Cloud Data Retention Policies
Overview
This document provides information about customer data stored by the dashboard and the duration that data is stored for.
Meraki customer data can be classified into two types: management data and user traffic. While the Meraki dashboard collects and stores customers' management data and analytics on user traffic, it never stores user traffic. Meraki data centers store the active Meraki device configurations, historical network usage, and traffic analytics data.
User Traffic
User traffic is data related to users' network traffic (web browsing, internal applications, etc.). The Meraki cloud does not store customer user traffic (network traffic, web browsing, internal applications, etc.) as this traffic is directly routed through the WAN uplink and does not reach the Meraki cloud. Only management traffic from Meraki devices (APs, switches, security appliances) is directed to Meraki cloud through a secure tunnel over the internet. You can learn more about user traffic and Meraki data segregation in the Meraki Cloud Architecture article.
Management Data
To enable cloud solutions, the Meraki dashboard gathers certain types of "management" data and stores it across the data centers. Traffic to and from Meraki servers is encrypted in transit.
Major types of customer management data include:
- User records
- Includes account information such as account email and company name, or other optional information such as user name and address
- Configuration data
- Includes organization-level configurations and network-level configurations made in the Meraki dashboard
- Analytics data
- Includes connected clients (mac address, IP address, SSID associated to, etc.), traffic and location analytics data, visualizations and network insights into traffic, foot-traffic patterns across customer sites, and similar information
- Customer-uploaded assets
- Includes any customer-uploaded assets such as custom floor plans and splash logos
Data Retention Times
Data retention policy may vary depending on the geographic location where the dashboard is hosted. Dashboard stores the data within the region where it is hosted (for example: dashboards hosted in the EU region are stored in the Meraki data centers within the EU; those in North America are hosted in the U.S., etc).
- EU: 14 months (12 months + 2 months worth of backups)
- Rest of the world: 26 months (24 months + 2 months worth of backups)
The Meraki dashboard can store data either based on time duration or number of logged events, depending on the type of data.
Most log tables are stored based on the number of entries. Below are the log tables that expire data based on number of entries:
- Changelog (Organization > Changelog)
- Event log (Network wide > Event log)
- Client Usage
- CMX Usage
Although storage times for these logs are primarily based on the number of entries, we can assure logging activity for only 30 days for Changelog and Event log.
The following table is segregated by product type providing the list of data stored on that product separated by feature type and the duration that data is stored for, depending on the geographically hosted location of the organization:
Product Type | Feature Involved | Dashboard Element | Rest of the World | EU |
MX | VPN | VPN Connectivity | 2 months | 2 months |
VPN Health Stats | 2 months | 2 months | ||
VPN Data | 2 months | 2 months | ||
Security Center Events | IDS Event Logs | 15 days | 15 days | |
IDS Event Packets | 15 days | 15 days | ||
File Reputation Events | 15 days | 2 weeks | ||
WIPS Event Logs | 4 months | 4 months | ||
MS | Switch Ports | Switch Port Usage | 2 months | 2 months |
DHCP | DHCP Servers Seen | 3 months | 3 months | |
MR | Clients | Client Association Table | 1 year | 1 year |
Client RSSI | 2 hours | 2 hours | ||
Splash Stats | Splash Log-Ins | 2 months | 2 months | |
Bluetooth | BLE Clients List | 3 months | 3 months | |
Radius | Radius Accounting | 1 month | 1 month | |
MT | Environmental Telemetry | Temperature, Humidity, Door, Water Detection |
2 years | 2 years |
Device Health | RSSI, Battery, Missed Connections |
2 years | 2 years | |
Network-wide Logs | Clients | Connected Clients List | 3 months | 3 months |
Client Latency | 3 hours | 3 hours | ||
Client Latency Stats | 3 days | 3 days | ||
Client Latency Stats (5 minutes) | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | ||
Client Latency Stats (4 hours) | 4 months | 4 months | ||
Client Latency Stats (1 day) | 6 months | 6 months | ||
Client Latency Stats (20 minutes) | 2 months | 2 months | ||
Traffic Analytics | Traffic Analytics Client Stats | 1 week | 1 week | |
Traffic Analytics Client Stats (4 hours) | 1 month | 1 month | ||
Traffic Analytics Network Stats (4 hours) | 1 months | 1 months | ||
Traffic Analytics Network Stats (20 minutes) | 1 week | 1 week | ||
Event Log | Event Log | 12 Months | 12 Months | |
Organization-wide Logs | Changelog | Changelog (24 Months, 12 Months) | 24 Months | 12 Months |
Location Analytics | Heatmap (24 Hours, 1 Hour ) | 13 Months | 3 Months | |
Summary Reports | Summary Reports (24 Months, 12 Months) | 24 Months | 12 Months | |
Login Attempts | Login Attempts | 14 Months | 14 Months |