Community Record
68
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122
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8
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Dec 18 2023
10:35 AM
2 Kudos
At this time, Meraki has an Org-Wide alerts feature in Beta. You can enable it in your org by going to Organization > Early Access > Opt-in to view and manage alerts in a new centralized Alert Page. This feature provides a way to view alerts across all your networks in one place. Configuration of alerts and event logging is still only available at the network level. The product management team is working on providing more org-wide visibility, as you can see from this feature, and will continue to build on this. I know it's not exactly what you are requesting but hopefully, it helps.
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Dec 19 2019
7:57 AM
I think we can do it we'll just need to open up the raised floor and install some exhaust fans to deal with the heat and route the power safely. We have APIs to blink all the lights already which is awesome.
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Dec 17 2019
3:04 PM
2 Kudos
I shall officially retract my besmirching of Dixie. I'm sure she was just exhausted from providing joy to the entire office.
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Dec 17 2019
2:42 PM
17 Kudos
Merry Switchmas cloud networking boys and girls. It’s that most wonderful time of the year again and Switchmas is upon us. You may remember from 2017’s Gnome Network Topology diagram and 2018’s Switchmas bush. I know I called it a Switchmas tree but let’s be honest it was a little bit stubby. It may have been appropriate for a San Francisco sized apartment but it really wasn’t becoming of the grandness of Meraki HQ. So this year I put my engineer thinking cap on and came up with a bigger, better, more Switchmatastical plan. As I thought about what I wanted to accomplish I needed a single goal to strive towards. How tall should it be the tree be this year? Last year I dreamed of an 8Ft tree. Then it struck me. This year the Switchmas tree must be TTT. Taller than Todd. That’s Todd Nightingale our GM who is about six foot four inches. Now that seemed like a lofty goal compared to the four and a half foot entry from the last year. If I was going to reach these heights I would need to upgrade my planning tools first to previsualize the feasibility of the structure. Last year I went too wide and the design used up far too many switches to reach the 4.5 Ft height. I also needed to plan for the subtle Christmas tree slope necessary for it to really look like a tree. I realized to get a more accurate idea on the height I’d need to go 3D. So a rendered a rough model of what the tree would look like starting with our deeper MS350 models of switches in alternating pentagons at the bottom about 14 switches high and then moving up to layers of 4 MS225 which we would need to slowly taper in to get the tree shape just right. We were lucky this year that we performed a major upgrade to our training lab environment this year and I was able to reserve the stock of replaced switches for my holiday project as well which meant I was pretty sure I could achieve the TTT height requirement. Another tough decision that I needed to make was power. Would we attempt to power each switch and firewall and connect them to the network as we did last year? As amazingly cool as it was to be able to blink all the lights and configure a rediculous topology in Dashboard for the tree last year our facilities department was rightly concerned that the increased scope of the tree this year would be a monumental fire hazard since we would need to cram an estimated 33 power strips in the trunk cavity of the tree along with the heat of all the switch blowing directly onto them. It would also be obnoxiously loud as well. So we made the tough decision to go with fashion before function and forgo power and connectivity to the tree. I also had a personal goal of only building the tree once instead of three separate times as we did last year to save time and my back. The base build went well in only 2 hours including load-in we had a solid start, no thanks to CJ’s dog Dixie just laying around and not helping. We played around with rotation angles and the slow tapering to produce a pleasant tree angle and in another 2 hours of switch sculpting, we had a pretty solid Switchmas tree. Next came the lights. We had a couple of strings of green lights from last year but it was clear that our tree was would need a light upgrade as well. So I ordered up two new strands of LED green/white fairy lights and found another string of white Christmas lights in a storage closet that I adapted. I also thought it might be nice to a sign with a little Switchmas cheer on it as well so I ordered that up as well. After that, it was time to decorate and make sure we represented all our product lines, MR, MX, MS, SM, MV, MI, and MG. I even snuck an MC in there. We must honor our past as we look towards the future. And when it was all said and done we had a gorgeous, glorious, holiday spectacular of a Switchmas tree. The whole office really fell in love with our Switchmas tree and it started trending on LinkedIn. My final task was to make sure I had succeeded with my Taller than Todd goal and we were lucky enough to have him stop by to check out the Switchmas tree and take a photo with us, thanks, Todd. So I’m sure you are thinking what are the stats on that tree? What would it take for me to replace my run of the mill Christmas tree at home with one of these cloud-managed beauties? Model QTY MS220-8 20 MS22 3 MS220-24 2 MS225-24P 63 MS350-24P 13 MS350-48 43 MS410 3 MS420 1 MX84 25 MX65 15 Z1 7 Z3 5 MV21 1 MV12W 5 MV22 4 MV32 1 Eyepatch 1 MR26 1 MR42 1 MR53 5 MR30H 5 MR84 2 MG21E 1 Total 227 So yeah, that quite a bit of gear. With one year of Meraki licensing the MSRP on this Switchmas tree is just over $1,000,000 USD. So I’m not saying it’s cheap but neither is this quality of Switchmas cheer. You’ll also need a pretty strong floor since this sucker weighs in at 1700 Lbs or 771 KG. So just like last year, we turn to think about what we can improve next year. We didn’t get quite to 8Ft/2.5m as we pondered last year but we sure got close. We are also thinking of adding a small fireplace to hang some stockings that we can fill with excellent stocking stuffer Meraki accessories and maybe some other new products. Let us know what you think we should add to the Switchmas tree for next year in the comments section. A very special thanks go out to CJ Ramsey who helped me assemble the tree, Mau Hernandez Vargas for stashing all the switches for a whole year, and Matt Heim for letting me indulge my holiday madness. Merry Switchmas to all and to all happy holidays from Meraki to you and your family. Adam Slater & the Training & Evangelism team
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Jan 2 2019
1:08 PM
3 Kudos
Well, Switchmas has passed and the new year is upon us. I broke down the Switchmas tree today and I realized I hadn't as my back was hurting that I had not calculated its total weight. So I did and with all MS, MX, MR, MV, iPads, Ethernet cables, Power cables and all my estimate puts it at about 850 Lbs or 385.55 Kg. I hefty tree for sure. I hope to double that next year. Merry Switchmas to all and to all a very happy 2019.
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Dec 20 2018
10:39 AM
3 Kudos
Ok, so we have a mix of MS switches so I used a rough calc between the MS switches we have online and the MXs we have online. We didn't power devices in the back of the tree to save on power and cabling. So the estimated power usage of the Switchmas tree is below. The max Watts is just there for fun really and potentially it gets up there when I power on the tree in the morning. Model QTY Powered Watts Idle Watts Max Total Idle Watts Total Max Watts Switches Average 30 21 448 630 13440 MX Average Power 15 24 36 360 5400 Totals 990 18840
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Dec 20 2018
8:21 AM
1 Kudo
The inside of the Switchmas tree is the power chord equivalent of a tangled string of Christmas lights. I'll calculate the total power draw of the Switchmas tree today and post it as well.
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Dec 20 2018
8:19 AM
1 Kudo
That's awesome, I didn't find any in my search in October, is that picture from this year? Send a link so the brotherhood of switchmas may be born!
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Dec 19 2018
3:31 PM
22 Kudos
Gnome Network Topology2017 was my first holiday season at Meraki, right before our annual shutdown, and we were in need of a holiday community blog post. I thought up the idea of creating a Gnome Network Topology Diagram. It was a fun project, but I knew the next year needed to be something a little grander.
The idea came to me in September of 2018, on the elevator, thinking about how snowflake crystals form when one of those imaginary snowflakes fell from a green cloud and landed on a Switchmas tree. Hmmm, I thought, has anyone built a such a thing. A glorious facsimile of a holiday tree in network switch form? I sprang to my computer to see if anyone had been so spirited before. To my surprise, I found nothing. There were trees of books, wireless access points, a few desktops, and laptops but no Switchmas tree. With this knowledge, I tucked my Switchmas vision under my mind’s idea blanket until the holidays were upon us and I could unleash it on the world.
Cut to December 10th. My Switchmas vision was ready to awaken and become reality. I knew there were going to be some technical challenges and, from my research, I knew I was breaking new ground. We’d need to do some planning and experimentation to make this work. First, I decided to plan out how we could stack our switches to create a tree shape as well as maintain stability. After all, this quantity of switches was going to be quite heavy. At first, I thought octagons to heptagon to hexagon and on and on to the top. Pre-visualization
So we went and tested it out without really doing the math. And this is the squat little Switchmas bush that was the result.
Switchmas Tree v1
We quickly realized that we didn’t have enough switches. During our design discussions, we had also decided that this would best be made into a Fullstackmas tree but, even then, each level is only 1.72 inches (4.38cm) high. So, to create a 5ft /1.5m high tree, it would require 34 levels worth of switches. Starting with octagons, that would require about 173 devices. Since we are swapping out some lab equipment we had about 100 MX’s and MS’s to work with so that architecture would not work. The first attempt was not a waste though, as it proved the configuration was stable and did not require any internal support. Our plan to power the switches from the inside with multiple power strips was a success. I could see a Merry Switchmas in our future with just a few more tweaks.
We broke it down and rebuilt starting with hexagons to get more height with the equipment we had available. At the end of build two, we had more height but not nearly enough and the tree was crooked at the top.
Switchmas Tree v2
Again, we learned more and I also realized I would need to order a tree’s worth of green Christmas lights as well to add some additional Meraki holiday flare to our growing Switchmas tree. The dream was becoming a reality, but I could really only justify the resources for one more rebuild since the man-hour count was climbing for this passion project. The third and final build would need to be the one.
I’m glad to say it was!!!!
Left to right, Miss Dixie, CJ Ramsey, Adam Bollinger, Adam Slater
We only reached about 4 ½ feet in height, but we got everything powered on, and the entire Meraki stack is represented (Even a nod to our bygone MC phone). The software-only products are represented by iPad graphics. The green Christmas lights really tied the whole production together. Plus, with about 40 open browser windows we were able to make all the switch ports blink.
So, a lot goes into building a Fullstackmas tree. I added it all up, and here are the results:
Model
QTY
MS220-8P
12
MS22
3
MS220-24
2
MS220-24P
1
MS225-24P
43
MX84
36
MR32
4
MR33
1
MR53
4
MR84
1
MC74
1
MV12
1
MV22
1
MV21
1
Total MSRP
$328,806.00
Soooo yeah, that's a bit pricey for a holiday tree, but it’s so easy to manage. I mean, in just a couple of clicks you can see the entire topology:
Switchmas Tree L2 Topology
The next question of course is: where do we go from here? Well, next year I’m hoping to go up to 8Ft/2.5m Switchmas tree and get even more Meraki products represented. But for now, I want to thank Adam B., CJ, and everyone else who helped make my dream of building a Switchmas / Fullstackmas tree possible. I would also like to wish everyone far and wide a very happy holidays from our Meraki family to yours.
Fullstackmas Tree Final
MS gnome and MV gnome were here — they've been safely returned home!
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Jul 24 2018
9:08 AM
3 Kudos
Congratulations Meraki Community!!! You've grown so fast (wipes tear from proud parents eye). Now on to 100,000!!!
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Jun 6 2018
9:32 AM
2 Kudos
@Jack, thank you for the positive feedback. We strive to bake simplicity into every layer of the Meraki cake including support and RMA.
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Apr 20 2018
11:44 AM
Oran, we don't give exact release dates as our firmware quality assurance and approval process varies in a timeline based on the feature set and how well the code works in our beta testers. Since the No-NAT is in 15.x firmware it will most likely be sometime in the calendar year 2018. Sorry, I can't give you a release date.
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Apr 17 2018
1:43 PM
The PM I justed pinged mentioned it looks like an old version of the SM Client. Can you confirm you downloaded the version from the portal instead of using an existing copy of the agent? Can confirm which version the agent reports it running? Does this happen on multiple Windows systems? Are you seeing the same expired Cert in the directory Philip sees it in?
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Apr 6 2018
11:43 AM
Philp, I'm reaching out to the SM PM team to see if they can shed some light on this. I'll let you know what I find out.
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Apr 6 2018
11:39 AM
1 Kudo
By traffic usage do you mean just the amount of bandwidth used by the MX or more detailed traffic analysis for the network? You can't get detailed traffic analysis page currently emailed or consolidated down for all networks into a single report currently. You can export the Traffic analysis page filtered by MX to csv file. You can also get some traffic analysis info via the API and produce your own report from that https://dashboard.meraki.com/api_docs#the-traffic-analysis-data-for-this-network. Regarding the detecting, if the MX isn't passing traffic on a certain VLAN I would suggest using the packet capture live tool to determine if traffic is being blocked at the MX or another interface in the network.
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Mar 13 2018
11:44 AM
My apologies, I missed that this was for guest authentication. Why does the client want to use RADIUS for guest authentication? It might be simpler to use Meraki Authentication. MX wireless auth is a bit more limited than the dedicated AP wireless feature set.
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Mar 13 2018
11:26 AM
TimS, The MX should use the highest value VLAN routable IP. So if you don't have any vlan's configured it's the default LAN IP for the MX. If you do have VLAN's it should be the highest # VLAN. To verify you can check the radius logs as well and see the client-ip address request when you test as well. https://documentation.meraki.com/MX-Z/Other_Topics/MX_and_Z1_Source_IP_for_RADIUS_Authentication
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Feb 13 2018
1:15 PM
1 Kudo
There are two options. You can enable it on an entire WAN interface or you can just enable it on selected VLANs. At least that's how it works now. It's still Beta so it may change.
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Feb 13 2018
9:32 AM
@Rwatkins1145 is correct MX 15.4 Beta has a No NAT feature. You will need to contact Meraki support to get access that Beta firmware.
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Jan 3 2018
8:18 AM
1 Kudo
Very nice shot, but may I suggest the framing would be better with some MS425's under that ;-).
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Jan 2 2018
2:40 PM
1 Kudo
You have tamed the spaghetti monster. That is no small job. Awesome work! How long did that take?
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Dec 22 2017
2:36 PM
1 Kudo
A good point. I'll have to head down to the Meraki subterranean gnome garden to see if any of them have hatched yet.
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Dec 22 2017
1:01 PM
11 Kudos
I've been working on a new Gnome Network Topology diagram today and get any feedback the community may have on it? This will be installed in a GnomeHome/Tree outside the Meraki Offices in SF. What do you think? It's got a collapsed core/distribution layer and I couldn't get an MX Warm Spare in there until I win a few community challenges. It will probably serve anywhere from 50-200 wireless critter clients through the surrounding foliage including a number of hummingbirds which are notorious for their rapid web browsing and content consumption. #MerakiGnomeFullStack Gnome Network Topology
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Sep 12 2017
10:07 AM
Kanar, the flows role contains both he MX and MR security related flows and there is not currently a way to separate them out. I would "Make a Wish" in Dashboard to add a feature request for this.
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My Accepted Solutions
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