Refresh Catalyst SD-WAN compatibility for current releases

[sashiv20]

Summary

• Target Ansible 14.3.1 / ansible-core 2.21.3 on Python 3.12-3.14.
• Add compatibility coverage for catalystwan 0.41.5.dev2 and stable 0.41.6, plus a read-only Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager 26.1 smoke playbook.
• Adapt template, device-model, policy, and Pydantic integrations to current SDK layouts.
• Fail safely and explicitly when stable 0.41.6 lacks a high-level write API required by an operation.
• Fix software repository canonical argument handling, shared mutable defaults, Pydantic v2 serialization, invalid module docs, exception scope, and role metadata.
• Refresh CI actions, lint hooks, dependency files, release packaging exclusions, and bump the collection to 0.3.4.

Why

The collection was pinned to an obsolete Ansible/Python/SDK stack. The catalystwan 0.41.x line moved several model imports and stable 0.41.6 removed four high-level write API families, causing modules to fail during import before they could return useful diagnostics. Several existing module defects were also exposed by current lint and runtime checks.

Users on current automation runtimes can now import and document every module under both tested SDK tracks. Full high-level workflow coverage remains available with catalystwan 0.41.5.dev2; operations whose upstream API is absent in 0.41.6 stop before a request and explain the required artifact.

Validation

• pre-commit 4.6.2: all changed-file hooks passed
• ansible-lint production profile: passed
• pytest under Ansible 14.3.1 / Python 3.13:
  • catalystwan 0.41.5.dev2: 3 passed
  • catalystwan 0.41.6: 3 passed
• all module imports and all ansible-doc pages loaded with both SDK tracks
• collection build succeeded as cisco.catalystwan 0.3.4
• built artifact installed successfully and excluded CI/cache/bytecode content

Live validation

• Read-only Manager authentication, server metadata, and API readiness passed against an approved live Manager running engineering build 27.1.999-5473, which is newer than the documented 26.1 compatibility floor. No Manager or device state was changed.
• The corrected smoke playbook uses the actual SDK response keys and documents explicit HTTPS-port handling.
• Local tests passed with catalystwan 0.41.5.dev2 and current stable 0.41.6.
• All 12 hosted checks pass on commit ff98c92, covering Python 3.12-3.14, both SDK tracks, documentation, sanity, static analysis, and Galaxy importer validation.
• Destructive device, software-upgrade, and write-workflow testing remains outside this compatibility PR.
• Fresh pip-audit scans reported no known vulnerabilities in the 41-package runtime set or the 73-package full development environment.