Creating a Wireless Configuration (or API) Template?

[Markovs]

Hi gang,

I'm an IT generalist and have inherited Meraki network. The networks have been setup as discreet geographic sites (or branch offices if you prefer), with MX/MS/MR gear contained within each. There is a bit of difference between the networks when it comes to appliance count, VLANs, SSIDs, Site-to-site VPN, etc.

However, the one commonality is they all use a Class-B /20 IP range, divided at the third octet between each site (yes, I know this is an incredibly inefficient use of IPv4). 

I am keen to try and use the Configuration Template function or API scripting to standardize our sites VLANs and SSIDs. I've been reading up on the Meraki docs to better understand the process and prerequisites but I'm struggling to understand how to create a template after the site networks have been setup. I haven't found any specific training modules in the Learning Hub that specifically address Configuration Templates but please shoot me a link if you know of any!

When I tried to create a wireless ssid template and apply to a site, it overwrote all config with default values from the template and I had to quickly unbind the template to and restore the original config (which thankfully the Meraki system was able to do fairly painlessly)! I had thought it would only apply changes to the wireless ssid I had created but perhaps I've missed something.

So tl;dr; can I use the config template to push an ssid wifi (PSK) network out to my sites? Or can I do this via scripting in API? Any suggestions or guides would be really appreciated! 

[alemabrahao]

When you bind a network to a template, it will inherit all the settings from the template. This includes SSIDs, VLANs, and other configurations.
To avoid overwriting all settings, you might need to carefully plan and possibly create multiple templates for different aspects of your network.

Managing Multiple Networks with Configuration Templates - Cisco Meraki Documentation

You can use the Meraki Dashboard API to automate network configurations. Use the endpoint PUT /networks/:networkId/wireless/ssids/:number to update an existing SSID.

Here are some documents that may help you, including sample scripts.

Automation Scripts with Python - Meraki Developer Hub – Homepage - Cisco Meraki Developer Hub

Cisco Meraki Dashboard API - Cisco Meraki Documentation

[BrandonD]

Well put @alemabrahao - and welcome to the community @Markovs !

Just to add on, one potential option to explore mirroring a configuration template without business impact would be to utilize the Copy settings from upon template creation, and unbind the network until the configuration looks as expected/desired.

From there, you'd be able to bind the desired templates on a per network basis to prevent any outages or unexpected changes. Hope this helps!

• https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Templates_and_Config_Sync/Managing_Multiple_... 

[Markovs]

Thanks peeps, I'll give the docos some more reading and see if I can figure it out.