Wireless Access

I have a 7210 Controller with all licenses loaded. I wanted to add standby controller using VRRP, I had pre-configured VRRP settings on primary and all my APs are pointing to the VIP. I have some doubts about Licensing, because I found in my research that is needed to enable Centralized licensing server:

I want to be sure which specific settings on the standby controller will I need in order to complete this setup, and also to clarify licensing.

If you have centralized licensing enabled on a master controller, any other controller you add as a local or backup master (master redundancy), will automatically have centralized licensing and submit and pool its licenses to/from the master.

If you add a controller as a local to the master, it will pool the licenses, then you can add it to your existing VRRP.  Access points will be able to connect to the literal ip addresses of the controllers, as well as the VRRP.  You can point access points at the VRRP and only the controller that has control of the VRRP will service them.

If you add a controller as a backup master, it will not be operational until the master no longer has control of the VRRP.  That means you can only have access points on the master of a master/backup master cluster.  You can point access points to the VRRP and only the controller with control of the VRRP (the active master) will service the access points.

I hope that helps...

Thanks a lot for your answer!

I was reading about this redundancy schemas a time ago, but I would like to now the recommended topology for my deployment, I'm going to have only 2 WLCs in a central site, so I assume that Master/Standby can fit perfectly, but in the case that I'll need several branches, I could add them as locals and use the Master/standby as central licensing site, and pull licenses from them, and also using the VRRP higher priority in the branches. am I going in the right direction?.

You were going good until  "using the VRRP higher priority in the branches"; what do you mean?  Will there be a local controller at a branch in addition to master/backup master in the main site?

In this moment I only have to WLCs for a Master/Standby, but, I would like to now in the future, if I add some branches offices, if it is recommended to put a Local WLC in those sites, and how that will work, or what would be recommended in that case?

If most of the traffic comes back to the main site anyways, you could just have the access points tunnel the traffic back, if the bandwidth is good enough.  The ip address for clients would be distributed from the central site, however.

1- If bandwidth is low between that site and the central site, OR if most of the traffic stays at the site, you can make the Virtual AP for that WLAN "Bridged" where the user traffic will be deposited on the physical interface of the AP and switched/routed locally.  You most likely have to configure the port that the AP is plugged into as a trunk if you want that user traffic on another VLAN besides what the AP is plugged into.  That way the traffic will be deposited at the site, and will follow whatever wired traffic pattern you have for that site.  This setup requires that the AP have connectivity to the controller to work, so any interruption between the main site and the backup site would equal a wireless outage.

2- You could deploy a local controller at that site so that your access points do not have to depend on a controller at the main site. 

I hope that makes sense.

Absolutely. Thanks very much!. I'm going to test the configuration Master/Standby, I'm cheking sync things to make sure I'll understand erverything, but your comments were very helpful.

Rgds.

EH