Incorrect DNAC Wireless Access Point Hostnames in DX NetOps Performance Management

Products

• Network Observability

Issue/Introduction

In a DX NetOps environment integrated with Cisco DNAC via VNA, Wireless Access Points (WAPs) may display incorrect or "bad" hostnames in the Performance Center Inventory and Data Aggregator (DA).

Symptoms:

• WAP hostnames include extra system description information (e.g., "Cisco-Aire" or hardware strings) instead of the standard hostname.
• The names appear correct in the DNAC Console and DX NetOps Spectrum.
• Multiple entries may exist for the same WAP: one with the correct name and one with the "bad" name.
• This often occurs following a period where there was a firmware mismatch on the DNAC platform.

Environment

Current supported versions of Performance Management

Cause

The issue is typically caused by legacy discovery data. If the DNAC platform previously had a firmware version that included extra system description info in the hostname field, PM may have imported these strings during the initial VNA association.

Even after a firmware upgrade corrects the source data, the stale records persist in the PM database and may conflict with new, correct records.

Resolution

To resolve the naming discrepancy, the stale "bad" entries must be manually removed to allow the system to reconcile with the corrected DNAC data.

1. Identify Stale Devices: In the DX NetOps Portal, navigate to Administration > Data Aggregator Selection > Inventory > Devices.
2. Locate Bad Hostnames: Filter the list for WAP devices containing the incorrect strings (e.g., "Cisco-Aire").
3. Delete legacy records: Select the devices with the incorrect hostnames and delete them from the Data Aggregator.
4. Resync Aggregator: Trigger a resync of the Data Aggregator to ensure the views in both the Console and the DA are updated.
5. Resync VNA Gateway: Navigate to the VNA Gateway configuration and perform a Resync. This will re-import the current, correct hostnames from the DNAC platform.
6. Verification: Confirm that only the single, correctly named entry for each WAP remains in the inventory.

Note: If names revert to the "bad" format after 24 hours, check if the parent Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) is being polled via SNMP with the "SA Wireless Access Point" Metric Family.

You may need to remove this family from the monitoring profile to prevent SNMP discovery from overwriting VNA data

Article 409173.