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Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

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  • 1.  Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

    Posted Aug 08, 2013 09:57 PM

    Hi Folks,

     

    does someone play around with the AirGroup Service? Currently I've recognized, that it is not possible to use the Home Sharing of AppleTV or iTunes, when AirGroup is globally enabled. 

     

    In my topology there is a SSID where all my Apple Devices are connected. It's a plain L2 Network. As long as AirGroup is activated on my IAP, the devices aren't able to find each other. Right after disabling AirGroup on the IAP everything is works like charm. This is very confusing.

     

    Does anyone else recognize this issue as well?

     

    I'm working with the most current stable release for the IAP: 6.2.1.0-3.3.0.2_38733

     

     

    Greet,

    svs



  • 2.  RE: Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

    Posted Aug 09, 2013 05:08 AM

    Have you got the Enforce Clearpass Registration option ticked?

    This would force all devices to be registered and access granted before they were visible to each other.

    Disable this option if it is enabled.

     



  • 3.  RE: Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

    Posted Aug 10, 2013 08:37 AM

    Hi David,

     

    thanks for your response.

     

    No, I didn't enable this option. I don't have a clearpass server running.

     

     

    Greets,

    svs



  • 4.  RE: Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

    Posted Aug 23, 2013 11:00 AM

    Airgroup is not needed when all devices are layer 2. Airgroup is used to bridge subnets separated by layer 3.

     

    If your Apple TV's for instance were hardwired to a subnet which we will call VLAN 10 and your wireless users were on VLAN 20 they would not be able to discover each other.

     

    Apple uses the Bonjour protocol for discovery of iOS devices for Airplay and Airprint. Since Bonjour is a broadcast protocol it would not be allowed to propagate across VLANs for obvious reasons.

     

    In order for these devices on different subnets to find each other Aruba built airgroup into the InstantOS. Each AP can act as a bridge for discovery of the iOS devices as long as each AP can "snoop" the other VLAN(s). To make this happen you would need to present each AP with a trunk to your switch which gives them their native VLAN as well as the wired VLAN where the iOS devices are connected to.

     

    Airgroup will then table these devices and allow the wireless clients to discover them. The traffic is then converted from broadcast to unicast and the wired network takes care of routing the traffic to the end device.

     

    In your case everything is on the same layer 2 subnet so Airgroup offers no benefits as far as I know. In fact in your experience it actually disables the service.



  • 5.  RE: Home Sharing within L2 Network not possible, when AirGroup Service is enabled

    Posted Aug 23, 2013 11:17 AM

    Hi mmcnamee,

     

    thanks for your answer. Of course you're right and I don't need to use AirGroup when all my devices are in the same L2 network. But I'm have an AirPrint Printer, which has to be in another Subnet, so I would have to use AirGroup so that all my Apple devices can reach the Printer in the other network.

     

     

    Regards,

    svs