SNMP and SNMP Traps – Building the Dashboard
SNMP is also enabled from the Logging section of the Network-wide > General page. However, SNMP reporting is a bit unique compared to email alerts, webhooks, and syslog reporting. With SNMP, you have the option to either poll devices directly at their management interfaces to gather detailed device statistics such as interface counters and other device-level specifics, or to poll out to the Meraki Cloud Controller to gather information about the device and network status from the cloud perspective.
When being polled directly, devices such as the Meraki MX security appliance, MS switches, and MR access points all support endpoints from both the commonly used SNMPv2-MIB and IF-MIB. This is yet another feature that supports quick and easy integration with any new or existing monitoring systems.
When polling the Meraki Cloud Controller, the proprietary MERAKI-CLOUD-CONTROLLER-MIB must be used to support the custom endpoints available by polling the Cloud Controller directly. Fortunately, this MIB is easily available to download directly from the SNMP Configuration section of any Dashboard network and follows the standard MIB formatting to allow it to be easily imported to any SNMP polling system. Polling the Meraki Cloud Controller offers the option of scale and centralization. You have to configure it only once; even if your organization grows, the same configuration will accommodate this growth without having to make any repeat configuration updates, thereby saving time and effort in the long run.
Meraki also supports the use of SNMP traps for generating alerts in a more active fashion. When enabled and configured, SNMP traps are generated directly from the Meraki Cloud Controller and sent to the configured monitoring server over the Internet. Therefore, the receiving server must be publicly accessible by the Cloud Controller. SNMP traps specifically are configured from the Network-wide > Alerts page. When SNMP traps are enabled, you can configure a receiving server IP address and port in the SNMP Traps section.
The actual per-network alert configuration for SNMP traps is done in the same way as email alerts, except that you enter snmp instead of a destination email address when enabling an alert. This results in an SNMP trap being sent to the configured receiver server from the Meraki cloud when the related alert is triggered.
Pro Tip
Meraki supports the use of SNMP versions 1, 2c, and 3 for direct device polling and SNMP versions 2c and 3 for Cloud Controller polling and traps.