Primary (K-12) Education

We are a new Aruba Wireless client and are in the process of installing 600APs into 23 sites.  One site has five buildings on the same campus with different SSID requirements.  All buildings are on the same subnet, so will have one virtual controller.  I've created the zones on my VC, and defined the first site, but am having trouble with the second site.  The issue is that my AP will not "join" the VC.  Our power is AT and not AF, but I haven't read anywhere, where this is an issue with Zones, only streams and USB use.  I have taken the VC out of the zone that it's physically located and also defined it. 

Yesterday, we used a slightly more powerful injector, not AF, but more than 15.4, and were able to get the AP to join, if the VC was also NOT defined in a zone.

Is this proper behavior, or am I missing something?

Thanks

Tim

Wireless Specialist

Grand Rapids Public Schools, MI

I don't use Instant AP's, so I'm going by vague recollection here.

I seem to remember there being a limit as to how many AP's can join a VC (75? 100?). This is why we ended up going with a controller based implementation as our high school is well over that amount at a single location/subnet.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable will respond soon, but I wanted to get this out there in case it helps in the meantime.

Good luck,

--Benjamin Lambert

Network Administrator, Concord School District

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@Merlin1392 wrote:

We are a new Aruba Wireless client and are in the process of installing 600APs into 23 sites.  One site has five buildings on the same campus with different SSID requirements.  All buildings are on the same subnet, so will have one virtual controller.  I've created the zones on my VC, and defined the first site, but am having trouble with the second site.  The issue is that my AP will not "join" the VC.  Our power is AT and not AF, but I haven't read anywhere, where this is an issue with Zones, only streams and USB use.  I have taken the VC out of the zone that it's physically located and also defined it. 

 

Yesterday, we used a slightly more powerful injector, not AF, but more than 15.4, and were able to get the AP to join, if the VC was also NOT defined in a zone.

 

Is this proper behavior, or am I missing something?

Thanks

Tim

Wireless Specialist

Grand Rapids Public Schools, MI

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100 APs is the design maximum for a cluster.  You also cannot have separate clusters on the same layer 2 VLAN.  You should contact the person that you purchased the IAPs from for some design or sales help with your deployment.

With regards to the AP that will not join, how many APs do you already have in that cluster?

Thanks for the replies, but you missed the point.  While I have five buildings on campus, I didn't say that any were very large.  In fact, there are 12 currently working in Zone1 and 28 scheduled for Zone2.  Zone 3 will have 6, and Zone 4 may have 20 which may cause an issue, but I'm 6-12months from that event.  I'm just trying to get one to work with the VC that is physically located in Zone1, for a total of 13!

The questions remain, does power have anything todo with a units connecting to a zone?  or does the VC need to be in a "Global Zone" rather than part of the physical location zone?

I can't find much documentation on how zones work or don't.

Tim

Whether or not an AP will join a cluster has nothing to do with zones; A zone is part of the configuration that is obtained after an AP joins a cluster.  You should get the AP tech support that is not joining to see if there is an issue with power, code (IAPs should have access to the internet just in case their shipping code does not match that of the cluster), or configuration (allowed aps).  I repeat, an AP should join a cluster regardless of zone configuration...

Ok, That's what I thought, but not what's happening.  On my workbench, I have a port defined for VLAN 1.  From this poirt I can bring up a blank AP and configure it to the site I want.  I add all the configuration information and reset it.  Take it to the site, and deploy.  All other APs join as expected. 

When I set this port to VLAN 2, which is my campus VLAN that I need zones in, it will NOT join the controller.  The radio light never comes on, and the AP never joins the VC.  The VC was originally set this same way, and all other APs joined just ducky.  However, this was before I established zones.  Now that they are in play, the devices no longer play nicely on this VLAN.

Time to get Tech Support involved?

Thanks

Tim

"add all the configuration and reset it" - When you reset an AP, you start from scratch..  why add the information to it just to reset it?  If the AP finds a cluster it will obtain that configuration, so what is the purpose of adding the configuration?

The untagged port that an AP is connected to by default should be the management VLAN.  If you set the physical switchport to a VLAN that does not match the management port of the cluster, by default, it will not see any other APs and form its own cluster...

I think you should get tech support involved, mainly because there are a series of steps required to get your network up and running efficiently.  And while on the face of it, I think your network design should work, I think the series of steps need to be provided to you so that you do not have any issues.

If you haven't already, please feel free to take a look at the youtube channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL37Y-XxK6oanTV3821XpKHFVo3hGPW-56  It offers a number of tutorials on Aruba Instant that would give you information that is not clear in the manual.  A good starting point is the Administrative Tasks Video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp0JvgQ6paY&list=PL37Y-XxK6oanTV3821XpKHFVo3hGPW-56&index=21

Ok, we do set things up differently than Aruba default.  We assign names and IP address to each unit, and have different SSIDs depending on the location.  Thanks for your replies.  I'll get TAC involved.

Merlin1392,

Instead of statically addressing each AP, you can configure a Virtual IP for the cluster which will always be accessible and be answered by the Virtual Controller that controls the cluster.  All IAPs that are part of a cluster can have a dhcp address, but you can always reach the cluster via the Virtual IP for administration.  After you bring up the APs that have DHCP addresses and they join the cluster, you can then edit each AP and configure a static IP address in the GUI.  That will save you tons of time, especially if you made a mistake on the static ip address and an AP is unreachable.

Long story short, it was meant to be deployed, at least initially via DHCP and then if you must give your APs static ip addresses.

One final note.  I stripped out all the Zone based SSIDs and removed the Zones from the other APs in the cluster, and confirmed it was missing from the VC and the physicall AP acting as controller and the new AP joined almost immediately!

Must be some magic in how zones actually work.

Tim

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@Merlin1392 wrote:

One final note.  I stripped out all the Zone based SSIDs and removed the Zones from the other APs in the cluster, and confirmed it was missing from the VC and the physicall AP acting as controller and the new AP joined almost immediately!

 

Must be some magic in how zones actually work.

Tim

 

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Get your entire cluster up and running and then configure your zones.  Getting the APs to see each other is fundamental.  Everything else is secondary...