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Describe

4.5 Describe how Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA Center) is used to apply network configuration, monitoring, and management using traditional and AI-powered workflows

4 min read ENCOR 350-401 v1.2 Updated

Aligned to Cisco's 350-401 ENCOR v1.2 exam topics.

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What this objective tests

Cisco Catalyst Center is the new name for Cisco DNA Center. This is a describe objective. The exam tests what the platform does, which workflow solves which problem, and how traditional workflows differ from AI-powered workflows. No CLI lab is required.

The core idea:

Traditional CLI = configure and troubleshoot one device at a time.
Catalyst Center = discover, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the network as one system.

The main workflows

Learn the workflow names and what each one does:

  • Discovery: finds devices and brings them into inventory.
  • Inventory: tracks managed devices, their state, and their site assignment.
  • Plug and Play (PnP): onboards a new device automatically. The device calls home, claims a site, and receives a day-0 configuration.
  • Templates: repeatable configuration. Define the configuration once, apply it to many devices, and keep devices consistent.
  • Software Image Management (SWIM): checks image compliance and upgrades devices to the golden image.
  • Assurance: collects telemetry and shows device health, client health, application experience, issues, and trends.

Note: Keep the vocabulary straight. Discovery finds devices. Inventory tracks them. PnP and templates configure them. SWIM upgrades them. Assurance watches them.

Traditional workflows

A traditional workflow does a known operational task through the controller. The value is repeatability and one place to check the result.

Example: onboard a new access switch.

  1. Let Plug and Play claim the switch.
  2. Place the switch in the correct site.
  3. Apply the access-switch template.
  4. Verify inventory and reachability.
  5. Check device health after the change.

The controller does not know magic. It applies your intent consistently and records the result.

AI-powered workflows

AI-powered workflows reduce the time between symptom and likely cause. The platform correlates telemetry across clients, devices, interfaces, and events. Then it surfaces what matters.

What AI-assisted assurance does:

  • Detects anomalies against learned baselines.
  • Correlates related events into one issue.
  • Prioritizes issues by impact.
  • Suggests remediation steps to the operator.

For the exam, do not overthink the AI wording. The point is that Catalyst Center is not only a configuration tool. It is an assurance and operations platform that uses telemetry, baselines, and anomaly detection.

The controller does not replace fundamentals

Catalyst Center can show a client health issue. You still must know the possible causes:

  • VLAN mismatch.
  • Authentication failure.
  • DHCP or DNS problem.
  • Physical or link-layer problem at the access edge.
  • Interface errors.
  • Routing or policy problem.

The controller helps you find the problem faster. It does not remove the need to understand the network.

What an API call looks like

Catalyst Center has a REST API. Conceptually, every call follows the same pattern:

1. POST credentials to the token endpoint -> receive an auth token.
2. Send the token in the X-Auth-Token header with each request.
3. GET a resource URI to read data (devices, sites, health).
4. POST or PUT a resource URI to change intent.
5. Receive structured JSON back.

Example read of the device inventory:

POST https://catalyst-center.example.com/dna/system/api/v1/auth/token
  -> returns a token

GET  https://catalyst-center.example.com/dna/intent/api/v1/network-device
  Header: X-Auth-Token: <token>
  -> returns a JSON list of managed devices

Operations teams use the API to pull inventory, health, and issue data into ticketing, chat, and reporting systems. A 401 response is an authentication problem, not a device problem.

Workflow walkthrough: slow application in Building 2

Symptom: users in Building 2 report intermittent slowness. Use the controller workflow to narrow the fault domain.

  1. Search for the affected site and one affected client.
  2. Check client health and device health scores.
  3. Read the issue list. Look for correlated events, not single alarms.
  4. Check the access switch interface that connects the user.
  5. Compare the affected client to a healthy client in the same site.
  6. Read the suggested remediation. Check the underlying evidence before you apply it.
  7. Make one change.
  8. Confirm the fix with a new health check and a user test.

Expected lesson: a good workflow starts with a symptom, narrows the scope, checks evidence, makes one change, and verifies the result. It is not clicking until the dashboard looks green.

Exam traps

  • Catalyst Center shows the symptom and the correlation. The root cause is still VLANs, authentication, DHCP, DNS, links, or routing.
  • Traditional workflows automate known tasks: configure, monitor, manage. AI-powered workflows detect anomalies, correlate issues, and guide remediation. The exam asks you to tell them apart.
  • SWIM handles software images. Do not confuse it with templates, which handle configuration.
  • The intent API uses token-authenticated HTTPS. Know the authenticate-then-call pattern.

Pass check

You are ready when you can do these things:

  • Name Catalyst Center as the former DNA Center.
  • Match discovery, inventory, PnP, templates, SWIM, and assurance to their purposes.
  • Give one example of a traditional workflow and one example of an AI-powered workflow.
  • Describe the authenticate-then-call pattern of the intent API.
  • Explain why controller evidence still needs network fundamentals to confirm a root cause.

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