MS350 management interface and setup

[Silas1066]

I ordered a few Meraki MS350 switches, and I had a question about setup

There is a "management" interface, which is apparently different than the "uplink" interface?

I can't use VLAN1 or DHCP with these switches, because the previous network administrator put all the PCs in the office (and the servers) into VLAN1 and created DHCP scopes in there--our security auditors don't want VLAN1 being used for any network management.

Can I go into the management interface and statically set the IP address within a different VLAN (say 11) for the uplink interface?

I saw somewhere that the management interface IP has to be different from the uplink (on a different network), but the device uses the uplink interface to connect to the cloud/dashboard. Is this correct?

[Asavoy]

My MS320s are on VLANs with a /29 subnet, and they connect to a L3 3560 where the VLAN are defined.  The SVI on the 3560 uses the first address, the Meraki is set for it's interface (uplink) at the second address, with route/next hop set to the SVI address, and then the LAN IP/management address set to the third address.

I've found there's a slight wording difference between the Meraki Cloud interface and the device's local interface page- The local interface has an Uplink page which is actually the same as the LAN IP on the Cloud page, if that makes sense.

[MRCUR]

You can set the IP & VLAN (note that if you set a VLAN, the switch will tag packets with this VLAN - so if you want to use the native VLAN, this needs to be blank) via Dashboard or in the local UI on the Uplink tab. Just make sure that what you set in Dashboard is the same as what you set locally on the switch. The Dashboard config will override anything you set locally on the switch. 

[Silas1066]

So if I set the uplink port to use VLAN11 (192.168.11.10 for instance), that should work even if the native vlan on the upstream switch is NOT set to 11? 

The native vlan is 1, but I don't want to use that for the uplink.

[MRCUR]

Correct. If you set the MS to use VLAN 11 for management, it will acquire an IP from VLAN 11 and will tag packets for this traffic. 

[Silas1066]

Just to be clear --I want the uplink port (the one that connects to the cloud/dashboard) to use VLAN 11 and have a static address

The management port is on the back of the switch, and that can be anything

The reason I ask is that I have seen weird stuff like "the uplink port has to be in the native vlan" --I don't see why that would be the case

[Asavoy]

The uplink port, if trunked, has to match the native Vlan of the trunk port on the other end. However, like I said previously, Meraki terminology is just plain wrong between what it calls Uplink and management or LAN IP. It is a little confusing the way they interchange the terms.

One thing I can specifically tell you is that if you have an open port on the Meraki, duplicate your trunk information on it and put it in an inactive state. Then, anytime you need to make changes to the Uplink trunk you will have a backup in case things go awry. If the Meraki loses the ability to reach the cloud, there's really very limited things you can do to fix it via the local interface.

[Asavoy · Accepted solution]

Yes, VLAN11 will be it's IP.  Just remember that if it's uplink port is trunked, it will still need to be native VLAN 1.  The management VLAN can be set for a collection of switches (network in Meraki cloud), or in a single switch via the LAN IP config in dashboard, or via the 'uplink' tab in the local settings view.

[PhilipDAth]

Just to avoid you doing a lot of work for no reason - even though it is called a "management address" - you don't use it for network management.  This address is used for talking to the cloud.