Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack Release Notes, version 110

Version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack addresses an issue where collection failed for accounts monitored by API users with access restricted to a specific network.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 8.14.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 8.14.0 or later of SL1 before installing Cisco: Meraki [API] version 110.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the appropriate Release Notes.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack

To install or upgrade to Version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack, perform the following steps:

IMPORTANT: When upgrading to the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack version 109, customers that have the version 107 Limited Availability release will need to perform the following steps for collection to work:

  1. Locate the Cisco Meraki physical device and click its bar graph icon ().
  2. In the Device Summary page, click the Events tab.
  3. Locate all the events labeled "Cisco: Meraki Cloud Controller discovered as a component of organization...", select their checkbox(es) and click the Del button to delete the events.
  4. After the events are deleted, the "Cisco: Meraki Cloud Controller Creation" run book action will run automatically and collection will work.
  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the Minimum Required SL1 Version: 8.14.0 or later release.
  3. If you are upgrading a version of the PowerPack earlier than version 106, ScienceLogic does not guarantee the success of the upgrade.
  1. Download Version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  2. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import Version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack.
  3. After importing the PowerPack, you will be prompted to install the PowerPack. Click the Install button to install the PowerPack.

After installing the PowerPack, you must disable the "Data Collection: Async Dynamic App Collection" process prior to discovering your Meraki system. If you later decide to delete all Meraki devices and re-enable this process on your ScienceLogic system, you must first log in to the ScienceLogic Database Server or Data Collector to delete any asynchronous processes that are already queued up. Failing to do so can cause the system to stop all collections. For more information, see the Monitoring Cisco Meraki (API) manual.

After upgrading the PowerPack, it is recommended to delete all SNMP Dynamic Applications as SNMP items in the PowerPack have been removed or disabled.

Features

Version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications to discover and monitor Cisco Meraki devices

  • Device Classes for each type of Meraki component device SL1 monitors
  • Event Policies that are triggered when Meraki component devices meet certain status criteria

  • Sample Credentials for discovering Cisco Meraki devices:
  • A SOAP/XML Credential for users who connect to the Meraki API through a third-party proxy server
  • A SOAP/XML Credential for users who want to discover only select devices
  • A Basic/Snippet Credential for users who do not fall into either of the two above categories

  • Run Book Action and Automation policies that perform the following actions:
  • Create a Meraki Cloud Controller virtual device during discovery
  • Vanish devices and child devices

The PowerPack includes some Event Policies that can generate events in SL1 based on emails SL1 receives from Cisco Meraki. To enable SL1 to generate these events from email, you must first configure your Meraki devices to send email to SL1 using certain formatting rules. You must then configure SL1 to generate events from the inbound Meraki emails. For instructions, see the Monitoring Cisco Meraki (API) manual.

The email Event Policies included in the PowerPack each have an expiry delay setting that specifies the amount of time after which an active event is automatically cleared from SL1 if the event has not reoccurred. However, SL1 clearing an event for reaching its expiry delay setting does not mean that the initial condition that caused the event has been resolved.

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included in version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack:

  • Addressed an issue where collection failed for accounts monitored by API users with access restricted to a specific network.

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 110 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack:

  • If a device's model name shares the same first 5 characters as another device, that device will be assigned the same device class.
  • The Meraki API may not always send a "retry header". If this occurs the PowerPack does not retry the API call which will result in a gap in data when it occurs. This will be addressed in a future version of the PowerPack.
  • If a Cisco Meraki device name includes a special character, the device name will appear in hexadecimal values in the Device Components page.
  • The Meraki Cloud Controller will not be modeled after discovery if the Meraki organization has an apostrophe in its name.
  • Due to a limitation in the number of requests that Meraki can handle per second, data collection gaps might occur when monitoring larger scale systems.
  • Because there is no way to tag organizations, the PowerPack has no way of filtering out particular organizations during discovery. Therefore, the PowerPack will discover every organization that the API key returns.