topic Re: Forcing traffic on Cellular devices in Network Platform API

Forcing traffic on Cellular devices

amabt — Tue, 23 May 2023 02:22:11 GMT

We have many MX67 that has a 4G dongle with a Data SIM. They act as the backup connection. The way things are, they do not kick in (aka generate any traffic) unless the main WAN1 fails.

We have an issue where our records are not very good and we need to audit if a Data Sim is still in active use. We suspect they are in the MX dongle. However because they do not generate any traffic. We cannot confirm if they are active and also where the last cell tower is (the telco can do a report if there are some traffic).

Also they are tied to a tempate so we cannot just adhoc force some traffic through the 4G.

Is there any endpoint in the API that we can use to force the cellular at some schedule interval (maybe once a week) so it shows as being "alive".

Best solution I can come up with so far is maybe cycle though all the MXs and grab the cellular IP and then ping it externaly to make it reply and hence some traffic?

Anyone got a better suggestion?

Re: Forcing traffic on Cellular devices

CMR — Tue, 23 May 2023 06:50:38 GMT

Do you have an Auto-VPN setup, or are they all simple Internet access. If the former, then you can build the Auto-VPN over the cellular, but not have any traffic going there. The Auto-VPN itself uses a few MB per day staying alive.

Re: Forcing traffic on Cellular devices

sungod — Tue, 23 May 2023 10:47:41 GMT

Don't think the USB uplink generates any traffic unless the MX fails over, I've not seen any way to force it while the normal WAN link is working.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Cellular/3G%2F%2F4G_Cellular_Failover_with_USB_Modems

I'd try this endpoint to see if the return data will help...

https://developer.cisco.com/meraki/api-v1/#!get-organization-appliance-uplink-statuses

Re: Forcing traffic on Cellular devices

amabt — Tue, 23 May 2023 22:46:26 GMT

They are all AutoVPN. However, 4G does not seem to generate any traffic even through its online and showing an IP address. Hence my issue.

I'm playing with #!get-organization-appliance-uplink-statuses to get the 4G IPs

Looks like pinging it is the only viable solutions.

It would be nice if the uplink link monitoring can also be done for the 4G as it doesn't generate much traffic.

Re: Forcing traffic on Cellular devices

amabt — Tue, 23 May 2023 23:26:14 GMT

Any we have the next problem. The cellular provider is blocking ICMP to their 4G service!

UNless there is a way to do it via Meraki I'm stuck!