Configuring Meraki MS Cloud Managed Switch

I've recently attended the Meraki Switch free webinar and received my free Meraki 8-port switch. I previously posted about my free Meraki AP and will soon attend the Meraki MX Firewall webinar this month. The Meraki MS220-8 Cloud Managed Switch is a Layer 2 Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch and it's designed for small branch access. It has eight GigabitEthernet ports (ports 1-8) and two SFP ports (ports 9 and 10) for 1 GigabitEthernet uplink. There's a basic and advance Meraki switch webinars available in Youtube and here's a link on the Meraki switch deployment guide.

You'll see the Power and Restore LED lights on the front panel.

The AC power, MAC address and serial number sticker are found on the rear panel.

The Meraki local configuration page lets an admin do quick troubleshooting and tweak settings locally on a Meraki appliance. To access the Meraki MS switch local configuration page, power on the Meraki switch and manually configure your PC's IP address to 1.1.1.99 (or any IP address on the 1.1.1.0/24 range) and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Type http://1.1.1.100 or http://switch.meraki.com on the PC's web browser.

Login authentication is required when you click on Uplink configuration tab. The default username is the Meraki switch's serial number with blank password.

 

You’ll notice the Meraki switch default configuration uses VLAN 1.

 

You'll need to register the Meraki switch on the Meraki Cloud Dashboard and have it connected to the Internet. You can pre-configure the switch settings on the Meraki Cloud prior connecting it on a live network.

To add a new Meraki switch, go to Organization > Configure > Inventory > Claim.

The serial number can be found at the back of the Meraki appliance

Create a new network under Network > click Create a new network.

 

Type a Network name > select Switch under Network type > tick the Meraki switch Serial number > click Create network.

 

When I connected port 1 of the Meraki switch (you can use any port) to the LAN port of my wifi router at home, the power LED light turned from solid amber to blinking green (started downloading its firmware update) and finally to solid green. The Meraki switch received a LAN IP address (via DHCP from my wifi router) and it showed the ISP public IP (DHCP address from ISP), the Gateway IP address and DNS servers (also DHCP from ISP). The Firmware status also changed to Up to date.

 

You can monitor interface traffic statistics under Ports tab. I’ve connected Meraki switch port 1 (an Uplink which has a blue arrow pointing upward) to my wifi router, port 2 (normal green port) to my laptop (to manage Meraki Cloud Dashboard), port 3 (which has a lightning icon for PoE) to a Cisco AP (AIR-SAP-1602E) and port 4 to a Cisco 3560 8-port switch.

 

You can view the Meraki switch's PoE usage under the Power tab.

 

To view syslogs, click Event log > View full event log and it will open a new window to view the full event logs.

You can perform various network diagnostics or troubleshooting under Tools tab. The Ping is the first tool and defaults to google.com.

You can remotely reboot the switch from the Meraki cloud which was very responsive and instant.

 

You can force to blink all LEDs which helps (also do a scare prank) the onsite tech quickly find the switch (if unlabeled). Go to Tools > Blink LEDs > Run. To stop blinking the LED lights just click on the cross (x) mark on the opposite side of Blink LEDs.

 

You can perform bandwidth throughput test from the Meraki switch to Meraki Cloud by selecting Throughput > Run.

 

You can perform a cable test (similar to Cisco Catalyst TDR) on a port or range of ports by selecting Cable Test > type the port/port range > click Run cable test. This will help IT admin troubleshoot Layer 1 or cable issue. Here's a link on using the cable testing tool and how to interpret the output.

You can reset a port (shut/no shutdown in a Cisco Catalyst) by selecting Cycle port > type the port/port range > click Cycle ports.

 

You can view the switch MAC table by selecting MAC forwarding table > Run.

 

You can also perform Wake-on-LAN on a remote PC by selecting Wake client > type the MAC address and VLAN ID > Send.

 

You can change the Meraki switch hostname by clicking on edit (pencil icon) beside the switch MAC address > click Save.

 

You can change the Meraki switch LAN IP address (default is DHCP) and VLAN ID (default is VLAN 1) by clicking Edit (pencil icon) > click Save.

 

You can optionally add Notes > click Save.

 

Click Show under Topology to view the LAN topology (similar to CDP on Cisco Catalyst switch) which will be opened on a new web browser tab.

Click on a specific port to view various interface statistics. Click edit (pencil icon) under Configuration to make changes on that specific port. By default, Meraki switch ports are configured as Trunk, uses Native VLAN 1, PoE and RSTP are enabled.

You can view the port Traffic utilization (sent and received), PoE usage and LAN clients.

You click on a specific client under Description column to view more details such as Device type, bandwidth usage, IPv4 and IPv6 address, MAC address and Layer 7 Applications being used.

You can perform Ping test, send WOL, packet capture on a client and view other Applications being used.

You can perform troubleshooting on a specific port such as packet capture, cable test and cycle port.

I’ve clicked Run a packet capture on this port > type the Port > choose Output either View output below or Download .pcap file (for Wireshark) > Start capture. Click Stop to stop the packet capture or wait for its duration.

You can monitor Packets or traffic on a port. You can choose live data or historic data (last 5 minutes, last 15 minutes, last 1 hour or last 1 day).

This is Packet statistics with live data (increment in seconds).

This is Packet with historic data for the last 1 hour.

You can troubleshoot from a client PC by typing (or ask the remote user) switch.meraki.com on a web browser to check its network connectivity.

If you’re using a management PC connected to the Meraki switch and know the username and password credentials, you can go to Uplink configuration tab to make Uplink configuration changes on the switch.

You can view port status under Switch ports status tab.

You can change the port settings under Switch ports configuration.