Engineering Cisco Meraki Solutions Course Overview
The Engineering Cisco Meraki Solutions (ECMS) Training Course provides participants with the essential knowledge and practical skills required to plan, design, deploy, implement, secure, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Cisco Meraki-based network solutions.
The course introduces the Cisco Meraki cloud-managed architecture and provides practical exposure to the Meraki Dashboard, product families, routing, switching, wireless networking, security, SD-WAN, endpoint management, physical security, monitoring, reporting, and network automation.
Participants will also learn how to design scalable and highly available Meraki environments, implement VPN and WAN topologies, apply Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic-shaping policies, secure network environments, and troubleshoot common operational issues using Cisco Meraki tools.
The training combines technical discussions with hands-on exercises to help participants develop practical skills in configuring and operating Cisco Meraki solutions.
Duration 4 days – 28 hrs
Objectives
- Describe Cisco Meraki cloud architecture, administration, and licensing.
- Identify the hardware, capabilities, and features of Cisco Meraki product families.
- Explain recommended troubleshooting practices and when to engage Cisco Meraki support.
- Plan new Cisco Meraki architectures and expand existing deployments.
- Design scalable and highly available Cisco Meraki networks.
- Automate and scale Cisco Meraki deployments using Dashboard tools.
- Use dynamic routing protocols to expand networks and improve WAN performance.
- Configure and manage Quality of Service (QoS), policies, traffic shaping, and performance-based routing.
- Explain and implement VPN and WAN topologies.
- Secure, expand, and optimize Cisco Meraki networks.
- Implement switched network concepts and practices.
- Configure guest network access.
- Implement Cisco Meraki wireless networking concepts and configuration practices.
- Explain endpoint management concepts using Cisco Meraki Systems Manager.
- Understand Cisco Meraki physical security solutions and practices.
- Monitor applications and gain greater visibility into network operations.
- Configure monitoring, logging, alerting, reporting, and auditing capabilities.
- Monitor and troubleshoot Cisco Meraki networks using Meraki management and diagnostic tools.
Target Audience
- Network engineers and network administrators
- Consulting Systems Engineers
- Deployment Engineers
- Network Administrators
- Network Engineers
- Network Managers
- Site Reliability Engineers
- Systems Engineers
- Technical Solutions Architects
- Wireless Design Engineers
- Wireless Engineers
- Sales Engineers
- Technical Account Managers
- IT Infrastructure Professionals
- Network Support Professionals
Prerequisites
- Designing, deploying, scaling, and managing enterprise networks.
- IPsec and VPN technologies.
- Hierarchical network segmentation involving access, distribution, and core layers.
- IP addressing and subnetting for LAN environments.
- Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) services.
- Dynamic routing protocols, particularly OSPF and BGP.
- Wired and wireless Quality of Service (QoS).
- Network security controls and cybersecurity best practices.
- Threat identification and mitigation.
- Radio Frequency (RF) concepts and 802.11 wireless standards.
- Wireless security using 802.1X, WIDS, and WIPS.
- Network monitoring using SNMP, syslog, and webhooks.
- Basic understanding of APIs, REST, and JSON for network automation.
Course Outline
Day 1 – Cisco Meraki Architecture, Products, Administration, and Troubleshooting
Module 1: Introducing the Cloud and Cisco Meraki Dashboard
- Understanding cloud-managed networking
- Cisco Meraki cloud architecture
- Meraki Dashboard overview
- Organizations and networks
- Administrative access and privileges
- Licensing concepts
- Dashboard navigation and management
Module 2: Introducing Cisco Meraki Products and Administration
- Overview of Cisco Meraki product families
- MX Security and SD-WAN Appliances
- MS Switches
- MR Wireless Access Points
- Systems Manager
- MV Smart Cameras and physical security
- Meraki administration and configuration concepts
Module 3: Introducing Cisco Meraki Troubleshooting
- Cisco Meraki troubleshooting methodology
- Dashboard diagnostic tools
- Monitoring device and application performance
- Identifying common connectivity issues
- Using Meraki support resources
- Determining when to contact Cisco Meraki Support
Module 4: Planning New Cisco Meraki Architectures
- Assessing business and technical requirements
- Planning new Meraki deployments
- Expanding existing Meraki environments
- Network architecture considerations
- Deployment planning and best practices
Hands-On Labs
- Configure the Cisco Meraki Dashboard
- Enable advanced features and optimize networking
- Troubleshoot the network using Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Day 2 – Scalable Network Design, Automation, Routing, QoS, and WAN
Module 5: Designing for Scalable Management and High Availability
- Scalable Meraki architecture
- Organization and network design
- High-availability concepts
- Device and network organization
- Using tags for scalable management
- Link aggregation and redundancy
- High-density network considerations
Module 6: Automating and Scaling Cisco Meraki Deployments
- Meraki Dashboard tools
- Templates and configuration standardization
- Network automation concepts
- Cisco Meraki APIs
- REST and JSON fundamentals
- Webhooks
- Automating repetitive administrative tasks
Module 7: Designing Routing on the Cisco Meraki Platform
- Routing fundamentals in Meraki environments
- Static and dynamic routing
- OSPF
- BGP concepts
- Routing between sites
- Network segmentation
- Routing considerations for scalable deployments
Module 8: QoS and Traffic Shaping Design
- Quality of Service concepts
- Traffic prioritization
- Application-aware policies
- Performance-based routing
- Traffic shaping
- Load balancing
- WAN optimization considerations
Module 9: Building VPN and WAN Topologies
- VPN fundamentals
- Site-to-site connectivity
- Auto VPN
- SD-WAN concepts
- Hub-and-spoke designs
- Full-mesh VPN designs
- WAN architecture considerations
Hands-On Labs
- Configure tags, link aggregation, port mirroring, and high-density SSIDs
- Configure routing on the Cisco Meraki platform
- Configure QoS, traffic shaping, and load balancing
Day 3 – Network Security, Switching, and Wireless
Module 10: Securing, Expanding, and Shaping the Network
- Network security architecture
- Layer 3 and Layer 7 firewall policies
- IDS/IPS
- Advanced Malware Protection concepts
- Security policies
- Network segmentation
- Threat mitigation
- Security monitoring
Module 11: Switched Network Concepts and Practices
- Cisco Meraki switching architecture
- Switch deployment concepts
- VLAN configuration
- Port configuration
- Network segmentation
- Virtual stacking
- Link aggregation
- Port mirroring
- Access policies
- Guest network considerations
Module 12: Wireless Configuration Practices and Concepts
- Meraki wireless architecture
- WLAN design principles
- Radio Frequency fundamentals
- SSID configuration
- RF profiles
- Wireless traffic shaping
- Guest authentication
- 802.1X
- Wireless Intrusion Detection System (WIDS)
- Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS)
- Air Marshal
- High-density wireless deployments
Hands-On Labs
- Configure network security
- Configure access policies and wireless guest access
- Configure SSIDs, RF profiles, and Air Marshal
Day 4 – Endpoint Management, Physical Security, Monitoring, Reporting, and Troubleshooting
Module 13: Endpoint Management Concepts and Practices
- Introduction to Cisco Meraki Systems Manager
- Endpoint management concepts
- Device enrollment
- Device profiles
- Application and policy management
- Device profile containerization
- Endpoint monitoring
Module 14: Physical Security Concepts and Practices
- Cisco Meraki physical security solutions
- MV smart cameras
- Camera configuration
- Video management
- Video retention
- Physical security monitoring
Module 15: Gaining Network Insight by Monitoring Applications
- Application visibility
- Network usage monitoring
- Client monitoring
- Application performance
- Identifying performance issues
- Using Dashboard analytics
Module 16: Preparing Monitoring, Logging, and Alerting Services
- Network monitoring strategies
- SNMP
- Syslog
- Webhooks
- Alerts and notifications
- Device health monitoring
- Network event monitoring
Module 17: Reporting and Auditing
- Dashboard reporting capabilities
- Network reports
- Administrative auditing
- Event logging
- Tracking configuration and operational activities
Module 18: Gaining Visibility and Resolving Issues Using Cisco Meraki Tools
- Dashboard troubleshooting tools
- Device connectivity troubleshooting
- Application performance troubleshooting
- Wireless troubleshooting
- Switching troubleshooting
- WAN and VPN troubleshooting
- Identifying and resolving network issues
- Troubleshooting best practices
Hands-On Labs
- Implement endpoint management
- Deploy and configure physical security devices
- Enable alerts and configure monitoring and reporting
- Troubleshoot a Cisco Meraki network
