How to easily add and use Cisco Meraki sensors in PRTG

Written by Michael Becker | Jul 22, 2022

Paessler PRTG includes two native sensors for Monitoring Cisco Meraki devices - the Cisco Meraki Network Health sensor (BETA) and the Cisco Meraki License sensor (BETA) wich I introduced a few weeks ago in this article:
👉 Let's talk about sensors! Monitoring Cisco Meraki with PRTG sensors

Although these two sensors are both currently in the beta stage, I encourage you to use and test them as they will already provide you with important information and stats.

i The operating methods and the available settings can change at any time.

Do not expect that all functions work properly, or that this sensor works as expected at all. To use these sensors, you must enable beta sensors first:

Open the PRTG web interface and navigate to Setup | System Administration | Monitoring.
Go to section Experimental Features and enable Beta Sensors.
Open the Add Sensor dialog and search for beta. You can now see all available beta sensors.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base:

👉 What are beta sensors and how can I use them?

Cisco Meraki is a fully cloud-managed network solution. WLAN, switching, security, WAN optimization and MDM are managed centrally via the Internet. As the industry leader, the entire Cisco Meraki product portfolio can be managed entirely in the cloud - from access points and switches to security appliances and endpoint management.

How to add the Cisco Meraki System Health sensor

Requirements

Enable the Beta Sensors experimental features in PRTG as described above
Ensure that access of an organization to the Cisco Meraki Dashboard API is enabled. If the API access for an organization is disabled, you must enable it manually. For more information, see Cisco Meraki Dashboard API: Enable API Access.

i The API key inherits the permissions of the Cisco Meraki Dashboard Administrator account that was used to generate the API key.

Add the sensor in PRTG

Navigate to the Cisco Meraki Dashboard in PRTG (see requirements)
Click the "Add Sensor" button and search for Cisco Meraki sensors
Choose the Cisco Meraki System Health sensor
Select your network and click "Create"

If everything is configured correctly, the sensor appears after a few seconds and provides the following information depending on the device(s):

Through the channels of the sensor you get information about:

IoT devices
Meraki Radios (MR) devices
Meraki Switching (MS) devices
Meraki Security (MX) devices
Uplinks

Have a look here for all details about the channel list:

👉 Cisco Meraki Network Health channel table

How to add the Cisco Meraki License sensor

You simply add the Cisco Meraki License sensor similar to the Cisco Meraki System Health Sensor as described above. Please note that the same requirements must be met for this sensor as well. (See step 1.)

Also this sensor appears after a few seconds and provides the following information:

Through its channels you will get the following information:

Days to expiration (default)
License count
License model

You can find a detailed description of the channels here:

👉 Cisco Meraki License Sensor channel table

What's coming up?

If you are interested in what we are working on or will work on in the future, have a look here:

👉 PRTG roadmap

On our roadmap, we also collect feedback via surveys to help us develop some new features, and we would love to get your opinions. Of course we are also happy about every comment you leave us under this article!

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