Set up Meraki Dashboard API monitoring

You can use New Relic's network monitoring agent to watch your Meraki environment.

A screenshot showing the meraki dashboard UI in New Relic

Get started

Before you begin, make sure you have the New Relic, Docker, Podman, Meraki, and Network security prerequisites:

A New Relic account.
A New Relic .
Docker or Podman installed on a Linux host.
Ability to launch new containers via command line.
Meraki Dashboard API key for authentication.

Network firewall rules

Direction	Source	Destination	Ports	Protocol	Required
Outbound	Container host	`ktranslate` image on Docker Hub, Quay.io, or your company's internal repository.	443	TCP	✓
Outbound	Container host	New Relic Metric API Endpoint: `https://metric-api.newrelic.com`	443	TCP	✓
Outbound	Container host	New Relic Event API Endpoint: `https://insights-collector.newrelic.com`	443	TCP	✓
Outbound	Container host	New Relic Log API Endpoint: `https://log-api.newrelic.com`	443	TCP
Outbound	Container host	Meraki Dashboard API endpoint: `https://api.meraki.com/api/v1/`	443 (default)	TCP	✓

Installation

You can add Meraki Dashboard API monitoring to an existing SNMP container, or deploy it in a dedicated container and keep it separate from your other SNMP devices. Select the option below that best matches your use case:

In your existing configuration file for the SNMP agent, manually add the Meraki device object. Replace $MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY with your Meraki Dashboard API key:
```
devices:
  meraki_cloud_controller:
    device_name: meraki_cloud_controller
    device_ip: snmp.meraki.com
    provider: meraki-cloud-controller
    ext:
      ext_only: true
      meraki_config:
        api_key: "$MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY"
```
Tip
This is a basic example. You can find additional configuration options in our advanced configuration doc.
Stop and remove the existing container:
bash
```
$# Find your current container
$docker ps -a
$
$# Forcibly stop and delete the target container (you may also use the container ID here in place of the name)
$docker rm -f $CONTAINER_NAME
```

Start a fresh container with the updated configuration file. Replace $CONTAINER_SERVICE with a unique name for the container and substitute$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY and $YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID with your values. In this example, it's assumed the default configuration file has the name snmp-base.yaml:

bash

$docker run -d --name ktranslate-$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  --restart unless-stopped --pull=always -p 162:1620/udp \
>  -v `pwd`/snmp-base.yaml:/snmp-base.yaml \
>  -e NEW_RELIC_API_KEY=$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY \
>  kentik/ktranslate:v2 \
>  -snmp /snmp-base.yaml \
>  -nr_account_id=$YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID \
>  -metrics=jchf \
>  -tee_logs=true \
>  -service_name=$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  -snmp_discovery_on_start=true \
>  -snmp_discovery_min=180 \
>  nr1.snmp

On a Linux host with Docker installed, use the text editor of your choice to create the configuration file you'll use to run the container. Replace $MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY with your Meraki Dashboard API key.
Example using vim:
bash
```
$sudo vim meraki-base.yaml
```
File contents:
```
devices:
  meraki_cloud_controller:
    device_name: meraki_cloud_controller
    device_ip: snmp.meraki.com
    provider: meraki-cloud-controller
    ext:
      ext_only: true
      meraki_config:
        api_key: "$MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY"
trap: {}
discovery: {}
global:
  poll_time_sec: 300
  timeout_ms: 30000
```
Tip
This is a basic example. You can find additional configuration options in our advanced configuration doc.
Update file permissions to allow Docker to make changes as needed:
bash
```
$chown 1000:1000 meraki-base.yaml
```

Start the network monitoring agent to poll the Meraki Dashboard API. Replace $CONTAINER_SERVICE with a unique name for the container and substitute $YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY and $YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID with your values. In this example, we've saved our configuration file as 'meraki-base.yaml':

bash

$docker run -d --name ktranslate-$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  --restart unless-stopped --pull=always --net=host \
>  -v `pwd`/meraki-base.yaml:/snmp-base.yaml \
>  -e NEW_RELIC_API_KEY=$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY \
>  kentik/ktranslate:v2 \
>  -snmp /snmp-base.yaml \
>  -nr_account_id=$YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID \
>  -metrics=jchf \
>  -tee_logs=true \
>  -service_name=$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  nr1.snmp

In your existing configuration file for the SNMP agent, manually add the Meraki device object. Replace $MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY with your Meraki Dashboard API key:

devices:
  meraki_cloud_controller:
    device_name: meraki_cloud_controller
    device_ip: snmp.meraki.com
    provider: meraki-cloud-controller
    ext:
      ext_only: true
      meraki_config:
        api_key: "$MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY"

Tip

This is a basic example. You can find additional configuration options in our advanced configuration doc.

Stop and remove the existing container:

bash

$# Find your current container
$podman ps -a
$
$# Forcibly stop and delete the target container (you may also use the container ID here in place of the name)
$podman rm -f $CONTAINER_NAME

Start a fresh container with the updated configuration file. Replace $CONTAINER_SERVICE with a unique name for the container and substitute$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY and $YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID with your values. In this example, we're assuming the default configuration file name of snmp-base.yaml:
bash
```
$podman run -d --name ktranslate-$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  --userns=keep-id --restart unless-stopped --pull=always --net=host \
>  -v `pwd`/snmp-base.yaml:/snmp-base.yaml \
>  -e NEW_RELIC_API_KEY=$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY \
>  kentik/ktranslate:v2 \
>  -snmp /snmp-base.yaml \
>  -nr_account_id=$YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID \
>  -metrics=jchf \
>  -tee_logs=true \
>  -service_name=$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  -snmp_discovery_on_start=true \
>  -snmp_discovery_min=180 \
>  nr1.snmp
```
Important
If you haven't already created an iptables rule to handle packet redirection for trap messages, you will need to do so with the command:
bash
```
$sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p udp --dport 162 -j REDIRECT --to-port 1620
```

On a Linux host with Podman installed, use the text editor of your choice to create the configuration file you'll use to run the container. Replace $MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY with your Meraki Dashboard API key.
Example using vim:
bash
```
$sudo vim meraki-base.yaml
```
File contents:
```
devices:
  meraki_cloud_controller:
    device_name: meraki_cloud_controller
    device_ip: snmp.meraki.com
    provider: meraki-cloud-controller
    ext:
      ext_only: true
      meraki_config:
        api_key: "$MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY"
trap: {}
discovery: {}
global:
  poll_time_sec: 300
  timeout_ms: 30000
```
Tip
This is a basic example. You can find additional configuration options in our advanced configuration doc.
Update file permissions to allow Podman to make changes as needed:
bash
```
$chown 1000:1000 meraki-base.yaml
```

Start the network monitoring agent to poll the Meraki Dashboard API. Replace $CONTAINER_SERVICE with a unique name for the container and substitute $YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY and $YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID with your values. In this example, we have saved our configuration file as 'meraki-base.yaml':

bash

$podman run -d --name ktranslate-$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  --userns=keep-id --restart unless-stopped --pull=always --net=host \
>  -v `pwd`/snmp-base.yaml:/snmp-base.yaml \
>  -e NEW_RELIC_API_KEY=$YOUR_NR_LICENSE_KEY \
>  kentik/ktranslate:v2 \
>  -snmp /snmp-base.yaml \
>  -nr_account_id=$YOUR_NR_ACCOUNT_ID \
>  -metrics=jchf \
>  -tee_logs=true \
>  -service_name=$CONTAINER_SERVICE \
>  nr1.snmp

Important

If you haven't already created an iptables rule to handle packet redirection for trap messages, you will need to do so with the command:

bash

$sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p udp --dport 162 -j REDIRECT --to-port 1620

What's next

You can set up more agents to complement your Meraki environment data:

To get better visibility into how your network is used, set up network flow data monitoring.
To get insights into system messages from your devices, setup network syslog collection.

Get started.css-21sua1{background:none;border:none;width:0;padding:0;}

Network firewall rules

Installation

Tip

Tip

Tip

Important

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Important

What's next

Did this doc help with your installation?

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