MX celluar link state

Kenneth
Getting noticed

MX celluar link state

So I am doing a write up on the cellular failover function for the MX, and as it happens it is, as they say, easy to set up and fail over pretty good. But the one thing I'm missing is monitoring the cellular link. The link state ready does not reflect that it has "checked in" with the provider and has an external IP as I understand it. So my question is if there is a way to provide this, maybe a scripted solution that fails over by disabling the Primary WAN and checks for activity or something else? 
Anyone I open to suggestions?

4 REPLIES 4
jdsilva
Kind of a big deal

Hi @Kenneth,

 

If you look at the "Uplink" tab of the MX Appliance status page you can see the IP information, signal strength, and provider info for your cellular uplink. Does that help?

 

As well, I believe the connection monitor is running on the cell link as well.

 

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX-Z/Firewall_and_Traffic_Shaping/Connection_Monitoring_for_WAN_Fai...

 

If those tests fail then the cell interface is marked as "Failed" as opposed to "Ready"

Am I wrong in thinking that this feature is only available for WAN 1/2
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

If you are using a USB based cellular link it does not get brought online until the primary WAN circuit has failed.

 

So alas you can't monitor if it is working until you need to use it.

 

 

If you use a 4G style hot spot with Ethernet connections, you can plug it into the WAN port of an MX.  Then it is always online.  It is easier to check this way.

Well just like I thought, the USB offers no guarantie that the 4G connection is OK and ready. Off course this 99% of the times it works just fine, but sometimes these adapters fail. Maybe it is possible to script a testing method that takes down the WAN uplink and forces a failover on regular basis (every night i.ex.

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