How to define correctly a network

[Sara_Oseas]

Hi!

I understand that an "Organization" can be a Company(customer), but i have some doubt about how to define a network in Meraki Dashboard.
One "network" is defined by a set of same meraki devices(but these devices can be geographically in diferent sites)?
or one "network" is a set of same meraki devices per site?

I have this doubt because I have a set of Meraki APs, they are going to be physically in diferent sites. So I am not sure if i should create one "network" for all APs or should I create one "network" per site. All this inside of the same organization.

Regards,

[mmmmmmark]

I'm sure a lot of this comes down to personal preference but I like to think of networks geographically. Each building gets a network and all devices in that building go into the one network.

Edit: Here's a doc on creating networks: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Organizations_and_Networks/Creating_and_Del...

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

For access points you can use either method.

It is more a question of how you would like them presented to you.

For example, if you create a network per geo-graphic location, your client view will be separated by geo-graphical region.  For example, if you want to know the top talker by region this is perfect.

If you are only interested in overall information then one network for all the AP's might be better.  Then results like top talkers will be shown across every geo-graphic location.

[MRCUR]

The recommendation is typically to create a network per location. To keep the configs all in line, you can create an MR template and then bind the template to each of the individual networks. 

The only networks I use that are not specifically tied to individual locations are Systems Manager network (typically one per org) and MX networks that serve entire orgs (aggregated Internet for entire school district for example). 

[Uberseehandel]

Logically, a network exists at one or more sites. A network may exist in one or more time zones. A network may be physically or logically divided into one or more sub-networks.

Any network design system that ignores these inconvenient truths is doomed to failure.

People who sit the CMNO exam will be aware that amongst the gotchas in the practical exercises is the difference between time zones in different parts of the network.

I often encounter networks which have been given site attributes and vice versa. Ultimately it leads to problems.

[Adam]

A big differentiating factor is licensing.  Licenses type is applied at the Organization level.  In our case we have one building that needed an MX without Advanced Security so we had to put it in a different organization.  Otherwise we just use networks the same as everyone above.  Mostly one network per physical building or site.  All live in our company Organization.  

[mmmmmmark]

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@Adam wrote:

A big differentiating factor is licensing.  Licenses type is applied at the Organization level.  In our case we have one building that needed an MX without Advanced Security so we had to put it in a different organization.

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This is something we're looking at having to do as well. It would be great if Meraki would let advanced security licenses be in the same org as enterprise licenses.