Network provisioning

What this is forCopy Anchor Link

Your MikroTik routers are onboarded with a pasted script (see Add a router). Everything behind them, such as switches, sector access points, the radios on customers' roofs, home Wi-Fi routers and fibre equipment, is managed here.

Use provisioning when you want to:

• give a spare switch port a job, such as a new hotspot,
• move a sector radio to a cleaner frequency without cutting off the homes on it,
• change the Wi-Fi settings on every customer's home router at once,
• see at a glance which VLANs your network uses and which are set aside for later.

Who can use itCopy Anchor Link

If you can see the screen but have no New profile button, no Edit link on the VLAN plan and no frequency boxes on the radio plan, your role can look but not change. See Permissions.

Words you will seeCopy Anchor Link

The Provisioning screenCopy Anchor Link

Open Network in the sidebar, then click Provisioning in the page header.

• Config profiles lists every profile: its name and a one-line summary (for example "11 ports · trunk to core, 3 sectors"), its Role, Driver, Devices and Channels.
• The chips across the top filter by kind: All, Switches, Sectors, CPEs, Home routers, Hotspot and Fibre.
• Greyed-out rows are profiles kept ready for equipment you have not installed yet. Their summary starts with "reserved".
• The buttons in the header are Radio plan (frequencies for your sector and customer radios), Import from device and the black New profile.
• The Network VLAN plan on the right is the list of VLANs every profile uses.

Click any profile row to open it.

Check or change the VLAN planCopy Anchor Link

Every profile refers to VLANs by name (mgmt, pppoe, hotspot), never by number. The number behind each name lives here, once, for the whole network.

Each VLAN is either:

• LIVE: in use today. Devices carry and use it.
• RESERVED: set aside for later. It is already carried on your trunk links, so when you light it up nothing on the switches has to change. The example network reserves fibre-trunk (40) and ftth (50) for a future fibre rollout.

Give a switch port a new jobCopy Anchor Link

This walk-through turns the spare port ether9 on the Core switch into the uplink for a new hotspot at the school.

{
  "name": "ether9",
  "connectedTo": "Hotspot school",
  "mode": "access",
  "vlanName": "hotspot",
  "poe": "off"
}

What you can set on a portCopy Anchor Link

Use VLAN names exactly as they appear in the VLAN plan. While what you have typed is not complete, a red line under the box says what is wrong, for example "Not valid JSON. Check for a missing comma, quote or bracket." or "ether9 · vlanName: Required". The table keeps showing the saved ports and Review stays disabled until the box is valid again, so a half-finished edit can never be sent. Discard puts the box back to the saved ports.

Changing an uplink portCopy Anchor Link

If your change touches a port marked uplink, clicking Review opens This change touches a port marked uplink: "An uplink carries every other device's traffic on this switch." Type a Reason and the profile's name, then click Confirm. A mistake on an uplink port can cut the whole site off, so take the extra second.

Move a sector to a new frequencyCopy Anchor Link

Use this when a sector suffers interference, or when two of your own sectors are on the same frequency.

Why it happens in stagesCopy Anchor Link

If the sector changed frequency first, every home on it would lose signal until their radios found it again. So ImaraISP moves the customers' radios before the sector, as the CPEs follow their sector card on the radio plan explains:

1. Stage 1: every CPE on that sector is told to listen on the new frequency as well as the old one. Nobody notices; the sector has not moved.
2. Stage 2: once every online CPE has confirmed the new list, the sector switches. The CPEs re-connect within seconds.
3. Stage 3: a day later, the old frequency is removed from the CPEs' lists.

Billing and access are untouched throughout. Customers on the sector see at most a few seconds of reconnection during stage 2.

Follow a change to the endCopy Anchor Link

Every change, whether a switch port or a frequency, opens a progress page like this one.

The four counters at the top are:

Each device's row shows its Status:

• Applied (green): done.
• Queued, with a countdown such as 3:59: waiting for that device's next check-in.
• Offline "retry on return": the device is off. Nothing for you to do unless it stays off.
• Rolled back: the device lost contact after the change and restored its previous settings by itself. Check the change, then try again.
• Failed: the device did not accept the change. Check what you changed and try again. If one device keeps failing while others apply, check it is the make and model the profile is written for.

What changes on the right lists every difference, for example "Sector SE · frequency 5260 → 5300" and "18 CPEs · cleanup, drop 5260 after 24 h".

Cancel remaining stops the change reaching devices that have not received it yet. Devices already marked Applied keep it.

Starting stage 2 yourselfCopy Anchor Link

The Stage 2 · Sector card shows how many CPEs are online, how many have confirmed and how many are offline. Stage 2 starts on its own once every online CPE has confirmed. You can also:

• Schedule it for a quiet hour. The time box defaults to the next 02:00. Pick a time and click Schedule.
• Start sector now, if you cannot wait. This asks for confirmation:

"This drops every home on this sector immediately, whether or not every online CPE has confirmed the new scan list." Type a Reason and the sector's name exactly as shown (here Sector SE), then click Confirm. A CPE that has not confirmed yet will lose its connection until it finds the new frequency. Scheduling a time less than five minutes away asks for the same confirmation.

Create a new profileCopy Anchor Link

Starting settings that are accepted for each role:

Import from deviceCopy Anchor Link

If you already configured a device by hand, Import from device can read its settings back into a new profile, so you do not have to type them. Choose the Device kind (Router, or CPE / AP / Switch), paste the Device id and click Import. Not every make supports this. When it does not, the dialog says "This driver can't be imported from yet — it has no read-back support." In that case, create the profile with New profile.

Safety netCopy Anchor Link

• Switches roll back by themselves. Before a change, ImaraISP sends the switch a rollback instruction. If the switch does not check in within 5 minutes of the change, it restores its previous settings. A typo that cuts a switch off fixes itself.
• Dangerous actions ask you to type a name. Changing an uplink port asks for the profile name. Starting a sector early asks for the sector name. Both ask for a reason, and both are recorded.
• Nothing is instant. Changes reach each device at its next check-in, so a rollout takes minutes, not seconds. Watch the progress page rather than refreshing the device.
• Billing never changes. Provisioning changes device settings only. Customers' plans, balances and expiry dates are not touched.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link