Behavior when cloud connectivity is lost for a longer period

[ArshadSafrulla]

Hi Experts,

I have a couple of switches deployed at a remote location where the Internet connection is via 4G, and its very unstable where the connectivity can be lost for almost 2-3 months at a stretch until the next field visit is scheduled (Due to covid frequency has been reduced). I have been made to understand according to below document that if the switch configuration is safe it will not reboot.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Cross-Platform_Content/Behavior_during_Conne....

My questions are 

1. How long Meraki switch will be forwarding traffic when offline?

2. How the licensing restrictions are enforced on a offline switch? (if it reaches the expiry date)

3. In case of emergency can we assign the VLAN's using the local page? (no other fancy requirements like dot1x etc.)

4. How to make sure that the configuration is safe?

[Brash · Accepted solution]

1. Meraki switches should continue forwarding indefinitely if they lose cloud access (at least as long as the license allows)

2. That's a good question. I would assume it stays running until next time it becomes cloud connected but I've never tested this (I'd say very few people have). Might be a good question for your Meraki rep.
 
3. You can make some changes to switchport configuration and uplink configuration. It's primarily designed is to be able to get the switch cloud connected again after a potentially incorrect configuration change - Using the Cisco Meraki Device Local Status Page - Cisco Meraki

4. Depends on what you mean... Meraki configuration that has been applied more that 30 minutes ago (and the device has not rebooted) is considered 'safe', which then has implications on what happens if it loses access to the cloud. Behavior during Connection Loss to Cisco Meraki Cloud - Cisco Meraki
In terms of backing up configuration, it's not exactly a requirement given all configuration is cloud managed but there's a few tools (paid and not paid) that enable this function - IFM - Backup Meraki Config to an offine file

[Jeizzen]

For point # 4, it is correct for the safe configuration

Just a little twist about the time an MR needs to be connected to cloud

if you want to put MR in Site Survey Mode and use 5 or 6GHZ band during that survey, MR will need to be connected to the cloud for at least 2 hours, instead of 30 minutes for the safe configuration

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Wi-Fi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Conducting_Site_Surveys_with_MR_...

[Franz1879]

Hi all, 

If I understand well, If I configure i.e. a Meraki MS Switch for the first time connecting it to the Cloud but I power off the Switch before of 30mins, all the configurations done are lost on the device. So when the devices is powered on again, it will start with the default configuration  (it means all port in Trunk Native VLAN 1) ?

The question is because I've staged a stack of switches but when I stared installing it to my customer that switches was without any configuration. This colud be a problem if the switches are installed as Edge Devices with Internet devices (Internet Router/Firewall)  connecting to an Access Port with a specific VLAN (not vlan 1)

Thanks

Francesco