Following the the exciting announcements at Cisco Live! Milan in January, the team will be heading out to Australia for Cisco Live! Melbourne from the 17th to the 20th of March. San Francisco Members of the product management and marketing teams from San Francisco will be joining the local Meraki team for demos, presentations and labs.
We will be exhibiting at the World of Solutions where there will be live one-on-one demos. Make sure you come by, say hello, and learn the latest from Meraki. It is also an ideal opportunity to meet your regional Meraki representative, if you have not done so already.
Apart from the world of solutions, there will be a number of labs and presentations throughout the week. Check the Cisco Live! website for availability and registration for the sessions.
LABEN-1001 – Cisco Meraki Hands on Lab: Cloud Managed Networks
Presented by Joe Aronow & George Bentinck
Wednesday 18 Mar 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Thursday 19 Mar 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Friday 20 Mar 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
This self-paced lab is designed to introduce you to the full Cisco Meraki suite of products – wireless, switching, security appliances and mobile device management. During this session we will walk through configuration of each product type, demonstrating the simplicity and power of the Meraki cloud managed solution.
BRKSEC-2900 – Cloud Managed Security with Meraki MX
Presented by Joe Aronow
Wednesday 18 Mar 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Meraki’s cloud managed networking portfolio includes out-of-the-box capabilities to help administrators secure their network environments. This session will provide an introduction to the Meraki architecture and a deep-dive into the Meraki MX security appliance product line. The presenter will feature a live demo of key features such as Auto VPN, client fingerprinting, identity-based policies, intrusion detection, and more.
BRKEWN-2013 – Cloud Managed Networking with Meraki
Presented by Peter Stephan
Friday 20 Mar 8:45 AM – 10:45 AM
Cisco Meraki’s cloud-managed networking solution provides the tools to implement scalable networks with dramatically simpler management and powerful network visibility. This session will provide an intermediate level of information about the Cisco Meraki unique cloud architecture, and a deep-dive into an entire network stack solution, including the latest 802.11ac offering, expanded switch portfolio, SourceFire enabled security appliance, and complete MDM offering. The presenter will provide live demonstrations and deployment strategies for key features platform including client fingerprinting, layer 7 traffic shaping, location services, integrated MDM, and hybrid models cloud / on-premise architectures.
One of the most challenging aspects of managing large distributed networks is troubleshooting issues when the client is across town (or maybe even across the country!). Having on-site IT personnel 24/7 at even small satellite branch offices can require a very large IT staff and is too expensive for most organizations. Meraki networks offer a variety of “remote hands” troubleshooting tools, helping network admins diagnose and resolve many wireless connectivity issues without dispatching IT staff to the site. The ability to run diagnostic checks such as pinging an access point, running a throughput test from Dashboard, or reviewing detailed event logs have been integral to Meraki’s value for distributed networks and organizations with small IT staffs and large footprints.
We are now announcing a set of Live Client Tools that expose even more up-to-the-second information about who is on a wireless network, and further help troubleshoot connectivity issues. Administrators who log into their Enterprise network in Dashboard will notice several new and improved areas. On the Monitor > Overview page, there is now a new addition under the network name showing the number of clients that are associated at that moment:
If you click on the “More” link, you will see an expanded list with more information, including which SSIDs and channels the clients are using. This data is automatically refreshed as long as the “More” link is expanded.
Even cooler, Enterprise customers can change the access points map to show where clients are associated: click the “Options” menu on the map and select “Current clients.”
But the really interesting stuff is on the Access Point and Client detail pages. The Access Point detail page used to look like this:
Now, all of the live tools have been consolidated into a new, cleaner layout. Both Pro and Enterprise networks will benefit from the new layout. Enterprise networks now have two additional features in this area: Current Clients and Ping Client MAC. Clicking on the play icon next to Current Clients will pop up a list of all clients associated to that AP at that instant, including useful information about each client such as MAC, SSID, channel, signal strength, and how long they have been associated. Click on the name of a client to go to its client details page. You’ll even see clients that have associated, but not authenticated (they’re listed in grey). If you click the Ping link next to the client, you can actually ping that client in real time using ARP, as well as get additional information, such as RSSI changes over time and 802.1X identity (if appropriate).
The other new addition, Ping Client MAC, allows you to enter a MAC address and try to ping it. This can be very useful if you are trying to determine if a particular device is on your network at that moment.
There is also a new Live Tools section on the client detail page. From this page you can also ping that individual client, but there are a few additional new tools:
The Locate Client tool allows you to find out whether that client is associated on your network at that moment, and if so, where they’re associated and for how long:
Finally, the Packet Counter tool shows a real-time count of received and sent packets to that client. You can actually see the packet counters roll as you ping the client!
We think these new tools further improve Meraki’s uniquely clear approach to distributed, multi-site network management, a normally challenging task. Network administrators can more quickly resolve their wireless users’ connectivity issues and access accurate real-time data about the exact state of their network.
