Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless FAQ

What is Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless? 

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst provides an integrated view of Catalyst 9800 wireless controllers and access points, seamlessly integrated into the Meraki dashboard experience.

Cloud monitoring provides the ability to view Catalyst wireless controller and access point health, performance and and troubleshooting capabilities. Wireless controllers and their associated access points will be automatically tagged with “Monitor Only” in the dashboard to distinguish from fully managed Meraki access points. Aside from this difference, “Monitor Only” Catalyst access points appear and function very similarly to Meraki MR access points in the dashboard, including a visual representation of connected ports and traffic information.

What licenses are required to monitor my wireless controller with dashboard?

Dashboard monitoring is included with DNA Essentials or DNA Advantage licenses. No additional Meraki dashboard licenses are required. 

Are there any differences with DNA Essentials and Advantage licenses?

With the DNA Essentials license includes  monitoring capabilities for wireless controllers and access points. With the DNA Advantage license all the monitoring capabilities for wireless controllers and access points + Client Traffic Analytics provided by IOS XE NBAR and NetFlow.

What Catalyst 9800 wireless controllers are supported in dashboard?

Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless supports the following wireless controller models:

• C9800-L-C

• C9800-L-F

• C9800-40

• C9800-80

What Catalyst access points are supported in dashboard?

Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless supports the following access point models when joined to a supported C9800 wireless controller:

Wi-Fi 6E:

• Cisco Catalyst 9136 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9166 Series (including 9166D1)

• Cisco Catalyst 9164 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9163 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9162 Series

Wi-Fi 6:

• Cisco Catalyst 9130 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9124 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9120 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9117 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9115 Series

• Cisco Catalyst 9105 Series

11ac Wave 2:

• 4800 Series access points

• 3800 Series access points

• 2800 Series access points

• 1560 Series access points

What if I have an unsupported access points on my wireless controller?

Access points not supported on dashboard can remained joined to your catalyst C9800 WLC with no impact. Any unsupported access points will not be claimed or added to dashboard.

Why is my wireless controller access point count different than my dashboard access point count?

The wireless controller summary page has live data to show the current access points and clients active on the wireless controller. For access points this will provide a live metric of access points joined to the wireless controller regardless if they are supported and onboarded to dashboard.

What IOS XE versions are supported?

Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless is supported on the following IOS XE releases:

• 17.12.3

• 17.15.1 and Later

See Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless Requirements for more details.

Can I connect wireless controllers to Meraki dashboard and Catalyst Center?

At this time co-existence on the same Catalyst 9800 wireless controller with dashboard catalyst center is not supported.

How should I design my dashboard Organization to  monitor my Catalyst wireless controller and access points?

The Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst wireless design guide provides a detailed design guide for how to layout and design your dashboard Organization to support Catalyst wireless controllers and access point, including some guidelines to follow and our best practice recommendations.

How do I enable Cloud Monitoring on my wireless controller?

To enable cloud monitoring first connect the Catalyst 9800 wireless controller to dashboard. Once the Meraki tunnel has connected to dashboard claim the wireless controller and add it to a network.

Will dashboard provision any configurations to my wireless controller when I onboard it to dashboard?

In order to support monitoring the wireless controller and its access points, dashboard must provision some configurations to enable montioring after you have added it to dashboard. Click here to see the configurations that dashboard will provision to the wireless controller.

Can I also monitor my Catalyst switches with dashboard?

Yes, you can also monitor supported Catalyst 9000 series switches in dashboard! For more information please see Cloud monitoring overview and FAQ for switches