Azure and Cisco Meraki MX80 Site to Site step-by-step Guide

Azure Meraki Site-to-site

I am working on a new engagement for which I will need to migrate on-premises VM to Azure.

First steps to be able to do this, as some VMs will remain on-premises is to establish a VPN connection between On-premises and Azure.

I will test everything with my Lab.

As I have a Cisco Meraki MX80, I will start by creating a Site-to-Site VPN connection between my MX 80 and Azure.

Here after some more details and step-by-step configuration and validation steps.

Here is the Network Diagram of what will be implemented:

Azure Steps

Create Resource Group

  • Click on Resource groups
  • Click on Add
  • Select subscription (if you have more than one), provide name for Resource Group and select the Region. Click on Review-create
  • Click on Create
  • Validate that the Resource Group you just created appears in the console

Create vNet and Subnets

  • Click on Virtual Network
  • Click on Create virtual network
  • Provide information and click on Create
  • Go in vNet > Subnets and click on + Gateway subnet
  • Click on OK

Create Virtual Network Gateway

  • In the search box, type Virtual net and select Virtual Network Gateway
  • Click on Create virtual network gateway
  • Provide information and click on Review + create
  • Click on Create
  • Click on Virtual Network Gateway
  • Click on Connections
  • Click on +Add
  • Provide a Name, select Connection Type Site-to-site, click on Local Network Gateway and click on Create new
  • Provide a Name, Public IP of the Meraki and local address space and then click on OK
  • Define a Shared key and click on OK

Cisco Meraki Steps

  • Connect to Meraki Portal
  • Select Security & SD-WAN > Site-to-site VPN
  • Under Type, select Hub (Mesh)
  • Under VPN Settings, select the VPN participation for the network that you want to connect to the VPN
  • Under Organization-wide settings, after Non-Meraki VPN peers, click on Add a peer
  • Provide Name, Public IP (retrieved from Azure), the Azure Private subnets, the Preshared secret and click on Default
  • Select Azure and click on Update
  • Click on Save Changes
  • Click on Security & SD-WAN > VPN Status
  • Click on 1 Non-Meraki peer
  • You should see a green light indicating that VPN connection is successful

Now that our Site-to-site VPN is operational the next step will be to migrate on-premises VMS to Azure.

It will be in another article.

Stay tuned…