Management VLAN

[Slobs2]

New admin to meraki so just trying to figure something out. I will be getting two 425s for my core, stacked together. What I am trying to grasp is the management network. I know each switch in the stack will need an IP for manament but how will this work at the core?  If my management subnet is 10.95.0.0/24 and VLAN is 95 does that mean that setting the management VLAN to 95 and setting one of the switches as the 10.95.0.1 gateway mean it will route? Would the stack layer 3 interface need to be the .1 address and the other switches be .2 and .3? Or does the management network need to be part of the inside firewall network?

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

The first thing to note for the core switches (which will shape a lot of the rest of the answer) is the management IP (which is primary only used by the switch to talk to the cloud) must be in the subnet to the uplink to the Internet.  The management network can not use the switch as the default gateway.  The management network does not use the routing table in the switch.

The default gateway of the management interface must point to the IP address of your firewall/router providing Internet access.

[MRCUR]

This is definitely an oddity of Meraki MS devices currently. As @PhilipDAth points out, you cannot use a L3 interface you've created on the stack as the stack's Dashboard uplink (management). While some people have reported this works, it is NOT supported so you're better off using the link between the stack and your firewall as the management interface.