Previous IT Dept Staff Left

[Mike3]

Hi,

I have recently taken over IT support for a small company that have CIsco Meraki APs.

Unfortunately the previous IT Staff that set this up have left the organisation a long, long time ago. We have not been able to contact them and have no idea where the Meraki APs on site are registered to. It's now an issue as I want to put out an additional SSID.

From some articles online, I believe if I set up a new account and try to pair the APs with that, it will deny the request as it sees they are already "owned" elsewhere.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? If so, what was the solution?

Any suggestions/guidance would be much appreciated

Thanks

Mike

[PhilipDAth]

Do a password reset on their email address and see if you get anything back.

[Mike3]

Much as I'd like to I have no idea which email address it was registered to.

Not a clue if it was set up by the former staff, a third party, or otherwise....

I feel like there should be an easier way to effectively factory reset these...

[PhilipDAth]

You can probably guess the persons email address based on the naming convention you use for email ...

[PhilipDAth]

What country are you in and I'll look up the number for support.

[Mike3]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I’m based in the UK. 

Wasn’t aware of a licensing requirement for these to be honest so that’s good to know. Is there any decent documentation that shows what you can do with and without licensing?

As for Support I guess it’s worth a try. Not sure if they’d release the email address though with GDPR etc. 

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

The support number for the UK is:

+44 20 38 08 7003

Get the serial number off the back of one of the devices before you call.  I would be tempted to find out if they will give you the email address of any administrator on the account.  Then you can setup that email address, do a password reset, and get access.  Otherwise you have to go through a longer legal proof process.

When Meraki licencing runs out the devices stop working.  So it is critical you maintain current licencing.

[BlakeRichardson]

Its not really a factory reset as you mentioned its obtaining digital ownership. I would contact Meraki support and see if they can at least provide the email address they were registered against.

Even if when you do gain acces I would guess that if no one knows anything about them no licensing has been paid therefore you wont be able to do much in the dashboard until the licensing is renewed. 

[GiacomoS]

Hey @Mike3 and everyone,

You can find detailed information on the licensing on this page: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Licensing/Cisco_Meraki_Licensing_Guidelines...

In Mike's current situation (and similar if any of you has experienced or will experience it) there's a lot of legal stuff involved, including the much dreaded GDPR. On the end customer agreement we specify that the customer is solely responsible for maintaining access and this is there to ensure the confidentiality of your network. 

Ultimately, Meraki support lacks the tools and the authority to make any change to the Administrators of an Organization, so we would normally advise that you will have to attempt and retrieve access to an Admin account with any means necessary.

You can also refer to this page for our best practice advices: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Managing_Dashboard_Access/Managing_Dashboar...

Hope this helps!

Giacomo