MX64 VPN dropping for users (started on Mar 22, 2022)

[CarlosCoque]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday morning I started to have an issue with Meraki VPN that would keep dropping our users from the VPN very frequently during the day.

Today morning, I kept receiving the same complaints so far.

I called my ISP and asked them if there could be anything going on with our modem, but after checking that from their end they confirmed that everything was fine with the modem.

We also have another firewall from a different brand connected to the same modem and that VPN is not dropping at all.

Yesterday, after the issue started to happen, I updated MX64 to the latest firmware version, but it hasn't made any change.

I opened a case with Meraki support but they are focusing as if the issue is with our workstations asking if we updated the computers recently.

From my perspective, everything points out to the MX64 being the cause of the issue.

What I noticed checking Meraki's event log this morning was that I started to have a lot of "Events dropped" logs entries yesterday and today.

I checked in the event log for prior occurrences of those messages and had just a couple of those in the last 4 years or so.

That way I believe those can be related to the issue I'm having.

Right now, I'm still trying to get some useful help from Meraki but decided to check if anyone in this group could help me as well.

Did anyone have any issue with that before?

Thanks,

Carlos

UPDATE:

What ended up working for us so far (it's been almost 1.5 days with no reported VPN disconnection) was to shut down our internet modem then the Meraki MX64, disconnect the cables, spray some compressed air in the connection inputs on both pieces of equipment, then turn everything on.

After that, we haven't seen any "Events dropped" entries in the logs and no complaints about VPN drops anymore.

[Make_IT_Simple]

how many users connect to this MX64? do you see the same problem with other computers connected from other physical locations?

[CarlosCoque]

We have about 35 users in that firewall and probably 25 connected during the day. The issue seems to affect all users the same way. We have about 5 people working remotely from other countries and they have the same issues as our remote users working from our location.

[PhilipDAth]

I'm assuming all users drop at the same time.  Is this the case?

Try asking Meraki support when the MX last rebooted, and see if it coincides with a VPN drop.  Perhaps it has become unstable and started crashing for some reason.

Is it perhaps happening every 2 or 4 hours?  I can't remember the time frame, but when the MX attempts to do a firmware upgrade and it fails, it keeps repeating the process every 2 or 4 hours (can't remember which one - one of those).  That could kick users off.

The dashboard reports what version the MX should be running, not the version it actually is running.  So ask support to check the MX completed its firmware upgrade ok, and is running the version reported by the dashboard.

[CarlosCoque]

Here is what I see on Meraki dashboard:

Yesterday Switch was showing as Up-to-date and Wireless and Security appliance had updates.

I updated those but haven't restarted the Security appliance myself because I suppose that the upgrade process does that already.

Now, it seems there is an update for the switches, that I'm planning to do at night.

Not all VPN clients drop at the same time, but I noticed sometimes that some people drop at the same time as me, because they message me.

Then, I message some other people and they confirm they're still online.

It's a weird issue and I'm not sure what else to look for

[BlakeRichardson]

How many people are connecting to the VPN on the MX? 

[CarlosCoque]

We have 34 users in total and at this time 9 are connected.

During a regular day, though, we have about 20 to 25 concurrent users.

We've been using this for almost 4 years now and never had an issue like that.

[PhilipDAth]

By chance, do all the users having an issue use the same ISP (you'll need to ask them who they use)?

[CarlosCoque]

They don't use the same ISP because there are people in other countries and they have the same issues.