Cisco Catalyst Center appliances (formerly Cisco DNA Center)

What Cisco Catalyst Center does

Cisco describes it as "a powerful network controller and management dashboard" and adds: "Cisco Catalyst™ Center, formerly Cisco DNA Center" (Catalyst Center data sheet, 6 Jul 2026). The DN4 data sheet says it "provides a single pane of glass for managing your entire Cisco enterprise network, including switches, routers, and wireless access points", with three key capabilities:

• Automation: "device deployment, configuration, software updates, and troubleshooting".
• Deep insights: AI-driven "insights and analytics to aid in optimizing end-user experience and security".
• Zero-trust policy: helping "identify threats and ensure network compliance".

Day to day that means plug-and-play set-up of new switches and access points, golden software images, compliance checks, and assurance dashboards that show which client, device or site has a problem. Cisco also lets Catalyst Center discover Meraki devices for "a single pane of glass for both Cisco and Meraki devices".

DN4 appliances

Cisco: "Catalyst Center DN4s are a family of preconfigured hardware appliances designed to deliver enterprise-grade performance and simplified deployment of Catalyst Center. The appliances are available in three form factors". All three are:

• based on the Cisco UCS C225 M8 rack server, 1RU;
• fitted with two hot-pluggable, redundant 1200 W titanium AC power supplies;
• connected by a 1 GbE management port and two 10GBASE-T LAN ports;
• shipped with Catalyst Center pre-installed, needing Release 3.3.1 or newer.

The three sizes are the DN4-HW-APL (32 core), DN4-HW-APL-L (48 core) and DN4-HW-APL-XL (72 core). Cisco's DN4 data sheet refers to the Catalyst Center data sheet for scale; we size the appliance from your device and endpoint counts.

Catalyst Center models and part numbers

Press Add next to a part number to put it in your basket. Where a subscription or support option goes with the hardware, you choose it in the same step and it goes into your basket with the hardware. Part numbers come from the vendor; we confirm each line, quantity and term when we quote.

Gen 3 appliances and their scale

The Gen 3 DN3 appliances can be ordered until 31 Dec 2026. Cisco's scale figures (Catalyst Center data sheet, Table 14):

For a new deployment we normally quote DN4; the DN3 suits an existing cluster you are extending before its last order date.

Licences: the appliance and the devices it manages

Two kinds of licence go with Catalyst Center:

• The appliance licence: each appliance has its own matching licence (DN4-HW-APL-LIC for the DN4-HW-APL, DN4-HW-APL-L-LIC for the DN4-HW-APL-L, DN4-HW-APL-XL-LIC for the DN4-HW-APL-XL, and the same pattern for the DN3 appliances), which the configurator adds with that appliance.
• Device licences: Cisco says "For a device to be authorized to send data to Catalyst Center, that device must be included in your organization's Catalyst or Cisco DNA license subscription." Cisco "encourages customers to purchase complete Catalyst Center functionality through a Catalyst or Cisco DNA Advantage license subscription", with "Limited Catalyst Center functionality" through Essentials. Wireless and switching subscriptions run for 3, 5 or 7 years.

The device subscriptions are bought with the switches and access points: see Catalyst 9000 and Cisco Wi-Fi 7 access points. Catalyst Center can also run as a virtual appliance; that is software, so licence-only orders and renewals are on softwarelicensing.uk (opens in a new tab).

What you order with it

Subscription and support part numbers for the hardware above. We confirm the right tier, term and quantity at quote.

Catalyst Center appliance licence

Catalyst Center or a cloud dashboard?

Catalyst Center is the on-premises choice for Catalyst switching and controller-based Cisco Wireless. If you would rather manage everything from the cloud, the Meraki dashboard does that job for Meraki and cloud-managed Catalyst devices; see cloud managed Catalyst (opens in a new tab) on our sister store.

How to order

How ordering works. Press Add next to a part number and it goes into your basket; where the hardware needs a subscription or support term, you pick it in the same step. Add mounts, injectors and accessories, then View basket and Request a quote. We check every line, quantity and term against your site and come back with a personalised quote by email. Nothing is charged online. We can also design, supply, stage, install and configure the wireless network as a project, with the scope confirmed at quote (see network installation).

Tell us roughly how many switches, routers, controllers and access points you will manage, and whether you need a high-availability cluster, and we will size the appliances. Contact us if you would like help first.

Lifecycle and replacements

Dates are the vendor's published end-of-sale and support dates. We can quote current replacements and plan the swap.

Vendor sources

• Cisco Catalyst Center DN4 data sheet (updated 27 Aug 2026) (opens in a new tab)
• Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA Center) Gen 3 Appliance Ordering Guide (opens in a new tab)