Disclaimer – When using tools of this nature it is strongly recommended to create a separate, read-only API key. There is no need to risk your API key being compromised and allowing a bad actor to perform irreparable harm to your organization. While this tool open states it does not store API keys, I find it best practice to be safe rather than sorry.
I stumbled upon this tool while reviewing videos from a previous WLPC conference. The tool presents a lot of very useful information in one place and can save time from jumping between screens or tabs when evaluating a network, particularly a network that you didn’t implement. I’ve included links at the bottom to the video of the presentation at WLPC as well as a link to the website itself.
This web-based tool uses the API key and presents consolidated information for devices and networks within a Meraki dashboard organization. Having the information consolidated eliminates browsing to different areas of the dashboard and helps limit the number of browser tabs that are sometimes necessary when debugging reported issues. Figure 1 is from the landing page when selecting a network. Information includes – current firmware version, current channels in use, channel width, channel TX power, channel utilization, client count, and connectivity issues. Some info has been obscured for security reasons. Any noted connectivity issues can be further investigated using Network Assurance within the dashboard.
Not seeing the throughput you’re expecting on an SSID? Figure one show 20MHz channels are in use. While this is by design in my organization given the high client density, if you’re expecting higher throughput, this may warrant a deeper look.
One thing I’ve notice while testing the tool. It operates quickly. If you’ve ever written custom API scripts you’re likely aware that sometimes getting the data you’re after can be time consuming. Especially if you have a large organization.
Figure 1: Access Points
Another section of the main landing page is show in Figure 2. This section shows all SSID configured for a network and the associated configuration elements. This page could be useful in determining an SSID is missing or has improper security configuration. Another noteworthy section is the Minimum Bitrate, which could help explain why a legacy client is unable to connect. We set ours to 12Mbps to prevent 802.11b clients from connecting.
Figure 2: SSID
The last section on the main landing page is the Event Logs section. In Figure 3 you’ll see the categories but for security reasons I’ve omitted the remaining information.
Figure 3: Event Logs
This tool also includes a configuration audit section. Available data points are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Configuration Audit
Shown in Figure 5 below are available filters that can be applied to the event logs in order to narrow your search to information that applies to the problem you’re investigating. An example would be filter for events for a specific access point.
Figure 5: Event Log Filters
Links:
Video of presentation from WLPC
Link to the website
Conclusion:
I hope you find this tool as useful as I did. Anyone supporting Meraki networks is aware of the large number of browser tabs we sometimes drown in while debugging issues. This seems to help a bit with that problem.