topic Re: Network design help in Cloud Networking Platform

Network design help

Network_design — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:05:49 GMT

Good morning everyone,

B1 = Building 1 (Primary site)
B2 = Building 2 (Secondary site)
B3 = Building 3 (new building site - currently planning design)

I need help with this design question. We are adding a building site to our network (B3). I can import the WAPs to the primary network (B1 and B2 - current setup), and the wifi networks will broadcast in the new building (B3). Does the same apply to switches? If I import/move the switches to the B1 network, will they display/show as one network?)

Second, I need the new building clients to get DHCP from the primary network. Is that possible?

The current setup looks like this:

All Meraki devices.

Building1 Building2 Building3 (new setup)
Firewall 1 Firewall 2 New Firewall 3
WAPs WAPs (show in (B1) New WAPs (I will import them into the B1 network)
DHCP, DNS, Rules Separate Networks I would like to manage B2 and B3 (From B1)
Switches Separate Network ?

Current networks:

B1 Firewall

B2 Firewall

B1 and B2 wireless

B1 switches

B2 Switches

I hope this makes sense.

Many thanks.
Glenn

Re: Network design help

mloraditch — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:24:46 GMT

If it's a separate physical site, my general preference is to keep things as separate. You can certainly keep everything as one network, but as they are distinct sites with distinct internet your reporting will be comingled and make troubleshooting harder if you have them combined as you are thinking.

You can clone the existing network settings when you create the new ones and then your none device specific settings will copy over and then you can just modify as necessary to reflect new subnets, etc.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Organizations_and_Networks/Cloning_Networks_and_Organizations_in_Dashboard

As to DHCP relay: https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/DHCP/Configuring_DHCP_Relay

Re: Network design help

Network_design — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:01:53 GMT

Many thanks! I appreciate the information. Best. G.

Re: Network design help

Karsten Iwen — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:05:29 GMT

If the Firewalls are Meraki MX, you at least need a separate network for them. The rest will work as you want. I would still put all devices of one site into a separate network. Also, the APs. It will reduce the overhead and give you better visibility. The only reason to keep the APs in one network would be that you have a roaming path between the sites and want to do fast roaming between the sites.

Re: Network design help

BlakeRichardson — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:53:38 GMT

What is the physical distance between the buildings? Does each building have it's own internet connection as well or are you simply using the firewalls for routing internal LAN traffic?

Re: Network design help

Network_design — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 19:21:08 GMT

The buildings are six or so city blocks away. They all have different ISPs. I was trying to combine the networks for earlier monitoring.

However, our primary firewall is failing and I must replace it tomorrow (timing is everything). So, two sites will be down.

Keeping them separate with failover is the way to go(?)

Re: Network design help

BlakeRichardson — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 03:47:53 GMT

If it was me, I'd have one Org in Meraki and then a seperate network for each building. Not sure what firewalls you are using but you can only have one MX per network so if you are you planning to use MX then you don't have a choice.

Seperate networks is also going to be easier to troubleshoot any issues. You cna use the same SSID's across all locations just make sure they use the same method of authentication i.e. if SSID1 uses PSK at site A then it needs to use PSK at site B otherwise client devices will throw a tantrum.