What’s new?
The next major software release for the Cisco C9000 switching portfolio is IOS XE 17.18.1. In this release, Cisco continues to bring forth new hardware and more software enhancements to IOS XE.
The key highlights for this Extended Maintenance Release (EMR) are related to support for new next-generation hardware, infrastructure features, enhancements to programmability and automation features, and sustainability initiatives of the Cisco C9000 Switching family.
Hardware Enhancements
IOS-XE 17.18.1 is adding support for two of our next generation switching families:
- The new Cisco C9350 Series Smart Switches will power our next generation enterprise fixed Access.
- The new Cisco C9610 Series Smart Switches will power our next generation enterprise modular Core.
These devices are the first of our new ‘Smart’ switches family, which have been designed from the ground up to address evolving network threats in a post-AI and post-Quantum distributed processing landscape. These are well equipped to deal with new WiFi 7 endpoints at scale, and equipped to counter quantum computers with hardware and software support for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) secure ciphers.
These devices are the only switches in our C9000 family which will support unified management which we can talk more about in a later section below.
Detailed information on these products can be found on their respective data sheets linked below.
C9350 series datasheet:
C9610 series datasheet:
Note that while C9350 and C9610 will run the same IOS-XE operating system as our existing Catalyst 9000 series of switches, the actual binary file will be different.
Software enhancements:
IOS XE 17.18.1 brings in a lot of software enhancements to the current line-up of the Cisco C9000 series of switches. A summary view of all the new software features being added in the 17.18.1 IOS XE release is provided below.
Meraki Dashboard enhancements
We continue our journey to integrate the Cisco C9000 switches with the Meraki Dashboard to allow for both on-prem and cloud management of these devices. With IOS XE 17.18.1, we are adding support for the C9500 [high-performance] series (with UADP 3.0) of fixed Core switches, as well as the C9300LM series (with UADP 2.0) and C9200 and C9200CX series (with UADP 2.0mini) of fixed Access switches.
With support already present for the C9300 and C9300L models, all fixed access switches in the C9300 and C9200 family will support management in the cloud using the Meraki Dashboard as well as on-prem management with the Catalyst Center.
It is important to note that for the first time, you can now manage a full-fledged core switch, with support for the C9500 high performance series on the Meraki Dashboard.
This is a continuation of our philosophy of a unified network experience, with ‘one hardware’, ‘one software’ and ‘one license’ for our Enterprise network devices, regardless of how you want to manage them. Expect more devices to be supported over the next few releases.
Note that our new platforms, the C9350 and C9610, will have support for unified management. The C9350 supports both cloud and on-prem day-0 management, without requiring management specific SKUs during ordering (like the prior C9300X-M SKUs for example). Support for C9610 on the Meraki Dashboard is currently planned for subsequent software releases, and it will also support unified management with native support on the Meraki dashboard.
Platform feature enhancements:
On the features front, we are adding support for several critical features requested by our customers. Let’s look at some of the features below.
xFSU support for STP root - C9300 series
xFSU was introduced with IOS-XE 17.3.2 to help address upgrade downtimes for critical devices. We are continually optimizing the xFSU experience to make it more robust. With IOS-XE 17.15.2 we improved the downtime during upgrades from 30 seconds to less than 5 seconds. Now, with this release, we are adding support for xFSU for STP root devices as well. This addition unlocks this feature for use in more deployment use-cases and provides high-availability to our fixed access devices regardless of its place in the network.
Multicast VPN (MVPN) support on C9500X and C9600X-SUP-2
Enhancing the MPLS-VPN support on our high-speed C9500X and C9600X-SUP-2 core devices, we are adding support for Multicast VPN (MVPN) using Profile 0 Multicast Distribution Trees (MDTs).
MVPN allows for isolated multicast traffic within VRFs (mVRFs) across VPN sites. This optimizes MPLS networks by building tunnels for multicast traffic to only required PE devices, with attached receivers/listeners, and avoids replication to other PEs that do not have receivers/listeners.
Access session mac-move
On the security front, we have added support for access session mac-move. This allows our devices to address DDoS attacks triggered using VMs utilizing duplicate mac-addresses. Configuration allows specification of the number of mac-address moves for a given mac-address, restricting the number to an acceptable level and preventing potential attacks.
Policy based routing in VxLAN with BGP EVPN fabrics
Continuing with security, PBR with VxLAN allows for traffic steering providing flexible options for IP2Fabric and Fabric2IP use cases in EVPN fabric networks.
Product Analytics
Product analytics provide information about which features are configured on the switch. The exact configuration of the features will not be shared. A flag is checked if a specific feature is configured or not. The details on the features will be shared along with license reports using the same underlying licensing reporting workflow.
Note, this is an optional step and can be opted out by configuration on the switch. Only feature enablement data is collected, not any feature configuration or state information.
This feature provides insights into features configured against licensing requirements, making it easy to make decisions when it comes to renewing licenses for the network. This information will soon be available on the Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem (CSSM) as a single window.
Programmability and automation continue to be important areas of development for Cisco’s IOS XE software including innovations in Google Network Management/Operations Interface (gNxI) with a new “show tech-support gnxi” command and more granular VRF control.
Additionally, Cisco IOS XE 17.18.1 continues to enable various cloud and on-prem controller use cases by continuing to invest and innovate on YANG Models.
- Enhanced Troubleshooting: New “show tech-support gnxi” command provides enhanced visibility, making troubleshooting and support much easier and more efficient.
- Precise Control: Options to restrict gNxI services to specific VRFs offer more granular control.
- Richer Automation: At Cisco, we continue to invest in creating new YANG models (operational, config, event, action) and updating current models to provide richer context for automation scripts.
Sustainability Continues to be at the Forefront
Sustainability is an important area of interest for Cisco, and we continue to strive to maximize utility while minimizing power consumption.
Our new product families, the C9350 and C9610 series of switches are powered with our revolutionary next generation Cisco Silicon One ASICs, the new A100/L for fixed Access and new K100/E100 for modular Core and Distribution. These next generation ASICS provide extremely high port speeds and feature scales and support the best Wattage per Gigabit compared with older products.
On the software side, we are adding support Auto-Off LED, Optics or PSU which can automatically power off front panel LEDs, unused optic PHYs and redundant power supplies to help reduce the individual device carbon footprints.
The new C9350 also comes with Smartpower protocol support, which can help it negotiate lower power consumption levels with endpoints, such as Cisco IP phones (more device support will be added as part of roadmap). With Smartpower, we can force all connected IP Phones to go into hibernation or sleep mode to save power during idle times.
Conclusion
The 17.18.1 IOS XE software release is live and ready for use. Visit software.cisco.com to download the latest IOS XE 17.18.x for your C9000 switching families.
Datasheets and references
For a comprehensive list of features, please refer to the release notes and configuration guides for the IOS XE 17.18.1 release provided below:
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