Replacing MX84-HW with Catalyst C9300-24U

[BrentB]

Hello,

New to Meraki and completely new to the switch line. we have a location that we have acquired that is a complete Meraki shop. They have a MX-84 that in turn has several MS120s attached. The MX has several VLANs that they use internally today. We are a complete Cisco ship and in the process of migrating them over to our corporate network. We will now have the SD-WAN device with a Catalyst c9300 as the core with all the associated VLAN definitions. We were told there would be no issue in the VLAN changes and getting everything to play well.

I have been researching more details in exactly how to make this happen. Seems the VLAN / VTP is a bit different on the Meraki side from what I am  used to on the Catalyst side. So far I have come across the following document about Integrating MS access into Cisco VTP and this make it look like I simply make sure pruning is off? Do I simply define the trunk port on the Catalyst like I normally do and connect to the Meraki and have access to VLANs defined? Any reference docs or anything to help me further figure this out?

I guess a temp solution would be to reconfigure the MX to connect to the SD-WAN box and turn off firewall functions and the like? Kinda in a brainstorm optional design type mode in figuring this out.

Thanks in advance ...

Brent

[Mloraditch]

Meraki has no concept of a VLAN Database, it just passes all vlans allowed on the trunk. So yes you just connect the IOS based switch to the Merakis and just make sure your native vlan/allowed vlans match and they will all pass properly.

Do take a look at this regarding STP interoperability between Meraki and regular Cisco: https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Port_and_VLAN_Configuration/Configuring_Spanning_Tree_on_Meraki_...

There is a template for IOS based config that cohabitates with the MS120s.

[PhilipDAth]

Note that the MX84 is a security appliance and also used to supply Internet access.  I am assuming you just want to migrate the layer 3 routing onto the C9300.

First tip, since you will also be operating with MS120s, is to change to mst for spannig tree on your C9300.

spanning-tree mode mst

MS switches have no concept of VTP.

While MS switches have no concept of a VLAN database, you can have a VLAN database in the dashboard using the "Named VLANs" feature.  You might want to enable this to make it easier for yourself.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Port_and_VLAN_Configuration/Named_VLANs_in_MS_Configurations

You can enabled named VLANs under the "Early Access" part of the Meraki Dashboard.

You could also consider enabling cloud monitoring in the Meraki Dashboard of your C9300.

https://documentation.meraki.com/Cloud_Monitoring_for_Catalyst/Onboarding/Cloud_Monitoring_for_Catal...