Azure vMX - UK South DC

MerakiCrazy31
Here to help

Azure vMX - UK South DC

Hi All,

 

I'm looking at whether we should start to move our customers to to Virtual MX's for those we have in Azure.

 

However, Just running through the Azure wizard, it doesn't allow me to create a VM in anywhere other than the US. Is this correct? Most of our customers are in the UK, so deploying it into the US wouldn't be great for latency.

 

 

9 REPLIES 9
Uberseehandel
Kind of a big deal

The vMX has definitely been deployed in the past in UKSouth and UKWest. But it was sensitive as to the type of subscription, and those two data centres have, historically, had capacity problems. I also have been advised that demand for Cloud Services is up 20+% since Covid-19 became an issue.

 

All things considered, its still better than trying to get a home delivery from Waitrose. I can get at my shared Cloud storage which is encrypted at rest and in transit. 😎😎

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I've deployed VMXs in many Azure regions around the world.  It is definitely not limited to just the US.

 

A long time ago their used to be an issue with using it with CSP tenancies.  I haven't had this issue of late.  You could try this workaround in case you are affected by it.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Installation_Guides/vMX100_Setup_Guide_for_Microsoft_Azure#vMX10... 

Hi Philip,

We're deploying a vMX100 in a Telstra CSP tenancy in Australia South East. Telstra tell us that Meraki is not suported in their CSP and has not been for a while, but from your notes that appears to be resolved now using the workaround.

Can you please confirm, do you still need to use the workaround or should that not be required any longer?

 

The issue we have is that we can get the appliance deployed, we just can't get the appliance to check in to the Meraki Dashboard.

 

Cheers

Sean Rennick

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I don't know anything about the Telstra CSP tenancy, but you no longer need any work arounds with CSPs on Azure anymore.  It now "just works".

 

But you say that "Telstra tell us that Meraki is not suported in their CSP".  Perhaps Telstra has limited what you can get from the normal Azure marketplace (I don't understand why, unless they want to restrict their customers for commercial reasons) - and if that is the case the workaround should work, assuming their aren't additional Telstra restrictions.

 

If Telstra really are preventing you from using apps from the Azure market place - I think I would re-consider using them.

Thanks Philip,

 

I don't think Telstra's CSP deal is that different to others and to be honest I don't think the Telstra rep we were talking to is up to date with the latest developments. When searching the Azure Apps Marketplace we can see the VMX100 purchase  and it deploys (we can get to the local Meraki status page and it gets an external IP address and it picks up the MAC ID which matches the Meraki Dashboard) but it just won't check in to the Meraki Dashboard and the local status page says something about ports being blocked or not open for access to Dashboard.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Cheers
Sean

 

 

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I would start buy opening the Azure console and see what the VMX is saying on its console.  It might give a hint as to the problem.

 

Failing that and assuming the VMX has full access out - then this is probably a Meraki issue.  I would open up a case with Meraki.  Sometimes they seem to have to do something to make it sync its initial config.

 

Also note the first time it comes online it can take 20 minutes to upgrade its firmware.

Thanks Philip we'll blow it all away tomorrow and have another crack. There was a hint coming up on the VMX100 Local Status page about checking if port 7176 (?) is open so we will try and recreate this issue and take it back to Meraki.

 

@pushinpackets  I notice you had weighed into a recent article about problems deploying a VMX100 in Australia East data centre are you able to weigh in on this too?

 

Cheers
Sean

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Just remember to not get too excited for the first 20 or so minutes after deployment till it completes the initial firmware upgrade.

Thanks - will do.

Get notified when there are additional replies to this discussion.