Meraki for Data Enrichment

With the Meraki integration into ThousandEyes, you gain the ability to view your Meraki local area network (LAN) data within your test’s path or segment visualizations, enabling you to resolve problems more quickly with complete information no matter where your journey begins. For more information about how Meraki data enrichment can work for you, see Using the Path Visualization View.

This article will explain how to create the Meraki integration for data enrichment. The basic steps are:

1. Check the prerequisites.

2. Get your Meraki API key.

3. Set up the connector in ThousandEyes.

4. Set up the operation in ThousandEyes.

For more information about how connector/operation (2.0) integrations work, see Integrations.

Prerequisites

To use the features described in this document, you must have both of the following:

• An active Meraki license and account.

• An active account for ThousandEyes.

ThousandEyes Permissions

To create the integration, you must have an Organization Admin or Account Admin role in the ThousandEyes platform. For more information about ThousandEyes roles, see Role-Based Access Control, Explained.

Steps within Meraki

1. Generate or retrieve your Meraki Dashboard API key. See Meraki’s Generate API Key documentation for more information.

Steps within ThousandEyes

Setting Up the Meraki Connector

The Meraki integration for data enrichment is one of our connector/operation (2.0) integrations, meaning it is formed by linking a connector to an operation. The following steps describe how to set up the connector.

1. Go to Integrations.

2. Select the Integrations 2.0 tab.

   

   Integrations tabs
3. On the Connectors tab, click + New Connector.

   

   New connector button

   • An Add Connector side panel opens.

4. Select Generic Connector.

   

   Generic Connector card
5. In the resulting Add New Connector screen, select Meraki from the Preset Configurations dropdown menu.

   

   Preset Configuration dropdown showing Meraki option

   • This prefills the Custom Headers field with “X-Cisco-Meraki-API-Key”.

6. Give the integration a unique name in the Name field.

7. Add the target URL to the Target field.

8. Type or paste the Dashboard API Key from Steps within Meraki into the field next to the Custom Headers.

9. Click Save & Assign Operation.

   

   Completed connector screen with Save & Assign button

   • If the connector is configured correctly, you will see a popup in the bottom right alerting you that it saved successfully.

   

   Popup for connector saved successfully

   • This also opens the Manage Operations panel.

   

   Manage operations panel
10. If you have already configured an operation you want to link the connector to, check the box next to the operation from the Select operations list.

    

    Operation checkbox

Currently, you are only able to select one operation to link to one connector.

1. If you want to link to a new operation that’s not listed, click + New Operation in the top right.

   • This switches you to the Operations tab and opens the Add Operation panel.

   

   Add Operation panel

Setting Up the Meraki Operation

1. If you have come to the Operations tab from step 11 of Setting Up the Meraki Connector, select Meraki Data Enrichment from the panel.

   • If you are setting up a new operation without having first set up a new connector, go to Integrations > Integrations 2.0 > Operations.

   • Select + New Operation.

     • This opens the Add Operation panel.

     • Select Meraki Data Enrichment from the panel.

2. Give the operation a unique name and ensure the toggle is set to Enable.

   

   Add New Operation screen with Enable toggled on
3. Click Save & Assign Connector.

   • If the operation is configured correctly, you will see a popup in the bottom right alerting you that it saved successfully.

   

   Popup for operation successfully saved

   • This also opens the Manage Connector panel.

   

   Manage Connector panel
4. If you just created a connector, check the box next to the connector you created from steps 1-9 of Setting Up the Meraki Connector.

   • If you are creating the operation first, either check the box next to the connector you want to link to from the list or click + New Connector in the top right to create a new connector.

     • Clicking + New Connector takes you to the Connector tab and opens the Add Connector panel.

     • Follow steps 4-10 of Setting Up the Meraki Connector to set up your new connector.

5. Click Save.

   • Your new connector and operation now appear in the Operations tab with the status of Pending.

   

   Pending status for operation

   • You can also find the linked connector and operator from the Connectors tab.

   

   Linked integration on Connectors tab

Updating the Integration Status

To update your integration's status from Pending to either Connected or Failed, you need to go to your test view and "use" the integration once.

1. Go to Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Views and navigate to any test involving a Meraki MX Agent, and which features path visualization, such as an Agent to Server test.

   • In the Path Visualization, hover over any node with the Meraki symbol; this triggers an API call to receive the additional node data as verified by Meraki. This initial API call causes the integration status to update from Pending to either Connected or Failed.

   

   Node with agent details including those verified by Meraki
2. Go back to Integrations 2.0 > Operations to view your new integration status.

   

   Connected status for operation

Editing the Meraki Data Enrichment Integration

You edit connectors and operations in the same way on their corresponding tabs.

1. Click anywhere on the row of the connector or operation you want to edit.

   • Alternatively, click Edit on the vertical ellipsis at the end of the row.

   

   Edit dialog
2. Change any of the fields in the side panel and click Save.

3. To update the corresponding connector or operation, click Manage Operations if you are on the connector tab or Assign Connector if you are on the operations tab.

   

   Assign Connector dialog

   • If your connector or operation is not yet linked, you can also click the Manage button to add an assignment.

   

   No assigned operation message with Manage button

Removing the Meraki Data Enrichment Integration

You delete connectors and operations in the same way on their corresponding tabs, but you cannot delete them both at the same time.

1. Click Delete on the vertical ellipsis at the end of the row of the connector or operation you want to delete.

   

   Delete dialog

   • A confirmation dialog pops up to inform you that this action cannot be undone.

   

   Delete confirmation dialog
2. If you wish to continue, click Delete again.

   • When you delete a linked connector or operation, the remaining part of the integration will update to show that it is now missing an assignation.

   

   No assigned operation message

   • To delete the whole integration, delete the second part of the integration, too.

   • Alternatively, you can delete one part of the integration and assign the remaining part to a different connector or operation.

Troubleshooting Meraki Data Enrichment

1. Status stuck in “Pending”

   • ThousandEyes retrieves data from Meraki only at the point of an API call, unlike a streaming service which is constantly receiving data regardless of user interaction. The integration only updates its status after the first API call is made. Therefore, you must go to Cloud & Enterprise Agents > Views, and find a test featuring both a Meraki MX Agent and path visualization, such as an Agent to Server test. Hover over any Meraki-branded node in the Path Visualization section to generate an API call. Once you have "used" the integration for the first time, the status will update to either Connected or Failed.

Now that you have set up your integration, read about what it enables, or go straight to your views to see your new data filtering through.