Meraki AP Port Type

[zekebashi]

Hello,

I've a project to implement Meraki APs in an enterprise but I am new to Meraki. Their documentation mentioned the following " Because a Meraki AP can be sending/receiving tagged data traffic as well as untagged management traffic, all Meraki APs must be connected to a trunk port on the upstream switch/router that is configured to handle any of the VLANs used by the wireless network." 

https://docs.meraki.com/display/MR/VLAN+Tagging 

My question is on how to configure the ports on the access-layer switch which the APs will attach to:

1- Should I configure the ports as trunk with native-vlan that the APs are members of?

2- Should the ports be configured as trunk ports only? 

3 Or, should I configure the ports as access mode? 

Much appreciated. 

Best, ~zK 

[Philip D'Ath]

Do you have multiple SSIDs and a plan to tag them?  If not, you have nothing to worry about.  There is nothing to do.  Leave the switch ports as access ports.

Is you main VLAN (and native VLAN) 1?  If so, just make them switch ports trunk ports.

Is your main VLAN different from your native VLAN - maybe Meraki wasn't the right choice ...

[zekebashi]

We have 2 SSIDs. Not sure if I understand if we plan to tag those SSIDs. Can please clarify? 

Default Vlan 1 is disabled. We have a VLAN(VLAN140) designated for the Wi-Fi APs. Should we configure the port as a Trunk and make the native VLAN140? 

Thanks in advance. 

~zK 

[Philip D'Ath · Accepted solution]

The Merki "default" native VLAN needs to be able to talk to the Internet so it can talk to the Meraki cloud controller.  Can VLAN140 do this? If not, you'll need to make the native VLAN one that can.

[zekebashi]

Got it. 

Thanks for your help, Philip.

Best, ~zK