VLANs from Meraki MX84 to Cisco SG350X Switch

[CBCAV]

Hello all,

I need help assigning VLANs from my Meraki MX84 to our SG350X switches. Here is what I have setup:

VLAN 1: 172.30.0.0/21 MX IP 172.30.7.254

VLAN 3: 10.0.8.0/24 MX IP 10.0.8.254

Per-Port VLAN Settings: Port 3 (Trunk) Native VLAN1 (Default) w/ All VLANS allowed. Port 6 (trunk) is setup for VLAN3, when I connect my computer to it directly everything works and I get an IP under the 10.0.8.x range.

Next I went to my Cisco SG350X and created a new VLAN:

And an additional static IP for VLAN 3 (10.0.8.1 w/ mask 255.255.255.0).

I then went to the Port to VLAN settings and set Port 5 to Untagged.

After doing all of that I connected directly to that port and after about a minute I get an APIPA IP. I can't figure out what's going wrong. I can ping my MX gateway 10.0.8.254, but I get 100% packet failure when I ping the VLAN static IP on the switch 10.0.8.1.

I'm new at the networking side of things (currently working on A+, Networks + certs). Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[KarstenI]

A couple of things to question here:

1. Why do you put an IP on the Switch-VLANs? It should be either on the MX *or* on the Switch. You only have IPs on both for the transfer-VLAN between them.
2. You show that you have configured Port 5 as Access, but not for which VLAN.
3. You say you get an APIPA-address but can ping the MX-IP. Probably something happened in between these two events as that can not happen.

[DarrenOC]

Why the need to create the VLAN interfaces on your SG?  Simply connect a single trunk from the MX (add the Native VLAN) and allow all VLANs through.

On the SG configure a trunk and create your L2 VLANs.

[CBCAV]

Yeah makes sense now that I don't need to create the VLANs through the SG since I made them through Meraki.

So if I understand everything correctly. VLAN 3 is created on Meraki and since the single cable from Meraki to the SG is setup with the native VLAN and allows access to the other VLANs I just need to change Port 5, on the SG, to trunk mode And then I set a static IP on my device that's hardlined to Port 5?

[KarstenI]

Is it your PC on port 5? Then it should be Access in your User-VLAN (probably 3).

The Link between MX and SG is trunk on both sides with the same native VLAN and the same allows VLANs. And if you enable the DHCP-server on the MX, your client should get a DHCP-address from the MX.

[CBCAV]

Port 5 is connected to the patch panel which runs to my office. I have two RJ45 ports in my office. I want Port 5 to be VLAN3 so I can run my "home lab" equipment and have it separate from our default VLAN.

[KarstenI]

Ok, if all devices behind port5 should be in VLAN3, then configure the port as Access with VLAN 3.

[CBCAV]

Gotcha! So this is where I'm still puzzled. Since VLAN 3 is configured through MX and I have Port 5 setup as trunk, do I just assign static IPs to the devices connected via Port 5 since Meraki acts as my DHCP? Or are there settings I need to do in SG?

[KarstenI · Accepted solution]

If VLAN 3 is configured on the Link to the MX and is also the VLAN configured on Port 5, you can transparently communicate from the Port5-systems to the MX. You could assign your IPs statically, but you could also use the DHCP on the MX. If you want to configure your Lab-devices statically, then configure a range of reserved addresses on the MX DHCP-server to avoid any conflicts.

[CBCAV]

Gotcha! I just configured everything via VPN will be in the office later today to test it out. Thanks for your help!