Cisco Designing Cisco Enterprise Networks (ENDESIGN) exam 500-490 Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

 SD-WAN demonstrations are an effective way to showcase the benefits and features of Cisco SD-WAN solutions to potential customers. However, not all demos are created equal, and there are some best practices to follow to ensure a successful and engaging demo. Here are some explanations for why C and E are true statements regarding SD-WAN demonstrations:

C. During a demo, you should consider the target audience and the desired outcome. This is a true statement because different audiences may have different levels of technical knowledge, business needs, and expectations from the demo. For example, a demo for a C-level executive may focus more on the business outcomes and value proposition of SD-WAN, while a demo for a network engineer may dive deeper into the technical details and configuration options. Therefore, it is important to tailor the demo to the specific audience and the desired outcome, such as generating interest, building trust, or closing a deal.

E. There is a big difference between demos that use a top down approach and demos that use a bottom up approach. This is also a true statement because the two approaches have different advantages and disadvantages, and may suit different scenarios. A top down approach starts with the high-level overview of the SD-WAN solution, such as the architecture, components, benefits, and use cases, and then drills down into the specific features and functionalities. A bottom up approach starts withthe low-level details of the SD-WAN solution, such as the configuration, troubleshooting, and testing, and then builds up to the big picture and value proposition. A top down approach may be more suitable for a non-technical or business-oriented audience, while a bottom up approach may be more suitable for a technical or hands-on audience.

References :=

Cisco SD-WAN Demonstration Guide

SD-WAN Best Practices | Kentik Blog

SD-WAN best practices for a successful implementation

SD-WAN best practices - VMware Blogs

Stay focused and develop a custom story guide taking into consideration the target audience, desired outcome and story to tell while demonstrating the Viptela solution capabilities Slide 151 = There is a big difference demoing using a top down vs. bottom up approachhttps://salesconnect.cisco.com/sc/s/learning-activity-from-plan?ltui__urlRecordId=a0c8c00000P3hKMAAZ <ui__urlRedirect=learning-activity-from-plan<ui__parentUrl=learning-activity-from-plan

When demonstrating Cisco Software-Defined Access (SDA), it's essential to tailor the presentation to highlight the strategic benefits and overall architecture without overwhelming the audience with excessive technical details. Two key recommendations for a successful SDA demonstration are:

Keep the demo at a high level (Option B):It's crucial to keep the demonstration focused on the overarching concepts and benefits rather than delving into the intricate technical details. This approach ensures that the audience, which may include decision-makers and non-technical stakeholders, can easily grasp the value and advantages of SDA. By presenting at a high level, you can effectivelycommunicate how SDA simplifies network management, enhances security, and supports digital transformation initiatives.

Show the customer how to integrate ISE into DNA Center at the end of the demo (Option E):Integrating Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) with Cisco DNA Center is a pivotal aspect of the SDA solution. Demonstrating this integration towards the end of the presentation allows you to showcase the seamless interoperability and added security benefits that ISE brings to the SDA environment. This part of the demo highlights how ISE enhances network access control, policy enforcement, and overall security management within the SDA framework.

References:

Cisco Software-Defined Access Solution Overview

Cisco DNA Center and ISE Integration Guide

Integrating Cisco Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) into an existing brownfield environment can be complex and risky, given the existing network's configurations and operations. Adopting a "one switch at a time" approach provides two significant advantages:

Involves the least risk of all approaches (Option C):This method minimizes the impact on the existing network because changes are applied incrementally rather than all at once. By limiting the scope of changes to one switch at a time, network administrators can carefully monitor the effects and address any issues immediately. This approach reduces the risk of widespread network disruptions, making it a safer option compared to more aggressive migration strategies.

Allows simplified roll back (Option D):If any issues arise during the integration of a single switch, it is easier to revert to the previous state without affecting the entire network. This rollback capability is critical in maintaining network stability and ensuring that the operations of the existing network continue uninterrupted. The granularity of changes and the ease of reverting them back to a known good state provide a safety net that is crucial in complex environments.

References:

Cisco SD-Access Deployment Guide

Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) Center User Guide

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sdwan/configuration/segmentation/vEdge-20-x/segmentation-book/segmentation.html

The Cisco vEdge platform supports IPv6 transport (WAN) as one of its features. This means that the vEdge routers can use IPv6 addresses to establish secure control and data plane connections with other vEdge routers over the WAN network. The vEdge routers can also use IPv6 addresses to communicate with the vSmart controllers and the vManage network management system. The vEdge routers can also support IPv6 routing protocols, such as OSPFv3 and BGP, to exchange IPv6 routes with other routers in the network12.

The other features listed in the question are not supported on the Cisco vEdge platform. License enforcement is not applicable to the vEdge routers, as they do not require any license to operate. Reporting is a function of the vManage network management system, which collects and displays various statistics and analytics from the vEdge routers. Non-Ethernet interfaces, such as serial, T1/E1, or DSL, are not available on the vEdge routers, which only support Ethernet and cellular interfaces. Single sign-on and 2-factor authentication are not supportedon the vEdge routers, which use local or remote authentication methods, such as TACACS+, RADIUS, or LDAP3.

References:

1: Cisco SD-WAN vEdge Routers Data Sheet 2: Cisco SD-WAN Configuration Guide, Release 20.3 3: Cisco SD-WAN Command Reference, Release 20.3

Cisco ISE is a security policy management platform that provides secure access to network resources. Cisco ISE functions as a policy decision point and enables enterprises to ensure compliance, enhance infrastructure security, and streamline service operations1. Two of the statements that are true regarding Cisco ISE are:

ISE can detect endpoints whose addresses have been translated via NAT: Cisco ISE can discover, profile, and monitor the endpoint devices on the network, and classify them according to their associated policies and identity groups. Cisco ISE can leverage the pxGrid framework to share the contextual information with other security tools and platforms, and enhance the network visibility and security1. Cisco ISE can also detect endpoints whose addresses have been translated via NAT by using various methods, such as passive and active discovery, NMAP scanning, DHCP snooping, and RADIUS accounting234.

The number of logs that ISE can retain is determined by your disk space: Cisco ISE provides a logging mechanism that is used for auditing, faultmanagement, and troubleshooting. The logging mechanism helps you to identify fault conditions in deployed services and troubleshoot issues efficiently. You can configure your Cisco ISE node to collect the logs in the local systems using a virtual loopback address5. The number of logs that ISE can retain is determined by your disk space, as well as the data purging settings that you can configure under Administration > System > Maintenance > Data Purging6. You can also configure Cisco ISE to send its logs to a remote system for greater retention history7.

The other statements are not true regarding Cisco ISE, because:

In distributed deployments, failover from primary to secondary Policy Administration Nodes happens automatically: Cisco ISE supports high availability for the Administration persona, which provides centralized configuration and management of the distributed deployment. You can configure one primary Administration ISE node and one secondary Administration ISE node for high availability. However, the failover from primary to secondary Policy Administration Nodes does not happen automatically, unless you enable the automatic failover feature and configure a health check node to monitor the primary node’s status8. Otherwise, you have to manually promote the secondary node to become the primary node in case of a failure9.

In two-node standalone ISE deployments, failover must be done manually: Cisco ISE supports high availability for the Policy Service persona, which provides network access, posture, guest access, client provisioning, and profiling services. You can configure multiple Policy Service Nodes (PSNs) in a node group to provide session failover and load balancing for the endpoints. In a two-nodestandalone ISE deployment, where each node assumes all the personas, the failover for the Policy Service persona does not need to be done manually, as long as the network access devices are configured to use both nodes for RADIUS and TACACS services10.

ISE supports IPv6 downloadable ACLs: Cisco ISE supports downloadable ACLs (DACLs), which are configured and implemented through authorization profiles. DACLs are used to enforce granular access control policies for the endpoints based on their identity and other attributes. However, Cisco ISE does not support IPv6 downloadable ACLs, as it only supports IPv4 ACLs for RADIUS and TACACS protocols1112.

References:

1: Cisco Content Hub - Cisco ISE Features 2: Cisco ISE Profiler Service Overview 3: ISE Deployment through NAT Boundaries - Cisco Community 4: Configure ISE 3.3 Native IPSec to Secure NAD (IOS-XE) Communication - Cisco 5: Logging [Cisco Identity Services Engine] - Cisco Systems 6: ISE maximum logging time / data retention - Cisco Community 7: Logs retention on ISE - Cisco Community 8: Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.4 9: Setting Up Cisco ISE in a Distributed Environment 10: Cisco Content Hub - Network Deployments in Cisco ISE 11: Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.2 12: Solved: ISE: support for IPv6 DACL’s - Cisco Community

"There is no automatic failover for the Administration persona."https://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/ise/1.0/user_guide/ise10_dis_deploy.html...Newer platforms and ISE versions appear to support ipv6 dacl just fine now

Cisco ISE incorporated Cisco ACS (Cisco Secure Access Control System) between ISE releases 2.0 and 2.3. Cisco ACS was a network access policy platform that provided authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services for network devices and users. Cisco ACS was discontinued in 2017 and replaced by Cisco ISE, which offers more advanced features and capabilities for identity-based network access control. Cisco ISE provides a migration tool that allows customers to migrate their data and configurations from Cisco ACS to Cisco ISE. The migration tool supports Cisco ACS versions 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, and 5.8 and Cisco ISE versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3.

References:

Cisco Secure Access Control System End-of-Life Announcement [Cisco Secure Access Control System]

Cisco Secure ACS to Cisco ISE Migration Tool [Cisco Identity Services Engine]

Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.3 - Cisco Secure ACS to Cisco ISE Migration [Cisco Identity Services Engine]

Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.3 - Manage Migration [Cisco Identity Services Engine]

[Cisco Identity Services Engine Migration Guide, Release 2.3 [Cisco Identity Services Engine]]

[Designing Cisco Enterprise Networks (ENDESIGN) Exam Topics [Cisco]]

[Cisco Validated Design Guides [Cisco]]

ISE 2.3 includes the final suite of capabilities designed to reach feature parity with Cisco Secure Access Control System (ACS), allowing all existing ACS customers to migrate their deployment to ISE. New features include TACACS+-based device administration for IPv6, import and export capabilities for TACACS+-based command sets, policy export scheduling, IP range support in all octets, and more. See the ACS vs ISE Comparison for feature comparisons with every release of ISE

https://www.ciscolive.com/c/dam/r/ciscolive/emea/docs/2020/pdf/BRKRST-2377.pdf

The node that enables Cisco ISE to share contextual information on a device with Cisco Stealthwatch is the pXGrid Controller. The pXGrid Controller is a component of the ISE Policy Service Node (PSN) that facilitates the exchange of contextual data between ISE and other security products, such as Stealthwatch, via the Platform Exchange Grid (pxGrid) protocol. The pXGrid Controller acts as a broker that registers, authenticates, and authorizes pxGrid clients, and allows them to publish and subscribe to topics of interest. For example, Stealthwatch can subscribe to the Session Directory topic to obtain user and device information from ISE, and use it to enrich the network flow data and provide better visibility and security analytics. Stealthwatch can also publish topics, such as Rapid Threat Containment (RTC), to allow ISE to take mitigation actions on compromised endpoints, such as quarantine or re-authentication. References:

Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.4 - Manage Platform Exchange Grid Services [Cisco Identity Services Engine] - Cisco1

Deploying Cisco Stealthwatch 7.x with Cisco ISE 2.4 using pxGrid - Cisco Community2

Stealthwatch — Networking fun3

pxGrid in Depth > Sharing the Context | Cisco Press4

 Cisco ISE benefits our customers by providing network access control and helping them stop and contain real-time threats. Network access control is the ability to enforce policies on who and what can access the network, based on the identity and context of users, devices, and applications. Cisco ISE allows customers to authenticate, authorize, and audit network access, as well as to segment and isolate network traffic based on security and compliance requirements. Cisco ISE also helps customers stop and contain real-time threats by leveraging intel from across the network and security ecosystem, and by automating threat response actions. Cisco ISE can integrate with various security solutions, such as Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Firepower, and Cisco Umbrella, to detect and mitigate attacks on the network quickly and effectively. References:

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) - Cisco1

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) - Cisco2

Network Visibility and Segmentation (NVS) - Cisco3

Rapid Threat Containment - Cisco4

https://salesconnect.cisco.com/sc/s/learning-activity-from-plan?ltui__urlRecordId=a0c8c00000Kfw0AAAR <ui__urlRedirect=learning-activity-from-plan<ui__parentUrl= Slide 3 - ISE is critical to your customer – • Visibility in to users, devices & applications • Access control and segmentation • Stop and contain threats in real-time

The three focus areas for reinventing the WAN are:

Secure Elastic Connectivity: This refers to the ability to provide secure and flexible connectivity to any application, anywhere, and anytime. Secure elastic connectivity enables the network to adapt to the changing business needs and user demands, while maintaining security and performance. Secure elastic connectivity leverages SD-WAN technologies, such as Cloud OnRamp, SASE, and ThousandEyes, to optimize the network path, encrypt the traffic, and monitor the end-to-end visibility across the WAN12.

Application Quality of Experience: This refers to the ability to ensure optimal and consistent user experience for any application, regardless of the network conditions. Application quality of experience uses SD-WAN technologies, such as vAnalytics, to measure and improve the application performance, availability, and reliability across the WAN3. Application quality of experience also uses intelligent policies and real-time analytics to prioritize the critical applications and steer the traffic to the best-performing path4.

Cloud First: This refers to the ability to embrace the cloud as the primary platform for delivering applications and services to the users. Cloud first enables the network to support the multicloud strategy and accelerate the cloud adoption. Cloud first leverages SD-WAN technologies, such as Cloud OnRamp, to simplify and automate the connectivity to the public cloud, SaaS, and cloud interconnect providers4. Cloud first also enables the network to operate as a cloud-native WAN overlay, using software-defined automation and orchestration tools5.

References:

Cisco SD-WAN Architecture Overview

SD-WAN and SASE: The new landscape of networking

Under the vAnalytics Hood: Enabling Total Network Visibility, Total Network Control

SD-WAN Capabilities - The New Landscape of Networking

Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN): the new landscape of networking

The 4 Focus areas for reinventing the WAN are:

• Secure Elastic Connectivity

• Cloud First

• Application Quality of Experience

• Agile Operations

https://salesconnect.cisco.com/sc/s/learning-activity-from-plan?ltui__urlRecordId=a0c8c00000P3hKMAAZ <ui__urlRedirect=learning-activity-from-plan<ui__parentUrl=learning-activity-from-plan