[CONTEST CLOSED] Community Challenge: Two Twosday Tips

[MeredithW]

UPDATE: this contest has ended. Huge thanks to everyone for sharing your tips! Our three randomly selected winners are... @bboggs, @JoDawg007, and @Stingburst. Congrats!   

If there was ever a reason to have a Community Challenge, it's 2-2-22 Tuesday!

In honor of the rare occasion (the next Twosday challenge won't be held until 2422🙃), we want community members to share their TWO top tips for using Meraki solutions. These tips could pertain to any aspect of Meraki: they could be tips for folks just getting started, cool shortcuts to use in Dashboard, pointers for navigating the new occupancy analytics with MV, or how to keep your cats from warming themselves on your MX.

The key for this 2-22-22 Tuesday challenge, of course, is to be sure that you share TWO tips. As always, everyone who shares their Meraki tips will be entered to win sweet sweet swag! 

How to enter

Submit your two tips in a reply to this post before 11 a.m. PT on Friday, February 25th (02/25/2022). We’ll then draw three entrants at random to win a wooden Meraki desk puzzle! Your entries will be public and visible throughout the contest. 

Happy Twosday!

The fine print:

• Drawing will be held on Friday, February 25th at 11am PT
• One entry per community member
• Full terms, conditions, and eligibility information

[Inderdeep]

Good luck to everybody !

[BlakeRichardson]

Tip 1. Use tags, I tag most ports i.e. CCTV, VOIP, Lift etc that way you can do a search on a particular device type and see everything. 

Tip 2. Make use of MFA, keep your network secure.

Bonus Tip. Have a comfy chair because having your entire network at your fingertips is a blessing

[philliph]

1.  Always suggest to your Partner to buy a license with their hardware (if not listed on the quote).

2.  If an end user is on the fence about purchasing and/or making the switch to Meraki products, make sure your Partner is familiar with the Try & Buy program.

[techrockstar]

Tip 1: AnyConnect for Meraki is here!

Tip 2: Cloud OnRamps are continuing to be developed for the Meraki MX!

[PatWruk]

Tip 1: Make sure the config is up to date before assuming a change didn't fix something

Tip 2: Utilize the API, even if it's just for monitoring

[shovey]

1.) Create daily exercises to see how you can use the tool/dashboard to solve issues.

2.) Make use of the Color blind assist mode

[bboggs]

Tip 1: Dont forget to add your licenses into the dashboard right when you receive that email! So you dont have to be frantically looking for it the evening you planned to change things over.....or at least...thats what i have been told may happen 🙂

Tip 2: Under security center you get great information on what resources get hit the most by attempted attacks, allowing you to have an easy to read dashboard to show others and make decisions on where to add more security resources.

Bonus Tip: Feed the hamsters that are running your network, otherwise you'll have a bunch of unhappy customers and unhappy hamsters.

[Scrufflescram]

Tip 1: Consider all the ways Meraki integrates with useful software and SIEM's vs competitors.

Tip 2: Stop putting switches in badly ventilated closets! lol

[Jwiley78]

1. Reach out for assurance when designing a network.  A partner or Meraki support is always very helpful for support during designing phase.

2. Take advantage of community and other training resources to make you life easier.  Always fun when learning new things and helping others.

[Rubben22]

Good luck team, here are my tips:

TIP 1: When purchasing outdoor MR equipment such as the MR76, it is a good option to purchase the meraki only for the years you choose to extend the equipment warranty.

TIP 2: Consider choosing the same type of license for all MX in an organization.

regards

[Kenny_Benzing]

1) Use proper licensing!! (Co-Termination or Per Device)

2) Move markers to reflect accurate location (and attach photos!)

[Dtmacri0001]

TIP#1  Co-termination licensing can extend expiration dates

TIP#2  Connection settings adjust to your specific needs

[KulwinderSandhu]

Tip 1: If you are any good with APIs, jump into developer website for Meraki APIs. I don't even use dashboard for any process, just work on one API and save it for future operations of same sort.

Tip 2: Meraki RCA feature with SD-WAN Plus license is definitely a plus. For Meraki Insight, the Web Health Root Cause Analysis could be triggered for WAN links and alerts could be received via Emails. Amazing work by Meraki.

[adrydale]

1. Start with the API from the initial integrations into your network. Use them as much as possible especially if you work at scale. 
2. Create standards around everything. Site names, templates, tags, everything should be documented and enforced. Organization in the dashboard is a powerful tool if used correctly.

[TS42]

Tip 1:  When Setting up PPOE with BT on the MX we set the Userid and password for the PPOE, but leave IP address as Dynamic.  Device was then able to connect.

learned from:  community post https://community.meraki.com/t5/Security-SD-WAN/PPOE-Connection-with-Static-IP-address-and-VLAN-from...

TIP 2:  When you buy a license the year starts on the day its initiated.  So if you wait a month to add to portal its will be a year from when you bought not when you added to the portal.

[richardofarias]

#TIP1

Create an SSID without using a radius for authorization or guest portal for device authorization.

1) Step:
In the SSID configuration add all device types in the policy group.
Therefore, only the devices that are "Whitedlisted" or some list of the allowed group, will have access to a certain network.

2) Step:

Go to the list of "clients" and apply the authorization policy according to the needs of each device, it is also possible to do it to a group of devices.

To do this, edit a client that appears on your dashboard and apply the necessary policy.

This little setting helps in cases where you want to restrict the access of some devices on your Wifi network.

----------------

#TIP2

Use multiple tags to propagate wifi on specific APs and also use schedule scheduling, this is great for visiting networks or break times.

[Tenundra]

1. Advocate for full stack Meraki vs multi-vendor solutions because it'll save time and money with better security in the long run. 

2. Merge all your Meraki hardware into a single network for better dashboard functionality

. 

[jdubyah]

1. I really like to use the 'Clone' feature when configuring switches as it saves a lot of time!

2. I have started importing floorplan maps and placing my devices based on their location. Makes troubleshooting a whole lot easier!

[bTc]

Tip #1: Don't eat yellow snow.

Tip #2: See Tip # 1.

[DaveRicharson]

Tip 1: When buying Meraki licenses, the longer terms save more money vs. annual licensing.

Tip 2: If you have a few Meraki hardware items and want to keep track of where they are, you can pin their locations in the map and upload photos in the Dashboard.

[CCorazzini]

Tip 1: You can run and view a packet capture in real-time or download a Wireshark pcap file for deeper analysis right from the dashboard!

Tip 2: There are some sweet changes in the beta version of the dashboard that make managing firewall rules sooo much easier

[dp1]

Tip 1 remember ma-ant-20 come in a pair of two 

Tip 2 you can use an mr license for any of the mr product set not just what you ordered it for. 

[MikeBoruk1]

1. Simple to install and get up and running.

2. Wide range of features to use when needed.

[Oscar_Espinoza]

Tip 1: Use camera analytics.

Tip 2: Firewall rules applied on devices and MR

[CoachSteve]

Tip 1: Templatizing saves you so much time configuring and managing a large network.

Tip 2: During troubleshooting, event logs will in most cases tell you what the issue is, it's a very useful tool! 

[KimRRobinson]

!. Easy network hardware Plug and play capability, right into the Admin interface.

2. Hardware replacements/RMAs have been a huge help.

Plus, CISCO Meraki just works.

[NE]

1.)  Your new Fortigate isn't rack mountable? No problem!  Keep that old Meraki racked up and use it for a shelf!

2.)  MX67W antennas are not cat toys.

[xnightwingx]

Tip 1: Upload floor plans and place your devices on the maps!  Rename your APs to something meaningful like the room number, door number, or some other descriptor.  That way, when you get a notification, or connection difficulties, you can track those APs down in record time.

Tip 2: Use Tags to filter your SSIDs to certain areas.  Example would be any outdoor APs tag as "Public" or "Guest", and the rest of your APs "Internal".  Then in SSID availability you can set the outdoor APs to only broadcast the Public WiFi, while your Internal APs can broadcast both the Private and Public WiFi.

[gaajjovi]

1. Don't block only for block. Create a smart rule or profile to define filtering.

2. Separate business traffic from visitors traffic.

[Travis_Ferris]

Tip1 - Tagging.  Not only does tagging come in useful for updating port configs (ie. all ports with VOIP, AP, etc. tag) but also with monitoring/alerting (ie. on only ports with UPLINK tag).  But our biggest use is with our wireless environment that has multiple SSID's configured, but only certain SSID's should be broadcast in certain areas.  Tagging allows us to enable all SSID's, but limits which SSID's are broadcast by which AP's (by floor, building, business function, etc.)

Tip2 - Templates.  I'm at the beginning stages of using templates, so I don't know all the ins/outs yet, but has definitely streamlined our rollout to 4,000+ branches.  First, we put our branches into multiple groups with similar attributes that would also have the same technology needs (ie. sites without wifi, sites with employee/guest wifi, sites that use specific devices that connect to cloud resources, etc.)   Then, we assign each network we build to a specific template that has the standard switchport or wireless settings pre-configured.  The tech then just installs the gear according to the installation guide, and voila!  Branch is installed.

BONUS:  Use Meraki Documentation.  It's MUCH easier to read and understand than Cisco's.

[julienguffroy]

Tip1:on Mx with only wan port, you can configure a second port with WAN role

Tip2:PRTG sensor are now available for meraki devices 

[juniorpalomo1]

1-Separates the cases that were opened by organization

2-Already enabled no nat for mx67 version

[Stingburst]

1: You can paste emojis into your network name! Multiple ones if you like!

2: You can configure multiple uplinks to test connectivity to. We like to set two on a new install, 1 for the ISP gateway and another to something else like 8.8.8.8 so you can quickly flip and see if packet loss is likely due to ISP or something on upstream. 

Best of luck everyone!

[ShahnMonson]

1. Utilize Network tags. Trust me it is better to use them at the start rather trying to add them later. 
2. When building a Site-to-Site VPN utilize the IPv4 VPN subnet translation feature. This allows you to translate the local subnets allowed into another usable subnets you control. 

[HosamHasan]

Tip 1 - Don't waste your time on manual ways of working on Meraki DB for enterprise Go and learn API, Postman is a good start, then better to learn python 

Tip 2 - always read Meraki documentation before you do any change, especially when you work in a production environment 

Best wishes all 🙂

[LuisGutierrez]

tip 1: use umbrella integrations and strengthen the security of your organization, it never hurts and you can have more visibility of threats.
tip 2: make policies work together and have a centralized security approach.

[AdrianaArditi]

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a common technology used in enterprise networks, allowing users on a network to make internal and outbound phone calls over the network. 

Last in our countdown, but certainly not least, is a how-to guide for installing software on managed clients in Systems Manager. Rather than going to each individual client in your network and performing a local installation, you can deploy software straight from the cloud to your devices.

[IDV]

Hello Everyone!

Here my 2 tips for you. I know there will be more and better tips but I sincerely hope it helps a few.

Always install MXs with 2 WAN and power protection (and physical access if possible) will save you a lot of trouble

Use configuration templates (well defined and adjusted for your scenario), they really save work as the network extends 🙂

Best!

[JanLoerinc]

Tip1: Meraki now integrates easily with Umbrella SIG Gateway with an auto-VPN.

Tip2: Do not forget to use the demo equipment from your CMNA, including the correct Rack mount, a.k.a. The Meraki Tower:

[alpinetim]

I have enjoyed the Meraki sensors.  I use them for all kinds of things. Here are a two of my favorites.

1. I use the temperature sensor to monitor my small office.  My building is older and the heat/cold goes out often.  I'll get a text whenever it gets uncomfortable (it's HOT in the south).  That day becomes remote work from home day!  P.S. I have a MT10 and MT20 in my safe too to know the status of the contents at all times!

2. I've been selling the sensor/camera systems to current and new clients as an integrated upsale.  They LOVE the door, temp/humity, water and Camera monitoring.  I log them into my console for a live demo and they are amazed how everything triggers and sends notifications.  They really go nuts when I choose an object like a purse on a seat and see when it's been moved in an instant.  The water sensor is a shoe in for the gulf coast.  I put them at location that may get water during Hurricanes!

[Jack1313]

Tip 1: don't bang your head on the wall, call Meraki support, they are amazing!!!

Tip 2: the app can save you a ton of time when you're on the road

[Isaac_Boyd]

1. When installing new hardware make sure your devices are up to date so you don’t spend 2hrs trying to figure out why your network isn’t working.

2. Take advantage of cloning/templated existing networks when you create a new one, it can save you a lot of time!

[ITSportbiker06]

Tip #1 - Setup alerts to go right to your ticketing system.

Tip #2 - Setup each network to auto-update and review quarterly to ensure no one disturbed any automated patch updates.

Bonus Tip - Sign up for available training and webinars to stay ahead on what's available and coming.

[OscarNat]

1# Monitoring of my school with Meraki Camera,  New Mv22x
2# Keep my offices connected with two carriers from cisco Meraki SDWAN

[DaveWave]

1. Templates ! - create a standard template FOR ORGS to make deployments faster (as an MSP)
2. Use SAML authentication ! Especially if using Meraki Dashboard as an MSP - Assists with accountability & security. 

[MorganChai]

Tip 1: "Cisco" brand founded since 1984, with more than 38 years old in Networking.

Tip 2: Cool design outlook of Cisco Meraki product. 

[carlosastorga]

1.- Cisco Meraki is a pioneer in MDM (Mobile Device Management) by offering the only solution capable of providing unified management of mobile devices

2.- Meraki networks are automatically optimized to deliver superior performance when needed

[Mjam0971]

1. Use Meraki anyconnect with the profile editor. 

2. Use tags with Meraki MDM

[CharlesJN]

1. You could tag one of your AP to broadcast one specific SSID that won't be available on the others.
2. VLAN setup will help a lot on managing IP, Firewall, Traffic Shaping, Group policy

[CEPS]

TIP 1: Always make sure to enable the FW permissions found in the help as sometimes after deploying the devices synchronization errors appear with the Dashboard.

TIP 2: Schedule device firmware updates periodically to avoid being affected by automatic updates and ensure that all equipment is up to date and protected from bugs.

[MuthanaSaleh]

Hi

Tip1: start learning python programming to enjoy the power of automation with Meraki

Tip2: If you master Meraki documentation, you will master Meraki. So read read and keep reading

[Jagatiya143]

TIP 1: MDM registered device remote access.

TIP 2: Cisco Meraki Video Conference unit as a new Meraki product  

[Raed-Anwar]

1- Take a good advantage of Meraki auto VPN, just add your networks in the same org. works like a charm.

2- Meraki high availability on MX easy to implement with minimum efforts.

[Clément]

Tip 1: Clone Network to keep a homogeneous Spoke park

Tip 2: Use the API to edit Spoke specific setting

[meyer_patrick]

Tip 1: make sure to properly design for capacity, usage, user count and trffic needs. There is Meraki hardware for almost all requirements. And for wireless: WiFi Coverage is just one factor for a wifi deployment but not always the most important. 

Tip 2: Make use of the tools given by Meraki for not only daily work but for documentation. Use API to get the configs, export topologies and use site-maps to easily identify the location of hardware

Bonus Tip: RTFM (i.e the Meraki documents). If it doesn't help, then GET HELP from Meraki support. There will be issues you simply cannot solve without the help of support but this should never be a reason to delay solving the problem.

[mljevakovic]

My two topics:

1st  Network-wide -> Monitor -> Clients

2nd Insight -> Monitor -> Web App Health

[AndriyKrukovsk]

1. Fast deploing.

2. Access to the dashboard from anywhere.

[OndraS]

1) Use Meraki anytime, anywhere.

2) When applying license be sure you have no open another organization in the background tab of your browser.

[tonijechukwudi]

TIP-1: Using templates makes replication of config easy

TIP-2: Meraki support got you when you hit the wall, but I will recommend checking the documentation before reaching out to support.

[Gislavedshus]

1- fantastik design outlook of Cisco Meraki product. 
2- Use Meraki anytime, anywhere.

[Mary]

1. Use Map&Floor plans it's really cool 

2. RF spectrum can be helpful as well

[Kasper]

1. The mobile app can help with documenting equipment with GPS placement & photos
2. Use templates and Policy Objects when possible to keep networks standardized and clean

[PerryLai]

Tip1 : 

Use https://developer.cisco.com/meraki/api-v1/#!get-organizations to get started quickly and painlessly with the api! No postman required
You only need three things

API Token
organizationId
networkId

Tip2 :

Free 5 MT license !!!

[KarstenI]

Tip 1: Use the photo-upload feature to document at least all your APs

Tip 2: (contrary to others here): Only use templates if you really understand the drawbacks and limitations of them. Also think about the API as an alternative approach to templates

Bonus Tip: Always use MFA with any cloud dashboard out there.

[Shaheer]

Good luck mates 🙂

Tip 1: Mesh networking extends coverage to hard-to-reach places

Tip 2: Licenses: 

1. Co-termination licensing can extend expiration dates for all devices as same, This is accomplished by averaging all active licenses together and dividing by the license limit count of devices in the organization

2. per-device licensing model allows customers to assign a license directly to a specific device or a network

[LearningIsFun]

Tip 1: API, API, API - start early, start now. Provides a ton more information and at scale.  Provides deeper insight into your environment and can monitor aspects of your environment at scale that are not easily viewed within the Dashboard.

Tip 2: Use Meraki TAC and your SE to your fullest ability.  Like everything there are bugs and you will eventually hit them.  Since they are not publicly documented (sigh) the only way to find out if your hitting one is to engage those resources.  Save yourself the time of the bat.  Meraki TAC is a great resource.  As well as this community.

[CarsonL]

Tip 1: Meraki documentation is a must read compared to cisco's. Don't look for books though, they aren't out there.
Tip 2: It's often more simple to implement than you think if you have had experience with other vendors.

[NJNetworkGuy100]

Tip1:  Tags and API's are your friends for doing some amazing things.  For example, I wrote a script that checks all Meraki devices in all networks in an organization.  If the script sees the device tag of "reboot-daily" on a device, then the "rebootDevice" API call is made on that device.  I have that script scheduled to run every night.  

All any of the admins in my company have to do is add that tag to any device they need rebooting that night, and it will automatically be found by the script and rebooted.  Then the admin can remove the tag the next day if they want.  

Using tags and the API, the Meraki devices now have the functionality of scheduled reboots!

Tip2:  Learn Python!  It is fairly easy to learn, the Meraki API works very well with it, and you can easily create reusable code for things like outputting to a spreadsheet or sending an email.  

You'll eventually be able to quickly create a script that outputs client usage from multiple networks, or backup firewall settings from multiple networks, or outputs MX firewall settings to a spreadsheet to show security auditors, or check settings in all networks and orgs for custom MX settings and output those settings to a spreadsheet....the list goes on and on.

Azure KeyVault has a module (written by Microsoft) for Python.  azure-keyvault · PyPI  Great place to store API keys!  More info here:  Authenticate to Azure from Python | Thomas Stringer (trstringer.com)

[Russ_B]

Tip #1:  Be Patient.  Coming from locally managed equipment, I'm used to changes being applied immediately.  With cloud managed equipment, it takes time for the changes made in the dashboard to be applied to the hardware.  Reload the device status page and look for "Config Up to Date".

Tip #2:  Don't be afraid to ask questions here on the community or to open a ticket with support.  I've found both community members and the Meraki support team to be very helpful.

[TPASC]

Tip1: Always use stable firmware when you do the firmware upgrade.

Tip2: Try to have an on-premise Sys Log server to collect event logs to help find some missing event logs in the dashboard.  

[WebTek]

Tip #1 - Selling Meraki to your customers is a no-brainer. The product practically sells itself when you show a demo for your customer.

Tip #2 - Meraki products are warrantied for life. Condidering another brand simply is not smart.

Thanks,

TS

[SalvationArmy]

1. Give yourself lead time on equipment, several orders shipping a month or two after purchase.

2. Utilize tagging and APIs. Don't spin your wheels too long, Meraki support is wonderful. 

[JoDawg007]

Tip #1: Use the "Map & floor plans" tool to make your life a million times easier! It's super handy to look at a map of your building and see which device is either offline or alerting and find statistics on client load. This also helps if you have a device naming convention that doesn't exactly aid in locating the device.

Tip #2: APIs are a major time saver when upgrading hardware. You can clone AP names, locations, etc. from a spreadsheet or from the dashboard. This saves a lot of clicking, copy/pasting, and typing when moving dozens or hundreds of devices over to new models. You can even clone your switch port configs from an MS220 to your shiny new MS390!

[KRobert]

Tip #1. Need to break up your day with some fun? If you type “konami” in the Give you Feedback button, you'll find an Easter egg left by the Gnomes!

Tip#2. Tags on switches are your best friend! need to bulk change switch ports? add a tag and when you config ports, you can narrow your view to all ports with that tag, select them all and then you are done! 

[MeredithW]

UPDATE: this contest has ended. Huge thanks to everyone for sharing your tips! Our three randomly selected winners are... @bboggs, @JoDawg007, and @Stingburst. Congrats!