Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst - Tips for Success!

[MeredithW]

Check out the below video from for an outline of monitoring options for Catalyst switches, benefits of Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst, and an overview of Meraki Dashboard features.

[Jeff-L]

For more details on Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst and to get started onboarding your switches, join the discussion for Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Early Availability!

[lpopejoy]

What licensing is required for this?

[MeredithW]

No license is required for the qualified promotion period (until one year after the announcement). After the year, a DNA license will be needed to continue using cloud monitoring.

[GiovanniA]

Thanks for sharing this,

is this only for monitoring or is it possible to onboard via ZTP (as it happens with Meraki devices) and manage completely Catalyst 9K switches from Meraki dashboard?

if not available at the moment is it something in Cisco/Meraki's roadmap?

[Scott_Ginther]

The onboarding application is available through the Meraki dashboard. To access it, go to Network-wide > Add Devices from the navigation on the left side. In this section, click on the link to add Catalyst switches to the dashboard.

Please refer to the Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Onboarding Guide. 

[thomasthomsen]

There seems to be some strange behaviour of the program. (And fortunately you can see it in the log file inside the program 🙂 )

The only success I have had, was to create a new empty "combined" network in the dashboard.

If I try to import the 9300 into an already exist combined network, it fails and never gets online in the dashboard.

Some times here the program tries to create a new network (in the back), that only shows up in the dashboard after a long time.

When I try to add the switch to a "switch" network , new empty, the program changes it to a combined network, it seems, and then it fails again. aka. the switch never shows up.

That is really to bad, because the program seems really smooth and nice, you can see everything its doing, and have access to a nice log.

Am I the only one seeing this ?

[Jeff-L]

Could you open a support case and include the log file? We will need to look into the specifics of your Dashboard network and the onboarding process to determine next steps.

[thomasthomsen]

I had it online once, and that was enough my test ( if you want, I can try to provide you with logs ).

Now I have converted the 9300 to managed. And it does not look good. Aka. the serial number given to me by the process says "ok" when trying to claim it, but nothing shows up in inventory. - I can see the switch has picked a new DHCP address (with a new mac ??!?! - I missed this in the converation that it gets a ..."Meraki MAC" in the registration process. But thats fine i guess ) and its pingable. But I cant claim it.

[thomasthomsen]

I think I found a "chicken and egg problem" in this.

So when I try to claim the converted 9300 (for management) I cant claim it.

The UI does not tell me, it just goes green, and then nothing happens.

But the API tells me this:

    "errors": [

        "Unable to add node to network.\nInvalid tracking method"

    ]

Is this because the tracking method of the network is not set to Unique (that I read somewhere was the way the 9300 delivers information to the dashboard).

This is a problem. A pure switch network, you cant set it (in the UI I have to check API), and in a combined network, where you do not already have switches, in my case an MX and an MV, you also cannot set client tracking to unique. Hmmmm what to do. Move one switch from another network, set the network to Unique, claim the 9300, and put the switch back onto the network from where it came... 😕 ... I opened a case, lets see what happens (I dont have high hopes when it comes to quick fixes for things like this).

[thomasthomsen]

Yep. Just did another test. I can claim it directly to the network through the API if the network has "Unique client identifier (beta)" enabled. This is unfortunatly not the default when you create a new network. And aparently impossible to set if you dont have an MX and a switch already in your network (at least I cant using the UI). I cannot seem to find that function as an API call. Damm.

[MansHedberg]

Hi!

Monitoring features are all included in DNA Essentials except for Application Visibility which requires DNA Advantage. Video should be updated to correctly show the monitoring featues.

Video does not mention DNA-C connection and Cloud Monitoring connection is not supported at the same time as mentioned in the onboarding guide, https://documentation.meraki.com/Cloud_Monitoring_for_Catalyst/Onboarding/Cloud_Monitoring_for_Catal...

Has this changed or is it still not supported to connect to both DNA-C and Cisco Meraki Cloud?

[cmr]

Any one else notice that the Catalyst switches appear as ... MS390 ... 😮

[RomanMD]

No, not on my side. 

But observed different behavior with the App. It seems that from time to time they have app updates even the newly downloaded app says it is the same version.

[Chris_Skees]

We recently created a new demo on Monitoring Catalyst Switches. Check it out.

This video is from the Cloud Management & Monitoring for Catalyst course in the Learning Hub.