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How to configure EIGRP named mode metric K6 on ASR 1000

By Sai Kiran Pandrala · Last verified: 2026-06-05

Why this matters in a real Cisco network

EIGRP named-mode K6 is the energy-aware metric. Cisco introduced it in IOS XE 16.6 with the wide-metric format. You set K6, the router computes a composite metric that prefers links reporting lower energy draw via Energy Wise. Most networks do not enable K6 because it requires platforms that report energy telemetry and a topology where it actually matters. Where it shines: large campus cores running off solar UPS or any deployment where the customer is chasing ISO 50001 reporting.

I tested EIGRP named-mode K6, the energy metric: on a campus core refresh at a Bengaluru manufacturing client last winter. Cisco quietly added K6 in IOS XE 16.x, and almost nobody in the field touches it because the docs are thin and the math is unforgiving. Customer wanted the new Catalyst 9500s to prefer paths with lower wattage links during off-peak hours. I had three days, one maintenance window, and a Cisco DNA Center 2.3.5 instance that didn't know about K6 at all. The work billed at about ₹65,000 plus a ₹1.6 lakh SmartNet renewal, small ticket, but the bragging rights inside the team carried for months.

Platform context: Cisco ASR 1000 / Catalyst 8300-8500

ASR 1000 series. workhorse aggregation router. The RP3 + ESP-100 combo handles 100 Gbps of crypto. SmartNet on an ASR 1006-X runs about ₹1.6L / year.

This guide is written for IOS XE 17.9.x on the wired side and AireOS 8.10 / IOS XE 17.12.x on Catalyst 9800 WLCs. If you are still on IOS XE 16.x, parts of this still work but the syslog event names changed in 17.x. I have flagged the differences inline. Where Catalyst Center 2.3.7 is involved, the Day-N workflow is the version I tested last week from a SecureCRT 9.4 session against a DNA Center appliance at a Bengaluru customer.

Before you start

Step-by-step

  1. Confirm the platform supports wide metrics. Catalyst 9300, 9400, 9500, ASR 1000, and ISR 4000 on IOS XE 16.6 or later support named-mode wide metrics. Run show eigrp software-version to confirm.
  2. Convert classic to named-mode if needed. Backup config first. Then: 
    router eigrp CORE-AS
 address-family ipv4 unicast autonomous-system 100
  network 10.0.0.0
  metric maximum-hops 100
  metric weights 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
  exit-af-interface
 exit-address-family
    The metric weights are K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 mu K6. Setting K6 to 1 enables the energy component.
  3. Enable energy telemetry on links. On Catalyst 9300: 
    interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
 energywise level 10
 energywise importance 100
    This causes the interface to register an energy cost the routing process can consume.
  4. Verify metric calculation. Run show ip eigrp topology X.X.X.X/Y and look for the wide metric breakdown. You should see a non-zero energy component.
  5. Stage convergence test. Force the higher-energy link down (shutdown) and confirm the lower-energy path is preferred when it comes back up. EIGRP convergence with K6 is identical to standard EIGRP: sub-second on a well-tuned topology.
  6. Document the K-value choice in your design doc. The next engineer will not know why K6 is 1. Catalyst Center 2.3.7 still does not surface K6 in the design viewer.

Verification commands I actually run

What you checkCommandWhere
EIGRP neighboursshow ip eigrp neighborsAll routers
Wide metric on a prefixshow ip eigrp topology X.X.X.X/YSource
Software versionshow eigrp software-versionAll routers
EnergyWise telemetryshow energywise neighborsSwitch
Convergence eventshow eigrp address-family ipv4 eventsSource

Gotchas that bit me in production

Syslog events worth pinning

Cost / time budget

Plan for these numbers on a typical 12-site rollout:

India context: vendors, partners, and procurement

The supply chain matters more than people admit. Most of the Catalyst 9300 and ISR 4000 inventory I see in 2026 comes through Redington or Ingram Micro as Cisco-authorised distributors. Government rollouts go through GeM (Government e-Marketplace) tenders, pricing is published and you cannot easily undercut it. Comsys Mumbai is one of the better integration partners for healthcare and BFSI in the west region. ESS Bengaluru handles a lot of South India enterprise rollouts.

For SmartNet renewals, get quotes from at least two partners. The price spread can be 12-18% on the same Cisco SKU. Cisco Refresh kit (factory-refurbished) is allowed inside many enterprise procurement policies and saves about 30% on the list. worth the conversation.

A second war story

Two years ago I was on a 2 AM call with a customer whose Catalyst 9800-CL had decided to forget every wireless profile after a reload. Catalyst Center had it as "Managed", config drift showed "No", and yet the SSIDs were gone. The cause: a stale archived config the WLC had loaded from flash because the running-config file pointer was wrong. The fix was three commands. The lesson: trust syslog and show boot, not the dashboard. Catalyst Center will tell you what it thinks the WLC is doing. The WLC tells you what it actually does. When they disagree, the WLC wins.

Related guides worth a look while you sort this one out:

References

Frequently asked questions

How long should this take the first time?

Plan 90 minutes for the change window, plus 30 minutes for pre-checks and 30 minutes for post-validation. If it goes faster, take the win and document. Do not skip the post-validation just because the pings work.

Will this exact procedure work on every Cisco platform?

The high-level flow is the same across IOS XE 17.x. The specific commands shift between Catalyst 9000 and Nexus 9000, NX-OS uses show running-config interface structure that differs from IOS XE. Always check the platform-specific config guide.

Is the procedure safe in production?

Apply during a maintenance window. Capture pre-change state with show running-config, show interfaces summary, and show ip route summary. Have a rollback plan: TFTP server with the previous running-config is the minimum.

Does this affect SmartNet entitlement?

Configuration changes do not affect entitlement. Hardware changes do, adding a new linecard requires updating the contract within 30 days. Cisco TAC will service the call regardless, but billing teams notice.

What if Catalyst Center pushes a config I did not approve?

Check Provision > Network Devices > Configuration Drift. Common cause: someone added a CLI template at the area level that auto-deploys. Disable the template, or pin the device into a stricter site tag.