Appliance Settings

Dashboard Location: Security and SD-WAN > Configure > Addressing & VLANs

Appliance settings in Meraki provide comprehensive network infrastructure configuration including deployment modes, client tracking methods, and dynamic DNS services. These fundamental settings define how the appliance operates within the network architecture, manages client connectivity, and integrates with external services. Proper appliance configuration is essential for network performance, security policy enforcement, and operational visibility across diverse deployment scenarios.

Example-1: The example below demonstrates appliance settings configuration.

This configuration manages MX appliance operational parameters and deployment settings. The example includes client tracking methods, deployment modes, dynamic DNS settings, and appliance-specific operational controls for network infrastructure management.

This configuration defines core appliance operational settings including “client_tracking_method: MAC address” for identifying clients by their hardware addresses (alternative is IP address tracking), “deployment_mode: routed” enabling Layer 3 routing functionality with inter-VLAN communication and firewall services, and dynamic DNS with “prefix: my-network” and “enabled: true” creating an automatically updated DNS hostname.

The routed mode provides full networking capabilities including NAT, firewall, VPN, and traffic shaping, while the dynamic DNS feature enables external access to the network using a persistent hostname even with changing public IP addresses.

meraki:
  domains:
    - name: !env domain
      administrator:
        name: !env org_admin
      organizations:
        - name: !env org
          networks:
            - name: !env network_name
              product_types:
                - appliance
                - switch
                - wireless
                - camera
                - sensor
                - cellularGateway
              appliance:
                settings:
                  client_tracking_method: "MAC address"
                  deployment_mode: routed
                  dynamic_dns:
                    prefix: "my-network"
                    enabled: true