Wireless Access

I am new to Aruba Instant products and looking how to set this up. I have 4 different offices, obviously 4 different networks. I want users at all offices to have the same SSID and the same password and be able to connect seamlessly regardless of what office they are at.

My understanding is that this is possible with the AP105?

I setup my initial office with just basic/default settings. I have 3 units working fine so far. Now - how do I provision and manage the units at remote sites?

Do I plug in my remaining units into my main LAN and let them inherit the config and then ship them off to the remote sites? Obviously they will then elect a new Virtual Controller, so how do I manage the remote AP's?

Is there a better way to set this up?

Thanks,

Yes...you can get the config as inherited before shipping it out.  For a multi-site deployment, I would recommend Airwave for management.  All reporting, troubleshooting, and config management can be done there.

Your other option is to backup the config (recommended anyway) and then import into the remote side as well.  That should work too.

Other then airwave (which I was told by a sales person I would not need) how can I remotely view/monitor and manage the "remote" networks?

I am thinking, from looking at the config, this is done by configuring L3 Mobility? Then I would needto pre-configure my AP's with IP's int he remote domain and a IP for the virtual controller?

No!  If you just want remote management, this is done via configuring a virtual controller IP address (unique to EACH site) at the IAP.  

You do this in System settings.  You can then just remote to each site using that IP for remote management.  Airwave just makes this all through one UI so to speak for centralized management.  

I also assume that each site will be routed and not on the same L2 segment for this to work.

Ok, think I got you. So, I have 12 units, 4 for main site, and the rest for the other 3 sites. I plug them all in at main site, to "inherit" my config.

When I am at the remote sites, plug in my two or three units for that specific site. They will elect a new Virtual Controller. Connect to instant.aruba... and then set a static IP for the Virtual Controller and voila. I just need to manage all 4 seperately, whereas Airwave would let me do it from all one interface.

Thanks for your help.

Sorry - one more question. In this secnerio, is it ok to leave all my AP-105 as DHCP enabled and just set static Virtual Controller IP's?

Yes...but I wouldn't set the virtual controller IP until you're at that site.  There is another way to get into the UI.  Each IAP will DHCP for an IP address.  You can use one of those as well to get in vs. instant.arubanetworks.com

Yes...Airwave is for one UI for ALL sites.

YES!  Leave them DHCP enabled.  That is fine.  The only thing you need to set is the VC IP address.  This "floats" among any IAP acting as the master.

I'll put in a plug for Airwave in this scenario (I'll let you and your sales team decide whether the cost is justified)

Airwave will allow you to build a template for a generic site.

You can use that template to verify that all sites are the same, and you can make a change to the template and push it to all sites at once.

Further Airwave can alert you to rogue devices and interesting network/WLAN events (sometimes before your users do)

Thanks! We are looking into the cost of Airwave...