This issue began occurring recently in the “New” Meraki dashboard view. The problem does not occur in the “Old” view.
Recently our install team was attempting to create a new network and had issues when binding it to the template. The issue can be seen in the screenshots below. When attempting to create the network, an error occurs. The network does get created, but is created as a standalone network of type “Combined” but is not bound to any template. Since we are not attempting to add any serial numbers to the network at this point, the dashboard attempts to create a network type for all possible options. This conflicts with the original template configuration because it is only aware of “Wireless”, “Switch”, and “Appliance” network types. This is the cause of the error.
A support call was raised as initially we believe this may be a bug in the new dashboard. While ultimately, it seems the issue should not occur in the new dashboard as it doesn’t occur in the old one, support did not believe this warranted escalation to development. We have determined a work around and have moved forward. I felt it warranted documenting my steps.
The issue is mainly caused by the way we manage the network within the Meraki dashboard. Due to the size of the organization, roughly 15000 access points across roughly 200 sites, we’ve chosen to implement configuration templates. These templates have been in existence for quite some time and pre-date some types of Meraki hardware (Cellular Gateway and Environmental Sensors to name a couple) and therefore do not have network types for these hardware types.
To date, our procedure for performing firmware upgrades is to clone the existing template, perform the appropriate firmware upgrade and then rebind networks to the new template. This allows us to minimize the impact if an unexpected issue where to occur and allows us a graceful fallback option. This also means our templates are unaware of newer network types.
Figure 1 – Error while creating the network and binding it to the template.
As seen below, the network is created but is not bound to any template. This is not the desired outcome.
Figure 2 – Network is created but is unbound.
To resolve this issue at the template level, it is possible to “Split” the original template which will reveal all of the individual node types within. I prefer to do this step via cloning the original template and then splitting it as it eliminates a risk factor. I’ve seen some unexpected behavior previously when making template changes so I always want a fallback plan. If done via cloning, it will be necessary to rebind any networks from the original template to the finished template during a scheduled maintenance window. Additionally, we’ll create a new template and split it also. We will then recombine all of the network types so that our final template includes all of the original network types as well as the new network types. This can be done from the “Configuration Template” page. The link in the resource section also includes some details regarding this process. However, our goal is slightly different from that in the link.
Figure 3 – Cloning the original template.
The image below shows preparing to split the template.
Figure 4 – Splitting the original template.
The image below show the result of the split template. Notice the three network types (Wireless, Switch and Appliance).
Figure 5 – The original template has been split.
Now we’ll create a new template so we can add in the other network types.
Figure 6 – The new template has been created.
Next we’ll split the new template revealing three new network types. The original template did not have “Environmental”, “Cellular Gateway”, or “Camera.”
Figure 7 – New template split.
And then we’ll combine the network types we want into the finished template. Be sure to select the network types from your original template so all configuration stays intact. This is another strong reason for cloning the template for the process. If you accidentally select the incorrect box, you could erase the configuration from one of your existing network types. After this step we can delete the remaining network types from the “New” template as they won’t be needed. When combining, you’ll get an error if you select duplicate network types. See Figure 13 further down.
Figure 8 – Select nodes to combine.
We’ll add “Finished” to the end of the “Network Name” so we can differentiate it. If you like, this can be renamed later for the specified template via Network Wide > General.
Figure 9 – Naming the Combined Template.
The finished template now exists.
Figure 10 – Network types have been combined.
After doing so we can confirm that when we create a new network, the error no longer occurs and the operation is performed as expected.
Figure 11 – Creating a network and binding it to the template.
As you can see below, the network was created without an error and is bound to the appropriate template.
Figure 12 – New network bound to the finished combined template.
If you attempt to select all the network types from the original and the new template, you’ll get an error as seen below. I believe this is to avoid configuration conflicts that could occur when combining similar network types.
Figure 13 – Error that occurs when combining similar network types.
I’ve asked Meraki support for an option to be able to select individual network types during network/template creation to remove some of the ambiguity here. While this would be a nice option, I don’t see it being added to the dashboard any time soon, if ever.
Conclusion
We encountered an error while using the new Meraki dashboard UI that we did not encounter the old one. A call to support and some iterations with templates helped us resolve the issue. Hope you find this helpful!
Resources: