Meraki Dashboard Organizational Structure
The basic structure of Dashboard consists of two levels:
- Networks - Contains Cisco Meraki devices, their configurations, statistics, and any client-device information.
- Organizations - A collection of networks that are all part of a single organizational entity, such as a company or school district.
Administrator accounts can then access multiple organizations and the networks they contain, as long as an account exists in each organization with the same e-mail address. For more information, read the article on creating a Dashboard account and organization.
Learn more with these free online training courses on the Meraki Learning Hub:
Organizations
Even though a single account can access multiple organizations, each organization is treated entirely independently. Therefore, licensing, inventory, users, and configurations are all kept within an organization.
Moving devices and configurations
It is not possible to copy a configuration from one organization to another, or to move a device from any of the Move dropdowns. To move a device between organizations, it must first be removed from the first organization, and then added to the second. Any configuration must be manually reproduced in the new organization.
Licensing
Each organization's licensing is self-contained. This works well for Managed Service Providers, or entities that need to manage networks for multiple organizations that are financially independent.
Networks
Multiple types of networks are available. Think of a network as a container for devices, primarily determined by what type of devices it will contain. Multiple of the same network type can exist within an organization. The type of network can be found under Organization > Monitor > Overview, under the Network type column. The following network types are available:
- Cellular Gateway - Can only contain MG series devices.
- Security & SD-WAN - Can only contain MX series security appliances or Z-series teleworker gateways. Maximum count per network of either two MX devices (when in HA configuration - see MX Warm Spare - High-Availability Pair) or a single Z-series teleworker gateway device.
- Switching - Can only contain Meraki and Catalyst series switches.
- Wireless - Can only contain wireless devices, such as the MR series access points.
- Systems Manager - Systems Manager is Cisco Meraki's cloud-based endpoint management platform and can be used to manage settings and apps on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows devices. Appears on the Dashboard under Endpoint management.
- Camera - Can only contain MV series cameras. Appears on the Dashboard under Cameras.
- Environmental - Can only contain MT series devices. Note that MT sensor devices also require a gateway in the same network, so typically they would be deployed in a Combined network type. Appears on the Dashboard under Sensors.
- Combined - Can be used to combine all of the preceding networks into one, and is best used for grouping devices together based on physical location. More information on Combined Dashboard Networks.
For more information, read the article on Creating and Deleting Dashboard Networks.
Access and Permissions
When an account has access to multiple organizations, logging into that account will present the administrator with a page where a starting organization can be selected.
To change organizations later, use the organization dropdown in the upper left corner of Dashboard.
The access available to each individual network or organization will be dependent on the permissions configuration. For more information on permissions, refer to the article on Managing Dashboard Administrators and Permissions.
In the example below, the account has the following access within each organization:
- Organization 1 - Account has Full access to the organization, and thus Full access to all contained networks.
- Organization 2 - Account only has Read-only access to the 'Combined Network'.
- Organization 3 - Account has Read-only access to the organization, and thus all contained networks. However, Full access has been given specifically for the 'MX Network'.
