Network Alert Hub
Overview
This article describes the alert hub’s use case, different functionalities, and its use for monitoring and troubleshooting.
There are several different features or functionalities that make the monitoring and troubleshooting Cisco Meraki full-stack solution simple. Dashboard alerts, event logs, the ability to quickly sort event logs based on device types, event types, and timestamps are among those features. And the number of these alerts or event logs will continue to grow as we continue to add new features or bring more visibility into overall network health. However, it is challenging to keep track of all of them and know which one to check first under certain circumstances. It can also be time-consuming to find and learn more about these alerts and event logs.
The alert hub brings more convenience by accumulating dashboard alerts of a network in a single place. By linking relative documentation that can help users find alert triggers and troubleshooting steps, it reduces time to resolution.
Alert Hub
Alert hub currently is a public BETA feature.
Location
The alert hub is located in the top right corner of the dashboard. It is a network-wide feature, so this feature is not available on any pages under “Organization".
Clicking on the icon will show a popover summary of network alerts.
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Alert categories
The alert hub categorizes alert types into four different categories based on the nature of the issue that triggers them.
Configuration Issues - These issues are triggered if the current setting or configuration differs from Cisco Meraki recommendation. (e.g: VLAN mismatch, Stack misconfigured, etc)
Connectivity Issues - These issues are triggered if there are problems in connectivity between devices/services. (e.g: Device unreachable, 802.1X failure, etc)
Device Health Issues - These issues are triggered if a device detects problems with its primary or auxiliary systems. (e.g: fan failure, power supply offline, etc)
Insights - These issues are triggered if Cisco Meraki detects problems with LAN/WAN services. (e.g: Sticky client on APs, ISP outage, etc)
Cisco Meraki might add more categories if needed to accommodate more alerts in the future.
Alert types
There are several alert types under each category. All the devices with the same alert type will be listed together in their respective alert type card.
Different colors are used for visual indication of severity levels as following:
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Yellow: Warnings
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Red: Critical
Instances: A single occurrence of an alert is considered as one instance. For example, an unreachable device under “Unreachable Device(s)” alert type is regarded as one instance. If there is more than one device unreachable then the list of devices/instances will show up under the same alert type. Count of devices/instances are shown next to the alert type.
If there are no alerts in the alert hub this message will be displayed.
If the alert hub is not showing any alerts that does not mean that there are no active alerts in the network. Please note that not all the alerts or event logs are available in the alert hub. For the list of available alerts, please refer to the individual alert category documentation hyperlinked in the alert category section of this document.
Some delays might be observed in alerts showing up or disappearing from the alert hub. This might create a UI discrepancy between the original dashboard alert and the alert hub.
Monitoring
Instead of checking different dashboard pages, administrators can use the alert hub to check the state of all the Meraki devices in one glance.
It can be challenging to prioritize issues to tackle under certain circumstances, such as critical network outages from time to time. Different categories and visual indicators help administrators identify and prioritize critical issues for their network quickly.
Troubleshooting
By clicking on the "Learn more" hyperlink, an administrator can quickly jump to documentation for the respective alert category which makes troubleshooting easier. These documents consist of the list of alert types available under a specific alert category, triggers of each alert type, and troubleshooting steps for each alert type.
Feedback
There is also a "Make a wish" button on the alert hub which administrators can use to provide feedback on the feature.