Wireless Access

Hi:

I'm trying to prestage a mesh setup.

I've configured my setup as seen in this document:

http://community.arubanetworks.com/aruba/attachments/aruba/ForoenEspanol/253/1/Aruba%20Mesh%20Network%20Setup-v1.pdf

So far so good, things are working.

However, both the mesh portal and the mesh point are broadcasting the client ssid on both 2.4 and 5Ghz.

I'd like to use 5Ghz for the mesh link and 2.4 Ghz for the client ssid. I can't figure out the magic combination that will allow this.

I can add an 802.11a radio profile that has "radio enable" unchecked to the mesh ap group. That stops both AP's from broadcasting on 5Ghz.

But both APs are still broadcasting the client ssid on 2.4 Ghz. Using a similar 802.11g radio profile shuts off the client ssid on 2.4 for both APs.

Can someone tell me how to achieve this?

Thanks.

Under the Virtual AP, you should set the Allowed Band parameter as G if you only want the SSID to broadcast on the G band.  Do not touch the radio profile.

Also, if you have a mix of mesh and non-mesh APs, the next easiest thing to do is to create a new VAP with the same AAA, SSID, etc settings but call it <existingvapname>-mesh or whatever, and apply that X-mesh VAP to JUST your mesh AP group. Then as you make changes to the AAA or SSID profiles, you don't have to make them in two places. 

That said, in MOST cases, you want separate mesh SSID and non-MESH (think indoor) SSIDs, as you may not want to remove the lower basic rates outdoor that you would indoor (or vice versa). So for a product environment, you may want your normal <x> SSID and VAP profiles, and your <x>-mesh SSID and VAP profiles.

Hi Colin:

Thanks for the response. Setting the allowed band to 'g only' in the Virtual AP profile did shut down the client ssid in the 5 Ghz band.

But the mesh portal and the mesh point are still both broadcasting it.

What's the best way to stop the mesh portal from broadcasting the ssid, but keep it on the mesh point?

Thanks.

Are both APs in the same ap-group?  Did you do any ap-specific configuration?

On the commandline of the controller, type "show ap bss-table" to see if both APs are really broadcasting that SSID on that band...  

You might have to use an ap-specific configuration to exclude that Virtual AP from the mesh portal.

Yes, I've got one AP group that contains both the Client Virtual AP and the Mesh Virtual AP.

Using an AP specific configuration on the Mesh Portal with the 802.11g radio off did the trick!

Mesh portal is just on 5Ghz talking to the mesh point. Mesh point is broadcasting client ssid only on 2.4.

Thanks!

But based on your question, I'm wondering if there's a cleaner way to do it? Is there a way to do this with separate AP groups?

Thanks.

I want to say no.  Typically someone would have both mesh links with a client ssid on 2.4ghz, mesh on the 5ghz and that would not require any ap-specific configuration.  It is only because you don't want the SSID (virtual-ap) on an AP that it requires ap-specific configuration.

You are doing it the right way.

>>> You are doing it the right way.

I like that positive reinforcement! :-)

Thanks for your help!

The other way is to put the mesh APs in their own group, and just not assign a VAP to the group. That will prevent any SSIDs from being broadcast, and will just do mesh over the 5Ghz. 

Agree though, you're not wrong in your process. There's just multiple methods.

Darn, I was feeling good for a while, but now I'm confused again! :-)

If I put the mesh AP's in their own group and they mesh with each other, that's great.

But how do I get the remote mesh point to broadcast the client ssid, if there's no VAP assigned?

Thanks.

I missed that small part in the middle of the thread. To keep the client SSID off the 2.4Ghz, create a mesh group with no VAPs. To keep the SSID on the mesh point only, you can:

1. No VAP applied to the group, AP-Specific to add the VAP to the point (my preference)

2. VAP applied to the group, AP-Specific to exclude the VAP on the portal

I prefer to on do AP-spcific stuff that adds, not excludes, but it's highly situational depending on your group and the APs in that group.

Great, thanks for the info!