Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack Release Notes, version 112

Version 112 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack adds a new Dynamic Application, multiple run book automation and action policies, adds a new Device Class for CW switches, improves the discovery of Organizations with special characters in their name, and supports MUD systems.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 11.2.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 11.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing "Cisco: Meraki [API]" PowerPack version 112.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack

If you are upgrading from a version of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack earlier than version 106, ScienceLogic does not guarantee the success of the upgrade.

Additionally, customers that are upgrading directly from the version 107 Limited Availability release might need to perform the following steps for collection to work:

  1. Locate the Cisco Meraki physical device and click its bar graph icon ().
  2. On 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 then 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.

To install or upgrade to Version 112 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack, perform the following steps:

  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: 11.2.0 or later release.
  1. Download Version 112 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 112 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 might want to disable the "Data Collection: Async Dynamic App Collection" process prior to discovering your Meraki system. Asynchronous collection can cause slower device discovery. For more information, see the Monitoring Cisco Meraki (API) manual.

After upgrading the PowerPack, you must delete all SNMP Dynamic Applications that were included in previous versions of the PowerPack. These Dynamic Applications will not function correctly with newer versions of the PowerPack, and upgrading the PowerPack will not automatically remove them.

Features

This release includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications to discover and monitor Cisco Meraki devices, networks, and organizations

  • Device classes for each type of Meraki component device SL1 monitors
  • Event policies that are triggered when Meraki component devices, networks, and organizations 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 virtual device that represents a Meraki organization 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.

ScienceLogic recommends configuring webhooks in SL1 and Meraki to receive these alerts if you are using SL1 version 11.2 or later. For more information about webooks, see the Events manual. Contact your client success manager if you have additional questions on how to implement Meraki webhooks.

The email event policies included in the PowerPack each have an expiration 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, clearing an event for reaching its expiration 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 112 of the "Cisco: Meraki [API]" PowerPack:

  • Added the "Cisco: Meraki Reboot Device" run book action to manually reboot a Meraki device. This action policy is disabled by default.

The "Cisco: Meraki Reboot Device" run book action policy will allow SL1 to reboot devices. This action policy is experimental and should be turned on only by a user with extensive knowledge of the effects that these actions will have on your network and devices. ScienceLogic recommends caution when enabling this action policy in a production environment.

  • Added a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) to the "Cisco: Meraki Device Discovery [API]" Dynamic Application to reflect a device's location within a network or organization.

  • Updated the icons of all Meraki device classes to match the SL1 user interface.

  • All references to Cloud Controller in the PowerPack have been changed to Organization. For example, the "Cisco: Meraki Cloud Controller Discovery [API]" Dynamic Application has been renamed "Cisco: Meraki Organizations Discovery [API]".

  • Prior to version 112 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack, the "Cisco: Meraki Uplink Performance [API]" Dynamic Application was aligned to Meraki networks. The "Cisco: Meraki Uplink Performance [API]" Dynamic Application will now automatically align to Meraki network devices, which are the child components under Meraki networks.

Performing a fresh install of version 112 of the PowerPack will have no impact. However, upgrading from a prior version to version 112 will align the "Cisco: Meraki Uplink Performance [API]" Dynamic Application to both Meraki networks and network devices. ScienceLogic recommends unaligning this Dynamic Application from the Meraki networks before upgrading to version 112. You can do this for each device individually, or in bulk. For more information about bulk unaligning Dynamic Applications, see the Bulk Unaligning Dynamic Applications section in the Monitoring Cisco: Meraki API manual.

  • Replaced the silo_common and content library items with the silo_apps library item.

  • When the "Cisco: Meraki Organizations Discovery [API]" Dynamic Application creates an organization that has special characters in the organization name, those characters will be converted to the closest non-special character counterpart.

If the name of an organization is changed in Meraki, and the organization already exists in SL1, the RBA responsible for creating organizations will not automatically update the device name in SL1 and it must be changed manually.

  • Added a new device class to support the CW series of switches.

  • Addressed an issue that caused "Uplink Performance" Dynamic Application alerts to trigger when "No name" was present in the Uplink name, and no alert should have triggered.

  • Version 112 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack now supports MUD systems.

ScienceLogic does not recommend upgrading from 111.1 to 112 in MUD systems. If you have any version of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack already installed, we recommend deleting the PowerPack and performing a fresh installation.

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 112 of the Cisco: Meraki [API] PowerPack:

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  • 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 on the Device Components page.
  • The Meraki Organization 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.
  • The PowerPack cannot filter out particular organizations during discovery and will discover every organization that the API key returns.