Static routes do not support template overrides

[AndreasE]

I have created two static routes (as per https://n213.meraki.com/CT-Bronze/n/sqKFBbvd/manage/support?utf8=%E2%9C%93&support_magic_search_box=...) in one of my templates for a live Customer called "CT-Silver".

But these static routes are still a superset of the network address (and mask), i.e. every site (= small network) needs its own subset of that static route.

Neither the Dashboard itself (settings can be viewed but not changed) nor the Dashboard API {"errors":["Static routes do not support template overrides"]} allow me to override the CT's static route with a more specific one or to create an individual static route at all.

PS: This is the kind of curl command I'm trying to use via Dashboard API:

.\curl -L -H "X-Cisco-Meraki-API-Key:6f3***73f7" -H "Content-Type:application/json" -X PUT --data-binary "{\"subnet\":\"10.235.33.0/24\"}" 
"https://api.meraki.com/api/v0/networks/N_682~~~331/staticRoutes/0e4~~~1ce4"

[PhilipDAth]

The whole point of templates is to make sure every site is identical - so it is no surprise you can't over ride it.

If each site needs different routing then you wont be able to use templates.  Perhaps instead of templates you could script the creation of each site so that you can apply the individual extra static routes?

[AndreasE]

Hi Philip,

tx for your quick reply.

But if you're looking at "Add a Local VLAN" functionality, this behaves quite similar as I would have hoped here, too:

You can create a kind of "Super-VLAN" in the template and then use Dashboard API "Update VLAN" Scripting [not "Add VLAN", of course!] in order to refine to a subset (i.e. partition the Super-VLAN into "real" local VLANs).

It is in the same mask of the Dashboard and the Dashboard Rest API functionality reflects that similarity, too.

Therefore, I have hoped to "Add Static LAN Super-routes" with Dashboard and then use the API to partition these again.

No chance right now, I understood.

But even worse,

• you can only "Add Static LAN route" at all if your network is NOT currently bound to any template,
• and if you already have added a static LAN route to your network, it will loose it once bound to any template!

And this is really crazy and renders the whole "template" functionality quite inconfigurable or unusable for large-scale networks.

Rgds, Andreas.

[PhilipDAth]

I guess you and I look for different things when deploying large scale networks.  For me - I want every site to be identical.  I pretty much use templates exclusively when doing large networks because of this.  The rigidity of everything being identical is exactly what I want.

[AndreasE]

Hi Philip,

I'm not sure if we're that far away from each other. I still like the concept of "Templates" which should include both inheritance (keep identical methods identical and have the same number and type of attributes) as well as deviation.

If you're looking at "Add a Local VLAN", you can see both: "same" vs "unique". And I was just wondering why on earth Meraki didn't "translate" that brilliant idea to Static Routes. Anway.

My last resort workaround is "Configuration Sync", i.e. I still maintain my templates, but insert a new layer of "typical network" which is the only network that will be bound to the template. Whenever I make a change to the template, this is inherited into the "typical network" and as an additional step I can "config sync" from that "typical network" into any real network which cares a certain network tag (e.g. the name of the Template).

Hopefully this works and is a long-term way forward, let's see.