Features update emails are fun to read and they can be very exciting. A recent email from Joel on all the hard work these fine folks at Hamina are doing and new features caught my attention. One of the features I have been waiting on and was looking forward to try was Integration with Mist. It looks like Hamina Network Planner now supports integrations with Juniper-Mist, Cisco-Meraki, Aruba and Arista.
Let’s give it a shot and see how it works. Step one would be to create a new project and then click on the “Import” button:
Next choose your vendor; I’ll be using Mist to test out this feature.
After inputting the “Mist API Key” and hitting Continue, following screen comes up. Hamina will pull your Org and all the sites. It allows you to import all your access points used/unused, Floor plans, AP locations, Power and Channel plan.
Once I enabled different options, there are a few things to pay attention to as shown below with red arrows.
- Locations and names of already imported APs will be replaced
- Auto-channel assignment will be disabled for this project
I have total of 3 APs that are active, but since I do not have one of the APs on the map, it obviously wouldn’t show up here. It looks like there are couple of options here:
- Update the map in the Mist dashboard and add that access point on the map and re-import in Hamina
- Add it in Hamina and from under the “MAC & Serial” drop down, choose the access point. Keep in mind doing this will not import the Channel and Transmit power. That will require another import after placing the AP on the map in the Mist Dashboard.
After updating the UI with the third access point and re-importing in Hamina Network Planner. My third AP45 is now showing up with the updated channels and transmit power.
My Wish List
- I’d like to get better understanding of how the signal propagation works, how it is being displayed.
- Is it using a predictive model based on the transmit power
- Any chance of using the beam density/coverage, (x,y coordinates and rssi values that clients experienced)
- See channel utilization and wall calibration if there was a predictive design present.
- Would love to see the import also import any SSR, SRX and EX series switches.
- Using the LLDP information, update AP to Switch/Switch Port information that can be added to a Post Validation Report.
As always awesome work from the Hamina team. Very excited to have this update.