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AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

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ArchimedesPrinciple

ArchimedesPrincipleOct 29, 2018 07:08 AM

m.ameen

m.ameenOct 29, 2018 07:13 AM

  • 1.  AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 04:02 AM
    Hi all,
    We have two 7240 controllers and more than 4000 aruba accesspoints in a site. We thought that the license that we're having will cover all the Aps but now when we checked, it shows the available Aps as 3187 and remaining APs as 2048.
    Now, no Aps are added to the controller. So, if we start adding the aps, the count will reduce from 2048. So, 1 controller will support maximum 2048 ap only. So, we're configuring these as active active.
    My question is that whether it is possible to decide which ever Aps should join controller 1 and controller2. If it is possible, we can join the important Aps to controller 1 and less important Aps to controller2.


  • 2.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 04:10 AM

    EDIT:

    I completely misread your post.

     

    You can assign access points by geography or importance, but you should design it to minimize client roaming between controllers.  You don't want to have to look at both controllers to troubleshoot a single client.



  • 3.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 06:42 AM

    Yes, I was also confused after reading your first reply. 

    Here we are having more than 4000 APs, so how can we join few APs to controller 1 and the others to controller 2 while keeping the controllers as active/active HA.

    I found somewhere that there is an option like mentioning LMS 1 IP and LMS 2 IP, is this for this type of configuration?



  • 4.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 06:49 AM

    The AP system profile is a component of the AP-Group.  In the AP system profile, there is an LMS-IP which determines the ip address of the controller that all access points in the ap-group will be connecting to.  You can assign an AP system profile to each AP group to determine which controller each set of APs will connect to.

     

    EDIT: Unless you have a third controller to backup the first two, HA does not really make sense in an active/active situation with two controllers, unless one controller can take the entire load (you would then want to give a single controller the entire load and have the second controller back that up).  Controllers do not fail often.

     

    Optionally ArubaOS 8 has clustering, where you can assign access points to a group of controllers and the cluster will determine which controller each access point will be connected to automatically.  Clustering on ArubaOS 8 is only available where an MM is deployed in ArubaOS 8.  https://blogs.arubanetworks.com/industries/90-drop-in-complaints-with-arubaos-8/



  • 5.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 07:07 AM

    Hi,

    We are using Aruba OS 8.0 only. Here the problem is that we are having more than 4000 APs and the licensing part in my controller shows that the reamining APs are 2048 only.



  • 6.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 07:08 AM

    Do you have an MM?



  • 7.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 07:13 AM

    We only have two 7240 controllers



  • 8.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 29, 2018 08:00 AM

    If you do not have an MM, you are running MCM or Master Controller Mode, which means you need to synchronize everything yourself.  Licensing is not shared in MCM mode, either, so you would need to move the licenses around to each controller based on need.  If you have thousands of access points, it is worth getting in touch with your Aruba/HPE Sales Engineer to determine the best way moving forward.  With your setup you would benefit from having an MM to centralize everything, and also use clustering.  https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/atmosphere/2018-Airheads/Fundamentals%20Guide%20-%20ArubaOS%208%20Fundamentals.pdf

    Screenshot 2018-10-29 at 06.56.35.png



  • 9.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 30, 2018 06:09 AM

    Hi,

    Thank you for the reply. Can we prioritize the APs like can I give priority to the APS so even if 1 Controller fails in active/active setup, the APs with the highest priority will first join the other controller. Is this possible? I know that we give priority to APs in cisco controller.



  • 10.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 30, 2018 07:01 AM
    There is no command to prioritize. When access points fail over, anything over the capacity will not be serviced.


  • 11.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 06:04 AM

    Ok, so I have a question here. We have two 7240 controllers. All the 3200 Ap's license is added into the first controller. And one controller will support only 2048 APs. So , any suggestion how can we do that?

     

    Can we do HA with dual, so we can use both controllers in active/active mode ans support all the 3200 APs? We already enabled vrrp. We put the entire license as a single piece in to the first controller, can we split the license in to two and make it two masters? pls suggest a method in  which we can use both the 7240 controllers for all the 3200 APs



  • 12.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 06:40 AM

     

    ArubaOS 8.x is not designed to work in a large-scale network without an MM.  If you had an MM, you would be able to:

    - Cluster your controllers for automatic redundancy

    - Automatically distribute licenses to the controllers that need it.

     

    If you loaded all of your licenses on a single controller without an MM, you should be able to point the server without the licenses to the server with the licenses with the license server-ip command:  https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS_83_Web_Help/Web_Help_Index.htm#ArubaFrameStyles/1CommandList/license.htm

     

    To answer your question,  in practice it is recommended to only run controllers at 80% capacity.  The capacity of your 7240 controllers is 2048*2 = 4096.  80% of 4096 = 3276, which means you are very close to capacity for those two controllers and you have no room for redundancy  You would need a third controller to support failover.  You probably should manually decide what access points should be on what controller with lms-ip in each server group.  You do not have any capacity to do any type of HA.

     

    Everything I said above is with the limited knowledge of your network that you provided.  Since you have 3200 access points, please consult your Aruba Sales Engineer or Aruba Reseller for specific and proper advice about what steps to take to make your network more manageable.  Not having an MM or an additional controller will force you to manually manage things that ArubaOS 8.x was designed to manage automatically.



  • 13.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 07:34 AM
    Actually it was not os 8.0 and was 6.4.x.x ; we upgraded it to 8.0 but it showed that we need MM for 8.0 to work. We don't have MM here


  • 14.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 07:47 AM

    Based on the information provided it seems  that based on capacity, you would need another controller to provide redundancy, because you are close to capacity.  Please contact your Aruba Sales Engineer or a reseller to determine the best course of action.



  • 15.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:14 AM

    Can we upgrade to 8.0 in this environment without a MM?



  • 16.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:17 AM

    The current configuration is like, we clustered both the controllers. Then, we made different different AP-Groups and used LMS IP and backup LMS IP options for the AP-groups. So, few AP-groups will join the controller1 and the other few will join the controller2. 

    But there is no redundancy at the moment and if one controller fails, the other APs will also try to join the existing single control.



  • 17.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:23 AM

    I am confused.  Are you currently on 8.x or not?

     

    Either way, you don't have enough controllers for any type of redundancy.



  • 18.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:26 AM

    No, we're not on 8.x. I thought it was 8.x but not. We tried to upgrade to 8.x but it says we need MM. Can we upgrade to 8.X without having a MM.



  • 19.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:31 AM
    The current configuration is, we created multiple AP-groups and assigned LMS IP and backup LMS ip option. So, we will give the controller 1 as LMS IP for the 1st 1600 APs and controller 2 as LMS IP for the 2nd 1600 APs. SO, that we can afford all the aps without crossing the maximum capacity but there will be no redundancy. We assume that the controllers will never fail


  • 20.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers
    Best Answer

    Posted Oct 31, 2018 09:44 AM

    If you have no redundancy, you should just remove the backup LMS ip.  Why?  because if the controller stays up but for some reason the access point cannot contact it, the APs will go to the backup controller.  You don't want that.



  • 21.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 06, 2018 01:37 AM

    We are ordering one more 7240, so now we will have 3 controllers. 

    We are planning to add the 3rd controller to the same cluster so we can share the licenses and make all the 3 controllers as master. So, we believe that here we can give LMS ip and backup LMS ip accordingly without crossing the 80% of the controller capacity. 

    Pls correct me if you find anything wrong here.



  • 22.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 06, 2018 10:49 AM

    Adding a third controller is a start, but you will have to manually decide which access points will go to what controller and what controller they will fail over to, which is administratively time consuming.

     

    If you have an MM in an ArubaOS 8 network, the 3 controllers will be clustered and the cluster will automatically decide what is the primary and what is the backup for all of your access points.  Without an MM in ArubaOS 8, you will have to configure and manage that manually, but it is possible.

     

    Based on the size of your network, please speak to an Aruba Professional to get specific advice on how to proceed to minimize the pain involved in adding that third controller.



  • 23.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 07, 2018 12:54 AM

    Just for clarification, 

    If we are buying a mobility master virtual device/Hardware appliance for this scenario, is there a need for all other controllers?

    I mean to say, if we are buying a MM with 5000 device support, do we require any other controllers in the network?



  • 24.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 07, 2018 01:51 AM

    Yes, you requre other Mobility Controllers (MCs or MD) to actually service the access points.  A MM (Mobility Master) cannot terminate access points.  "Its primary role is to serve as the single point of configuration and image management for the network." 

     

    Why an MM would be recommended on ArubaOS 8 in your scenario is that it enables clustering, which entails the following features detailed in the ArubaOS 8 Fundamentals Guide here:  https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controller-Based-WLANs/ArubaOS-8-Fundamentals-Guide/ta-p/428914

    Screenshot 2018-11-07 at 00.35.52.png

     

    Right now you have 4000 access points and 4096 access point capacity ( 2 x 2048), so you do not have any redundancy.  You are also running over the 80% recommended capacity for your two controllers.  You would also need another controller if you want redundancy for your access points.  If you also get an MM, you would not need to manually configure what access points go to what controller, because the Clustering feature of the MM would handle that.  Clustering with an MM would also automatically handle redundancy if you get a third controller, instead the administrator having to manually configure what 4000 access points go to what controller.  Having Clustering would also provide seamless roaming for clients between all of your controllers so that you would not have to specifically come up with a plan for client roaming between controllers.

     

    Again, I am making these recommendations based on the limited information provided in your posts.  Please consult your Aruba Sales team for specific information about the direction you should take with your deployment.

     



  • 25.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 07, 2018 02:00 AM

    If you stay on ArubaOS 6.x, you would still need another controller to provide any redundancy.  Ideally you have already enabled centralized licensing so that all of your licenses are shared among your controllers.  In the short term, I would be concerned that one of your controllers is currently serving the master function and could be servicing more at than 80% of the access point capacity at the same time.



  • 26.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 11, 2018 02:47 AM

    Dear Cjoseph,

    We are ordering a 3rd controller for the redundancy.

    Now the existing 2 controllers are added into the cluster and also active/active HA group.

     

    Is there any option to synchronize the configuration that we are doing in one of this controller to the other controller? As both of the controllers are now configured as active/active, we are forced to do all the configurations in both the controllers. Pls advice for any option to sync the configuration from controller1 to controller2( both are master, part of the cluster and active/active HA group)



  • 27.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 11, 2018 05:25 AM

    If you are running ArubaOS 6.x you would leave one controller that has your global configuration as the master and configure the 2nd and third controllers as locals to that master.  The locals would point to the master controller and automatically obtain and synchronize the global configuration with it.  In terms of redundancy, in each AP-Group there is an AP system profile.  You could configure the AP System Profile with the LMS-IP of the primary controller of that ap-group and the Backup LMS-IP with the secondary controller. 

     

    Again, please contact TAC here:  http://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/support-program/contact-support or engage an Aruba Value Added Reseller (VAR) to help you with this configuration.



  • 28.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 11, 2018 07:00 AM

    Dear Cjoseph,

     

     

    THank you for your reply. Pls find the attachments for the 2 solutions I made for our current scenario. Now as per the information shared by you, I created a third solution which I think will be the most appropriate. 

    Pls check the attachments and kindly request you to comment on the options.

    I decided to go with the third option which is suggested by you.



  • 29.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 12, 2018 07:07 AM

    Hi,

    anyone there?



  • 30.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 12, 2018 08:22 AM

    Hi,

    The problem what I see here is that when we tried this configuration at the first time, APs were connecting on the master and the Local but the AP license count was getting reduced from the Master.

    For eg: On that day, we configured 3 APs out of which 2 were terminated on the master and 1 was terminated on the local but the remaining AP became 2045 from 2048 on the controller. 

     

    Is there any solution for this ?



  • 31.  RE: AP redundancy using 7240 controllers

    Posted Nov 13, 2018 06:18 AM

    We did this configuration now, like one master and two locals.

     

    AP_Group1: lms ip:master

                        backup lms: local3

     

    AP_Group2:lms ip:local2

                       backup lms: local3

     

    This is the current configuration but when we were checking the performance, we shutdown the master and at that time it was taking long time for the APs terminated on the master to failover to the local3. Is there anyway we can speedup this failover?

     

    Otherwise, we are trying to make two vrrp instances. controller 1 to 3 and controller 2 to 3.

    so the configuration will be like,

    ap_group1: lms ip= vip1

    ap_group2: lms ip= vip2