What is Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst? Cloud monitoring for Catalyst provides an integrated view of Catalyst 9000 series switches, seamlessly integrated into the Meraki dashboard experience. Cloud monitoring provides the ability to view Catalyst switch statistics, configuration, and troubleshooting capabilities. These switches will be automatically tagged with “Monitor Only” in the dashboard to distinguish from fully managed Meraki switches. Aside from this difference, “Monitor Only” Catalyst switches appear and function very similarly to Meraki MS switches in the dashboard, including a visual representation of connected ports and traffic information.   What Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst is NOT? Cloud monitoring does not replace other management solutions for configuration of switches. As a monitoring tool, most operations are read-only. All live troubleshooting capabilities will also not result in persistent changes to configuration following the troubleshooting operation. In general, Catalyst switches connected to the Meraki dashboard for cloud monitoring provide a similar interface to that provided for MS switches. However, not all functionality or operations are exactly the same.   What DNA license do I need? Both DNA license tiers (Essentials or Advantage) are supported, however please note that If a DNA Essentials license is in use, client-level traffic analytics are not available. This will be reflected with this banner in dashboard:     What configs will be applied to my devices when they are onboarded for Cloud Monitoring? In order to enable Catalyst devices to be monitored by Dashboard, limited configuration changes are required, such as those performed by the Cloud Monitoring Onboarding application to initiate Cisco cloud services connectivity. Additional configuration changes are necessary post-onboarding to enable devices to send status and telemetry information. Finally, some configuration commands are required for certain Dashboard live tools, such as Port Cycling. These configuration changes are performed by our cloud services using NETCONF or IOS-XE CLI commands to the devices through the TLS tunnel established during the onboarding process.   For full details on what configuration will be applied to your Catalyst Switches when onboarded, please refer to this article.   I am getting an NTP error. What do I need to do? First, Confirm an NTP server is configured on the switch in the running configuration (ntp server {address}) Confirm the NTP server is accessible. Additional troubleshooting steps are available in the NTP Troubleshooting and Debugging Guide.       I am getting a netconf error. What do I need to do? Netconf is a protocol used within the encrypted tunnel to communicate between the switch and cloud. If this error appears, additional information may be provided in the syslog (show log) of the switch regarding resolution steps. After resolving based on any log information shown, the Netconf process should be restarted (no netconf-yang; netconf-yang in the running configuration). Please note that any other processes requiring Netconf will be unavailable while Netconf restarts. The error may take up to an hour to resolve in Dashboard following the process restart.       My trunk ports are showing as access ports in dashbord. How can I fix that? The explicit configuration for trunk ports “switch port mode trunk” can be added to the interface configuration by the user to ensure the port shows as a trunk port.   My Network Clients are not showing a hostname. Is that normal? Clients connected via layer 2 to this port will display VLAN, IP address, and MAC address information. Automated hostname detection is not yet supported.   I can't see the troubleshooting console (aka show terminal) in dashboard. Why is that? The troubleshooting console can be opened using the “Tools” tab of the switch details page. It is available only for Dashboard administrators with full (read/write) access. The console provides read-only access to "show" commands through a console emulator to assist with troubleshooting operations. Write commands and configuration are not permitted. Please be wary of the following: The console will proxy individual commands to the CLI of the switch through the cloud. It does not establish a persistent connection.  Only full read/write Dashboard administrators have access to the troubleshooting console. Read-only Dashboard users are not permitted access to the console. All commands will run using the meraki-user account from the cloud.       I have a 9500 Catalyst switch and I am not seeing application analytics in Dashboard. Why is that? Catalyst 9500 series switches will not send application data to the dashboard due to hardware limitations.   Can I configure alerts for my monitored Catalyst devices? Selected Network-wide alerts are available for monitored switches in the Switch section within the Meraki and Catalyst category. More details on alert configuration is available at: Alerts and Notifications     Can I have a mix of DNA license tiers on my Catalyst devices?  Mixing and matching license levels will cause unexpected behavior   I am not getting Client Analytics in Dashboard. Why is that? Clients connected to switches using a DNA Essentials license or directly to a Catalyst 9500 series switch will not be included in the total amount shown     I am not seeing the lightning bolt in Dashboard for my PoE ports. Why is that? Ports using PoE do not currently include the lightning bolt in the graphical switch display.   I have made a configuration change on a port but it's still not showing in Dashboard. Why is that? Changes to the running configuration of the Catalyst switch may take a few minutes to reflect in Dashboard. Modified configuration will not be shown in Dashboard while the switch is in the process of being configured and still in configuration mode. To ensure changes are reflected in Dashboard, make sure to exit configuration mode. This will allow the switch to inform the cloud of the committed configuration change and initiate the update in Dashboard.

See the actual configuration on your devices and also compare any changes across the historical configurations that are automatically saved in the cloud.   Dashboard will highlight any configuration changes so that it's easy to spot what was changed.     It is also possible to copy the configuration or save the configuration file to your device.   Simply click on config history tab from your Switch page.   Here's a quick demo for you  

Use the show terminal in Dashboard to issue selected CLI commands. This could be very useful when diagnosing network problems.      Here's a quick demo for you  

Getting your network up to date with latest firmware can't be easier!   Navigate to Organization > Firmware upgrades and click on Schedule upgrades then on Cloud Monitored to view your Catalyst monitored devices and schedule upgrades in two clicks!      Here's a quick demo for you     Please note that this feature is coming soon. It will be available via Organization > Early access once pushed to public beta. 

Get full visibility on your Campus network including Client and Traffic/Application analytics.    Simply navigate to Network-wide > Clients and find clients connected to a specific Catalyst device.     Here's a quick demo for you  

See which ports are connected or not connected and much more!   Simply click on the desired port from your switch page.       Here's a quick demo for you  

Packet Capture is also available in Dashboard for your Catalyst devices!   Navigate to Network-wide > Packet capture or simply click on a switch port from your Switch page and scroll down to Run a packet capture on this port.     Here's a quick demo for you    

A number of useful tools such as ping, port cycling and MAC forwarding table to assist in your troubleshooting process all from a single pane! From your switch page, click on Tools.     Here's a quick demo for you  

To check the status of your Cloud monitored Catalyst switch, simply navigate to Switch > Switches then click on your device to go to the Switch page   Green is always good!    Here's a quick demo to show you.  

Get Client Status, Usage and alot more with Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst!   You can view that by navigating to Network-wide > Clients and then searching or simply clicking on the client to get to the Client status page.   

      Catalyst switches are integrated into the Meraki dashboard topology for the network. Layer 2 topology is currently supported.   To see your network topology, navigate to Network-wide > Topology.   You can also view the network topology from the Switch page by clicking on the Topology tab Here's a quick demo video!  

Before you begin, here's a handy checklist that will walk you through the prerequisites.    1. IOS XE Use show version to find which version running on your device IOS XE 17.3.x to 17.9.4 are supported versions Image must have payload encryption (i.e. image type must not contain NPE in its name) To download IOS XE software, go to Cisco Software website Here's a guide on how to upgrade IOS XE if you need IOS XE Release notes here   2. NTP Device has ntp configured (ntp server address).  Here's a list of public NTP servers in case needed.  And here's a useful guide   3. IP Routing Device has IP routing enabled (ip routing) Only default VRF is supported and a default route must be configured (ip default-gateway not supported) Connectivity must be via a front panel port (i.e. management port not supported)   4. DNS The device must have a DNS server configured (ip name-server address) You can use Cisco Umbrella for free The device must allow domain lookup (ip domain lookup)   5. Authentication The device must have AAA enabled (aaa new-model) AAA authorization must be set to start an exec shell with aaa authorization exec default local or aaa group name If the aaa authorization exec default specifies a aaa server-group name first in the list, a aaa group server tacacs+ {server-group name} server group with that group name must be configured Radius authentication is not currently supported   6. Loopback interface The device must have loopback interface numbers 1000 or 2000 available (show ip int brief).  This will be auto-configured when the device is onboarded   7. VTY lines The device must have at least five unused consecutive VTY slot numbers between 16 and 98 (show line vty 16 97)   8. Access Lists There can be no existing ACL names that include the text : "MERAKI_BLOCK", "MERAKI_VTY_IN", or "MERAKI_VTY_OUT" (show access-list in | Meraki)   9. HTTP Proxy Please note that HTTP Proxy is not supported    10. Configuration Backup Backup the current configuration (copy run flash:config-backup.txt)

Here's a quick demo to walk you through the onboarding steps!