New MX endpoint: Appliance uplinks usage history 🔃📊🧾

[John_on_API]

I'm very pleased to announce a new endpoint: Appliance uplinks usage history. This endpoint is GA and available via GET:

/networks/{networkId}/appliance/uplinks/usageHistory

In this example, I use the query params timespan and resolution to specify both elements of the measurements.

E.g.: GET

/networks/{networkId}/appliance/uplinks/usageHistory?timespan=1200&resolution=600

The response:

[
    {
        "startTime": "2021-07-27T00:00:00Z",
        "endTime": "2021-07-27T00:10:00Z",
        "byInterface": [
            {
                "interface": "wan1",
                "sent": 675880268,
                "received": 291890075
            },
            {
                "interface": "wan2",
                "sent": 763077,
                "received": 675740
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "startTime": "2021-07-27T00:10:00Z",
        "endTime": "2021-07-27T00:20:00Z",
        "byInterface": [
            {
                "interface": "wan1",
                "sent": 661133785,
                "received": 299136427
            },
            {
                "interface": "wan2",
                "sent": 767890,
                "received": 744360
            }
        ]
    }
]

We'd love to hear how you use this endpoint and the impact it makes on your organization!

[PhilipDAth]

Wow.  This has been asked for lots in the past.  This should make some people very happy.

[Craiegg]

Hi @John_on_API ,

This is wonderful! Are we looking to have this endpoint available in the Meraki V1 SDK any time soon?

I've looked through the changelog and searched available endpoints but was not able to locate it.

Would be great to know if its in the works for the SDK as this is something I could definitely use at my organization!

Thanks,
Craig. 

[John_on_API]

Yes! Stay tuned.

[MTaylor]

This endpoint seems to hit a maximum size of 2,147,483,647 bytes 

Is this a known bug?  Working on a fix?

[MTaylor]

Is the maximum size issue being worked on?

[Martin_Rowan]

Is a bulk endpoint for this data going to be added, so that I can get the uplink data for all the networks in an organisation without needing to make per network calls?

[sungod]

John,

this call is what we need to meet a customer reporting requirement, but it seems to have major problems - I've tried it on two different MX devices. Whether used via the Meraki Python library, or using the test window on the Meraki developer hub, it returns values that are dramatically larger than Dashboard reports, and sometimes far higher than a physical uplink is capable of.

Choosing a network with MX84 HA pair (similar discrepancy occurs with a single MX65W)...

For the 'last day', Dashboard summary reports c, 400 MB download / 490 MB upload.

The same network, with timespan and sample period both 86400 is below, the result the developer hub page gives has figures far higher than Dashboard.

A separate issue is why are two cellular uplinks reported, both called 'cellular'? This uplink is not configured, but I could understand one appearing as an idle default, but two with the same name seems very strange.

[
    {
        "startTime": "2022-06-20T00:00:00Z",
        "endTime": "2022-06-21T00:00:00Z",
        "byInterface": [
            {
                "interface": "cellular",
                "sent": 0,
                "received": 0
            },
            {
                "interface": "cellular",
                "sent": 0,
                "received": 0
            },
            {
                "interface": "wan1",
                "sent": 1234125007,
                "received": 681064422
            },
            {
                "interface": "wan2",
                "sent": 256459293,
                "received": 307045519
            }
        ]
    }
]

[MartinS]

We've just stumbled across this as well, is there a reason for the two Cellular interfaces?

[sungod]

I've got a case open for this (and another for the odd tx/rx data).

From the last update I had, they are still investigating.

I recommend opening a case as having more examples may help them identify the cause and develop a fix.

Btw as I looked at more MX devices in different orgs, some reported duplicate cellulars, some a single one, some none, no apparent pattern, none had cellular configured, same MX model running same firmware gave different results.

[MartinS]

Hi, do you have an update from Meraki on this yet? If not, would you mind sharing your ticket/case number please so we can add support to the issue?

[sungod]

Hi,

there're no updates on the cases, but a quick check on some of our lab devices is showing bandwidth values within true limits, at least over the last 24 hours.

The separate issue of duplicate cellular interfaces is still present.

When I get time I'll run a larger test, the lab devices are on NA hosted Dashboard, I also want to check Europe hosted.

8216011	API call returns duplicate cellular interface on some devices
8210554	API data not matching Dashboard

The 8210554 case is the one about the very high bandwidth/transfer numbers.

[sungod]

Just ran some tests on month to date with a 86400 sec time slice (on EU hosted).

Sampling on a few MX devices, there's a dramatic fall in reported rx/tx starting on 6th August.

If I exclude data before 6th and look at a few MX networks, the API rx/tx totals are still not matching what Dashboard shows, much higher or lower, but not as extreme as before.

Look like there's been some change applied on the live systems, but I don't think it's resolved yet.

[sungod]

I just ran a check, for month of December 2022 and also for January to date.

No sign of any crazy rx/tx values any more, but API total tx/rx bytes is still over double what Dashboard says.

Monthly API totals with 600 second sampling are identical to totals with 86400 second sampling, so it's not likely to be a sampling influenced effect.

If I filter dashboard summary to show only totals for a network-appliance, it gets strange...

I only did it on a couple of devices as things are busy...

The busiest appliance shows API totals > 2x dashboard.

For the quietest appliance, dashboard shows total kB for the month of December as zero for both tx/rx, whereas API data shows c. 300/900 GB.

Hmmm.

If/when I get time, I may try setting up a test rig and pumping known volumes of data through it.

[MartinS]

Thanks @sungod - we have customers where we have both the underlay connectivity routers and the Meraki appliance in Highlight. I'll look to see if I can compare in/out for these