A campus team has IOS XE routers running classic EIGRP today and wants to migrate one pilot site to SD-WAN with centralized policy while keeping another router autonomous for local testing, using the same hardware family. Reboot flexibility and license needs matter. Which mode choice best fits centralized versus autonomous operation on this hardware?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
You can't drive with both cruise control and your foot flooring it. Controller mode hands the wheel to SD-WAN fabric, while autonomous keeps classic CLI in your hands.
Full Explanation
IOS XE SD-WAN capable routers operate either in autonomous mode running traditional IOS XE CLI routing or in controller mode running the SD-WAN image where configuration and policy come from SD-WAN Manager (formerly vManage) and control from SD-WAN Controller, requiring mode conversion and reboot with appropriate licensing, and the modes are mutually exclusive per device. Staying autonomous on both prevents centralized SD-WAN onboarding because autonomous devices do not join the SD-WAN control plane, converting both to controller mode removes local autonomous CLI testing on the lab unit, and attempting simultaneous modes on one chassis is architecturally impossible and misunderstands the boot image selection. For the exam remember controller equals centrally managed SD-WAN and autonomous equals standalone IOS XE, and verify with show version and show sdwan system status plus Manager device inventory showing managed versus unmanaged state.