Need help in configuring MS120-8FP Interface VLANs

[ShadowoftheDark]

Hi,

I'd like to ask some help regarding this setup i'm planning.

I have a site that's currently in this setup

From above have an old C1900 router that's on a point to point link at our main site. Gi0/1 is connected to the VM Server and its Gi0/2 is towards the internet.

We're planning on replacing the setup with below. We want to replace the C1900 with a MX65W and an MS120-8FP switch. WAN1 will connect towards the Internet while port1 will be the downstream.

Now here's the question. From what I've read, MX65W follows the same concept that its best to only have 1 downstream port so I cannot use the other ports in it besides port1, i.e. I'll have to connect my point to point link to the MS120. In doing this I have to assign a VLAN to it since it's now delegated as an access port. I'm kind of confused if the pic below is the same as configuring L3 interfaces in switches in Cisco devices

since I tried configuring the interface ip 10.1.1.2/30 in it but I can't seem to ping it from the MX65W (I must have done something wrong in the routing I guess). 

If its not the equivalent of an L3 port in Cisco switches, should I add the interface in the MX65W instead and configure and its VLAN on port1? This is what I initially did but I was not able to pint the 10.1.1.2 /30 on the switch. 

On the port3 question, I have assigned vlan 100 for the port facing the VM server, should I still add a 10.1.100.0/24 ip to the switch to act as a next hop towards the MX65W? I can't seem to find a default gateway setting in the switch (so all tunspecified raffic should go out the internet).

Any help about this topic is greatly appreciated. I'm trying to understand the nuances of a MS120-8FP port since I'm not used to it.

Thanks!

[Ryan_Miles]

MS120-8FP is not a layer 3 switch. So, in this design you'll need to put all the L3 interfaces on your MX and use your switch has basic L2 transport.

So, make port 1 on the switch a trunk. Create the L3 interfaces/subnets on the MX. I assume the /30 to the main site is just a LAN type link essentially? What traffic will take that route? You'll need static(s) on the MX to send traffic destined for the main site to the next hop 10.1.1.1 (guessing that's the IP of the far end).

[ShadowoftheDark]

Thanks m8, I'll be testing the config over the weekend. just have to get the ip of the switch set first lol i can't seem to move it out of DHCP

[Brash · Accepted solution]

The image you provided is for creating a routed vlan interface (or SVI) on a Meraki Switch.

MS120's are layer 2 switches only. They do not support the creation of virtual interfaces.

For your design, you would need to trunk both VLAN 100 and VLAN 300 up to the MX65W and have the VLAN interfaces created on there.

The configuration for the VLAN interfaces is configured under "Security & SD-WAN" -> "Addresses and VLANs". Once they're created, you then need to ensure that the ports connecting between the MX and the MS are trunking the VLANs and you should be good.

Be aware though that if you're trying to push a lot of traffic between the two VLAN's, the MX may struggle from a performance perspective. If you find that this is the case, you may want to swap the MS120 for an MS2xx which supports the VLAN interfaces to be present on the switch, and will offload the inter-vlan routing from the MX down to the MS. You would then configure a point-to-point link between the MS and the MX for internet traffic as you originally had.

[ShadowoftheDark]

Thanks Brash! will check up on that as well.

One final question. I tried configuring the interface on the MS120 to be vlan 300 and manually assigning it (it was DHCP). However I can't seem to change it and just ended up resetting it to the factory setting. Is there a proper way to assign the ip to it? 

Thanks

[Brash]

Sounds like you're talking about changing the management IP address is the switch (via the left hand pane).

Setting the Ip address statistically and assigning the vlan there is a valid way of configuring it. Once configure on the dashboard it should push to the switch.

It's possible that there was a misconfiguration elsewhere that meant when the new IP and the vlan were set, the switch became unreachable from the Meraki cloud portal.