Continue to struggle with past video review while on LAN

[EJN]

Setup: all Meraki switches connected to a Juniper SRX1500 managed gateway by Comcast (Fiber 2 Gbps). 110 MV cameras connected to the switches, all PoE. Also 43 MR APs throughout.

Struggle: when I try to view historical video (whether 1 hour back or 1 day or 1 week), almost always (but not always), I get the waiting dial and cannot display the video. Sometimes it shows the green checkmark, sometimes not. Accessing from a wired laptop on the LAN. Viewing live video always works (live/now/present time).

If I use the iOS App, it works fine every time.

If I connect remotely (from home or a non-Meraki WiFi), it works fine every time.

Happens on Safari on Mac, Chrome on Windows, Firefox on Windows.

Firmware up-to-date.

I've opened multiple cases with support, but we haven't been able to find a solution. It always works OK for support because they are accessing remotely.

It happens on any camera, on any laptop on our LAN. Sometimes it works, but I would say 90% of the time it doesn't.

I'm approaching high level of frustration with management and those who need to see historical video. I keep asking for patience and use workarounds (iOS or non-Meraki WiFi), but obviously these are not ideal and need to find a solution.

Most frustrating is that sometimes it works OK (but very rarely, almost never).

Any tips on how to troubleshoot next?

[ww]

Are you using bride mode on ssid?

Try whitelist a client where you test from and then try again.

[EJN]

The cameras and the laptop are both wired. Or are you suggesting I checking my SSID settings regardless?

[ww]

Missed that part, i thought problem was when connected to meraki wifi.

Did you try from a laptop that is in the same vlan as the cameras?

[EJN]

Yes. Flat LAN (no VLANs).

[cmr]

Do you have an IGMP querier set on the VLAN interface?

[EJN]

Need help with this one. I don't think so?

[cmr]

Are the Meraki switches the gateway on the VLAN that the cameras are on?  If so on that interface there is a setting to enable it.

 

[EJN]

Should I enable it? We have a flat LAN (no VLANs configured; something I want to do in the future). We have an MS390 configured as our Core switch. This core switch routes all traffic to the Juniper SRX1500 gateway.

[cmr]

Yes, at worst it will do nothing.

[Ryan_Miles]

Sent you a DM

[EJN]

Looking now.

[PhilipDAth]

My memory is a little shaky on the exact specifics for this.

The MVs register themselves into a magic DNS zone called something like devices.meraki.direct.  For this to work, the DNS server you are using has to know about the ".direct" zone, and not try and perform a normal recursive lookup.

I've struck many ISP routers that don't do this correctly.

To fix this I usually have DHCP give out the Google DNS servers directly, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

If you want, you can manually configure the DNS servers on one MV to confirm this is the issue.

This issue only happens when you are on the same LAN as the MVs, as that uses the "direct" method.  When you are outside of the network it has to stream through a Meraki proxy so that case always works.

[PhilipDAth]

Correction, you'll need to manually configure the DNS servers on both the MV and the machine you are viewing the footage on.  Actually, I think it might only be the device you are viewing the footage on that requires this, but if you determine this is the issue - it's just easier to change DHCP and be done with it.

[EJN]

I'll check on this tomorrow on-site, but my memory tells me DHCP is configured for our internal Dell servers running Windows 2019.

[cmr]

@EJN I think @PhilipDAth is right, we mainly use traditional IP cameras and they need the multicast setup I was talking about.

I found this from an old MV12 manual:

DNS Configuration

Each MV12 will generate a unique domain name to allow for secured direct streaming functionality. These domain names resolve an A record for the private IP address of the camera. Any public recursive DNSserver will resolve this domain.

If utilizing an onsite DNS server, please whitelist *.devices.meraki.direct or configure a conditional forwarder so that the local domains are not appended to *.devices.meraki.direct and that these domain requests are forwarded to Google public DNS

[cmr]

To set this, there are some instructions here that may help:

https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Windows_Server_2019&p=dns&f=11

[EJN]

Is this the correct way to add Conditional in my DNS settings?

[PhilipDAth]

That should work fine then, as long as they are ultimately forwarding the DNS query out to DNS servers on the Internet, rather than to the ISP router DNS.

[PhilipDAth]

When you are watching a live stream of a camera on-premise, do you get the symbol in the bottom left saying it is direct streaming, or does it say it is using the cloud proxy?

If it says cloud stream - you have the DNS issue.

If it says direct - DNS is fine.

I assume you are running a stable firmware or a better version of firmware?  I'm running the latest 4.17 and that seems to be going well for me.

[EJN]

I'm on MV4.17 firmware. Sometimes I get the cloud and sometimes the check mark (which I think is related to the problem). Sometimes it will show the check mark and then switch to cloud.

[packet_pusher]

We are having this exact issue. Did you ever find a resolution?

[PhilipDAth]

Did you try changing the DNS of the camera and the viewing machine to something like 8.8.8.8?

[packet_pusher]

Yes, that has not made a difference. We use internal DNS servers and have a conditional forward setup for devices.meraki.direct to 8.8.8.8. We have also tested manually setting client DNS servers to 8.8.8.8. We have a case open with Meraki support, but so far have not found a solution. 

[EJN]

Sorry for late replies. Meraki confirmed to me that it was known bug, but were unable to provide a fix date. They were able to replicate on their end.

In a nutshell, for reason unknown to me at this points, on most occasions, at some point, the view will be black with the spinning wheel. On some days it works OK, on most it does not. Live usually works OK (view live now), but going back in time creates the spinning wheel. You can usually go to one point in time in the past, but if you start scrolling fwd or back, the black screen shows up. Or if you skip to a different time. Going live almost always works OK.

For a long time the suspect was DNS, but Meraki said that was not the case as they were able to replicate and said it was a known issue with some clients.

Case for reference 08530342. This one is the most recent/active/open one. I have multiple cases on this in the past.

[Ryan_Miles]

You're running 4.20 which is now deprecated. You may want to test the current beta 5.0 which has a number of fixes. Support is going to advise you either run the latest stable, RC, or beta.

In general, software engineering will usually never focus on troubleshooting deprecated firmware and rather will ask to start from a current firmware build/train.