MX download config

[Eric_McClure]

Quick question, does the MX or MS have to be added to a network to start downloading the config?

[ww]

It gets the config when you add the device to the dashboard network and the device has contact  with the dashboard 

[Eric_McClure]

Ok, that's what I thought. We're installing over 300 networks and we can't have our clients go offline for a long period of time so i'm trying to see if we can save time by having the config be downloaded before hand without creating the network in Meraki. 

[DJDonovan]

Hey Eric!

Dashboard Networks are containers for device configurations, so the only way to set up an MX config would be to create the network where that config (and eventual MX) will be located. However, Meraki hardware does not need to be added to the network in order to set up your configuration, so you can pre-stage your entire network configuration without claiming or adding an MX serial into the network. If you want the MX to download and run that config, its hardware serial must be claimed into the network, the device powered up, and then allowed to communicate with the Meraki cloud, at which point it will auto-configure itself based on the network it's been claimed to and the configuration in that network. 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

-Donovan

[PhilipDAth]

>We're installing over 300 networks and we can't have our clients go offline for a long period of time so i'm trying to see if we can save time by having the config be downloaded before hand without creating the network in Meraki. 

You sure can.  Add all the devices to the Meraki Networks, and power them up and connect them to the Internet in a staging environment, and then ship them to site.

[Eric_McClure]

Ok so I don't need to link them to network right away just have them calimed?

So the way we work is we have template in that template we create the network. And then we add the equipements. Well we actually use a script to create the network and in that add the equipements (time saver).

I''m just trying to see if I can have like 10 or so MX and MS already connected to the cloud to get the basic config so I don't have to run the script in advanced. So when we arrive on location run the script plug the MX and it just applies the scripts config and we gain time.

[PhilipDAth]

>Ok so I don't need to link them to network right away just have them calimed?

They have to be linked to the network.  Until that point in time their is no way to determine what config should be placed on the device.