MR44 in the Fabric Installation Insights

[SGreene]

I am currently conducting research to decide which way my organization will go with our wireless network upgrade. What are your experiences with the MR44 (good and bad, benefits, give and takes, could be better, need to be included, what makes it worth having over Cisco APs)? 

Does the Meraki AP support SGT tagging?

Is implementation into the Fabric possible (DNAC) if trunk ports are not allowed to be configured? Are trunk ports needed/required?

What is the process for onboarding a client using a Meraki on a Cisco 9300 switch and ISE? Does it support VXLAN?

We have different WLANs for different Agencies can Meraki support this segmentation and multiple locations/buildings in this manner?

Does Meraki have RRM?

Yes, I know that they are both under the same company umbrella, but they are two vastly different products. I am bias to Meraki, but am objective when it comes to receiving input from others.

The Meraki's will be connecting to Cisco 9300 switches, which Meraki has confirmed this is not issue and the AP's can work with this setup. As long as they have access to reach the Meraki Dashboard.

Thank each of you for you valuable insights. 

[DarrenOC]

In all honesty why not reach out to your Meraki AM and ask for some trial eqpt?  This way you can test everything at zero cost (except your time of course).

Best of luck whichever way you go

[SGreene]

Thank you. I plan to, just wanted to see if there was anyone who has this set up, considered it, or going through the process as well. Then get their insights to have more information.

[Inderdeep]

@SGreene : SGT is a DNAC Fabric technology and Meraki is not the part of that Fabric. 

Check out the compatible matrix with SD-Access 

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/Website/enterprise/sda_compatibility_matrix/index.html

Trunk ports where you want in your design, We can implement if we have fusion router with the Border node in the Fabric. although you can integrate Cisco Meraki portal with DNAC.

Well @DarrenOC says correct, go in depth discussion with Cisco Meraki SE and he will guide you !

[SGreene]

Thank you! We will definitely reach out the rep. 

Also thank you for verifying for me trunk ports and SGT.

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

@DarrenOC is right - a trial is probably going to be best to verify how everything works.

In Cisco Meraki land, SGT is called "Adaptive Policy".  To use SGT you need an "MR Advanced" licence.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Cross-Platform_Content/Adaptive_Policy/Adapt... 

Meraki's spit out packets using traditional VLAN tags (or you could use a single VLAN I guess).  A Meraki MR can bang on an SGT tag.  I doubt they would integrate into any other fabric system that could not handle this.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no VXLAN support.

If you are using Cisco ISE, then typically ISE would be doing the onboarding in a BYOD style environment.

Corporate devices tend to use things like AD group policy or MDM policy, so it "just works" for the user.

>We have different WLANs for different Agencies can Meraki support this segmentation and multiple locations/buildings in this manner?

Yes.

>Does Meraki have RRM?

Yes.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Monitoring_and_Reporting/Location_Analytics/Meraki_Auto_RF%3A__W... 

[SGreene]

Thank you for providing your insights regarding my concerns. Will definitely reach out to our rep for test equipment, but we have some inventory already. I wanted to obtain information from those who have tried/experienced it in the field.

Although we have ISE we do have AD groups as well which is what I'm more concern about whether or not this will be utilized if we transition to all Meraki APs.