Step-by-Step Installation
Step-by-Step Installation¶
The recommended (but not only) way to run Meraki-CLI on Windows is to run it on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This is because Meraki-CLI's tab-autocompletion feature is only supported on MacOS and Linux platforms. Running it inside Windows 10 WSL gives you this full tab-autocompletion functionality.
NOTE: Running WSL version 2 (which is now the default) requires virtualization features to be enabled in your PC's BIOS settings. The settings may be called VT-x, AMD-V, or SVM.
WSL is very quick and easy to install on your Windows 10/11 OS and should take about 10 minutes. Follow the below steps to install WSL, install Meraki-CLI, and set up tab-autocompletion.
- Click on the Start button and search for "features", click on the "Turn Windows features on and off" application
- Check the boxes for "Virtual Machine Platform" and "Windows Subsystem for Linux", click OK and reboot Windows once the installation completes
- Once logged back in, click on the Start button and search for "store", open the "Microsoft Store" application
- Search for "ubuntu" inside the store and click on the "Ubuntu 20.04" app (or the latest version available), then click the Get button to install it
- Once installation finishes, click the Open button to open WSL. It will ask you for a user name and password. Go through these prompts to set up WSL
- After setting it up, you will have a command prompt with something like
user@MYWIN10PC:~$
. Now we will perform a Linux Meraki-CLI installation - Run
sudo apt update
to pull the latest repository info- Provide your WSL password when prompted
- Run
sudo apt install python3-pip
to install the PIP Python package manager - Run
sudo pip3 install meraki-cli
to install the Meraki-CLI tool - Run
sudo activate-global-python-argcomplete
to activate the tab autocompletion featureNOTE: We are running this as
sudo
on purpose. The autocomplete feature must be installed and activated at the global level- You should just see the response "Installing bash completion script /etc/bash_completion.d/python-argcomplete"
- Exit the WSL window with
exit
- Reopen the WSL command window by finding the "Ubuntu" app in your start menu
- Run the
meraki
command and make sure you see the help output - Type
meraki
at the prompt and then hit the TAB key a few times - You now should see all the arguments/switches/commands available to you
Meraki-CLI can be installed natively on MacOS and be used through the Terminal application. Follow the below steps to install Meraki-CLI on MacOS.
- In order to use Meraki-CLI on MacOS, you need to have Python 3 installed. If you do not yet have Python 3 installed, visit this Python 3 Installation Instructions Page and install for your operating system.
- Once Python3 is installed, open your Terminal application by navigating in Finder to Applications > Utilities > Terminal
- Run
pip3 install meraki-cli
to install the Meraki-CLI tool - Run the command
curl -fs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PackeTsar/meraki-cli/master/.zprofile >> ~/.zprofile
to add commands to your terminal profile which will enable tab-autocompletion on startup - Close the Terminal application and re-open it
- Run the
meraki
command and make sure you see the help output - Type
meraki
at the prompt and then hit the TAB key a few times - You now should see all the arguments/switches/commands available to you
The recommended way to run Meraki-CLI on Windows is to use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) because it supports tab-autocompletion. But you can also install Meraki-CLI natively on Windows. Follow the below steps to install natively on Windows.
- In order to use Meraki-CLI on native Windows, you need to have Python 3 installed. If you do not yet have Python 3 installed, visit this Python 3 Installation Instructions Page and install for your operating system.
- Once Python3 is installed, click on the Start button and search for "command", click on the "Command Prompt" application
- Run
pip3 install meraki-cli
to install the Meraki-CLI tool - Run the
meraki
command and make sure you see the help output
The instructions here describe installation of Meraki-CLI on an Ubuntu 20 OS. Other distros may require slightly different commands.
- Run
sudo apt update
to pull the latest repository info - Provide your password when prompted
- Run
sudo apt install python3-pip
to install the PIP Python package manager - Run
sudo pip3 install meraki-cli
to install the Meraki-CLI tool - Run
sudo activate-global-python-argcomplete
to activate the tab autocompletion featureNOTE: We are running this as sudo on purpose. The autocomplete feature must be installed and activated at the global level
- You should just see the response "Installing bash completion script /etc/bash_completion.d/python-argcomplete"
- Log out and back into the OS to restart BASH and enable tab-autocompletion
- Run the
meraki
command and make sure you see the help output - Type
meraki
at the prompt and then hit the TAB key a few times - You now should see all the arguments/switches/commands available to you
Once fully installed, follow the instructions in Getting Your API Key section to obtain and plug-in your Meraki Dashboard API key.