Wireless Access

This tutorial will explain how to perform a remote WiFi Survey in the following context:

          - No hands on site that would be able/willing to help.

          - Only one RAP/AP on site or very spread out RAP’s/AP's.

I'm still working on a iAP tutorial once I will get it together I will post it under the iAP part of the forum.

Attached is a document with the commands that we used in order to accomplish this task. With the results that we get from executing the commands we would need to use a bit of statistics and decide on what is acceptable service.

I know that this is not the ideal way of performing a survey but this helped us with some of our clients.

The reference to the Aruba CRG guide is for anyone interested to read and understand all the output of a certain command and establish what is relevant to keep and do statistics on.

The PDF contains the following: 

Performing a Remote WiFi Survey

                I will present the list of commands that I found helpful in deciding if the service level could be deemed good (good – is based on the contract agreement with the client and/or known values).We had a base line at the install with signal readings in the furthest points that needed to be covered.

The order that we will present the commands is not necessary the other that they need to be executed:

-          show ap arm rf-summary ap-name <ap name> (page 681 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will allow you to see the noise level on each channel – This is to help us understand if a spectrum scan would be more helpful.

-          show ap bss-table ap-name <ap name> (page 696 from  ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will allow you to see if the AP has SSID’s configured and broadcasting.
• For even more details for vlan type of traffic (split or tunneled) we could run the command
  • show ap debug bss-config ap-name <ap name> (page 728 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

-          show user ap-name <ap> (page 1319 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will show the list of clients connected to the AP.

-          show ap debug client-table ap-name <ap name> (page 740 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will show the list of clients in power save or active.
• Another way to check if that client is doing traffic or not would be the command:
  • show datapath session ap-name <ap name> | include <ip-addr of client> (page 969 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

-          show ap association client-mac <mac-client> (page 687 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This is used to get the connection status to the client.

-          show ap arm scan-times ap-name <ap name> (page 683 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will give the scanned channels and how many times he scanned each channel. I added this command because sometimes we noticed that arm was not scanning.

-          show ap debug radio-stats ap-name <ap name>  radio <index> advanced (page 751 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will give statistics on the radio.

-          show ap arm history  ap-name <ap name> (page 678 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will give the history of changing the channels with the FLGS for the reason why.

-          show ap arm neighbors ap-name <ap name>  (page 680 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will allow you to see what SSID’s are around, channels and the SNR.
• Another way to get this list including the current broadcasted SSID by the AP and everything around would be show ap monitor ap-list ap-name <ap> (page 823 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

-          show ap arm rf-summary ap-name <ap name> (page 681 from ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf)

• This will provide the interference index.

As a high level this is how we are choosing the clients that we will perform tests on:

-          Clients that are not in power saving mode OR they are doing traffic (validate using datapath) AND the client is in post authentication role.

-          We will get status on X amount of clients that will let us understand the percentage of BAD service. (X would be an average amount of clients in the post authentication role / depending on the usage Day or Week)

ArubaOS_6.2CRG.pdf - Link is : http://d1x3hnhct7p62q.cloudfront.net/SupportSite/ProductionFiles/0f3059cf-ba85-4a55-af7e-fe3b91fab1ad/ArubaOS_6.2CLI.pdf?Expires=1389113272&Signature=KuFITa85fuR3sdYEqlGuhnzvWH-MvQkMvknpfH5H0EgfmSb-Nhn13nD~N6PxEdSP4~cwI87mmYAYGfHODvslSJEm2eiQjQNa~-cO9WIhrFyMzBPNYLTTpmRUNevZIlSJTOb2aT5BIRM60GGYrF2Bd6Cwpx6V~qIxzgrVgeZeJwgipCgYOVSODem0cLNVY6lCKppH9~6Wzynzlu8qIi8F7BDomWQnxw075il~ihl~uQTHwdQ6W1N1~zG4mtPCV0MDltg8l3v6oFiZ0~a~lPMwlntdcXUDwrlGbfh9KL49WqkMUfA~K3hnb-GYrqT3A8jKgSpuuFrxEKBYTALZiyOrzg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIA2CDKVYCRBEJEMA

Attachment(s)

Performing a Remote WiFi Survey.pdf   221 KB 1 version

Would it be possible for you to add what is in the pdf to the article? 

Added at Srynearson request the content of the PDF to the initial post.

If anyone has problems finding out the Math that needs to be used in deciding on how the service is please let me know and we can try to figure it out together.

Hi Constantin,

really interesting, I am just looking for cli commands to see stats on some devices connected to some APs, in idle state and in communication state (they are telephones).

And I think I can apply some of listed here in your tutorial.

Kind regards

Olivier,

.

Hi Oliver,

        Please don't forget that if you are investigating issues on those devices enabling debug will give you more information in the logs to help you find solution or at least give a bit more information to an Aruba support engineer 

Good day.

Constantin,

It seems that command: show user ap-name <ap> is not valid.

I could not find it in CLI Reference Guide nor execute it on our master running OS 6.1.3.5.

Could you comment on that , please?

Hi Rafal,

I checked and it seems that the OS 6.1.3.5 doesn't support that command yet. 

The work arround would be as follows : 

You do first a : show ap bss-table ap-name <name of AP>

From the output you will have for each SSID a bssid that looks like a mac address and with that you do the command: 

show user bssid <the bssid for that AP that you want the output>

In case of multiple SSID's you do the command for each bssid in order to get a full list of all the users connected to that AP.

Another thing that you could do but depending on the ammount of users on the controller it might freez all the ssh sessions that you have opened till an answer is provided (Thus not recommended):

show user-table | include <name of AP>

Again this one I don't recommend because it will freez ALL the SSH sessions that you have opened and will not allow any new SSH sessions to open UNTIL he provides the result of the command.