Network Reformation with Cisco Meraki Dashboard API

Uprise v.1, Retire v.0

With over 630,000+ customers, Cisco Meraki and its cloud services platform and APIs are much appreciated by the networking industry by virtue of its simple and intuitive solutions. After all, Cisco Meraki goes by its principle to “Make IT easier, faster and smarter”.

Adopting an API first approach

An API first approach is when a product platform adopts a development strategy which provides greater access to its features and cross platform integrations through its API services.

In the world of Networking, things are not always simple. Each network and its users have a unique requirement and diverse demands. This is where exposing multiple APIs to the platform enables the end user to build their own solutions which can address their individual requirements.

Cisco Meraki sees the value of easy automation which APIs can enable and hence keeps its Dashboard API at the core of its cloud platform.

What is Cisco Meraki dashboard API?

The Meraki dashboard is a powerful browser-based tool which gives visibility into all your organizations networks and devices. The dashboard shifted the traditional CLI based network monitoring and configuration to a more cloud centric and robust platform.

Almost all the functionality of the Meraki dashboard is exposed via its Dashboard API.

The Cisco Meraki dashboard API is a RESTful API using HTTPS requests. The dashboard API can help the end users to truly make their network programmable and automate day to day workflows. These set of APIs enable Network configuration, provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting thus saving time and human error.

The list of use cases to build on top of these APIs is endless. You can find some of the use cases and applications built by our customers and partners at DevNet Code Exchange and Meraki Marketplace.

What value can it provide to my organization?

The Meraki dashboard API provides easy to onboard interactive documentation and a simple authentication process. Tasks such as Network provisioning and Bulk configurations can be carried on using these APIs thus saving engineer’s time which can be used for taking care of other critical items.

Location Scanning API can provide accurate locations of devices connected to your networks while Captive Portal API can collect data of clients associating to your Wi-Fi networks. All this data can be used to build applications for monitoring network health and deriving useful insights and trends for your network’s health or organization.

Meraki exposes more than 300 other dashboard APIs such as MV sense camera API, Webhooks, and RF Profile APIs thus adding more value to the platform and its usability.

Adhering to the Cisco API style guide, Cisco Meraki strives to provide a superior developer experience so that customers can extract the true value of Meraki’s products and platform.

What is Cisco Meraki API version 0 and API version 1?

The Dashboard API has come a long way since its first inception in 2016. The Dashboard API version 0 was first widely rolled out. Later, it was upgraded to Dashboard API version 1 to accommodate more enhancements and enrich the developer experience.

All the API request paths for API version 0 have been consistently mapped to the new API version 1. And now it’s time for Dashboard API v0 to walk into the sunset where v1 will carry on the mission of simplicity and scale.

The current Dashboard API v1 is designed to take you to the next step in this continuous journey.

On Feb 5, 2022, the API v0 will sunset, meaning no support will be offered and operation is not guaranteed. We have also provided a Grace Period for support, which extends support until Aug 5, 2022. Check this community announcement for more details about the API v0 sunset.

What’s your next step?

• Leverage the Grace Period to help prioritize migrating to v1 endpoints, so that there is minimal or ideally no reliance on v0.
• Encourage anybody using v0 APIs to identify those endpoints and prioritize migration to v1 instead.

How can I get continued support and resources for using API v1?

• Use the Meraki Dashboard API v1 interactive documentation to explore all the platform APIs.
• You can join the Meraki Developer’s & API technical forum to ask questions and be on top for the latest news and developments in the Meraki platform.
• Keep up with all the new updates in the What’s new section of Meraki API documentation.
• Take advantage of Cisco’s developer program to access Meraki Learning labs and sandboxes.