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Cisco Meraki Rest API

Overview​

Cisco Meraki is a cloud-managed IT company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Their products include wireless, switching, security, enterprise mobility management (EMM) and security cameras, all centrally managed from the web.

Plugin-Pack assets​

Monitored objects​

  • Meraki Access Points devices

  • Meraki Networks

Monitored metrics​

Metric nameDescription
organization.api.requests.200.countNumber of requests returning a HTTP Status 200 (OK). Unit: Count
organization.api.requests.404.countNumber of requests returning a HTTP Status 404 (Not found). Unit: Count
organization.api.requests.429.countNumber of requests returning a HTTP Status 249 (TOO MANY REQUESTS). Unit: Count

Prerequisites​

More information about the Cisco Meraki API can be found in the official documentation: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Other_Topics/The_Cisco_Meraki_Dashboard_API

To get access to the API, first enable the API for your organization on the Cisco Meraki dashboard. This can be found under Organization > Settings > Dashboard API access.

After enabling the API, go to the my profile page to generate an API key. The API key is associated with a Dashboard administrator account. You can generate, revoke, and regenerate your API key on your profile.

Keep your API key safe as it provides authentication to all of your organizations with the API enabled. If your API key is shared, you can regenerate your API key at any time. This will revoke the existing API key.

Setup​

  1. Install the Centreon Plugin package on every Centreon poller expected to monitor Cisco Meraki ressources:
yum install centreon-plugin-Network-Cisco-Meraki-Restapi
  1. On the Centreon Web interface, install the Cisco Meraki Rest API Centreon Plugin-Pack on the "Configuration > Plugin Packs > Manager" page

Configuration​

  • Log into Centreon and add a new Host through "Configuration > Hosts".
  • Apply the relevant Host Template. They all look like "Net-Cisco-Meraki%Restapi".

All of the Host Templates share the following configuration Macros:

MandatoryNomDescription
XMERAKIAPIHOSTNAMEFQDN of the Meraki API. usually api.meraki.com
XMERAKIAPIPORTPort used. Must be 443.
XMERAKIAPIPROTOProtocole used. Must be HTTPS.
XMERAKIAPITOKENMeraki API key of your profile. Password checkbox must be checked
MERAKIEXTRAOPTIONSAny extra option you may want to add to the command (eg. a --verbose flag)

Set additionnal Macros that come with the Host Templates:

MandatoryNomDescription
XMERAKIDEVICENAMEName of the device you want to monitor (can be a regexp)

FAQ​

How to test the Plugin and what are the main options for ?​

Once the plugin installed, log into your Centreon Poller CLI using the centreon-engine user account and test the Plugin by running the following command (Some of the parameters such as api-token, filter-device-name or proxyurl have to be adjusted):

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_cisco_meraki_restapi.pl \
--plugin='network::cisco::meraki::cloudcontroller::restapi::plugin' \
--mode='devices' \
--hostname='api.meraki.com' \
--api-token='12345abcd6789efgh0123abcd4567efgh8901abcd' \
--proxyurl='proxy.mycompany:8080' \
--filter-device-name='centreon-par-training-ap' \
--critical-status='%{status} =~ /alerting/i' \
--critical-link-status='%{link_status} =~ /failed/i' \
--verbose

Expected command output is shown below:

OK: Device 'centreon-par-training-ap' status: online - connection success: 0 - traffic in: 51.66 b/s, out: 515.86 b/s - link 'WAN 1' status: active | 
'devices.total.online.count'=0;;;0;1 'devices.total.offline.count'=0;;;0;1 'devices.total.alerting.count'=0;;;0;1 
'centreon-par-training-ap#device.connections.success.count'=0;;;0; 'centreon-par-training-ap#device.connections.auth.count'=0;;;0; 
'centreon-par-training-ap#device.connections.assoc.count'=0;;;0; 'centreon-par-training-ap#device.connections.dhcp.count'=0;;;0; 
'centreon-par-training-ap#device.connections.dns.count'=0;;;0; 'centreon-par-training-ap#device.traffic.in.bitspersecond'=51.6626907073509b/s;;;0; 
'centreon-par-training-ap#device.traffic.out.bitspersecond'=515.864632454924b/s;;;0;
checking device 'centreon-par-training-ap'
    status: online
    connection success: 0
    traffic in: 51.66 b/s, out: 515.86 b/s
    link 'WAN 1' status: active

The above command checks a specific Cisco AP device named centreon-par-training-ap (--mode=devices --filter-device-name='centreon-par-training-ap') managed by Meraki. It uses an API token (--api-token='12345abcd6789efgh0123abcd4567efgh8901abcd') generated from the Cisco Meraki management dashboard and uses the company proxy (--proxyurl='proxy.mycompany:8080') to connect to the Meraki API.

This command would trigger a CRITICAL alert if:

  • The returned device's status is "alerting" (--critical-status='%{status} =~ /alerting/i')
  • The device link is "failed" (--critical-link-status='%{link_status} =~ /failed/i')

Some thresholds can also be set on metrics, for instance --warning-traffic-in and --critical-traffic-in.

The available thresholds as well as all of the options that can be used with this Plugin can be displayed by adding the --help parameter to the command:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_cisco_meraki_restapi.pl --plugin='network::cisco::meraki::cloudcontroller::restapi::plugin' --mode='devices' --help

Why do I get the following error:​

UNKNOWN: 500 Can't connect to api.meraki.com:443​

This error message means that the Centreon Plugin couldn't successfully connect to the Cisco Meraki API. Check that no third party device (such as a firewall) is blocking the request. A proxy connection may also be necessary to connect to the API. This can be done by using the --proxyurl option in the command.

UNKNOWN: 501 Protocol scheme 'connect' is not supported |​

When using a proxy to connect to the Meraki API, this error message means that the Centreon Plugin library does not support the proxy connection protocol.

In order to prevent this issue, use the curl HTTP backend by adding the following option to the command: --http-backend='curl'.

UNKNOWN: cannot check than 5 networks at once (api rate limit)​

This error message means that the Centreon Plugin request is beyond the API capabilities limits. Adjust the --filter-network-name or --filter-device-name filters to limit the search field.