Bulk Network Creation - No Serial Numbers

[Willie_McDonald]

Hopefully this is the correct forum, and hopefully someone can give me the answer I'm looking for!

I'm currently in the process of a fairly large Meraki roll-out (~3,700 locations). Each location will be a separate "Meraki Network". Each location will get a MX-65 and at a minimum a single MR-33.

We have created a Service-Now dashboard (which runs on mobile devices) that allows our field techs to do a network lookup then take a picture of the serial numbers of the MX and MR devices and have them get added to an existing network. This works really, really well and will save all kinds of time (like hundreds of hours).

The kicker is we need to create the ~3,700 networks ahead of time. Sounds easy right? Just use the "Bulk Network Creator". The issue is, to use the "Bulk Network Creator" at a minimum you need the "Network Name" (no problem) and the "Serial Number" of the device(s) that will be in the network (here's my problem).

Because we have over 7,000+ Meraki devices to install, and these devices can be in possession with any one of a couple dozen field technicians there is no way for me to have this information (what particular device will be at what particular network) ahead of time.

Is there any possible way to create ~3,700 Meraki networks WITHOUT knowing the SN of the devices and WITHOUT having to do it manually?

Thanks!

[AjitKumar]

Hi

I understand API can be of some help here. (I may be wrong though)

https://dashboard.meraki.com/api_docs#create-a-network

One can create a script and call it multiple times i.e 3700. I believe this shall create empty network. We can add devices later.

There are some more option in the documentation.

Note: I have no knowledge of programming. Also I have never tried APIs.

Lets wait for comments from someone who has already done this.

[PhilipDAth]

@AjitKumar is correct - you are probably best to tackle this by using the API and writing a script.

There is a lot of Meraki developer resources here:

https://create.meraki.io

You mentioned you were using ServiceNow.  I found this interesting ServiceNow project that can create networks.  This might be a nice integration for you.

https://create.meraki.io/build/meraki-network-creator-with-servicenow-and-angular/

[Willie_McDonald]

Yeah I talked to our SE and he said API was the way to go as well.

I guess I need to dust off my scripting skills (hey it's only been about 16 years!) and dive in.

Luckily I'm not the first guy to have to do this, so there is a lot of samples and documentation to help me along.

Thanks for the quick responses!

Cheers