Users can now onboard their Catalyst 9500 and Cisco C9610 Smart Switches to dashboard via cloud management with device configuration. This expanded capability allows users to extend the monitoring capabilities of the Meraki dashboard from the access to the core, while still retaining the full IOS XE feature-set.    In device configuration mode, users can view switch statistics, configuration details, and access to troubleshooting tools. This reduces truck rolls as configurations can be viewed, edited, and managed via Cloud CLI, while retaining access to traditional management methods via console port and SSH as configurations are performed locally on the device.    This is significant for two primary reasons.  First, if you are currently using Cloud Monitoring for your Catalyst 9500, this release introduces parity support for the new architecture to allow users to migrate ahead of the March 31, 2026, end-of-service date. The minimum firmware for the supported models is IOS XE 17.15.3+.    Second, for the first time ever we are introducing support for modular switching in dashboard by extending device configuration mode into the next-generation Cisco C9610 Smart Switch platform. This milestone signals a shift in the applicable use cases of cloud management for organizations across the globe. The 10-slot chassis can be configured with two redundant supervisors, eight line card slots, eight power supply slots, and four fan tray modules - allowing for up to 480 ports on a single page.                                                                                         What’s Next  If you are currently using cloud monitoring for your Catalyst 9500 switches, we recommend upgrading to device configuration mode before the March 31, 2026 end-of-service date. Step-by-step upgrade guidance is available in documentation, and a video walkthrough is also available to help you understand the process.    To learn how Cisco is building the foundation for next-generation campus network cores, designed to support the demands of the next decade and beyond, explore the new C9610 Smart Switch.    We’re excited to continue expanding the benefits of cloud management to customers worldwide, and we appreciate your continued participation and support in this journey!  ... View more

As part of our ongoing commitment to introduce advanced use cases to the cloud, we are excited to announce that with the release of IOS XE 17.18.2, cloud-managed fabric capabilities are now available via the Meraki dashboard.    For IOS XE switches being managed from dashboard, users can now unlock EVPN-VXLAN fabric capabilities to help simplify the management of their large campus networks.     Campus growth as an innovation driver  Every day, thousands of users and devices, ranging from laptops and smartphones to physical security and building automation systems, depend on reliable connectivity to keep the campus running smoothly. For network teams, this means not only ensuring nonstop uptime but also identifying and connecting an ever-evolving mix of device types, while trying to accommodate growth in a secure and complaint manner.      These challenges require a new approach. One that abstracts complexity from daily operations, while building an environment designed to accommodate future growth.      Why choose a fabric architecture?  A fabric architecture fundamentally transforms campus network operations by unifying management, policy, segmentation, and security into a single, logical system. Leveraging advanced technologies like BGP EVPN VXLAN, fabric enables scalable, flood-free, multi-tenant campus networks. With cloud-managed fabric, users gain:    Enhanced scalability beyond traditional VLAN limits  Flexible mobility and seamless user experience  Unified Layer 2/Layer 3 segmentation for both wired and wireless networks  Simplified device onboarding and policy enforcement through optimized workflows     Combined with existing security features, cloud-managed fabric solution support micro-segmentation with Trustsec/Adaptive Policy, working with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) or Access Manager for advanced access controls and zero-trust networking across your environment.         Our approach to cloud-managed fabric  Cisco’s cloud-managed fabric solution is built to take advantage of the capability and resilience of IOS XE switches, while adding the simplicity of ‘Meraki Magic’ to the management plane. This native architecture allows users to migrate their existing infrastructure to the cloud and achieve their digital transformation goals, without having to rip and replace the entire network.     With cloud-managed fabric, users can:    Automate secure onboarding and segmentation: Rapidly deploy new devices, segment users and workloads, and enforce security policies automatically through templated workflows and campus-wide automation.     Scale with confidence: Cloud-managed fabric lets you quickly adapt to business needs, supporting growth and evolving requirements while maintaining strong security and high performance.    Enjoy unified, enterprise-grade controls: Configure, monitor, and manage multi-tenant campus networks from a single cloud dashboard, with support for advanced features like BGP EVPN, VRF, Flood-free Mobility, and EVPN Multihoming.    Cisco cloud-managed fabric is available today on IOS XE 17.18.2. If you want to learn more about this solution, check out the resources below.     🔗 Cloud-Managed Fabric Demo  🔗 Cloud-Managed Fabric Documentation  ... View more

The end-of-service date for Cloud Monitoring has been extended by two months from January 31, 2026, to March 31, 2026, to allow users additional time to complete their upgrade to device configuration mode.     After March 31, 2026, there will be no impact to device operations, however, monitoring features will be deprecated and switches will show as offline in dashboard    We encourage users to evaluate upgrading their switches to device configuration mode with IOS XE 17.15.3+ prior to this date.    Required Action: To upgrade to device configuration mode customers should completing the following steps before March 31, 2026:    Upgrade firmware to IOS XE 17.15.3+ Remove switches from dashboard Respond affirmative to prompt that you're moving to device config mode Re-assign switches to network Wait for device config mode onboarding to complete   A video covering the upgrade process can be found here. Additionally, upgrade instructions have been outlined in this document.     Please read below to understand key impacts if no action is taken by March 31, 2026.     Device configurations will remain intact, and the device will continue to operate normally  Cloud monitoring of Catalyst switches via the Meraki Dashboard will cease to function.  Switches will appear offline in the dashboard unless transitioned to IOS XE 17.15.3+ and re-onboarded under device configuration mode.    Benefits of Upgrading: Cloud management with IOS XE provides a native architecture for managing IOS XE switches from the Meraki dashboard without requiring additional onboarding applications. This improved architecture brings features like Cloud CLI, which allows administrators to execute read and write commands directly from the dashboard. Additionally, upgrading switches to device configuration mode ensures future compatibility with dashboard innovations.    Next Steps: We encourage Cloud Monitoring users to evaluate upgrading to device configuration mode. To learn more about this process, please view the resources available below. If required, please reach out to Meraki Technical Support for assistance.     Cloud Monitoring End-of-Service | Upgrade Steps | Video Tutorial   ... View more

  We are pleased to announce that IOS XE 17.15.4.1 (RC) is now available in dashboard. This release delivers critical bug fixes, stability enhancements, and improvements outlined below.     Please Note: The prior IOS XE 17.15.4 image was removed from dashboard. This release supersedes it with numerous optimizations to enhance the CS to IOS XE upgrade experience.     Release Highlights     UAC Auto Fallback: Customers can now configure automatic switch back to their preferred uplink interface once network connectivity to the Dashboard is restored. This feature can be enabled under Management Connectivity on the Switch Settings page.    Firmware Upgrade Visibility: This feature provides in-depth insight into the status of your devices as they progress through the firmware upgrade process to provide deeper visibility and peace of mind to users as they orchestrate firmware upgrades across their switching fleet. The upgrade status is now viewable at both the switch list and individual switch levels, including a clear staged progress bar.     Additional Fixes:  Resolves the 9300L ROMMON issue  Addresses the SNMP vulnerability  Image upgrade hardening scenarios and pre-checks to minimize the risk of upgrade failures  Numerous other firmware as well as dashboard fixes     For more details, please refer to the full release notes and check out the resources below.     CS to IOS XE Upgrade Pre-Check    ... View more

  We’re excited to announce a new enhancement for IOS XE switches being managed from Meraki dashboard. Firmware Upgrade Status provides in-depth insight into the status of your devices as they progress through the firmware upgrade process. This enhancement provides deeper visibility and peace of mind to users as they orchestrate firmware upgrades across their switching fleet.            Per-Switch Upgrade Status: Easily monitor the progress of upgrades for each switch in your network with a new dedicated status indicator featured on both the switch list and switch details page.     Color-Coded Tags: Instantly see the status of the firmware upgrade process with intuitive color-coded tags that show the current step each device is in.     Increased Visibility & Peace of Mind: Firmware upgrades can sometimes be nerve-wracking. With this new feature, you’ll always know exactly where your devices are in the process, from start to finish.    Easier Troubleshooting: If an issue arises during an upgrade, you can immediately pinpoint the exact stage where it happened, making troubleshooting and remediation faster and more efficient.    Estimated Timeline: A collapsable view showing the stages of your scheduled upgrade highlights the estimated time to completion for each step, providing additional context for each device as it progresses through the upgrade process.          How it works: Simply visit your switch details or switch list page. For IOS XE switches, you’ll see a new column displaying the firmware upgrade status in real time. The color-coded tags let you know the status of the device, based on the tags outlined above.     Note: Users must toggle the 'View new version' button on the 'switch details' page to see the enhancements featured above.    Want to try out Firmware Upgrade Visibility?  Upgrade your switches firmware version and monitor their status. See how here.    Already on IOS XE 17.15.4?  Check out IOS XE 17.18.1, our most recent release packed with advanced routing, high availability, and cloud expansion features.     🔗 Firmware Upgrade Visibility Documentation  ... View more

Hi Community, Please read below a summary of important updates regarding cloud management, CS to IOS XE migration, and the IOS XE 17.15 release. What is happening? To ensure a smooth and reliable migration experience from CS to IOS XE, we are temporarily restricting upgrades for organizations currently on CS firmware versions. The temporary restriction is only for organizations migrating from CS firmware to IOS XE. What does this mean? For organizations with Catalyst devices currently running CS firmware, the ability to upgrade these devices to IOS XE 17.15 will be paused. We are actively working on an improved stable release candidate, IOS XE 17.15.4.1, which will include several important bug fixes and improvements. What is next? Once IOS XE 17.15.4.1 is available on dashboard (November release), you will be able to resume migration from CS firmware to IOS XE. This stable release candidate will feature... UAC Auto Fallback feature that allows customers the option to automatically switch back to their selected uplink interface once network connectivity to Dashboard has been restored via that preferred interface. Security improvements to address SNMP vulnerability Image hardening for upgrade and downgrade scenarios Fix for the ROMMON issue on C9300Ls And various other bugs fixes as well as improvements Please note Users with devices running CS firmware can still opt to migrate to the IOS XE 17.18.1 beta image during this time. IOS XE 17.18.1 features a suite of new advanced routing, high availability, and cloud expansion features. Users with devices already running any version of IOS XE 17.15.3 are still able to upgrade their devices to IOS XE 17.15.4. The option to upgrade to IOS XE 17.15.4 will be available if there is at least one network on a 17.15 version in the organization. This can also be enabled by a support case if needed. For customers with devices currently on an IOS XE 17.15 version, no impact is expected, and no action is required. The primary factor for this temporary restriction is based on known issues with the CS to IOS XE migration. All devices currently on IOS XE 17.15 will continue to operate as expected, with full functionality and support. We understand that this may cause inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we prioritize a stable and seamless experience for all users. Our goal is to ensure your network remains reliable and fully supported throughout this transition. Thank you for your patience. ... View more

We’re excited to announce a significant update for organizations using Adaptive Policy.  The new matrix view for Adaptive Policy provides a highly visual interface to monitor, troubleshoot, and configure micro-segmentation policies across the network.   Visualize Policies At-a-Glance  The policy matrix is the new default view in the Adaptive Policy tab. This feature allows users to monitor all existing access policies in a clear, grid-based format. No more hunting through lists or trying to piece policies together manually.  Effortlessly Monitor and Manage: Easily monitor policies across the network with an at-a-glance visualization of the current policy landscape. Quickly identify areas that require attention, drill down into specific relationships, and make edits directly from the matrix.   Modernized UI: Under our magnetic design principles, all Adaptive Policy pages have received a fresh update to enhance the look and feel, making navigation and configuration simpler and more efficient.   Coming Soon: Next up will be support for hit counters, which provide valuable insight into how often specific policies are matched, helping users to verify that policies are functioning as intended. Additionally, event logs will help users monitor and audit when policy changes are made between groups, offering greater transparency and accountability in policy management.     Why Adaptive Policy?  As the number of users and devices connecting to the network rise, traditional VLAN-based security can be difficult to manage. Adaptive Policy helps address these challenges by using Security Group Tags (SGTs) to define security policies based on identity instead of static IP addresses.   This approach to cloud-managed micro-segmentation limits unauthorized lateral movement while simplifying policy management, resulting in a more manageable and effective security framework.  Getting Started: The Adaptive Policy Matrix is in early access. To use this feature, ensure your network meets the required hardware and licensing prerequisites found here. To activate this feature, please toggle the ‘try new version’ button on the top right of the page. Users can revert back to the traditional page view at any time while the matrix is in early access.  🔗 Check out the Adaptive Policy documentation   ... View more

CPU and Memory Utilization Updates for Switching ✅   Keeping your network healthy starts with having the right insights at your fingertips. That’s why we’re rolling out enhancements to dashboard, designed to give our switching users a cleaner, more complete view of device performance, stability, and utilization.                                         🧠 Device Health Metrics On the Device Health tab, you’ll now be able to view CPU and memory utilization statistics, giving you a window into what’s happening under the hood of each switch. These insights empower you to diagnose performance issues and quickly spot anomalies to take action before users notice.   Device Health statistics will be available for the following MS switches.   This highly requested feature is all about enhancing visibility into switch performance and operational health, to make monitoring and proactively managing your infrastructure more efficient.   To enable this view, users must click 'try new version' via the on-page toggle in the upper right of the screen.    To learn more about Device Health, check out the link below. 📄 Documentation: Device Health ... View more

[Beta] IOS XE 17.18.1 Brings Enterprise Capabilities to Cloud 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 Series.   We laid the foundation for this new architecture with IOS XE 17.15, and today we are excited to announce a variety of new features with IOS XE 17.18.1 that power advanced use cases directly from the cloud.   Key Highlights of IOS XE 17.18.1 🧠     Expanded Model Support: This release brings support for the remaining C9200 and C9300 families along with select C9500 high performance devices (and support for the network modules you’ve been waiting for.) View full list of supported models here. Advanced Routing By popular demand, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is now supported on C9500, C9300X, C9300, C9300L, C9300LM, C9200CX, MS390 to provide multiple configuration options including full stack dynamic routing and simplified iBGP/eBGP routing.   Additionally, users can now take advantage of VRF functionality that enables multiple virtual routing tables to exist on a single switch. This enables the isolation of different network segments, allowing them to use overlapping IP addresses without conflicts, all without requiring MPLS or complex configurations.   Support for Routed Ports also enables users to reduce convergence time while simplifying point-to-point links, reducing VLAN complexity, and confining broadcast domains. High Availability Users will be able to minimize downtime and issue hitless upgrades with support for In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU)*, boost network resilience with support for StackWise Virtual  on C9500, and achieve faster convergence and efficient load balancing across multiple VLANs with support for Rapid Per-VLAN Spanning Tree+ (RPVST+). Cloud Value Expansion We are continuing to introduce support for high-value features associated with the Meraki dashboard. In this release, C9000 devices running cloud management with IOS XE 17.18.1 receive support for the creation of SmartPort profiles, packet capture scheduling with Intelligent Capture, Digital Optical Monitoring, enhanced visibility with Device Uptime, as well as authentication capabilities such as VLAN to SGT, Radius Caching, and additional DHCP options.   A major milestone for cloud management 📍 The IOS XE 17.18.1 release marks a significant milestone in our journey to unified cloud management. These features are designed to power advanced use cases for organizations requiring greater control over complex environments. The goal of this release is to add performance and capability boosts to those that require it, while remaining true to the simplicity in which the Meraki platform was built on. Be the First to Try it Today! Upgrade your existing cloud-managed Catalyst switch from the dashboard or follow the instructions to migrate eligible C9000 switches. While we have tested it extensively in-house, we understand that unforeseen issues may still arise. If you encounter any issues, please get in touch with Support so we can address them as soon as possible. Share Your Feedback We value your feedback on our latest release! Please take a moment to complete this brief 5-minute survey and share your experience with us. Learn more about the features and benefits of IOS XE 17.18.1 below. 🔗 Cloud Management with IOS XE Documentation     * (ISSU) is available from 17.18.1 and can be used for future upgrades   ... View more

  Hi Community!   Many of you are familiar with the Cisco Catalyst 9200L Series, our fixed access switches that serve as a cost-effective foundation for branch networks. 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.    With fourteen models to choose from, these devices bring the performance and reliability of the Catalyst 9000 family directly to the Meraki dashboard to offer day zero operational simplicity, all powered by IOS XE.    The 9200L-M offers excellent value for distributed sites and small to mid-sized deployments by providing up to 10GbE mGig, 25GbE uplinks, a power budget up to 1440W, and physical stacking powered by StackWise.   Aside from the hardware specifications, the 9200L-M also brings day zero cloud management capabilities powered by IOS XE. This improved architecture offers faster boot time, greater stability, and a deeper feature set to provide granular control and customization to users.    These devices are designed to simplify deployment and management and serve as an ideal choice for customers transitioning from legacy Meraki MS switches or for advanced branch environments where ease of use, reliability, flexibility, and cloud scale are critical.   Just like C9300-M, the C9200L-M provides users with investment protection and operational flexibility by allowing customers to migrate their device from cloud managed to on-prem managed with Catalyst Center or CLI if desired at any point during the product’s lifecycle   To learn more about the 9200L-M, check out the link below   🔗 Cisco Catalyst 9200L-M Data Sheet  🔗 Cisco Catalyst 9200 Webpage ... View more

  Network issues don’t wait for you to be watching before they occur. A slowdown, outage, or failure can happen at any time – and if you’re not capturing packets at the right moment, critical troubleshooting data may be lost.     Enter Intelligent Capture 🎯    By expanding this capability to support cloud-managed switches, you can now:    ✅ Schedule captures at any time on a device or per-port basis   ✅ Analyze troubleshooting data directly from dashboard  ✅ Store historical logs in the cloud to view from anywhere  ✅ Download packet capture logs at any time                          Intelligent Capture simplifies the troubleshooting process by providing greater accessibility to packet capture logs through a series of commands that allow you to schedule, analyze, store, and download packets as they pass through network devices.     The reduction of manual intervention in the packet capture analysis process brings benefits in the form of quicker root cause analysis and remediation leading to a faster mean time to resolution.    🔗 Learn more about Intelligent Capture 🔗 Intelligent Capture Guided Walkthrough (Wireless) ... View more

  With the release of cloud-native IOS XE 17.15.3, we are excited to announce cloud operating mode and hybrid operating mode; two powerful ways to manage your Catalyst 9000 switches from the Meraki dashboard.      These updates bring enhancements and new capabilities that provide greater flexibility to how you onboard and manage your Catalyst switches in the Meraki dashboard.    Let’s dive into what each mode offers!    ➡️ Hybrid operating mode enters public beta today and is an evolution of what was previously known as Cloud Monitoring. Hybrid operating mode offers you the ability to onboard any Catalyst 9200 or 9300 series switch into the Meraki dashboard.    In hybrid mode, users can configure their switch via local console, SSH, or CLI. Additionally, a new Cloud CLI terminal has been added to the dashboard to provide read/write commands that enable added depth and visibility to the cloud management experience. Hybrid mode provides monitoring and troubleshooting insights for your Catalyst switches in dashboard, while still retaining configurations locally on the device.     Though configurations are not hosted or synced from the cloud in hybrid mode, users have the option to initiate a cloud back-up for added resilience.    ➡️ Cloud operating mode is moving to a stable release candidate with IOS XE 17.15.3, providing the full cloud-native management experience for select Catalyst 9000 devices from the Meraki dashboard. In cloud operating mode, configurations are managed via the dashboard and delivered entirely from the cloud. This capability also offers a read-only Cloud CLI terminal you can use to view the entire running-configuration or perform advanced troubleshooting using IOS XE show commands.    Additionally, we are introducing a brand-new onboarding experience for Catalyst switches as they transition to the cloud. Learn more about this onboarding experience here.      A key feature of cloud-native IOS XE 17.15.3 is Cloud CLI, which is also now available in early access for cloud-managed Catalyst switches running IOS XE 17.15.3 or later. Cloud CLI is an interactive terminal hosted within the Meraki dashboard that initiates a secure direct terminal session to your Catalyst 9000 device. An added benefit of Cloud CLI is the ability to read or write commands from anywhere via the Meraki dashboard. No VPN connection or jump host is required to access the switch CLI for your cloud-managed switches.     The future is cloud with IOS XE    This release delivers greater flexibility in how you choose to migrate to the cloud, a smoother onboarding process for getting started, and deeper visibility and control with a cloud-hosted CLI terminal.     All of these come together with cloud-native IOS XE to help provide a seamless cloud migration path for on-premises Catalyst 9000 switching customers, without the need to overhaul your existing infrastructure.     Please Note: This rollout will occur in phases, and availability may vary. If you don't see the hybrid operating mode option when adding switches to a network, please note that it will be available soon. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to bring this feature to all eligible organizations   To learn more about cloud and hybrid operating mode, visit the documentation below!     🔗 Cloud-native IOS XE  🔗 Cloud Operating Mode   🔗 Hybrid Operating Mode   🔗 Cloud CLI Overview  ... View more

Have you ever encountered this error?    Combined count of Allowed VLANs and Native VLAN cannot exceed 1000 VLANs   If you have, you probably know how frustrating it is to deal with. This is a side-effect of Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP). Catalyst switches have to actually create VLAN objects in order for traffic to pass through those VLANs, and when you open a brand new Cloud-Managed C9300-M switch, we’ve already created VLANs from 1 to 1000 on it to increase the chances that switch will find a way to reach the Dashboard as soon as you plug it in. That’s helpful!    Once the switch is online though, all of those VLANs are still there, and you probably aren’t using 1000 VLANs. Guess how many VLANs a C9300 can run at a time? That’s right – 1000!    So when you go to configure any VLAN above 1000 on your switch, the Meraki Dashboard “helpfully” points out that you’re already maxed out and need to remove some of those unused VLANs first.     We could’ve made this easier to understand – heck, we could have made it easier to prevent – so that’s what we’ve done by bringing VLAN database management to the Dashboard.        How does it work?  VLAN database management allows you to...    ✅ Easily remove unused VLANs from one or many Catalyst switches at once    ✅ Ensure VLAN DB consistency with VLAN Profiles, making sure the VLANs that you do need are correctly provisioned on switches, at scale    ✅ Configure trunk ports to allow all VLANs, the same way MS switches do, while still only having the active VLANs created on the switch.     To try VLAN database management, visit the Organization tab in dashboard and navigate to the Early Access page, then find VLAN Database. Additionally, you can read more about how this feature works here. ... View more