Cisco vSmart-K9 Full English Product Description
1. Short Official Part & License Label
vSmart-K9: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller (Formerly vSmart Controller) Virtual Appliance Software License, Core Control Plane for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Overlay Fabric, Runs on VMware ESXi / KVM / Supported Public Clouds, Executes OMP Overlay Routing, Centralized Policy Distribution, TLOC Management & Encryption Key Orchestration, Active-Active Multi-Instance HA, Supports Single-Tenant and Multi-Tenant Deployments, Critical Control Plane Component for Global SD-WAN Fabrics
2. Full Product Overview
The Cisco vSmart-K9 is the ordering SKU for theCisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller (originally named vSmart Controller)virtual appliance, the essential control-plane component of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN architecture (Viptela-origin SD-WAN stack). Together with vManage (SD-WAN Manager) and vBond (SD-WAN Validator), it forms the complete set of SD-WAN centralized controllers.
vSmart operates as the overlay routing and policy brain. It establishes secure DTLS/TLS Overlay Management Protocol (OMP) sessions with all SD-WAN edge routers. WAN edges advertise prefixes, VPN routes, TLOC (Transport Location) attributes and service information to vSmart. vSmart applies centralized control and data policies, computes optimal overlay topology, then propagates reachability information, policy rules and encryption keys back to all edge nodes. It eliminates the requirement for full-mesh control peering between every branch router, drastically reducing control-plane complexity at scale.
vSmartdoes not forward end-user data traffic; it only handles control-plane signaling. Multiple vSmart instances can be deployed in active-active redundancy. All controllers maintain a full mesh of OMP sessions to synchronize routing tables and policies, ensuring consistent forwarding rules across the entire overlay fabric. It supports single-tenant enterprise deployments as well as multi-tenant architectures for managed service providers.
Naming Update: Starting from Release 20.12.1, Cisco officially rebrands vSmart Controller toCatalyst SD-WAN Controller, while the ordering PID vSmart-K9 remains unchanged. Supported software releases span modern 20.x and 26.x SD-WAN control code trains. Software entitlements are covered under Cisco DNA for SD-WAN subscriptions.
Key Differentiator vs vBond / vManage: vSmart is theoverlay control & policy plane. vBond performs edge authentication and NAT orchestration; vManage delivers configuration, monitoring and analytics. vSmart maintains dynamic routing state and enforces end-to-end overlay forwarding policy, making it the core routing component of the SD-WAN fabric.
3. Virtual Machine Resource Specifications
Supported Hypervisors & Cloud Platforms
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VMware ESXi 6.7 / 7.0 / 8.0
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Linux KVM
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Public cloud: AWS, Azure marketplace virtual images
Standard VM Resource Profiles (Per vSmart Instance)
Small Profile (Up to 2,000 Edges)
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vCPU: 8 vCPUs
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RAM: 16 GB
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Storage: Minimum 100 GB SSD
Medium Profile (2,000–5,000 Edges)
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vCPU: 16 vCPUs
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RAM: 32 GB
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Storage: Minimum 200 GB SSD
Large Profile (5,000–10,000 Edges)
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vCPU: 32 vCPUs
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RAM: 64 GB
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Storage: Minimum 300 GB SSD
Virtual Interfaces
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System vNIC: Terminates DTLS/TLS OMP control connections to edges, vBond and peer vSmart nodes
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Supports static IP addressing, 802.1Q VLAN tagging
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Virtual serial console for installation, bootstrap and emergency recovery
Virtual Platform Compliance
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Pure software virtual workload with no physical power or thermal constraints
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Hardware certifications inherited from underlying hypervisor infrastructure
Verified Scalability Limits
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Multiple active-active vSmart instances can support up to 10,000 SD-WAN edge devices within a single overlay domain
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Multi-tenant mode: A pair of vSmart controllers supports up to 24 independent tenants
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Maintains OMP route tables, TLOC databases and security key distribution state
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Minimal persistent statistics storage compared to vManage
4. Core Catalyst SD-WAN Controller Software Feature Suite
1. Overlay Management Protocol (OMP) Routing
Exchanges VPN prefixes, TLOC identifiers, service routes and policy metadata between edges and controllers; computes overlay reachability, implements route filtering and path selection logic.
2. Centralized Policy Enforcement
Distributes control policies, application-aware routing policies, QoS definitions, service chaining rules and security policy definitions to all WAN edge devices. Supports hub-spoke, partial mesh and full-mesh overlay topologies.
3. Secure Fabric Key Orchestration
Manages and distributes IPsec encryption keys between edge sites, enabling automated establishment of secure data-plane tunnels without manual key provisioning.
4. Multi-Tenant Logical Isolation
Supports service provider multi-tenant environments; segregates routing tables, policy domains and edge membership for independent customer overlay fabrics.
5. High Availability Operations
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Active-active redundant deployment model; edges establish simultaneous control sessions to multiple vSmart instances
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Full-mesh OMP peering between all vSmart nodes for database synchronization
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Supports nondisruptive In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)
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Automatic failover without requiring edge devices to re-bootstrap
6. Security Framework
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All control traffic encapsulated within authenticated, encrypted DTLS/TLS sessions
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Certificate-based fabric identity for all controller and edge nodes
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RBAC administrative access, SSHv2, centralized syslog auditing
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Restricted administrative access to control-plane configuration
7. Management & Monitoring
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Local CLI via virtual console / SSH
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Basic embedded web administration interface
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Fully observable and configurable via vManage single-pane dashboard
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SNMPv3 support for integration with external monitoring platforms
8. Edge Interoperability
Compatible with all Catalyst SD-WAN edge platforms: IOS-XE Catalyst 8000 / ISR/ASR routers, physical vEdge routers, vEdge Cloud virtual edges and ENCS hybrid appliances.
5. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Core control-plane component for enterprise global SD-WAN overlay fabrics connecting hundreds to thousands of remote branch offices
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Multi-tenant managed SD-WAN infrastructure for service provider customers
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SASE architecture deployment integrated with vBond, vManage and cloud security SIG services
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Hybrid SD-WAN combining physical branch edges, cloud virtual edges and remote worker virtual edges
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Lab and proof-of-concept environments for overlay routing, application-aware routing and policy validation
6. Short Sales Listing Tagline
Cisco vSmart-K9 Virtual Catalyst SD-WAN Controller Software License, Virtual Appliance Runs on ESXi / KVM / Public Cloud, Core SD-WAN Overlay Control Plane, OMP Overlay Routing, Centralized Policy Distribution, TLOC Management & IPsec Key Orchestration, Active-Active Multi-Instance HA, Supports Single-Tenant & Multi-Tenant Environments, Foundational Routing & Policy Controller for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Fabrics
Note: Official modern naming = Catalyst SD-WAN Controller. The complete SD-WAN control cluster requires three components: vSmart-K9 (Control Plane), vBond-K9 (Validator / Orchestrator), vManage-K9 (SD-WAN Manager).
