This is all for switches running in traditional mode, no SDA. https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/datasheet-c78-738977.html has a "Table 6. Essentials and Advantage Package Features" that helpfully lists the various features available with various licenses -- but there are a few huge red flags, and I was hoping I could get some feedback here. If I read it correctly: Flexible Netflow, Wireshark, containers, EEM, Python, Encrypted Traffic Analysis etc. are not available with either Network Essentials or Network Advantage. Patching and MacSec is available with Network Essentials, but not with Network Advantage? I'm really hoping I'm missing something here, and Cisco didn't just turn off a bunch of the most desirable features of their new platform for licensing reasons. ... View more

Possibly silly question, but we're looking to purchase some new LAN switches, and in the current Cisco Commerce estimator 3850, 4500 and Cat 9k series all only come with term-based DNA feature licensing. The issue is that we're getting push-back from our financial department, due to fears that they now have to keep track of a myriad of 5 (or 3, or 7) year contract periods which do not co-terminate on the same date as the SmartNet contracts. For example, all of our SmartNet contracts are set to renew on July 1st. But if we buy a Cat9400 in February with a DNA-E license, it will expire in February 5 years later; our contract staff wants to buy a license for a different number of months so the licenses will also expire on July 1st. Any insight into whether this is doable, and if so, what are the magic words we should ask our account team to look for? How are other organizations handling this? ... View more

I have a number of devices -- various models of Nexus, (2k - 7k), 6500s and some 1U stackables. I'm trying to come up with a good way to leverage PI (2.1) to apply a vty ACL to the switches. There does not appear to be a template for this. The problem of course is not only the order of operation (remove ACL from vty if there is one so Prime doesn't lock itself out, only then do the rest of the stuff) but that the syntax seems to differ very aggravatingly -- some require "line vty 0 1509," some "line vty 0 1510," some platforms accept named ACLs for vty ACLs, some don't... Any tips, tricks, or best practices on how to install and update vty ACLs on IOS and/or NX-OS devices with Prime Infrastructure? ... View more