Dashboard Templates and Networks

[BBDave]

Hi All,

I'm new(ish) to Meraki.

We have 28 Meraki AP's at on of our sites which is providing access to company laptop's and for devices in the factory via two SSID's.

When the dashboard was initially setup only one network was created which seemed OK as there was only one site. But now as per normal there is now talk of implementing meraki at other sites.

I'm thinking of creating a template based copied from the current network and then creating individual networks for each site and binding them to the template.

Should I use a template and individual networks or just have one network for all sites?

What are the issue with using a template versus individual network and manually syncing them?

Will all the setting from the current network copy over to the template?

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

Dave

[Hak7]

Hi BBDave,

i also had this moment where you must choose if you will use templates or

creating new configs.

I had trouble with the templates because it didn´t run as I thought I contacted

the Meraki Support for Help.

My customer had 4 Location in 1 country.

I´m honest because I am also new with Cisco Meraki it will take youre time.

My advice is using templates only for 1 location and not for other locations,

because when it didn´t go as you planned you will lose time by searching for issues.

But maybe a Pro can help you by creating the templates and it will go as you wish.

Hope I could help you a little bit.

[MarcP]

I was using a network as a template, where everything is configured the same for each site. Then I only had to change IP ranges, DHCP reserved ranges and thats it.

FW rules are everywhere the same, DHCP options same, custom DNS, WiFi and so on

Using a "real" template wasn´t a option regarding to its automatic IP assignment, which wasn´t helpful because the sites already had their IPs and changing the template would overwrite all networks (thats how it was explained to my by Meraki SE)

[pjc]

I'm in the process of creating templates from existing network configs, and applying templates to multiple new networks as per best practice for AutoRF (see my thread here https://community.meraki.com/t5/Wireless-LAN/A-different-MR-network-for-every-remote-site-for-AutoRF... )

However, I've hit a snag in that I cannot seem to add a new whitelisted client to a policy under this template, I get the error below.  My clients roam between buldings (and the new 120+ networks under a single template), I don't want to have to add each client into each of the new networks, why can't I add these clients to the template ?

[Raphael_M]

Hi BBDave,

We ran into the same kind of discussions when we had to choose how we would use the dashboard.

We decided not to use templates because once a network is attached to one there are not so many settings that can be overriden.

In a way it is good since you are making sure all of your networks are configured in the same way but in the other hand you give up on some flexibility if you want to fine tune some settings that are specific to a site.

We prefer to create new networks by copying from an "empty" one which has all our settings, and then we are free to adjust them network by network.

[BBDave]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the replies.

I think I'm going to stick with individual networks and manually sync them for the moment just create them as and when we bring a new site online with meraki AP's.  Going to log a case with meraki a well see what they say.

Thanks

Dave

[Bossnine]

As was said,  I ventured into the template zone and quickly backed out just by how it acted..........or from my fear of something getting written over. I have 40 sites, all individual networks.  It is more daunting when I need a change at all of them but since I copied the networks as I created them that is few and far between.

[DillonofAnch17]

@Bossnine I also found that templates was not the way to go as it mirrored all of the MAC lists I had for one site. So a copy was my only way to go, unfortunately. Hopefully, one day that is not the case!