MS120-8FP with MR52 access points

[Karl_Jacobsen]

Hi all,

     Question about the MS120-8FP. I work at a college and we have a couple of small dorms on campus. We are all Meraki for our wifi but we're currently running Cisco Catalyst switches. Several of the dorms are only using two MR52 APs to cover the area in the building. I need to replace the 24 port Catalyst switch but all I need from the switch is to be able to run the two APs, and maybe one other device like a printer or an IP camera so I need 5 or 6 Ethernet ports. I was thinking about swapping our Catalyst switches for Meraki MS120-8FP switches. The AP's are PoE and we're only running two of them. If I do this will the MS120 be able to support link aggregation? The AP's have two ports on them so they can support up to 2Gb throughput per AP.

[BrandonS]

I don't think the MR53 uses link aggregation like you are thinking of.  Check the data sheet to see about the 2.5 Gbps Multigigabit Ethernet Port: https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/mr53

Here is more detail including Meraki switches that support this: https://meraki.cisco.com/lib/pdf/meraki_multigigabit_solution_guide.pdf

Best

[CJ_Ramsey]

The post above is referring to the MR52 which includes 2x1G uplinks. You are referencing the MR53 which has 1x1G & 1xMgig uplinks. In the case of the 53, you could choose to utilize both ports; however they would both then perform at 1G speeds. This would be useful if you did not have access to Mgig switching infrastructure. Either way, the aggregation is done on the switch side and not within the MR configuration.

[CJ_Ramsey · Accepted solution]

Yes, the MS120-8FP will support 802.3ad link aggregation for up to 8 ports. All you would need to do is select the 2 ports connected to the MR52 and click aggregate. Here is the data sheet and install guide:

https://meraki.cisco.com/lib/pdf/meraki_datasheet_ms120_compact.pdf

https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Port_and_VLAN_Configuration/Switch_Ports#SwitchPorts-LinkAggrega...

[Brons2]

Yes the MS120 will support the aggregation but I would suggest that there may be other limitations to the 120s that you're not thinking about.  For example these only support a 1G uplink.  You'd need to aggregate your uplinks as well, in order to support 2Gbit to the APs.  And while the 120 does support VLANs it's more like L2+, basically only supports static routing.

The MS250-24 is the smallest switch that supports L3.  It also supports redundant power, which I would suggest is pretty important if you don't want to be troubleshooting an AP outage in the middle of the night.  And it has 10G uplinks.  I have a bunch of these and they are great switches.

If you don't have the budget for that, the smallest switch that supports 10G uplinks is the MS125-24.

[Karl_Jacobsen]

Thanks for the comment... Are you sure about the uplinks? According to Meraki's page, it lists the MS120-8 as having 2X1Gb SFP uplinks. While a agree with the benefits of having 10Gb uplinks, the fiber runs to these buildings only support 1Gb per pair. This combined with no need to have 20+ unused ports hardly seems like a good allocation of funds. Saving about $800 per switch makes sense. 

[Brons2]

Yes, the 2x 1GSFP is why I referenced needing to aggregate the uplinks as well.  However, if you don't have something that supports 10G on the other end I guess the point is moot.