Connectivity Issues with Meraki MX67 Switches - Seeking Assistance

[Alex_3dEYE]

Hello Tech Support Community,

I hope this message finds you well. I'm currently facing some connectivity issues with my Meraki MX67 switches and would greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions from the community.

Here's the situation: I have several Meraki MX67 switches in service, with a cloud connector connected to one of the ports and multiple IP cameras connected to the other ports. Initially, everything functions smoothly, but after some time – intermittently days or weeks – I encounter problems. Specifically, the cloud box stops detecting one or a few cameras while maintaining normal operation with others. This happens without any user input, cameras just stop being visible to cloud connector.

My suspicion is that the firewall might be causing this disruption, potentially flagging the traffic between the cloud box and IP cameras as suspicious and blocking the connection. However, despite thorough checks, I cannot find any relevant information in the firewall configuration.

To give you more details, I've verified that all network parameters for both the cloud box and IP cameras are correct. I haven't configured any manual rules to filter local traffic, and both the cameras and cloud box can be accessed from other computers on the network. The only issue lies in the connectivity between the cloud box and the IP cameras. I even tried to change the local IP address of the camera but this does not resolve the problem. The cloud box cannot even ping the camera.

Has anyone in the community experienced similar problems with Meraki MX67 switches or has insights on where I could look to identify the root cause of this issue? I would greatly appreciate any guidance or recommendations to troubleshoot and resolve this connectivity problem.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

[DarrenOC]

Hi @Alex_3dEYE , I would say the reverse here and state that the MX isn’t the issue.  With a firewall your connections are either blocked or allowed with no in between I.e it either works or it doesn’t.

Are you on the latest code for all devices involved?  What does the CPU look like on the MX?  I would assume here it’s idling quite nicely.  Anything being reported in the event logs?

[Alex_3dEYE]

The connection works at first for a few days or even weeks but then all of a sudden the camera stops working and when I start tracing back what is going on I discover that both camera and cloud box are working well but cannot talk to each other. I tried pinging the camera from the cloud box but the ping request is not getting through. At the same time a lot of other cameras are working fine on the same cloud box. The weird part is that a 3rd device on the same network can easily reach both camera and cloud box, this further suggests that the network configuration of all devices is appropriate and the issue is only in the link between cloud box and camera.
I'm not sure I understand this question though:
Are you on the latest code for all devices involved?
What code do you refer to?

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions.

[GreenMan]

I'd suggest you use the packet capture feature of the MX firewall (which makes it quite different from a switch) to see what's going on.   Remember that, by default, the MX will allow the outbound traffic from the camera (check your config to confirm this) but the corresponding inbound traffic in reply is only pemitted for as long as the session is active on the MX - and so long as the ports match.   If the camera stops sending for long enough, the MX will block any traffic from the cloud box towards the camera.  You probably should setup syslog from the MX to a compatible receiver, to get more detail, if it seems the MX is indeed dropping packets.

[Alex_3dEYE]

Thank you for the suggestions. I will check this out.