Cisco Meraki monitoring software

Cisco Meraki is a cloud-based network management platform that enables IT teams to deploy, manage, and monitor network devices and wireless networks across distributed locations. Simply put, Cisco Meraki uses a controller-which is hosted in the cloud to manage Meraki devices in different locations.

Cisco Meraki reduces the configuration and complexities of deploying a controller in every site and allows IT admins to manage their network infrastructure from anywhere in the world.

Meraki devices are Cisco's proprietary hardware that can be instrumented and managed by a cloud-based Meraki controller. Meraki devices download their configurations from the Meraki controller and can be monitored and configured via the controller. Admins can log into a dedicated Cisco Meraki dashboard to manage Meraki devices.

Examples of Meraki devices include:

• Meraki Security (Firewalls)
• Meraki Switch (Network switches)
• Meraki Radio (Wireless devices)
• Meraki Vision (IP cameras)
• Meraki Sensor (IoT sensor)
• Meraki Cellular Gateway etc...

Cisco Meraki monitoring is the process of using Cisco's APIs or protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to monitor Meraki controllers, networks, and devices. Meraki monitoring software can monitor Cisco Meraki in two ways:

• API-based monitoring: Cisco Meraki monitoring software leverages Cisco's API to connect to the Meraki controller and to gather information about Meraki networks and devices.
• Network-based monitoring: Meraki monitoring tools can also collect data at the local network level, usually using protocols like SNMP to reach individual Meraki devices. They can also leverage passive monitoring techniques like syslogs.

To start monitoring Cisco Meraki, you need to discover the Meraki organization first. You can perform this by adding the API key for Meraki and fetching the organizations managed by you. Once this is done, your controller will be discovered and listed under your monitoring inventory. You can view all the networks and devices hosted in that organization under your controller.

To monitor the Meraki devices separately, you can drill down to the Meraki devices listed under your Meraki controller. You can also enable SNMP in your Meraki devices, add those credentials in OpManager, and monitor these devices separately with SNMP.

Even though the Cisco Meraki platform supports monitoring, it's recommended to use third-party monitoring software like OpManager.

• Unified network monitoring: For networks that incorporate devices from various vendors, OpManager offers a single-pane-of-glass to manage the entire network infrastructure.
• Full-stack observability: In addition to network monitoring, you can also manage servers, applications, traffic, configurations, firewalls, IP addresses, and switch-ports with OpManager. This reduces tool-sprawl and IT spend.
• On-premise monitoring software: OpManager is hosted within your own private network, which increases reliability and security, while eliminating cloud costs.
• Comprehensive Cisco support: OpManager's 1900+ Cisco device templates increases the ease of discovering and monitoring Cisco devices.