Cisco Catalyst and Meraki: Better Together in a Cloud-Managed World

I'll right, hello everyone. We'll get started. Just wanted to start by thanking everyone for taking the time to be with us today. My name is Jason and together my fellow custom.00:01From success specialists Max will join us in a bit. We're going to be talking about cloud management.00:20For catalyst switches and covering device onboarding and configuration in the dashboard, please use the Slido for any questions that you might have. You can join the Slido by going.00:27Going to the bottom right hand corner of the screen next to the chat bubble and clicking the three dots, then click Slido and you should be able to see the Q and A If you'd prefer, you can go to slido.com and enter the code in the middle box there.00:46And that should also get you in to the Q and A If you have any issues with Slido or anything else during the presentation, please send a direct message to the panelists and they'll be able to help you out. We have Max and with us today.01:02As well as myself, and if we don't have the answer to your question, we'll take note of it and follow up with you after the meeting. Additionally, we'll do a live Q and A following the presentation in the demo today.01:18Allowing your questions to be addressed directly. We'll also be posting links to documentation for the topics discussed during the presentation at that time. So if you wait till the end, anything we kind of talk about, we'll put put a bunch of links in chat for that.01:34Alright, let's get started with look at the agenda. We're gonna start with an overview of cloud management. We'll discuss two options for configuration sources. What needs to be in place to onboard each of the configuration sources?01:55What it looks like to onboard each. We'll take a closer look at the features and as I said, we'll end with a Q and A So why move to cloud management? What are we trying to achieve by bringing devices into the dashboard?02:13Our goal is to blend the simplicity of the cloud with the performance and capabilities of the full iOS XE feature set. Throughout this presentation, we'll show you how we do that. The 1st thing you need is hardware and the beauty of cloud management with cloud enabled.02:34Is that you get a unified cloud platform built on your existing infrastructure, as you can see catalyst.02:559293 hundreds and 95 hundreds are listed on this slide. There are too many models to list here and they're constantly adding more, and we'll provide a link to all the supported models during the Q and A.03:03As I said, the list of supported models is reg updated regularly, so be sure to check back if you're you know you have a switch and it's not currently listed, keep checking it. It's likely it'll be there at some point. The real key here is that you don't need to buy new hardware.03:18To move to the cloud, you can use your existing hardware, which is a pretty cool thing. Bringing your catalyst switches into the dashboard allows you to take full advantage of the cloud platform, giving you a unified view of your Cisco network infrastructure.03:34You gain data driven insights, the ability to see devices connected across your network and application visibility into the traffic. You also gain the visibility needed to optimize your network and accelerate troubleshooting with port level packet and error counters.03:53Proactive dashboard alerts, a cloud CLI and remote packet captures. Another great aspect of cloud management is the flexibility of choosing the configuration source for your switch.04:11There are two configuration sources, cloud management with configuration source cloud, which I'll refer to as cloud mode so you don't have to keep hearing me say configuration source cloud over and over again. Also cloud management with configuration source device.04:28I'll refer to that as device mode. The key difference between the configuration sources is that with cloud mode, the switch becomes fully cloud managed, meaning that all configurations performed from the dashboard and then it's pushed to the switch.04:43The device mode, the switch is configured via the CLI, kind of like you've always done it. The configuration stays on the switch and that gets pushed to the dashboard. So you gain the you know additional insights and visibility and features that you wouldn't have without the dashboard, but you get to keep your CLI.05:01Access with device mode and having these two options allows you to maintain operational flexibility and also have cloud management. Prior to ISXC 1715.05:21We were using a container based architecture that leveraged a container to proxy communication between dashboard and the switch. You may have seen CS firmware for switches in the dashboard. Moving forward, any existing switches on the CS firmware will need to be transitioned to.05:37IOS XE 1715 plus. Any new switches that you bring into the dashboard will start with iOS XE 1715 plus. Aside from all the speed and storage benefits of moving away from the container, we free up space on the switch for things like thousand eyes, which we should be getting.05:57With these switches in the near future?06:17So let's talk about a little bit more in detail about each of the configuration sources. Cloud mode provides a fully cloud managed experience just like your traditional Meraki switch. After transitioning to cloud mode, your switch is exclusively managed via that.06:20Dashboard. The switch config is stored in cloud and synced with iOS XE. Once you move to cloud mode, you won't be able to access the CLI of the switch with a console cable. There's a local status page for iOS XE switches to supplement that.06:40And again in the future there maybe a local read only CLI as well. I'm still waiting for kind of an update on that. Well, you don't have local console access. Currently you do have cloud CLI, which allows you to remotely run show commands from the dashboard.06:57Next up we have the configuration source device. Moving to device mode allows you to retain the features and CLI level of control you've always had. The configuration is stored in iOS XE and synced with the cloud for back.07:23Device mode gives you access to cloud CLI and dashboard with read write capabilities just like you were ssh'd into the switch. Changes made via the cloud CLI can be seen in the dashboard change log, giving you visibility into what changes are being made or what have what changes have been made.07:39Who's making them?07:58You can also lock this down in the dashboard with the option to set access mode for cloud CLI. You have the option for read only access or read write access and you can also require authentication to launch the cloud CLI we've discussed.08:00Each of the configuration modes in a little bit of detail, take a closer look at some of the available features. Health and assurance applies to both configuration sources. This is the data we are collecting from the switch, including real time switch and port health. From the dashboard, we can see what ports have connections.08:20And click into each port and show port status and traffic information. It's like running a show interface on a switch, but it's alright there for you in the dashboard. There is app visibility and traffic analytics. We can see which clients are connected to a switch and take it that a step further with traffic analytics.08:39Image upgrades from dashboard currently, this only applies to switches in cloud mode. This will be coming to switches and device mode in the future as well. And then we also have cloud CLI. This applies to both modes but in different ways.08:59With cloud mode, you have read only show commands because your device is managed by the cloud. With device mode, you have read write for the switch because it's still a CLI managed switch.09:17You'll need to check early access and dashboard under organization configure early access to enable some of these features today. Currently cloud CLI for cloud native iOS XE and cloud monitoring packet capture are in early access.09:32I believe the cloud monitoring configuration history has moved out of early access, so you don't have to enable that it's on by default. So let's just stop for a second. Where are we at now? We talked about cloud management, the two configuration sources, some features, and I'm sure most of you are.09:49Curious about licensing. So we actually have some good news on the licensing front. Starting 1 February of this year, Cisco is offering.10:09Three year cloud entitlement for DNA licensing. This means if you have an active DNA license, you can manage eligible catalyst switches and access points directly within the dashboard through 1 February of 2029 at NO additional cost.10:21You can leverage cloud based management without requiring a license exchange, additional licensing purchases or any disruption to your current DNA investment. This offer applies to catalyst 9000 hardware originally shipped with iOS XE.10:37Software, your account team can help you out with the various scenarios and questions you may have regarding licensing. Next we'll cover the process of onboarding your switch.10:55Into the dashboard. The switching team has done an excellent job of making this as a pretty straightforward process. The 1st step is to upgrade, and you may not even need to do this if you're already on a supported version of iOS XE.11:10When you have your switches on a supported version, the next step is to establish the Meraki tunnel connection. To do this, we verify all prerequisites are completed. When that's done, a tunnel to the Meraki cloud can be established after running the service Meraki Connect command.11:28As part of the connection process, we'll obtain a cloud ID, with that we can easily claim and add devices in dashboard. Once we claim and add the device, the configuration is automatically applied.11:47Based on the mode selected, if you selected source cloud, switch will factory reset and reload into cloud mode. The configuration on the cloud is synced with the device and this can be a bit disruptive as it does take some time to complete the reset. When the process is complete, you have a cloud switch.12:04When you select configuration source device, you'll need to enter level 15 access credentials for the switch. Dashboard uses the supplied credentials to access the switch, upload an EM script and run that script. The script will add the code needed to send modern data from the switch to the.12:25Cloud over the tunnel that we've already established.12:45Script does not change or remove any existing code. When this is complete, the script is erase from flash and this is non disruptive, this switch stays up the whole time. Let's take a closer look at moving to configuration source cloud.12:49I had mentioned some prerequisites earlier, for the networking connectivity requirements, we need to make sure that TCP port 443 access to the Cisco cloud is active, sharing secure communication is established. Connectivity must be via a front panel port, so not the management interface.13:09Default VRF is in operation for all cloud communications. IP routing mode is required for the Meraki tunnel services. We need to ensure routes are in place to reach external addresses including the a default route.13:29Use of IP default gateway is not supported. Also DNS needs to be configured in resolving host names for cloud internal services, NTP needs to be synchronized and providing accurate time. Triple AAA also needs to be configured using.13:46Local authentication and authorization. Once all of these, once all of that is confirmed, we can move on to connecting to the Meraki tunnel. Before we connect, we just want to double check.14:04That we're on a supported version, we can run a show version to check the version of the switch. We can also run a show Meraki compatibility. As you see both as you can see both the switch skew and version are compatible.14:20So we're ok to move forward here. If we run a show Meraki, we can see that the switch has not been connected to the Meraki cloud. That's because at this point in the process, we haven't run any commands to establish a connection between the switch and the Meraki cloud.14:37Cloud. If we look at the output, there is NO cloud ID, which we need to claim the switch and dashboard. I just wanted to show you this so we can see the change in the output after we complete the next step.14:57To establish the tunnel with the cloud, we run a service Meraki Connect. Small note, if you have one of the newer supported smart switches, you might see the command service cloud management connect instead, and it's the same as running a service Meraki Connect.15:19If you'd like to see the tunnel come up, you can run turn on before running service Meraki Connect. After we run the command, you can run a show meraki connect to see the tunnel status in the cloud ID.15:36After the tunnels come up, let's take another look at the output of the show Meraki.15:51After we establish the tunnel, we now see some new information including the cloud ID, migration status and mode. At this point we have a switch that is connected to the Meraki cloud. No configuration has been pushed yet because we haven't claimed or added the device to the network from the dashboard. Let's take a look at how we do that.16:07From our show Meraki, we know our cloud ID and we know the tunnel is up. There are a few places you could start the process of adding your switch, in the dashboard. Probably the most direct way is to just go to the network where you want to add, where you'd like to add your switch and go to switch it.16:31The switches page and dashboard and click add switch. If you have per device licensing, you will see an option to claim individual devices. If you have subscription licensing, you'll see a claim devices button, then an option to claim individual devices.16:48Either way, when you click on claim individual devices, you'll see the pop up window on the left. Here you enter the cloud ID of the switch and click claim device. This brings your device into inventory. This point dashboard knows that your organization has claimed the switch, but we.17:04I'm assigned it to a network yet or anything like that.17:24To do this, we would select the switch from the inventory page and click add to network. This will bring up the window on the right where you select cloud configuration and click save. Because we've selected cloud mode, the factory process will start and the switch will pull down the new config from dashboard.17:28If you're not ready to push the config to your switch right away, what you could do is take note of your cloud ID, run a NO service meraki connect, and that will break the tunnel between the switch and the cloud. Then you would go back to the dashboard and claim your device.17:49And when you're ready for the switch to pull down its new config, you would go back to the switch and run a service connect again to reestablish that tunnel. So just to recap that process it's a little confusing. You don't want to push the config right away.18:09Service meraki connect on the switch, copy your cloud ID, then NO service meraki connect on the switch to break the tunnel, go to dashboard and claim and add your device. Set up your configuration dashboard if you wanna, you know, kind of pre configure some of the ports or.18:24Anything, and then go back to the switch and run the service Meraki Connect again, and that will establish your tunnel and start to, and the dashboard will start to push your config to the switch.18:43Once we've added the switch to the network, we can see it in dashboard with configuration source cloud. All right. Admittedly a lot of the, this next couple slides are gonna look very familiar, so we'll move through the device.19:03Mode kind of quickly. The prerequisites are mostly the same. The big difference here is the need for user privileges. We need a device onboarding user account with privilege 15 access on the switch.19:20So that we can push the config, the compatibility check is exactly the same, nothing new here. The show Meraki is the same.19:39Nothing new there either. We follow the exact same steps to establish the tunnel and check the status and after we establish the tunnel, we'll see the cloud ID migration status.19:55Mode change just like we did for cloud mode.20:15Oh Claiming and adding the device to the network is where things will look a little different. We also we follow the same process to claim the device. We enter the cloud ID of the switch in the box on the left, just like we did.20:18For cloud mode, this will bring the device into inventory. At this point dashboard knows that your organization has claimed the switch, but we haven't assigned the switch to a network yet. This we would select the switch from the inventory page and click add to network.20:35This is where we select device configuration for the device mode and click next. Because we selected device configuration, we need to enter the username and password we talked about so that we can make the necessary config changes to the switch. Clicking next will start the process of dashboard pushing.20:51That EM script to the switch, allowing the switch to send information back to the Meraki cloud.21:11And then once we have added the switch to the network, we can see it in dashboard with configuration source device. Now I'm gonna hand it over to Max, who's gonna take over and show us a demo.21:21And cover the cloud management features. Alright, thank you. Thank you, James. So let me just share my screen really quick.21:38I think there's one. Nope.22:05Technical issues sorry about that. What happens from time to time? Let me see. It see if it works. There you go. Can you see my screen?22:18Yep, looks good. Awesome. Thank you. Alright, let's go really quick to the processing here. So basically as Jason described, there are several steps that we need to take care of before we actually integrate catalyst switch to the environment. And the 1st thing that.22:35We will need this to basically make sure that we have the compatibility with this software version and the device into what Meraki can offer. So here I'm just running a show version and run the show Meraki compatibility check. What this does is basically just making sure that the software that we have, the hardware that we have and all the different.22:55Elements are compatible with with the dashboard. So here you can see that we have a compatible version with the show version and the compatibility is showing us that this device is indeed compatible with the Meraki cloud monitoring, so this is exactly what we are trying to see. Now, another quick validation is the.23:15Show communication to the dashboard and.23:35Well, Jason described this a little bit, but for this to work, there are some basic requirements that we need to make sure that we're in place like e.g. ensuring the communication to the global VRF and the domain name lookup configuration for solutions so as you can see, I'm pinging here the the domain, the dashboard.com domain and since we have the configuration.23:38We are able to translate that domain into an IP address that we can ping. It's successful, so we have reachability there and of course with whenever we're working with any network elements or any any network devices, it's very important to always make sure that our clocks are synced. So this is why we're running the show clock commanding.23:59To just to make sure that everything is ok. Now, now that we are sure that we have everything prep and ready, we have the compatibility, we have the dashboard reachability and the clocks are synchronized. This is where we need to run a couple of commands in terminal mode.24:18Yeah that we're running here is the service Meraki Connect command, this is the command that will establish the tunnel between the switch and the Meraki dashboard and it will basically register the switch into into that dashboard. So in essence, what it will do is.24:37Grab the serial number from the device, translate that into the cloud ID that we can use, and then just go up directly into or show directly all the configurations in here. So once we run the command of service Meraki connect, it will show us that the service connect is enabled, so that means that we have a engaged or established the communications, and by running the do.24:57Show Meraki connect. We are making sure that everything is enabled for here. So as you can see the service connects enabled, we are seeing some status over the configuration that we have enabled from this switch to the dashboard and we have several information. Now, a specific session on this in the same command is the Meraki device.25:17Registration, sorry, where we are able to find the serial numbers from the actual catalyst switch and the cloud ID that we want to bring into, into the dashboard. So this is all that we need to start you know integrating this into Meraki.25:38Okay, so what do we need to do in here it is something very basic, very quick and very simple. We need to have that clarity that we covered from the previous screen into, into the dashboard and we can either go in here and click on the admin switch or we can go into the organization.25:53And just going to the inventory and try to claim a new device here and add new devices or we have to do is click here on the claim devices, as you can see, and this is where you will have to type in the cloud ID.26:13So here we type the cloud ID, we can see that the cloud A has been identified and we are seeing that the switch has been identified with the correct model and it's working now. Now, once we have a device claimed into the network, then we need to basically bring select what kind of source we want to use with this switch. We can either.26:24Basically as Jason explained, we can either use cloud configuration mode or device configuration mode and depending on the model that you selected, it will basically be or the different process that we need to follow. So for this example, we're gonna use the device configuration mode. But just so you know, if you choose the configuration source cloud.26:46The switch must be factory defaulted for this process to work. So, this is a disruptive process. It will reload the the switch into a cloud configuration mode compatible device and all the configuration will be synchronized directly from the cloud. But as you choose the, the device configuration source, you are basically retaining.27:06You know your current configuration, but you're just simplifying the way that we enter the local switch credentials and and and you know the the actual configuration from the device. So here we're gonna select device configurations 1st. All we have to do is type in the username, the password, and if we have an enabled password enabled, we can also type that.27:26Information in here and accept the terms and condition. It's important we provide a level 15 configuration access credentials because this is the way that we are handled the communication, the configuration from this device. We are pulling everything from your configuration so it's very, very critical and important that we have this level of configuration enabled for those credentials. But once we.27:46Set up everything, we can just click here on save and as you can see, we don't have we NO longer have my device in here so we can just go here into the switching and just click on the switches and we'll be able to see the new devices that that we integrated.28:06If you were to select the cloud configuration source, the process is very similar with the main difference that you will see a warning message highlighting that the process will basically wipe the switch configuration in order to claim it. There will be a script that will be run remotely into the switch and you will lose.28:22CLI access to to that device so NO longer you will have CLI access, but after a couple of minutes which will be manageable through the the dashboard, so you have like a clean switching here where you can manage and start configuring everything.28:39And, there you go, that's it. That's, that's that's what I was trying to show today in this demo. Let me just switch back into the presentation. What is it? There you go.28:53Oops, did jump and see if we can jump. There you go. So hopefully you should be seeing now, there was new an improvement on everything. Nope, that's not the one that I want to show you. Sorry about that.29:10The features, that's the other one that I want to show. All right. So what happens when once you have integrated your catalyst switch into the Meraki? You have now new ways to see and and Meraki will provide you real time visibility over those switch components and poor health and everything. It will use AI driven insights to help.29:27You practically identified any issues that you have in that particular switch and even before they impact your users that's an important process that you have.29:47So it's, it's a very cool thing that you will start seeing here on, on your Meraki dashboard you will have, you know, your CLI access you have every all all the information, all the different type of elements of your hardware, you will be able to see that information directly in here.29:57Alright, now for clear CLI access for the cloud environment, this is actually a game changer because it's an embedded cloud hosted terminal that will allow you to run your already known familiar CLI commands directly from the dashboard without needing a VPN or a jump host that you to load.30:14Log into those devices. As long as you have access to the browser, you'll be able to log into your Meraki dashboard and you can run any of your CLI commands that you want. There might be some warnings at the beginning that you will see whenever you are logging into the terminal where it's basically just asking you to confirm the, the credentials in order to log into the device, but anything that you will perform.30:34On that device from from there on from that moment and all the way to to you know to anything that you start implementing into the switch will already embed those credentials so so it's been inherited by the configuration.30:54Alright, another, another interesting thing that we have enabled in, in your switch here in Meraki is that you will have now, the dashboard is actually taking snapshots of your configuration changes. So anything that you performing that switch will basically.31:10Be snapshot in in in the in the Meraki dashboard, so you'll be able to start comparing different versions, you'll be able to identify any grief that that actually also allows you to troubleshoot much faster, you know, being able to or being.31:27Having the option to be able to start seeing whenever there are any configuration changes. You'll even be able to compare you know your configurations starting your devices, but they are now being backed up in the cloud, so you NO longer have to you know have a local configuration backup for everything you you have everything here on the cloud.31:44Those configuration will be available for downloading and we have plans and I've seen some features that has been already enabled where you can start options based on the backup configuration versions. You can even see there are some options now where you can roll back the old configurations if something happens with the with the configuration.32:04That you have enabled in that switch, and it's a very very interesting feature that we have right now enabled in your dashboard.32:23And I guess it's done for a team again, so let me just really change really quick again to my dashboard. You here we have a list of all the devices that I have in my in my inventory right now for this particular network. As you can see, we were able to see, you know, the cloud ID, we can see the configuration source. You can, you can modify this view too.32:30Total your needs, right? All you have to do is click here on this on the settings and you can create, you know, your own column settings for for the the visibility that you have here, you can enable how many parts you want to see, if there are any alerts you can enable to see here I have the configuration source, so I can see the configuration source and model, and you have all that visibility for you enable.32:50If I click on those switches, I have already clicked on those, you'll be able to see here, e.g., this is a 9300 switch that is running right now on configuration cloud source.33:11So from here you will be able to see, whenever this is, this switch is placed, you'll be able to see the serial number from the actual devices, the catalyst serial number and the cloud of the serial number that you're using to use this device in the Meraki dashboard. The device uptime, here you can see the how how much time has been enabled, how much of this switch has been.33:23Working on, when was the last boot that we seen and you know any any other type of configuration change anything. If the configuration is up to date, you'll be able to see that from here if the running conflict is different from the start of conflict, there will be some warnings in here showing you that there's some changes. Since this is a cloud switch, this basically will always stay as, you know, the.33:42But you can push configurations and you know given the the way that the Meraki dashboard works, the configuration will be pushed almost immediately, but it takes some time sometimes to to basically have that being reflected into the dashboard and that's where you will see any any changes in here, but usually something very, very fast.34:03Alright, you'll also be able to see the framework of the hardware that you have installed. Right now I'm working on a 1718 to twelve. If we have enabled or you know push any upgrade to the device, you'll see the status in here and you can even see, you know, whenever there's there's something missing or where when was the last upgrade from this particular device?34:22Information or kitting information that this is again right in the middle column that we have in here because we have the three columns and this is the one that where we have all the summarized information. You'll be able to see the lamp IP address. So this is the local IP address, you'll be able to see the public IP address, any gateways that we're using and all the DNS that we had come through.34:4240 device and even the interface that we're using to basically reach out to to anything that that we have on the Meraki dashboard itself.35:01If you have IPVC configured, you'll also be able to see that information here. We also have some RSTP configurations, so you'll be able to see what kind of configuration you're using for spanning tree. Right now we have the multiple spanning tree configuration mode enabled. If layer three routing is enabled, you'll also be able to see that that configuration. So it's basically a very, very.35:08Quick summary of everything that we have. You want to check the uplinks, you can just run a very quick check on this and you'll be able to to basically validate that nothing is is failing for those openings is a basically a cable configuration check.35:28All the we're using if the switch is part of a stack because it's also important to to notice that we support stacks and the switch can be part of a stack and you'll be able to see all the members of that stacking here. And even if you want to customize this a little bit deeper, you can select tax or you can even place your own notes in order to, you know, for every every network.35:43Admin to be able to read that information for everyone.36:03Now you have a visibility of all the the windows that we have in here, all the different ports, and you can even go and change the configuration directly from here. If you click on the port, you'll be able to change click click here on edit and you can enable or disable the port. You can change if it's a router port, you can change the name. This is the description of the port. You can enable new VLANs.36:06If you want to change this trunk link to an access link, you can just change here and enable the actual VLAN that you're using for that. If you want to select new vlans, like e.g. the voice one, you'll be able to just do that in queue two. So you have all the options and settings ready.36:26Yeah, now the important thing that I that I want to show you is the cloud CLI. So before I click on the launch terminal and and see the different type of commands or the visibility that you will see from a cloud CLI terminal, you also it's important to notice that you have a session history here that where you basically.36:42Are able to compare anything that you have for the the in this switch. All the different configuration change that we have applied here are you'll be able to to find them here that these are stored on the, on the cloud. You can even download the session log for that session and even compare this to to older versions, so here we have you know the the elementation.37:01With all the different type of changes. You can even automate show commands like e.g. you want to run, I don't know, show pin neighbors, you can just click on here to run the command and it will run directly for you. So you don't have to, you know, search for for commands or login to device and everything. We have like a preset options of different commands that you can.37:21Can run for everything different needs that you want to use.37:41Right, if this e.g. BGP I'm just running the command in here, then it will show me all the different have BGP enabled, I'm not seeing any kind of conflict. All right. So if I click on the launch terminal really quick, I'll be able to see here this establishing the connection. It's inheriting the credential that I enabled.37:45So right now, since this is a lab demo that I have for, for my customers, I am not using any exit credentials, but basically anything that I need to run in here, I can just type in the configurations and it will start running that for for us. And you have access to all that. Keep in mind that the configuration that you're running from here is not mask. It's a.38:04So any sensitive information that you have for this one for this particular device will be shown directly link here. Oops, sorry.38:24But I mean, it's a good option that you have if you want to run any sort of command and and for those that want to to give access to the CLI for anything that you need, you, you have that visibility and access here. Even if you just click on the detach, you have a specific windows only with the intended purposes only.38:31Having access that to the CLI. All right. Now catalyst center does offer some more visibility over the device health. Here, e.g., this is the actual hardware health, so I'm pulling some statistics from from the power supply that I connected.38:49Since this is a stack, I can I am able to see the stack power cables and the status, so you can see that we have, you know, all the overall status of the of the stack, how much power is being used and the budget power that I have, you know, the consume power and budget power. If my links are providing usage for power over internet, you'll be able to see all the links that are providing.39:06Adding that the statistics of those links. If you have enabled routing for this device, he's pulling a MAC address for Mac for one table for us. We have the ARP table also. We have the routing table for us too, and and you'll be able to just view and validate all those settings directly from the, from the dashboard.39:26Of course, if you want to apply to any configurations, you can just modify those configurations directly from the, from the settings, but this is only like the intended way is to review anything that has been changed here.39:46Something important to mention, I did mention that we had the even log, but something important to mention is that even if you make any changes from the CLI access into the switch, you'll be able to see a log with all those changes directly from here. And this is stored directly into the into the switch configuration, but you also have visibility here in the organizations.39:57Specific option to see all the different changes that you have applying, the change login here that you have applying to your network and you'll be able to see those changes directly in that too.40:17Okay, so here you'll be able to see who logged into the device, what kind of changes they made and stuff like that. Alright, so this is a switch and we're providing, you know, con configurations and connectivity to all the devices in the network. We have the GCP table too, so I can be I'm able to see whenever they are using any type of and what kind of IP addresses are being.40:28To the devices that are connecting there. I have a table in here with all the leases. So e.g., this, this user logging into my network, he's connected to the VLAN ten and the the IP address they have will experience in about 2 h so you have access to that information too from here.40:49Right, so you NO longer need to to check that from anyone else. You can upload your maps too, so here I'm uploading my maps and you can see have visibility over your maps and here I can see my switches, where they are located and what kind of services they provide. This is important also when you're using, you know, you can upload a folder to see it's like the rack view of of where.41:04This is installed and and all the different descriptions or you you want to see a topology view, you can just click and it will directly jump into CDP and and LDP configuration values and neighbors and you'll be able to see whenever there's something connected directly into those switches.41:23And lastly, the tools that we have for this, you have here again all the different tools that you might need for this switch in order to run in on their cloud environment and you have, again, you also have your terminal enabled here. You can ping any device that you want. Without having to log into the terminal, you can make any type of pings and tests from directly from.41:41Here. If you want to run any CLI commands or you want to run, you know, your STP CLI commands or fabric CLI commands, you can just run them directly from here and you'll be able to see all the different results that we have.42:02So you can even select like specific ports and anything. If you have the configuration globally, you can just run that and it will show you all the details. And it's being run directly from the switch. For those that manage the device and want to locate that under racks, you can just link the letter of the switches so you'll be able to identify which switches that.42:14That's why the here under location there's some photo option where you can just, you know, add a photo with all the description everything that you need from any network admin to be able to locate and identify it and see whatever is needed for that switch. Anything that you think is relevant. Dashboard throughputs, you can also, you know, just click here and then just run some tests over the dashboard to see.42:34If there's some latency or anything that needs to be reported back, trace route and everything that we have, all, all of those tools are enabled directly from the the dashboard for you to be accessible here very quickly.42:54And this is the cloud source. If we change into the device source oops. We have some very similar visibility. Again, we have all the options that are for management purposes. We'll be able to see the clients that are connected and, you know, use such and statistics over the connectivity. You will also be able to find and identify the ports and you can.43:07Can even change and modify whatever is needed from here directly from the from the console. You also have the CLI client access to to the device. You can also just jump into the terminal and run whatever command you want to run. So that's also part of the global config that you have in here. But there are some changes like here, e.g., device.43:27Fields is also providing statistics. The event lock is also providing all the changes. Location is also showing you, you know, the, the map, the photo and the topology views.43:47The tools, as you can see is very different. You, you have fewer options since this is a device configuration source. There are different options enabled for this switch like you know can only just ping or cycle different ports or even just run the Mac for warning table because everything is being handled directly from the switch, but the management is done directly from the dashboard.43:57So anything that you need to change in in the switch or anything you need to modify it can be just launched from the terminal, but basically all the different tools are part of the embedded tools that the catalyst switch has. Here is a show the configuration history. You can do the comparison to basically validate whenever there are some changes.44:17And if you want to make any, any decisions based on this, you can just move on and address issue those.44:37Right, and yeah, so here under I was sure I did mention that we had the change log for the organization level, so any change that you apply into the configuration, you can just click on the change log for the organization and anything that has been changed organization wide, I mean though.44:45All the devices that are part of the, of the network, you'll be able to find them and allocate them here, including those switches that has been enabled with, with the catalyst integration into, into Meraki.45:04Anyway, ok. So this is going to be very quick. I mean, we have some, some new features that we've been, you know, this is an evolving technology, so this every we've been making changes into into whatever is available for everyone through the dashboard and with every new version that comes with.45:17We are releasing new features and new stuff for everyone. Usually those upgrades or those improvements improvements are basically based on stability and reliability, but we are always trying to expand you know visibility effort and and you know different regionals supports. We now support China, India and Canada.45:37Fully integrated into the Meraki dashboard. The optimization for any upgrade has been enhanced, we have now better, better times for, for those upgrades. We now have the uplink outer configuration. This is.45:58The work I think is called basically will allow you to facilitates the automatic identifications of any uplinks that you have or any interfaces and it basically the idea behind this is that we are trying to eliminate the need of manual configuration for this on that switch. So we are trying to identify if it directly.46:12Into into into the the the catalyst switch.46:32If we move to the 1718 one version, we are, you know, standardizing now the way that we manage the smart ports. We you know when whenever you have a, a repetitive configuration that you have to enable for different ports and different attributes, you are just.46:37Creating profiles that automate the whole process, or even you we have the intelligent capture in here that we basically reduce the time that we spent on doing, you know, packet analysis. Those that are familiar with center will find this option very familiar. This is a kind of kind of the same feature, you have visibility over those features now.46:54We also bringing our device health support to track down statistics and receiving alerts for those devices. We have the digital optical monitoring for real time monitoring of of previous physical and operational parameters for those fiber transceivers that we have installed in the switch and well basically the idea is to provide you with a.47:15You know, insights into your physical infrastructure. So we have new enhanced features for every for every type of environment.47:35Yeah this is what I was mentioning about the work, the all those identifications of different interfaces. We also support now the one spread for VRRP.47:43Support. We have here now ways to enhance the use the database of the configuration that we have in the switch and you know those cloud management EVPN fabrics are now being enhanced for for everything. I know that we're working on different features like e.g. ISSU to you know.47:59The different ways that we can upgrade the configuration over the switches. So, I mean.48:18In in essence, it's we're trying to enable new features for for every changes that we can support in in catalyst center. Again, this is an evolving technology so we'll be seeing new and new features that are being enabled into the configuration and it's important that we noticed that you have access to those directly into your.48:23Dashboard. Those are enabled directly to you since you have already this integration with the the configuration.48:43And that's what I have today. I now will send the ball to Jason so so Jason can can continue with the presentation. Thank you for your time and that's it. Yeah, thank you everybody.48:49The apparently the links aren't showing up there. I don't know what's going on there, but I pasted those over in the chat for those links. Let me see. I'll upload to 1 s, some additional links to the links we talked about. I just have to find them here.49:07Alright, so there should be a PDF uploaded on the content section.49:34If you see that, I'll also paste those in chat. I can go for the PDF there. Okay perfect back to chat.49:40A lot of buttons to press for something so simple. Okay, and some more links in the chat there and then yeah if anyone has any questions you want to i'll pull up the.49:57The Slido questions see if there's anything that hasn't been answered there or if you want to raise your hand, we could go through the list and see if anyone has any questions as well.50:19Let's see, I think it looks like looking at the Slido most of the questions have been answered, but if you have anything else you want, take a, I want to ask just pop it in chat or Slido real quick and we'll we'll get to it.50:30Well, here's one maybe Max you can help me with from Adrian, is there a plan to migrate all of the catalyst center functionality to the cloud or the cloud solution only going to be for catalyst switches? So.50:50Those are kind of two separate questions, I think. I don't think there's gonna be full feature parity between Catalyst Center and the, you know, cloud dashboard. But the I think, you know, definitely moving forward with switches.51:04You'll be able to either use those in catalyst center or the dashboard, and you can also add some s some of the wireless controllers and access points catalyst access points, to.51:20The Meraki dashboard, if you just search like a compatible switches for or compatible access points for Meraki dashboard or compatible WLC for Meraki dashboard, you'll see all that info in there.51:38Yeah, it should pop right out through here. Maybe something related but not entirely directly into the question. But one cool thing that we have between that you all guys have access to is the AI features. So we have an AI assistance that can help.51:54To identify it and export and and you know modify it or even program different type of configurations. Jason shared with me some some settings that has been tested with a customer that are actually working really nice. Actually if you allow me I'll share really quick my screen. Here I open my we have here the the system where.52:14You can just click in here and it will just pop up a new a new window where you can see all the different changes that, that you want to apply or do different chats. This is using natural language, so it's using the Cisco integrated assistance for AI. But the cool thing is that here, e.g., I basically took the switch that I have in here that I was asking to the AI if.52:34He can help me, change the configuration from devices to something more in cloud source without without losing all those access or features. And I asked for the AI to basically start list the step by step instruction for me that that will cover all the different steps that I need to follow in order to fully transition into the.52:54From cloud to from device to cloud and then just basically ask for a checklist that I can use to validate all the different changes. And it basically run it's it was a deep reasoning feature that we have in here but it basically runs a complete check over the configuration that we have for that switch and again just run.53:14All the the different elements that was part of the global conflict that was placed on there. It provided me the steps to start running the conversion and all the different instructions it and as long as you follow those and just type in all the different elements and and save the configuration for that specific switch, you should be able to fully transition to anything that you want.53:34And this is by using those tools that has already been integrated. The validation checklist will provide you different elements that you can just run and keep we have like visibility of over the running config, bill and brief, the interface status, basic configuration that you need to make sure that are in place. You also have post migration validations so you have all the different times that you will spend on those.53:54And, you know, more and more validation has been asked for for this. And this is only for the migration, right? If you want to see like you know one one feature that we have in at the center is like the reports of the devices, we can also run different reports in here and just, you know, ask for different exit values or different reports depending on the type of.54:14Do you want to see I asked for another status of my networks and all the switches that are in in here. So it's providing me all the details for the the net dashboard and everything that that I have. Same happens with the wireless, I want to check my wireless environment, so I just ask for the wireless elements and here it's providing me all the different details and all different.54:34The reason is that I need to follow in order to fully understand and identify. So we have now tools that are fully integrated to into the Meraki and the catalyst configurations. So my suggestion here is to use them as much as you can so you know can identify whenever those features can help you.54:54Make the whole transition easier for you.55:14All right, so James has a question here. I use IBNSB two in interface templates, will the Meraki platform support those configurations? Max, do you have any input on that? I'm not a hundred percent sure. That's something I would have to look into.55:22I think I seen some some of that configurations in version two, you're using a different method. And honestly I don't I don't have the details right now. I might need to double check on that but I mean you I think that you already went went from version two to version two, so you should be able to.55:43To see more more more of those details and you understand more about those features that are enabled for those interfaces. I may need to to double check if there's any.56:03Full support over those IBNS version two settings actually doing that right now. All right. All right, previously had to upgrade all network switches within a site. Is there a way to schedule for a.56:13For upgrades for individual switches once we have moved. Yes, so.56:32You can definitely schedule an individual switch if it's in cloud mode. So configuration source cloud, you can select a single switched upgrade for sure.56:37Oh. Not currently with device configuration mode, you can't do any upgrades with the device configuration mode right now. I, you know, I know it's something that's on the roadmap, but for some point to be able to do that.56:58I just don't have the details on when that'll be. I hopefully the end of this calendar year, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.57:16Taking a look here, see anyone else have questions?57:35Check I don't see any raised hands, I don't think. So I actually found some information about James question. What I've seen is that under device source mode, it's fully supported, but if you are changing to cloud service mode, then there will be some issues with the, with the configuration with while using a BNS too.57:51Okay, this is an evolving technology so probably it doesn't take too much time for the, the BU to actually enable those features in cloud source too.58:11Well, it looks like we have one hand raised I'll mute you here. Oh, it went away. Hold on. I got it. Thanks Jason. So is there any trick as far as when you're converting.58:30Stacks to the dashboard. We've had several stacks that just won't come online as a stack, we have to actually break the stack and just leave them on the dashboard as individual switches.58:49So you're asking what would be the process to to ring the stacks? Are we talking about device source or the cloud source?59:10Are we talking about what? Device configuration source or cloud configuration? Cloud source, outsource. I don't know if there was a special trick that we're missing. Okay since since you are basically.59:18Converting all your switches into a Meraki environment framework, you do need to break those stacks in order to migrate them and then form the stacks through directly from the Meraki dashboard.59:35Okay, yeah, there's a few stack questions here so I'm gonna take note of that and try to find whatever information I can.59:51You can get back to everyone that I asked about that.01:00:08Nope, sorry. Can anybody hear me? Yep. Alright, my Webex is freezing up. I think it's a problem my computer, but yeah, so I'll try to answer some of those stack questions or to look up that information for everyone.01:00:23Oh, it does look that.01:01:02Jason is having issue with the works.01:01:08Yeah, I can hear but I can't move anything.01:01:29So I see my a question here from Brush.01:02:12Okay let me just open this one.01:02:17Okay, so for rush question he he did say that I want to migrate to cat 9500 stack in standalone mode. And I am being cautious to go into fully cloud mode.01:03:02So there are data center switches, what is your recommendation? Cloud advise mode into the Meraki dashboard? That is an injury question and I want to be honest. Because you are trying to migrate stacks that doesn't that I mean, you did mention stacks, so that basically means that you have.01:03:21Not why it's enabled in the configurations and that is currently not fully supported in into the Meraki environment. We know that there are some releases on the roadmap that will support that configuration, but we don't have a specific date over when those will be enabled. And probably right now your best choices if you're.01:03:41Really want to migrate something will be the device source, but again we recommend that you holding for for at least for a while.01:04:01Yeah Once we have the correct firmware, you can just, you know, upgrade them in there and then you can just do the the migration to device host mode, which I think will be a little bit more transparent for you under that migration and just.01:04:12Stick with the the since it's also critical switches and they have more, you know, I'm assuming that they have more advanced configuration than the one that the cloud service offers, then probably the device source will be the best the best and the correct path for, for you.01:04:31But for now just wait for the new release.01:04:47Oh, I'm back here. Let me check. I don't see any other hands up.01:05:06Oh, and I'm not sure if anyone heard me before. I'll check on the, the stack stuff and see if I can get some.01:05:25Oh, in either the Slido or the chat here. Alright, well.01:05:43Yes, if there's nothing else, we will hop off and just want to say thank everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone for joining us today and, you know, hopefully you know reach out to your account teams if you have any questions or.01:06:01You know, any want to know more information about moving your catalyst devices to the cloud. And thanks again.01:06:17