Firmware Upgrades with a Configuration Template

[MerakiMaverick]

Hello Meraki Community,

I’m planning to upgrade firmware on hundreds of Meraki MX and MR devices deployed across approximately 250 remote sites. Each site typically has one MX and one or two MR devices, and many of these locations have unreliable ISP connections.

All sites are currently managed under a single configuration template. My concern is that if I upgrade the firmware version at the template level, I’m not sure whether all locations will complete the upgrade before the next business day, given the connectivity challenges.

What’s the recommended approach for upgrading hundreds of devices that share one template? If the solution involves splitting them into multiple templates, how do you keep those templates synchronized, since all sites follow a cookie-cutter configuration?

I considered using an automation script to sync configurations across multiple templates, but the API doesn’t seem to offer an easy way to accomplish this. Ideally, it would be great if Meraki supported a “parent template” with child templates that could be upgraded independently, so not all devices are hit at once.

Has anyone tackled this scenario before? Any best practices or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[RaphaelL]

If I recall correctly ( and I might be wrong ) the dashboard will schedule all networks from the same template in a sequential order.

NetA 00h00

NetB 00h01

NetC 00h02

So I think the best way to see how long the upgrade will take to complete , just create a fake upgrade in a few days and see the result. 

We have templates with a few 100s networks and it takes less than 2 hours to complete.

[alemabrahao]

I don't think so. As far as I remember, when you schedule a firmware update at the template level, all networks linked to that template will attempt to be updated at the same time.

[RaphaelL]

I just checked my last firmware upgrade on 2025-08-03 

All my networks were scheduled to start at the same time.

From the same template :

"time": "2025-08-03T03:53:16Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T03:41:16Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T03:31:16Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T02:40:17Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T03:36:17Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T03:57:16Z"

Standalone networks : 

"time": "2025-08-03T02:40:16Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T02:40:16Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T02:48:17Z"  

"time": "2025-08-03T02:40:17Z"

"time": "2025-08-03T02:38:16Z"

Again I might be wrong but from what I recall all non-templated networks start at the same time ( +/- 3 mins ) and all child network from the same template are in sequence.