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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

5 min read ENCOR 350-401 v1.2

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

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Cisco Catalyst Center is the platform formerly known as Cisco DNA Center. For ENCOR, you do not need to become a controller expert. You need to understand what it does and why it matters.

The simplest way to think about it:

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

What Catalyst Center is used for

Catalyst Center helps with three broad jobs.

Operator / automation
Catalyst Center · API + UI
Design · templates
Monitor · assurance
Troubleshoot · guided workflows
Southbound · CLI / NETCONF / telemetry

1. Apply configuration

Examples:

  • Discover devices and add them to inventory.
  • Assign devices to sites.
  • Apply templates.
  • Push network settings.
  • Automate device onboarding with Plug and Play.
  • Manage software images.
  • Support SD-Access fabric workflows where deployed.

2. Monitor the network

Examples:

  • Device health.
  • Client health.
  • Application experience.
  • Interface and path telemetry.
  • Wired, fabric, site, device, client, and application assurance data.
  • Wireless assurance data may exist in real Catalyst Center deployments, but ENCOR v1.2 no longer has a wireless concepts domain. Keep wireless examples as platform context, not RF or WLAN exam preparation.
  • Trends, baselines, and anomalies.

3. Manage and troubleshoot operations

Examples:

  • Guided remediation.
  • Event correlation.
  • Change history.
  • Compliance checks.
  • Inventory and lifecycle information.
  • API-driven operational workflows.

Traditional workflows

A traditional controller workflow still feels familiar to network engineers. The controller is helping you do normal network tasks more consistently.

Example workflow: onboard a new access switch.

  1. Discover the switch or let Plug and Play claim it.
  2. Place it in the correct site.
  3. Assign credentials and device role.
  4. Apply a day-0 or day-1 template.
  5. Verify inventory and reachability.
  6. Check device health and interface status.
  7. Monitor for errors after the change.

The value is not that the controller knows magic. The value is repeatability, inventory awareness, and a single place to check the result.

AI-powered workflows

AI-powered workflows try to reduce the time between symptom and likely cause. Instead of forcing you to manually correlate every client, device, interface, and event, the platform can surface anomalies, trends, and suggested next steps.

Examples of the kind of work AI-assisted assurance is meant to help with:

  • Highlighting abnormal device or client behavior.
  • Summarizing likely causes from many telemetry signals.
  • Prioritizing issues by impact.
  • Assisting an operator with natural-language questions or guided investigation.
  • Reducing noise by correlating related events.

For the exam, do not overthink the AI wording. The important point is that Catalyst Center is not only a configuration tool. It is also an assurance and operations platform that can use telemetry, analytics, baselines, anomaly detection, and guided workflows to help manage the network. Expect recognition of workflow purpose and operational outcome more than product-menu memorization.

The controller does not replace fundamentals

Catalyst Center can show a client health issue. You still need to know what could cause it:

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

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

API example: read network device inventory

Catalyst Center has APIs. The exact endpoint set can vary by version, but the common flow is: authenticate, receive a token, call intent APIs.

# Get an auth token
TOKEN=$(curl --silent --fail --cacert "$CAT_CENTER_CA_BUNDLE" \
  -u "$CC_USERNAME:$CC_PASSWORD" \
  -X POST "https://catalyst-center.example.com/dna/system/api/v1/auth/token" \
  | python3 -c 'import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["Token"])')

# Read network devices
curl --silent --fail --cacert "$CAT_CENTER_CA_BUNDLE" \
  -H "X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN" \
  "https://catalyst-center.example.com/dna/intent/api/v1/network-device" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

unset TOKEN

Use -k only as a disposable lab shortcut for a self-signed controller certificate. A safer default is to trust the controller certificate chain with a CA bundle and keep the token out of logs.

Why include an API example in Network Assurance? Because modern assurance is not just clicking dashboards. Operations teams often pull inventory, health, and event data into ticketing, chat, reporting, or automation systems.

Lab: Use Catalyst Center as an assurance workflow

You can do this as a real lab if you have Catalyst Center access, or as a tabletop lab if you are preparing without a controller.

Scenario

Users in Building 2 report intermittent application slowness.

Goal

Use a controller-style workflow to narrow the fault domain.

Steps

  1. Search for the affected site, device, or client.
  2. Check client health and device health.
  3. Look for recent changes.
  4. Check the access switch interface connected to the user.
  5. Check path or application experience if available.
  6. Compare the affected client to a healthy client in the same site.
  7. Use suggested remediation only after reading the evidence.
  8. Confirm the fix with a new health check or user test.

Evidence to collect

Site:
  Affected client/device:
  Health score before:
  Recent changes:
  Suspected cause:
  Action taken:
  Health score after:
  User/application test after:

Expected lesson

A controller workflow should not be “click around until the dashboard looks green.” A good workflow starts with a symptom, narrows the scope, checks evidence, makes one change, and verifies the result.

What to know for the exam

Know these phrases and what they imply:

  • Inventory: managed devices and their state.
  • Discovery: finding devices and bringing them under management.
  • Templates: repeatable configuration.
  • Plug and Play: automated onboarding.
  • Software image management: image compliance and upgrades.
  • Assurance: health, telemetry, issues, trends, and guided troubleshooting.
  • Traditional workflows: configuration, monitoring, and management through the controller.
  • AI-powered workflows: analytics, anomaly detection, issue correlation, and guided assistance.

Exam takeaways

  • Cisco Catalyst Center is the newer name for Cisco DNA Center.
  • It is used for configuration, monitoring, and management.
  • Assurance is about health, telemetry, correlation, and guided troubleshooting.
  • Traditional workflows automate known operational tasks.
  • AI-powered workflows help surface, summarize, and prioritize issues from telemetry.
  • You still need network fundamentals to validate what the controller tells you.