Understand Cisco Meraki Cloud Networking Concepts

0:00The cloud really did change everything.

0:03It really changed the way that IT administrators and software

0:07developers worked.

0:08And networks, network engineers were not

0:11immune to that change at all.

0:13One of the most disruptive technologies

0:15to come out of the advent of the cloud was the Meraki.

0:19Line of products.

0:20The Meraki line of products are so incredibly

0:23fascinating and powerful because they're

0:26so incredibly simple to use.

0:29Typically, software defined networks and controllers

0:32were designed and relegated to the data center.

0:35But all of a sudden Meraki storms the scene,

0:38and now we have the ability to control entire networks

0:41across the entire world from one single login with just

0:45a few points and clicks.

0:46So this entire skill is to introduce to you

0:49what the concepts of cloud networking really mean

0:53and how the Cisco Meraki line of products

0:55really can benefit small to medium sized businesses.

0:59We'll talk about how they're laid out,

1:01how they're structured with organizations and networks,

1:03and then the basic steps to getting

1:05started building out your Cisco Meraki infrastructure.

1:08So lets get going.

0:00So the first thing that might stand out to you about Cisco

0:02Meraki is the name, Meraki.

0:04That doesn't sound like a Cisco platform.

0:07That doesn't sound like Cisco came up with that on their own,

0:10right?

0:11Well, the old adage, if you can't beat them, join them--

0:14Cisco's is, if you can't beat them, buy them.

0:17And when it comes to the software-defined networking

0:19realm, Cisco is making it a point

0:22that every platform that they offer

0:25has some form of network automation,

0:28programmability, and software-defined controller

0:31to manage the platform.

0:32Cisco Meraki was one of the first entrances for Cisco

0:36into this space.

0:37They purchased Meraki specifically for the reason

0:41that it gave their small to medium-size business portfolio

0:45where they could offer products to small to medium-size

0:47businesses a huge shot in the arm

0:50so that they could get software-defined controllers

0:54and software-defined networking into that space.

0:56Meraki does it better than anybody else.

0:58And what I'm going to do now is I'm

1:00going to show you how it works.

1:02Let's go.

1:02Cisco offers an online lab environment

1:06for every single one of their platforms.

1:08You'll find it right here, coming up on the screen,

1:10at devnetsandbox.cisco.com.

1:13You can register for a free account right there,

1:16and you have access to every single thing

1:19they have in their catalog that you can lab right now

1:23over the public internet.

1:24Meraki is not an exception to the rule.

1:27If you actually log into devnetsandbox.cisco.com,

1:29it'll take you to the lab catalog.

1:32And if you scroll down to the Ms--

1:34it's all in alphabetical order here--

1:36you'll get to Meraki.

1:37And what you'll see here is you'll

1:39see three instances of Meraki that we can interact with.

1:43One of these is always on, meaning

1:45it's always completely accessible to

1:48the public internet right now.

1:50Now the others, these are ones that you can reserve.

1:53It will spin up a private environment for you

1:55for the duration that you choose and then email you credentials

1:59on how to access that environment.

2:01But for now, we can accomplish just

2:02about everything we want to do using

2:04the Meraki Always On sandbox.

2:07So I'll click on the Always On sandbox,

2:09and this will be your first taste of how Meraki works.

2:13From here, you can scroll down and you

2:15see these access details.

2:16There's this link called Always On Read Only,

2:19we'll open that in a new tab.

2:20And these are the credentials to get logged in right here,

2:24devnetmeraki@cisco.com and the password is ilovemeraki.

2:28So from the dashboard login, I'll

2:30type devnetmeraki@cisco.com, and it will automatically

2:35change to this single sign-on but that doesn't work here.

2:39You'll want to do log in to personal account,

2:41and type in the password of ilovemeraki.

2:45And just like that, you're logged in.

2:46And like I said I was going to promise, here's how this works.

2:50Whenever I plug in a Meraki device--

2:53maybe it's a firewall or a switch or a wireless access

2:58point--

2:59as long as this device has internet connectivity,

3:02it will communicate over the internet to the Meraki cloud,

3:08and this is what we're logged into right now.

3:11We're logged into the Meraki cloud.

3:14So when we issue commands on the Meraki cloud

3:16like configuration changes, it will push down

3:19to all of these network devices.

3:21So the moment you plug in one of these network devices,

3:23even for the first time, they're reporting into the Meraki cloud

3:27to get their configurations.

3:29Now, before I go on any further on that,

3:31because we will go deeper into this,

3:33what we need to talk about now is, what kinds of Meraki

3:36devices can we purchase and manage from the cloud?

3:40So I'll clear the screen and we'll

3:42minimize this for one second, and here's

3:44what we're working with.

3:45We are working with the Cisco Meraki platform.

3:49And this particular playlist is all about the MX security

3:52appliances.

3:53The firewall appliances provide some

3:55of the most robust configuration for a security appliance

3:58I've ever seen at their price point.

4:00Meraki really got their name, though,

4:03with the MR wireless access points.

4:06They were first and foremost a wireless management company.

4:09The idea was, like most traditional wireless LAN

4:12controllers, you can manage a large, complex, wireless

4:15infrastructure from one single pane of glass,

4:18from one single log-in, and Meraki

4:20wanted to be able to do that from

4:21a cloud-based infrastructure.

4:23But then they tacked onto it with more and more devices

4:26like the MS series switches and then, eventually,

4:29the MX security appliances with the very robust

4:32advanced security features.

4:33Now, skipping one, they also have phones and cameras

4:37that are just as robust as anything else you would expect.

4:39The phones are pretty fancy.

4:41You can kind of see here, it's just one gigantic screen rather

4:44than a whole bunch of buttons.

4:46And then they have a mobile device manager

4:48as a separate license that is pretty fantastic too.

4:51So you can onboard iOS and Android devices

4:55to your mobile device management and manage all of your devices

4:58that are roaming or on the road from the Meraki cloud platform

5:01yet again.

5:02Again, what I'm here to talk to you about today

5:04is the MX security appliances throughout this playlist

5:07because there's a lot of fantastic capabilities

5:10that are involved with this.

5:11Outside of basic firewall rules, we also

5:14have something like layer 7 firewall rules

5:17which include things like geo-filtering and

5:19application-specific rules or URL-specific rules.

5:23We have things like AMP, which is advanced malware policies

5:27and protections.

5:28We have intrusion detection and prevention, content filtering

5:32and amazing monitoring and dashboarding capabilities.

5:36You'll even see how incredibly easy

5:38it is to configure VPNs throughout this playlist.

5:40But the idea that I want to drill home

5:42with this particular Nugget is that we

5:44have these different series devices--

5:45the MR, the MS, the MX, the MC, and the MV--

5:50all of which you just plug them in,

5:52and they instantly report back to the cloud controller.

5:56Do you see over here now what I'm talking about?

5:58We have the security and SD-WAN.

6:00This is where we can manage our firewall.

6:02The switch and switching infrastructure,

6:04the wireless infrastructure, all of these

6:06are now managed based on these little tabs that

6:08are over here on the left-hand side for our entire network.

6:12It's really fascinating.

6:13So this has been setting up the Cisco Meraki platform.

6:17The next steps are how you get started with Cisco Meraki.

6:21I'm really excited about this.

6:23I hope you are too.

6:24But in the meantime, that's been the offerings in Cisco Meraki.

6:27I hope this has been informative for you,

6:29and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00The next major concept that we have

0:01to understand before we deploy a Cisco Meraki infrastructure

0:05is the concept of organizations and networks.

0:09When you first purchased your Cisco Meraki device,

0:12you're going to create an account

0:13online at dashboard.meraki.com.

0:18This is where you will log in every single time

0:21to the Meraki platform and manage your devices.

0:24And immediately out of the gate, you're

0:26going to have to set something up called an organization.

0:28The organization is exactly what you think it is.

0:31It's your company.

0:33But you're kind of confronted with a decision.

0:36How do you want to manage this organization?

0:39Are you just one company?

0:40Are you ACME, Incorporated?

0:44Or are you a managed service provider, or an MSP?

0:48This is an IT consulting company where they are effectively

0:52the IT arm of all of their clients.

0:55So if I'm Knox's IT, and I have dozens and dozens of clients,

1:00I'll opt to go the MSP route, and that way I

1:03can set up sub-organizations for all of my clients.

1:07Most organizations that are signing up with Meraki

1:10are an individual standalone organization.

1:12They'll define who the organization is

1:15and who the organization administrators are,

1:17and then from there, they will set up their networks.

1:20Now we'll talk about networks a little bit more in a second.

1:22But I just wanted you to know that if you're

1:24coming from the consulting side, if you're a managed service

1:27provider, you do have the option of setting up as an MSP,

1:31where you can then set up your clients each

1:34as individual organizations from there.

1:36And then each of your clients will

1:38have their own set of networks from that point too.

1:40When we explore the DevNet sandbox and the demos

1:43that I'm going to be doing along this playlist,

1:46we're going to see things as the first option,

1:48as if we are one organization right here.

1:50You can see the organization section.

1:52So at dashboardmeraki.com, after the account has been created,

1:56we'll be an organization admin, and we'll

1:58have the ability to set up our organization from here.

2:02If I had set up as a managed service provider,

2:04I'll have the option to change my organization

2:08to be any of my clients right above the network

2:10section on this tab.

2:12But moving forward, we will say we are ACME,

2:14Inc. There's only going to be one organization,

2:18and within that organization, we're

2:19going to have multiple networks.

2:21Now that's a big thing to talk about is networks.

2:24When I talk about networks, what do I mean in Meraki's terms?

2:29It's not what you're thinking.

2:30You may be thinking these are subnets and VLANs.

2:33That's not what Meraki means.

2:35When Meraki means networks, they mean sites.

2:39So if ACME, Inc. was located in, let's say New Orleans,

2:43Louisiana, but within the city of New Orleans,

2:47we actually had four locations, each of those four locations

2:52would be a network.

2:54Within those locations, we can set up things

2:57like addressing in VLANs, individual policies like QoS,

3:02and individual content filtering rules.

3:04All of these can be applied at the location-specific

3:08configuration item or the network.

3:10So the big takeaway here is first of all,

3:12to know what kind of organization are you?

3:15Are you an individual organization?

3:17Or are you going to be a managed service provider, a consulting

3:20firm that has multiple organizations?

3:22And then from there, note that networks is not

3:25individual VLANs and subnets, networks actually

3:28represent your remote sites and locations.

3:30That is very important to understand.

3:33So check it out.

3:34Back here on the DevNet sandbox, if I actually

3:37click the little dropdown here, you

3:38can see all of the different networks that

3:41belong to this organization.

3:42There's a bunch of them that have been created.

3:44And in fact, I'll click the View All Network section

3:47just so that you can graphically see what they're talking about.

3:50Let's zoom out a little bit.

3:51It gives you a global map where you

3:53could see where these networks are physically located.

3:56You can also see the list of networks right here.

3:59So you create your account, you set up an organization,

4:01and then from there, the first thing

4:03you're going to actually need to do is create networks.

4:06To do that, under the organization section,

4:08now this account doesn't have privileges.

4:10But there would be a section right here under organization,

4:14and then configure where you can add your network.

4:16You'd simply give it a name and an address,

4:18and then you have your network setup,

4:21ready to go, and be configured.

4:23So the key thing that we're trying to drive home today

4:25is understand what an organization is.

4:27That's your company or any of your clients, if you're an MSP,

4:31and then your networks which represent your sites

4:35or branches.

4:36From within those sites or branches,

4:37we'll be able to configure VLAN subnets and policies later,

4:40and that's what this playlist is all about.

4:42So again, I'd really encourage you

4:44to jump into that DevNet sandbox and understand

4:47how the organization and network layout works.

4:49But in the meantime, that's been organizations and networks.

4:52I hope this has been informative for you,

4:53and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00When you purchase a Cisco Meraki device,

0:02you will get an email from your vendor that

0:05will contain a couple things that

0:07are going to be very useful to you,

0:09because you don't have to physically have your Meraki

0:12firewall in hand to start configuring.

0:15You can create a dashboard account now,

0:17create your organization, create your network,

0:20and then start configuring your network,

0:22so that all you have to do is simply plug in your firewall

0:27into the internet, and it will connect to the dashboard

0:30and automatically download all of the configs

0:33that you've already created.

0:35Fascinating, right?

0:36It's a great way to get up and running.

0:38But how does this firewall know to get the configs

0:41that you've created?

0:42Well, that's what adding devices to your network is all about.

0:45We'll simply tell them Meraki dashboard, hey,

0:47I've purchased this device.

0:49Here's the serial number.

0:50When it checks in, it belongs to me,

0:53and give it this configuration.

0:54Here's how we go about doing that.

0:56You purchase your device.

0:57You'll get an email that contains a purchase order

1:00number or a serial number.

1:02So we've created our organization, that's step one.

1:05Then, we've created the network, that's step two.

1:08Now, we need to add devices to this network.

1:11So to do that, what I'm going to do

1:12is we're going to go to Network-Wide

1:14and then under Configuration, we're going to add devices.

1:17So Network-Wide right here, I'll click Add Devices.

1:21And the first thing it does is it shows you

1:23what your current inventory looks

1:24like on this entire network.

1:26As you see, we've got a lot of devices here,

1:28and you can see they've just applied the serial number.

1:31So how do we add more devices to this?

1:34All we have to do is click the Claim button,

1:36and it says enter one or more serial number or order

1:39numbers right here one per row.

1:41So if I did ABCD 1234 WXYZ, I could click the Claim button,

1:48and it will automatically validate

1:50that that's a valid serial number

1:51and add it to this network.

1:53In this case, when you get the Meraki MX64 device

1:56you're going to get an email first

1:58that lets you know what the serial number of this device is

2:01or the purchase order number.

2:02You can create your organization, network,

2:05and then add that firewall to the network.

2:07At that point, you're ready to rock and roll.

2:09You can configure all of these things,

2:11so that when that device finally arrives

2:13at its final destination, you can plug it into the internet.

2:15It'll download all the configs that you've already done,

2:18and that device will be provisioned

2:19and automatically working, because it

2:21checked into the Meraki cloud.

2:22So that's all there is to adding devices to your network.

2:26I hope this has been informative for you,

2:27and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00OK.

0:00We've got an organization, we've got a network,

0:03and we've added our firewall device to this network.

0:06What do we do now?

0:08What I think we do next is we go through some basic network-wide

0:11configurations and make sure our entire network

0:13has some base configurations set up the way we like.

0:16To do that from the Meraki dashboard, yet again,

0:19we'll start with the network-wide section.

0:21And these tabs are typically broken down

0:23into a monitor section where you can get some reports

0:25or dashboards, and a configure section where

0:28we can configure the item that we're talking about,

0:30in this case, network-wide.

0:31So what I'm going to draw your attention to in this Nugget

0:34is the first two items, general and administration.

0:36Let's start with administration because it's

0:38the smaller and easier one.

0:39Well, this is where we can set up

0:41who is allowed to administer this network.

0:43We have organization-wide admins, meaning they can view

0:46and, a lot of times, configure most

0:48of the entire organization.

0:50Any network underneath it falls within their window.

0:52But you'll see right off the bat,

0:54the privileges are broken down into full or read-only.

0:57For instance, our account that we're

0:59using in the DevNet sandbox--

1:00right here, DevNet Meraki, Do Not Edit--

1:02is a read-only account.

1:04That's why we don't actually have

1:06the ability to create new networks, even

1:09under the organization tab.

1:10Even though we're organization admins,

1:12we can only read the organization level configs.

1:15We can't actually set the organization level configs.

1:18But if we scroll down, we'll also

1:19see there are network specific level admins.

1:22So someone could be a read-only organization admin

1:26and then have the ability to write or edit a network admin.

1:30We may also have a site admin where

1:32we don't want them to have access to the organization

1:34at all, but they can log in and have access

1:37to only their network and set things

1:39on the network that are relevant to them and their site.

1:41So administration is where we set up

1:42what users are allowed to do what

1:44within our organization or our network.

1:47Now the network configurations themselves--

1:49we'll go back to network-wide and jump

1:51to the general configure section,

1:52and we'll see a lot more options.

1:54They're categorized with these big, bold letters here

1:56like General where we can set up things

1:58like what is the name of this network,

2:00and we can apply any notes or even a country and region

2:03or a time zone for the specific network.

2:06If we scroll down, we can see some other categories

2:08that I think are pretty interesting.

2:09Traffic analysis or reporting, this

2:11is one of the most powerful things that

2:12come with having an MX firewall, the ability

2:16to see who is doing what on our network.

2:19But we tell it how much data it should collect right here.

2:22The basic says we're just collecting generic traffic

2:25categories rather than the exact destination hostname.

2:29Or we can disable it altogether if we

2:31don't want to track traffic at all

2:32in that specific organization.

2:33Maybe we have security rules in place

2:35that say the Meraki cloud is not allowed to host or contain

2:40our traffic patterns.

2:41So that's why we would disable it.

2:42The DevNet sandbox has this currently set to basic,

2:44so you just see the generic categories.

2:46If we needed to create a custom pie

2:48chart for specific categories or specific ranges or reports,

2:51we could create that pie chart here,

2:53and it would populate that pie chart with our own traffic

2:56browsing data.

2:57Location and scanning is specific to a wireless item,

3:00which is pretty cool.

3:01It allows us to track how people are moving through our network

3:05physically based on how they're being

3:07scanned by the wireless APs.

3:10We have Twilio integration so that we can get text alerts,

3:13as well as CloudShark-- this is basically Wireshark

3:16in the cloud--

3:17so that we can export packet captures directly

3:19to the CloudShark platform.

3:20Scrolling down a little bit more,

3:21we can configure individual devices

3:23to have local credentials as well as a local device status

3:27page, meaning that we could log into each local device

3:29from within the network using these credentials here.

3:33We can do things like turn off the ABL

3:35or set up a default block message when

3:37somebody approaches a section that is blocked by that network

3:41device.

3:41Now one thing I wanted to show you is these little eyes here

3:44are very helpful for showing you,

3:45what does this configuration actually do?

3:48You'll also see a "what is this" that you

3:50can pop out and see what this configuration would set to.

3:53So either pay attention to the eyes or the

3:55"what is this" if you see a configuration

3:58and you don't know what it does.

3:59Reporting-- we can report data into our own syslog

4:02or SNMP servers as well as NetFlow.

4:05And then firmware upgrades for the devices themselves.

4:08I think this is really cool because we

4:09could do try beta firmware.

4:11We could set when our devices are supposed

4:13to upgrade their own firmware, or we

4:15can tell it to go ahead and upgrade devices now.

4:18So these basic configurations will tell you

4:20how your network or site should behave.

4:22I think it's really important to take a look at this so that you

4:24could set up any sort of reporting-specific metrics

4:27that you want to track as well as set

4:29when your firmware needs to be upgraded

4:31on each of your devices.

4:32So that's been getting started with the Meraki cloud.

4:35This is how we can start setting up our administration

4:37and general site configuration.

4:39If you're following along in this playlist,

4:41in the next few skills, we're going

4:42to be talking about how to set up Meraki devices like an MX

4:45firewall.

4:46In the meantime, that's getting started with the Meraki cloud

4:49platform.

4:49I hope this has been informative for you,

4:51and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00So now that we're introduced to the Meraki dashboard,

0:02the little light bulb is flickering right now.

0:04Right?

0:05We're seeing the benefits of cloud networking

0:08because of how incredibly simple it is.

0:10I mean, the cost effectiveness, that's a big deal too,

0:12especially since we're talking about small to medium-size

0:15businesses.

0:16But even if we're a consulting MSP

0:18or if we have multiple branches or sites,

0:20all of a sudden, this single pane of glass

0:23to manage our entire network is a brilliant idea.

0:27So what I'd encourage you to do at this point

0:29is jump in that DevNet sandbox and click around a little bit.

0:33Because if you're following along on this playlist,

0:35we're going to dig into deeper things like how to set up

0:37VLANs and subnets, routing, VPNs, security

0:41features, and even proactive monitoring

0:43and alerting with webhooks.

0:44It's going to be really, really exciting and fun.

0:47But in the meantime, that's been introducing the Meraki platform

0:50and its cloud capabilities.

0:52I hope this has been informative for you,

0:53and I'd like to thank you for viewing.