Troubleshooting Lost Connectivity to Cisco Meraki Cloud
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Overview
Connectivity loss occurs when your Wide Area Network (WAN) connection fails, a Cisco Meraki data center experiences an outage, or an Internet routing issue exists between your site and the Meraki cloud. This article describes how your network behaves during this state.
The Meraki cloud uses an out-of-band architecture; therefore, no client data flows through the cloud. The system handles connectivity failures gracefully. If a Meraki data center experiences an outage, your network automatically fails over to another Meraki data center.
If you configure email alerts, the system sends a notification when a Meraki node loses connectivity to the cloud. This allows you to take corrective action if necessary. For information on local device management, see Using the Cisco Meraki Device Local Status Page.
Troubleshooting safe configuration issues
Safe configuration" refers to a device that has connectivity to the cloud and has not rebooted for 30 minutes following a configuration change. The safe configuration is the last configuration the device received from the cloud that was not followed by a reboot within 30 minutes
Troubleshooting MX security appliance connectivity issues
When an MX security appliance loses connectivity to the Meraki dashboard, its behavior depends on the firmware version and whether the current configuration is safe.
- If the configuration is safe
- Prior to MX 14.53 and MX 15.11: The MX reboots after 4 hours.
- MX 14.53+ and MX 15.11+ (lower than MX 17): The MX does not reboot.
- MX 17+: The MX reboots after 8 hours without dashboard connectivity to support self-healing.
- If the configuration is not safe
- MX security appliance will revert to a previously safe configuration
Troubleshooting MS switch connectivity issues
When an MS switch loses connectivity to the Meraki cloud, its behavior depends on the firmware version and configuration state.
- If the configuration is safe
- MS switch will never reboot
- If the configuration is not safe
- MS switch will try to obtain an IP address on an alternate VLAN and then connect to the cloud through that alternate connection
- MS switch will revert to previous safe configuration 2 hours after lost connectivity
- After reverting to a safe configuration, the former configuration will be marked bad
Upon booting, Meraki access points (APs) and switches initially attempt to communicate using a default IP address of 1.1.1.1. This occurs until the device loads its configuration or obtains a new IP address (particularly when fetching configuration for the first time).
Therefore, if multiple APs and/or switches boot up/restart at the same time, it can trigger the MX to generate "IP conflict" alerts - which is expected behavior.
Troubleshooting MR access point connectivity issues
When a Meraki AP loses connectivity to the cloud Dashboard, the exhibited behavior is based on the SSID configuration for the AP.
If the configuration is safe, all SSIDs are configured in NAT mode, and the MR is unable to complete an ARP reachability test for its gateway,
- MR will reboot every 4 hours
- If the configuration is safe and at least one SSID is not configured in NAT mode:
- MR will not reboot after 4 hours even if the gateway ARP reachability test is unsuccessful
If the configuration is not safe
- MR will revert to the previous safe configuration (stored locally)
Wi-Fi 6/6E/7 APs running firmware version 28.1+:
These models of MRs have an additional Dashboard connectivity test where an MR that has been unable to communicate with the Dashboard for 8 hours will reboot regardless of configuration.
When an AP operates on a configuration for 30 minutes or more without any reboots the configuration is marked as "safe configuration".
General client behavior
Impact on wireless clients
In general, wireless clients will continue to use the WLAN during a connectivity loss. Clients can still access:
- Local LAN resources (such as printers and file shares)
- The Internet, if an internet connection remains available
However, the following changes will be observed while in the connectivity loss state:
- Network configuration changes will not take effect
- Usage statistics will become out of date
- Channel spreading and other optimizations will not run
- The Rogue AP list will not update
Authentication and splash page behavior
- Meraki Cloud authentication: If the Controller Disconnection Behavior is set to Restricted, new clients will not be able to authenticate. By default, all new clients are denied. You can configure this setting to allow all new clients (Open). Clients who have already authenticated will continue to function normally. This also applies to networks using WPA-2 Enterprise Meraki Cloud Authentication.
- Splash pages: Newly associated clients will not see Meraki-hosted splash pages. Clients will be granted access without the splash page, depending on the settings configured under Wireless > Access Control > Controller Disconnection Behavior.
- NAT Mode SSIDs: SSIDs configured in NAT mode that deny Local LAN connectivity will not broadcast.
- Meraki billing: If Meraki Billing is enabled, new clients will not be able to purchase network access.
Bridged mode SSIDs with static IP addresses
MRs with static IP addresses broadcasting a bridged mode SSID will continue to do so even if they boot without connectivity to their IP gateway, provided they are running a safe configuration. In this scenario, however, the APs will not be able to connect to the Cisco Meraki Cloud or communicate with services outside their subnet.
All services will automatically resume normal operation once connectivity between the wireless network and the Meraki Cloud is restored.
These services will automatically resume functioning once connectivity between the wireless network and the Meraki network is restored.
Troubleshooting MG cellular gateway connectivity issues
If the configuration is safe If the configuration is not safe
- MG21 (1.11+ firmware): Whenever the connectivity to dashboard is lost, the MG21 attempts to regain connectivity. If unsuccessful, the unit performs a combination of modem and platform reset in 1-hour intervals.
- MG41/51/52 (2.0+ firmware): When dashboard connectivity is lost, the MG will attempt to regain connectivity.
- If reconnection attempts are unsuccessful, the unit will perform a platform reset at 30-minute intervals.
- If MG41/51/52 has an active standby SIM card present, SIM failover will activate after 5 minutes of no dashboard connectivity.
- The MG cellular gateway will revert to the last known safe configuration.
Troubleshooting MV camera connectivity issues
When an MV smart camera (MV) loses connectivity to the Meraki cloud, the following occurs:
- The MV continues to record and store video on the local disk.
- The live stream is not available on the dashboard.
Note: Cisco Meraki guarantees 99.99% of availability (52 minutes maximum outage per year), the “simultaneous cloud outage + not safe configuration” scenario is very unlikely to happen.