The prefix cat9kv refers to the Cisco Catalyst 9000v. This is the virtualized iteration of Cisco’s flagship Catalyst 9000 series switches.
The keyword cat9kvprd171201prd9qcow2 is a highly specific, likely internal filename for a Cisco Catalyst 9000 virtual switch virtual machine disk image, built in production in December 2017, potentially with a typo in the qcow2 extension.
If you encounter it, treat it as legacy test/development artifact unless confirmed otherwise. Use qemu-img info to inspect its content. For SEO, an article explaining its anatomy and providing troubleshooting steps will capture niche technical traffic from engineers dealing with obscure VM image names.
The string cat9kv-prd.17.12.01.prd.9.qcow2 refers to the Cisco Catalyst 9000V
virtual switch image running IOS XE Dublin 17.12.1. This virtual image is used in simulation environments like Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) , GNS3, and EVE-NG. Key Highlights cat9kvprd171201prd9qcow2
Release Purpose: This is an Extended Maintenance Release (EMR), designed for long-term stability with 36 months of support. Virtual Hardware Modes:
UADP Mode: Aligns with Catalyst 9300/9500 switches. It typically requires 18 GB RAM and 4 vCPUs.
Silicon One (Q200) Mode: Aligns with Catalyst 9500X switches and is slightly less resource-intensive, requiring 12 GB RAM and 4 vCPUs.
Performance Note: Despite being a "production" grade release, it is widely considered a resource hog in lab environments. It can take several minutes to boot and for interfaces to become usable. User Feedback & Reviews The prefix cat9kv refers to the Cisco Catalyst 9000v
Reviewers from the Cisco Community and GNS3 Marketplace note several practical points: Cisco IOS XE 17.12.1 for Catalyst Switching
Based on the string provided, this appears to be a specific software image filename for Cisco Catalyst 9000 series switches, likely used within a Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) or Cisco Catalyst Center environment.
Here is a breakdown of the filename components and a technical feature look at what this image represents.
In Cisco IOS-XE naming conventions, version numbers (like 17.12.01) are often embedded in filenames. The segment 171201 (appearing earlier in the string) likely represents software version 17.12.01. The trailing 9q in this specific string context is likely a build moniker or a specific feature train identifier, though in some parsing logic, 9 represents the major version (Catalyst 9000) and q denotes a specific release train (Quality/Enterprise). If you need to rank an article for
However, cat9kvprd171201prd9qcow2 does not match any standard official Cisco filename for a virtual Catalyst 9000 switch image. It looks possibly like a concatenated/typo version of something such as:
Because this specific filename appears malformed or nonstandard, I cannot provide a “full content” of that file — that would be copyright-protected software, and sharing it would violate Cisco’s license agreement.
If you need to rank an article for cat9kvprd171201prd9qcow2, you are targeting users who:
The presence of the .qcow2 extension confirms that this image is intended for a KVM-based hypervisor (such as Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Proxmox, or OpenStack). In a cloud environment, the cat9kv acts as a Virtual Network Function (VNF). The "Copy on Write" feature is particularly valuable for networking, as it allows administrators to spin up multiple Catalyst 9000v instances from a single "backing file," saving storage space while maintaining isolated configurations.
This string is low-competition, high-specificity, meaning only a few people would ever search for it. Likely sources:
If you encountered this in a system error message, it might be a specific build artifact stored temporarily on a development server.