Forwarding rules overrides - Failed to Save - Meraki Refuses to Fix

[MarcAEC]

I have several networks set up using templates.  And some sites have needs for port forwarding from the public IP address.  Rules are configured in Security & SD-WAN > Firewall in the Forwarding rules overrides section. 

Example:

This works once when the rules are initially added.  If I try to make any changes at all, though, saving fails with a generic "Failed to Save" error.  If I want to change the description of a rule, save fails.  If I want to add a rule, save fails.  If I accidentally left the protocol at UDP and try to change it to TCP, save fails. 

I opened a support case Feb 17 2020.  To get me through the immediate need, the work-around was eventually discovered that I need to delete all of the port forwarding rules and re-enter them all by hand. If I make a mistake during re-entry, I need to restart and delete everything again.

That was acceptable for a quick fix, but it's been almost a year now and the bug has not been fixed.  There is no indication that the issue is limited to me.  It probably impacts other customers that use templates and port forward overrides.  While I don't know the full details, I am a software developer myself and this seems like it could be fixed by a junior developer within a few hours. 

When I ask for an update of the case status, I'm told no update exists.  If I request an escalation, the request is denied.  I asked my VAR for assistance and he told me he's not getting responses.  (Oddly enough, he got a response when I asked for a quote to buy an additional license.) 

This is not the kind of support experience I expected from an enterprise network vendor.  I expected that bug reports would be triaged and worked into the development schedule.  There is a difference between prioritizing something and completely ignoring it.

I read a Veeam post about how their support system has an automatic escalation mechanism if a case has been open for too long.  With Meraki, there isn't even a way to manually escalate a case.

[PhilipDAth]

I can't say I've ever had a customer try and do that before, so it is probably a rare case.  I would say it is unlikely to be a feature Cisco Meraki will ever add.

I couple of thoughts:

• Can you generically add the port forwards to the template?
• The API works by replacing all the rules at once.  Perhaps it might allow this corner case.

[MarcAEC]

I'm not asking for them to add any features.  I'm just asking them to fix a bug in a feature they have already chosen to deliver.  It's not unreasonable to want them to do that in a timely manner. 

It wouldn't be correct to add the rules to the template because the port forwards are different at each site.