Inventory, UpDown, and some basic Assurance information.  Currently there are no plans to include full support for SMB series switches.  I can submit a request to add support for these devices.  

Alex G.

[Ray G]

Thanks for answering my question Alex.  Yes it would appreciate if we could get full support for the Catalyst 1000/1300 series if you could put in a request.  Thanks!

[Ray G]

Also one other question is what is the timeframe when Catalyst Center be available as Azure virtual appliances so Catalyst Center can be hosted in Azure?  Thanks.

[aguckin]

Hi Ray,

Catalyst Center on Azure is roadmapped for CY2025.

Alex G.

[Ray G]

Thanks Alex!

[4DigitCCIE]

We have just deployed Catalyst Center on ESXi and have been unable to get a successful backup to our NFS server (Qumulo storage).  I have a TAC case open, but the best I can get out of them is that Qumulo is not a supported NFS server for the backup location even though I could successfully mount the file share through the GUI, and successfully create/modify files when we were troubleshooting with TAC through the shell.  We really need another way to get a backup of the box (other than another drive within ESXi).  Any ideas on how to address this for organizations without a supported NFS server?

[bfenlaso]

Hello

At this time we are limited to the supported servers noted in the guide.

Catalyst Center (Virtual appliance): https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/dna-center-va/esxi/2-3-7/admin-guide/b_cisco_dna_center_va_esxi_admin_guide_2373/m_cisco_dna_center_va_esxi_admin_backup_restore.html

To support data backups on the NFS server, the server must be a Linux-based NFS server that meets the following requirements:

Support NFS v4 and NFS v3. (To verify this support, from the server, enter nfsstat -s.)

• Have read and write permissions on the NFS export directory.

• Have a stable network connection between Cisco DNA Center on ESXi and the NFS server.

• Have sufficient network speed between Cisco DNA Center on ESXi and the NFS server

Catalyst Center (Physical appliance): https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-3-7/admin_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_3_7/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_3_7_chapter_0110.html#concept_bkp_mgh_sdb

• RedHat Enterprise (or CentOS) 8 or later
  Ubuntu 16.04 (or Mint, etc) or later

As you have noted this is not currently available I would suggest leveraging the "Make a wish" feature via the gui to provide this feedback direct to the product team. I will also open up an enhancement via our back end.

UserGuide:https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/catalyst-center/2-3-7/user_guide/b_cisco_catalyst_center_user_guide_237/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_7_chapter_01.html

I do want to note in the hhysical appliance the 2 differences in Catalyst Center backups. The NFS portion of the backup is for Assurance ONLY. The other portion is the automation data which uses Rsync. This backup includes things such as your inventory, site hierarchy,templates, etc. In the scenario that a backup is required to rebuild, and only the automation backup is available, assurance data would start flowing and archiving from the point of restore.

Bryan F.

[4DigitCCIE]

Hello Bryan,

Just wanted to clarify something since the documentation isn't consistent between the physical and the virtual appliance.  The docs for Catalyst Center in ESXi do not reference any rsync requirements or specific server type - just that it needs to be Linux based.  Not sure if rsync is even used in the virtual appliance backup.  Can you get some more information on that?

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/dna-center-va/esxi/2-3-7/admin-guide/b_cisco_dna_center_va_esxi_admin_guide_2373/m_cisco_dna_center_va_esxi_admin_backup_restore.html#nfs-back...

Thanks,

John

[bfenlaso]

Hey John

My apologies for the confusion as you are correct. For the VA(Virtual Appliance) deployment, NFS is the only supported backup server at this time. This is for both automation and assurance.

[SeanWilson]

We have a multi-site network in place that I believe could benefit from using Catalyst Center. I have seen the list of minimum hardware requirements using an ESXi server. How much of a requirement are the specifications? Will Catalyst Center still operate on a server with less than the 32 vCPUs and less than 256 GB RAM?  I would estimate that there would be about 25 devices (switches, VoIP) across multiple sites.

Thank you for your time.

Sean

[bfenlaso]

Hi Sean

At this time, the minimum requirements are noted in Table 1 of the deployment guide: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/catalyst-center/catalyst-center-va/esxi/2-3-7/deployment-guide/b_cisco_catalyst_center_237x_on_esxi_deployment_guide.html#deployment-requirements

The Catalyst Center Virtual Appliance has not been tested and is not supported with any requirements below these thresholds. We have been receiving feedback with the request of a smaller footprint VM for small scale deployments as you have noted. I will pass this feedback back to the proper channels for your instance as well.

I do see our customers who have smaller branch sites deploy 1 catalyst center at their main data center and manage their remote branches via this catalyst Center. You do want to keep in mind the latency requirements for this type of deployment. The recommended latency is between 100-200ms RTT, where up to 200ms is possible but not ideal.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/dna-center/nb-06-dna-center-data-sheet-cte-en.html#Latencyrequirements

If you do decide to go this route, there are some neat features such as remote image distribution servers, which would allow you to instruct catalyst center to leverage on site file servers to help speed up workflows, such as software image distribution, in the SWIM(software image management) solution.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-3-7/user_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_7/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_7_chapter_0100.html#Cisco_Task_in_List_GUI.dita_7eba866d-99a2-4a7c-a509...

Bryan F

[ramu-raja]

Hello Expert, I would like to understand the license usage, C9300/C9500 smart license comes with perpetual (Network Advantage) and subscription (DNA Advantage).  Please help me to understand if my DNA Advantage is expired, will i able to manage the switches under the Catalyst center with Perpetual license or not. Your valuable input is much apricated. 

[ramu-raja]

Hello Expert, I would like to understand the license usage, C9300/C9500 smart license comes with perpetual (Network Advantage) and subscription (DNA Advantage).  Please help me to understand if my DNA Advantage is expired, will i able to manage the switches under the Catalyst center with Perpetual license or not. Your valuable input is much apricated.