Hi all,
Here is a question about what seems like a rather unique situation, you can be the judge of the "uniqueness" of what I am about to share.
For context to the question, please read the below:
I built a script that will allow me to quickly and efficiently execute on the following:
0. Discover and backup all switchport configuration within a specified Meraki network, store to a file for later use.
1. Unbind a network from a configuration template.
2. Rebind that network to a new configuration template.
3. Optionally, if desired, bind (Automatically, or manually) those switches to their appropriate switch profiles.
4. Take a "post migration" snapshot of the switchport configuration on all switches within the network.
5. Analyze the before and after snapshots, which identifies the "local overrides" that were present (and lost) before the config template move.
6. Optionally push those local overrides only back up to the switches.
This is fairly specific to a customer that I work with that has around 60 sites they want move out of one single template and spread them across 10 or so different templates.
We are executing on this during change windows, and doing about 2 or 3 sites per night. So far so good overall, it does work and fixes the issue within the Dashboard where unbinding switches or networks from templates tosses out the port configuration.
They also have MR's at these locations (Only MS and MR), which is where my question comes in if you made it this far.
My question is this:
what considerations do I need to know about when it comes to moving the MRs. The networks are all "combined" networks, so when we move the network, the switching and APs all move together.
So far there has been no issue with APs. In testing, I've not seen any downtime at all regarding APs doing this workflow, and hardly any downtime on the switches either. I even tested in my lab running the API calls while connected to my MR33 that was being moved between templates. There isn't any issue because there isn't any configuration change, and if there is, its brief because the switchport configs are pushed back up and the profiles are mirrored to the original switch profiles. Nothing changes.
Well there is a new situation that I can't test and that is with Meshing enabled. There is one site that has multiple buildings, they employ MR74s with external outdoor antennae's to form a mesh which provides network access wirelessly to other buildings.
What concerns do you have here? I personally don't feel as though they will be affected or that the APs will even go offline, if they do we can have someone reboot the equipment but it's a long walk between buildings, and I want to make this as painless as possible and to make sure all my bases are covered. There is some chance the switches could go offline briefly, and it has happened, but it's a minor chance as in the majority of my cases thus far there is no downtime at all.
Thoughts?
