Building on the introduction of cloud management with IOS XE, this new release brings advanced routing, high availability, and cloud expansion features, plus support for additional powerful switching platform support, such as the entire C9200, C9300, and C9500 High Performance switching.

We’re excited to announce the availability of AP Live Tools in the Meraki Dashboard for Cloud Managed (Hybrid Mode) for Catalyst APs joined to Catalyst Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs).

Today, I am excited to share the news about a line expansion that introduces out-of-the-box cloud management with the Catalyst 9200L-M models.

Catalyst Wi-Fi 7 access points are now visible and monitored in the Meraki Dashboard through Cloud-Managed Hybrid Operating Mode.

You may have noticed a new VRF page under the Organization menu in dashboard 👀 

This page allows users to create Virtual Routing and Forwarding instances, or VRFs, which can then be used for configuring VRF related functions on platforms that support VRF in any network in the organization. 

For example, starting with IOS XE 17.18 Catalyst 9000 switches that have hardware support for VRFs can have interfaces assigned to VRFs you create on the organization-wide VRF page.  

If you’re new to VRF, it allows layer 3 routing devices (such as switches and routers) to keep multiple, separate routing tables, which creates segmentation at layer 3. This is often used to create separate networks for devices such as corporate workstations, IoT devices, or payment processing systems. VRFs allow these devices to use the same switches without being able to reach each other, unless a fusion device such as a firewall is used to connect the VRFs together. 

🔗 See a Preview of VRF from Cisco Live 

Three new Catalyst Wireless LAN Controllers are now supported in Meraki Dashboard.

Managing VLANs across multiple switches just got easier! With the new VLAN database feature for Catalyst switches in Meraki mode, you can now streamline VLAN configuration across your network and eliminate unnecessary VLANs - all from a single place.

We are excited to share that the new AP Summary page is available; Opt-in today!

This redesign aims to improve and standardize the user experience across all Meraki dashboard pages. You can try out the new version by clicking ‘Try new version’ at the top of the AP Summary page.

Key improvements:

                •              Refactored page components

                •              Enhanced speed and performance

                •              Improved display of information

Have feedback? Please use the feedback button at the bottom of the page to let us know.

Be the first to experience the cloud-native IOS XE. Try it now by upgrading your cloud-managed Catalyst switches to IOS XE 17.15.1 on the Meraki dashboard. Click 'read more...' and learn what’s new! 

Cloud-native IOS XE

New feature highlights

• Introducing cloud-native IOS-XE
• Improved boot time for your Cisco Catalyst cloud-managed switches, especially for stacks.
• CLI access through the dashboard to run show commands for troubleshooting.
• Intelligent Capture 
• Support for C9200L hardware platforms. 
• Please see this documentation on the migration process and supported models. 
• Attempting to migrate unsupported models, such as C9200CX, may result in an unusable switch. Please review the list of supported models before proceeding with the upgrade. 
• Enhanced logging capabilities with native Catalyst logging support.
• For more information about this release, please consult our cloud-native IOS XE documentation landing page, which includes access to FAQs, an overview, and steps for upgrade and migration.

Share Your Feedback

We value your feedback on our latest release! Please take a moment to complete this brief 5-minute survey (https://forms.office.com/r/gHuK4bJRZ5)  and share your experience with us. 

We are excited to share that the new Assurance Overview is now available to everyone via the Early Access page! Assurance Overview provides a unified assurance experience for you to understand the overall health of your network across the entire stack. You can easily monitor your network health and quickly troubleshoot problematic areas.

Enable the feature for your organization by going to Organization > Early Access and opt in to the ‘Assurance Overview’ feature.

As we reach the first big milestone in our journey to build a better experience for alert management, we are excited to share multiple features we have launched to date.  

At the beginning of February, we made the Organization Alerts page generally available. This page is one of the most requested alerting features by users and an extension of the Alert Hub. It can be found under the Organization tab:

<< As of Sep 12th, 2024, CS17 has reached the stable release candidate (RC) stage! >> 

We are thrilled to introduce the latest Catalyst Switching (CS)17 software beta release!  With CS17, Cisco Meraki MS390 and Catalyst 9300-M (including migrated Catalyst 9300) users can unlock new security, visibility, and sustainability features for their networks. Learn more >> 

We are excited to extend the features of the MAC Allow List and Sticky MAC Allow List to MS390 and Catalyst 9300-M switches. MAC Allow List and Sticky MAC Allow List are currently supported on Meraki Switches (MS). With this early access, users will be able to extend the configurations and settings to their Catalyst-based switches.   

Navigate to Organization > Early Access page, and toggle “Opt-in” now.  

Learn more

Port configuration on Switch Ports documentation. 

Even more powerful hardware options to meet your most demanding networking needs—with 15 additional Catalyst 9300-M models.  Available to order now! 

🌟Features include: 

• 90 W UPOE+ 
• High-density mGig and fiber options 
• 25G/100G uplinks 
• Physical stacking flexibility across models—capable of up to 1T  
• Extension of Adaptive Policy to more platforms 

Read our blog and learn more. 

Introducing Catalyst 9300-M! 

With a wide range of mGig speeds, high redundancy designs, 60W UPOE options, and Adaptive Policy, these switches are ideal for large campuses and many other use cases to securely power and connect the latest Wi-Fi and IoT devices.

Learn more

Read our latest blog and learn more about how these new Catalyst 9300-M network switches unleash employee productivity.

We are excited to announce additional Catalyst 9300 switches can now be migrated to Meraki management mode.  Join us and unlock the flexibility and control at the cloud scale today with the Meraki dashboard.  

Newly added support: 

• Switches: C9300 24S/48S, C9300X 12Y/24Y

• Network modules: C9300-NM-2Y*, C9300X-NM-2C, C9300X-NM-8Y* (please note: the C9300X-NM network modules are compatible only with the C9300X switches)

• Other C9300 compatible network modules: C9300-NM-2Q, C9300-NM-8X, C3850-NM-2-40G, C3850-NM-4-10G, C3850-NM-8-10G

* Please note that C9300-NM-2Y and C9300X-NM-8Y support up to 10G in Meraki cloud-managed mode.

For more information, please refer to this announcement post. 

Resource:

• FAQs
• Quick Migration Guide 
• Getting started documentation

We are excited to announce eligible Catalyst 9300 switches can now migrate to Meraki management mode.  Join us and unlock the flexibility and control at the cloud scale today with the Meraki dashboard. 

Eligible models:

• C9300-24P/T/U/UX
• C9300-48P/T/U/UN/UXM 

We are thrilled to introduce independent firmware releases for Meraki Switching (MS) and Catalyst-based Switching (CS), including the MS390 and migrated C9300 switches. This milestone furthers our commitment to delivering consistent and reliable features and quality updates to all our customers, regardless of your switching product models. 

Why are we doing this? 

This new firmware release approach will accelerate our value delivery, so you, as a customer, will experience more innovations faster and better, regardless of your switching product models. We will ensure a consistent user experience and interoperability on both firmware branches when adding new features, albeit with different release schedules.

Simpler, more efficient operations, powerful automation and more agility than you’ve ever seen.