Cisco Meraki MS22 EoL: Migration to the MS130-24P

If you still have Cisco Meraki MS22 switches (PID MS22-HW) carrying traffic in a wiring closet, they are well past every Cisco lifecycle milestone that matters. The MS22 reached its Last Day of Support on April 30, 2021. From that date Cisco provides no firmware fixes, no security patches, no TAC cases, and no RMA hardware replacement for this model. The switch keeps forwarding frames, which is precisely why these units quietly outlive their support window — a dead-end platform hiding in plain sight under the dashboard. This guide explains what the end-of-life dates mean for a switch still in production, why the recommended Meraki MS130-24P is a genuine generational upgrade rather than a like-for-like swap, and how to plan a clean, low-risk refresh.

MS22 lifecycle at a glance: End of Sale: April 30, 2016. End of Software Maintenance: not separately published for this generation. Last Day of Support (LDoS): April 30, 2021. Every date has now passed by years. The full milestone record lives on the EoL detail page for this PID.

What the Meraki MS22 actually was

The MS22 (MS22-HW) was a 24-port Layer 2 cloud-managed access switch from the original Meraki MS line. It offered 24 ports of 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet for desktops, phones, APs, and cameras, with SFP uplinks for fiber or copper to the distribution layer, and a PoE-capable variant for powering attached devices. There was no on-box CLI in the traditional sense — the switch was provisioned, monitored, and upgraded entirely through the Meraki dashboard, which was the whole point of the platform. For 2013-era access density it was a clean, manageable switch. By today's standards its uplinks, PoE budget, and on-box silicon are all generations behind.

Why acting now matters

The risk with an EoL access switch is not that it fails on the LDoS date. It is that it keeps working while the support floor disappears beneath it. After April 30, 2021, three exposures compound:

• No PSIRT security patches. When a switching, dashboard-agent, or firmware vulnerability is disclosed, the MS22 will not receive a fixed build. Its firmware is frozen, and any CVE touching that code path on this hardware is permanent and unremediable.
• No TAC or RMA. A failed MS22 cannot be opened as a Meraki support case or swapped under contract. Your only recovery is a spare you already own or a secondary-market unit of the same dead-end model — and one with an expired license cannot even be re-added to the dashboard.
• Audit and compliance exposure. The frameworks federal, DoD, SLED, and healthcare buyers operate under — FedRAMP, CMMC 2.0, the HIPAA Security Rule, PCI DSS, and CISA directives — expect supported, patchable infrastructure. An access switch that cannot be patched is an audit finding waiting to happen, and 'the vendor no longer ships fixes' is not a defensible remediation plan.

There is also a licensing trap unique to Meraki. The MS22 only operates while it holds a valid dashboard license; the hardware is inert without it. As licenses lapse on a platform Cisco no longer sells, you are renewing a co-term against equipment that can never be supported again — paying to keep an unsupported switch online instead of putting that spend toward current hardware.

What each milestone means in practice

• End of Sale (2016-04-30): the last day Cisco accepted new MS22 orders. Everything after this date consumes the support tail.
• End of Software Maintenance: Meraki firmware is delivered as a single cloud-managed train, so once a platform exits support it simply stops receiving new builds rather than following a separate IOS-style maintenance schedule.
• Last Day of Support / LDoS (2021-04-30): the hard wall. No TAC, no RMA, no firmware, no security fixes. The hardware is entirely on its own from this point forward.

The recommended replacement: Meraki MS130-24P

The current-generation successor for the MS22 is the Cisco Meraki MS130-24P (MS130-24P-HW). It keeps the zero-touch, single-pane dashboard model that made the original switch easy to run, but the underlying platform is a full generation ahead. Where it improves on the MS22:

• Modern uplinks instead of legacy SFP. The MS130-24P ships with dedicated SFP+ uplink ports supporting 1G and 10G optics, so the switch can feed an aggregated, non-blocking path to distribution rather than being capped by aging 1G fiber uplinks. Access throughput is no longer choked at the egress.
• IEEE 802.3bt PoE on a real power budget. The MS130-24P delivers up to 30W (PoE+) per port from a substantially larger system power budget than the MS22 could offer. That headroom is what powers today's Wi-Fi 6/6E access points, multi-stream PTZ cameras, and badge readers — loads the original MS22 PoE variant was never sized for.
• Built for Wi-Fi 6/6E access. As branch and campus Wi-Fi moves to Catalyst/Meraki Wi-Fi 6 and 6E APs that can each saturate a gigabit, the MS130's mGig-capable models and 10G uplinks remove the wired bottleneck the MS22 would impose on any modern AP behind it.
• Current silicon and security posture. The MS130 is an actively supported platform receiving ongoing firmware and PSIRT fixes through the dashboard, restoring the patchable, auditable footing that LDoS took away from the MS22.
• Same operational model, modern licensing. Management stays in the Meraki dashboard with cloud-managed, per-switch licensing (Enterprise or Advanced tiers, on the co-termination or per-device model). Your operations team keeps the workflow it already knows while the hardware and license term reset to a supported baseline.

In short, the MS130-24P is a one-for-one physical replacement — 24 access ports in a 1U fixed form factor — but a generational leap in PoE, uplink capacity, and supportability.

A practical migration plan

1. Assess and inventory

Pull every MS22 from the dashboard org and record serial, license expiry, port count, PoE variant, uplink media, and the downstream load on each switch (phones, APs, cameras). Note total PoE draw per switch so the MS130's larger budget is sized correctly, and flag any closet where the current uplink is a 1G fiber pair that should become 10G.

2. License transition

Meraki licensing follows the hardware, not the chassis you are retiring. Order MS130-24P units with their own Enterprise or Advanced licenses and plan the co-term so the new switches align with the rest of your org's renewal date. Do not renew MS22 licenses to bridge the gap — that money belongs in the new platform.

3. Config and feature parity

Because both platforms are dashboard-managed, most configuration — VLANs, port profiles, access policies, STP settings, and switch templates — can be rebuilt or cloned in the dashboard before the hardware ships. Use a network template so the MS130s inherit a known-good config the moment they come online, rather than hand-configuring each closet.

4. Physical: rack, power, PoE, uplinks, optics

The MS130-24P is a standard 1U swap. Confirm the closet circuit can carry the larger PoE budget if you are powering more or higher-wattage devices than the MS22 did. Reuse 1G optics where appropriate, but order 10G SFP+ optics for any uplink you intend to upgrade, and verify fiber type before cutover. Source TAA-compliant optics alongside the switch from your authorized partner catalog to keep the whole BOM contract-clean.

5. Phased cutover

Migrate closet by closet during a maintenance window. Stage each MS130 with its template, claim it into the org, then move uplinks and access drops over and verify PoE, link, and dashboard adoption before decommissioning the MS22 in that rack. A phased approach keeps blast radius to one closet at a time.

6. Secure decommission

Remove each retired MS22 from the dashboard org, wipe its configuration, and dispose through an asset-disposition process that fits your compliance regime — sanitized, documented, and certified for federal and healthcare environments. Do not resell or redeploy LDoS hardware into another production segment.

Procurement notes

For federal, DoD, and SLED buyers, confirm TAA compliance on both the MS130-24P and its optics, and align the purchase to your GPC/contract vehicle up front. Cloud-managed switches and their licenses are best sourced together so the hardware and dashboard entitlement arrive co-termed and ready to claim. Lead times on current Meraki access switches move with demand, so place the order ahead of the closet schedule rather than after it.

As a Cisco authorized partner, uniqcli scopes MS22-to-MS130 refreshes end to end — license co-term, optics, PoE sizing, and phased cutover. Review the full milestone record on the MS22-HW EoL detail page, browse other affected platforms in the Cisco end-of-life library, and when you are ready to size the refresh, get a quote and we will turn your MS22 inventory into a clean, supported MS130 build.