Network Types in Dashboard

[Shadius]

Hello all,

We've started upgrading our network with Cisco Meraki devices. I've noticed that in the Dashboard, the network administrator has created separate network types. He'll have one for just the access points, just the MX250, and just the switch stack. My question is, can't we combine these devices to fit into one network name? What might be the reason for one to set up the networks like this? 

[Aaron_Wilson]

That is an odd setup, and it would seem to make more sense to have them all combined together. I presume the same support team provides support to all of the devices, correct? With different networks you could have different permissions.

Maybe someone else will chime in with an advantage to this, but to me it seems very odd.

[Shadius]

I thought it was odd myself.

Yes, the same support team provides support to the devices.

From all the demos that I've seen, the network has all the devices in it. 

How would I go about merging the networks into one?

[Bruce]

I believe this was the way that Meraki networks were designed/configured before the advent of the 'combined' network. Sometimes there are reasons to keep them separate (e.g. client tracking by IP on an MX), but more often than not they can be combined if they are all at a single site. 

Under the Networks drop down on the Meraki Dashboard, go to display all networks. Then select the networks you want to combine and hit the Combine button.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Organizations_and_Networks/Combined_Dashboar... provides detail on some of the benefits of Combined networks, and how to combine them.

[MerakiDave]

Hi @Shadius when you drop down your network selector, simply choose "View all networks" and then select all 3 checkboxes for those networks and click the "Combine" button and give it a name, that's it!

To the original question, different admins have different reason on why they might want to logically separate their Meraki technologies into different networks even though they are in the same site.  Could have to do with how they leverage config templates to how they divide up their network admin rights, etc.  And in some cases, it's because they didn't realize they COULD simply combine them.  😀

[Shadius]

Thank you everyone for the explanations.

Will combining the networks affect any of the configurations on the MX250 and the switch stack?

I wouldn't want to bring down the site or anything like that.

[Bruce]

Combining networks shouldn’t affect anything... the configurations stay the same, it’s just how it appears and how it’s reported in the Dashboard. (Although as with everything I’d do it at a suitable time).

[Aaron_Wilson]

Should not lose any settings or matter, but it should be pretty easy to test if you have a couple spare pieces of gear. 🙂

[MerakiDave · Accepted solution]

@Shadius  No worries, when you combine networks, there is no change or impact to any configurations.  It simply changes the way your menu locales appear in the Dashboard.  It's purely administrative and nothing will change or reboot, no hiccups. 😁 

You can create a few separate test networks and then combine them to try out the process first.  Even creating a couple empty networks to test that is fine, but if you have some spare/lab gear like a switch and an AP or whatever, go ahead and add them to separate networks and have a live config running on it when you combine them, just to prove it out before you do it on the production network.