Onboarding Catalyst switches and Unique client identifier

[Einstein]

We currently have our Meraki layer 3 network set on MAC address in Addressing and VLAN's for device identification. We have always had some misreporting with this, but nothing I couldn't work through. We are onboarding some new 9000 Catalyst switches, and I see when we do this it will force our network onto "Unique Client Identifier". 

I have seen several posts here on the forums going both ways, some saying don't use unique client identifier, and some saying don't use MAC address.  If onboarding Catalyst switches AUTOMATICALLY set it to unique client identifier, I just want an idea of what I may expect with this. 

Has anyone gone through this? 

Thank you in advance everyone!

[cmr]

I have used unique client identifier most of the time recently and found it to work okay.

[Einstein]

Thank you for the input. Guess my main question is does onboarding Catalyst switches into a Meraki network automatically set your network to unique client identifier, not giving you any choice. 

[cmr · Accepted solution]

Yes it does, no choice of anything else!

[Einstein]

Thank you. I appreciate it!

[RWelch]

@cmr - not sure when the dashboard change was made but I just noticed that the Unique client identifier better articulates the L3 use case scenario.

I'm also curious how long Unique Client identifier will remain BETA ( ~ and beyond)? 😅

[Einstein]

The whole "Beta" is what always gives me pause. We are onboarding these new Catalyst switches in the next few days, we are setting them up in hybrid mode, so they show in the Meraki portal. My next question I am looking for an answer to, in Cisco/Meraki documentation it says when onboarding Catalyst switches, the network will AUTOMATICALLY switch to Unique client identifier. But it does not differentiate between onboarding in cloud managed, or hybrid cloud mode. When we onboard in hybrid mode, will our network auto switch to Unique client identifier???

Thank you in advance.