MX warm spare setup

[TEO1]

Hi all,

I have a single ISP modem, two MX68CW-NA, a single 48 port meraki switch and 4 access points

I would like that if the primary mx goes down, the secondary should take over. Below is the little sketch.

Please i would like to know if the set up is correct or the best way it should be set up.

Thank you

[KathleenJ]

Hi Teo1,

Thanks for the great question. The way that you would want to do this is have two unique IP addresses for each MX to connect to the cloud, then use a virtual IP address for non-management communication. Below is a KB that explains the setup and also the datasheet for your MX's.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Deployment_Guides/MX_Warm_Spare_-_High_Availability_Pair

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/MX_Overviews_and_Specifications/MX67_and_MX68_Datasheet

Kathleen

[TEO1]

Thanks for responding. I just want to make sure that i have understood your response. When you say "have to unique IP addresses" do you mean having two internet service providers?

[KathleenJ]

Having two ISP's for redundancy is the considered the best practice. The is because having a single ISP offers a single point of failure if your internet goes down with no backup. Alternatively, you can pay for a second IP from your service provider for the second MX but you will only have redundancy if there is a hardware failure on the MX and not an internet failure.

[TEO1]

Thank you so much. One more question, will the secondary MX pick up the same vlans from the primary, do i need to do any config changes on the secondary MX. Should i adopt the secondary MX after completed setting up the network with the primary MX. What is the best practice?

[KathleenJ]

First off I don't know what "Should i adopt the secondary MX after completed setting up the network with the primary MX." means. 

When you do an HA pair here are some things to keep in mind:

• you only need one MX license (it will be shared by both MX's) as long as the second MX is only used for failover.
• You must have two unique IP addresses, one for each MX. Best practice dictates that they be from two different ISPs.
• You only need to configure the primary MX.

I think that taking a look at this KB will answer all of your questions and walk you through how to set this up. MX Warm Spare - High-Availability Pair - Cisco Meraki

[cmr]

@TEO1 yes, you set up the primary MX with one IP from the ISP and then add a warm spare where you will need a second IP from the ISP.  The second (warm spare) MX will pick up the rest of the config from the first.

[Ian-V]

Just to add on to Kathleen's comment above, we also recommend incorporating a 2nd switch into the topology to avoid having a single point of failure.  This portion of the doc that Kathleen linked to shows what this topology would look like: https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Deployment_Guides/MX_Warm_Spare_-_High_Availability_Pair#Recomme...

Thanks

Ian