Controllerless Networks

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?

Check here the AP Discovery process flow. If you follow that, and find where the decision is made to convert the AP to the wrong type, you probably can remove the condition or see if you can control a step earlier in the process.

Sorry for being a bit vague, but it depends where in the process the decision is made and there is no universal answer as it depends on how you configured your network.

------------------------------
Herman Robers
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If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 16, 2024 07:50 PM
From: cptn_gridiron
Subject: Prevent IAP to Campus Conversion

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?

Hello,

Thank you for the information, I'll take a look at that and see what I can find. The whole setup is very strange, somehow there's at least 2 or 3 different controllers on the same network, there's 115s, 205s, 305s, 505s, with a 205 being the main controller, some can reboot without an issue that are in standalone. I've read in places that it's possible they are added to central, and the issue is there, unfortunately, this was setup by a different company (and if it is that means we're unable to modify any rules/licenses) and it's all over the place unfortunately and because of that the wireless is very sporadic because the 505s show the in the console, but they show red, and I read in the documentation that means they're not activated. I didn't see a way to activate them, but they apparently connect and get the SSIDs, but they don't allow users to connect. The ones I can access I've tried to set them to standalone from the console, however it says they'll reboot and not join. However, they never reboot.

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 17, 2024 02:34 AM
From: Herman Robers
Subject: Prevent IAP to Campus Conversion

Check here the AP Discovery process flow. If you follow that, and find where the decision is made to convert the AP to the wrong type, you probably can remove the condition or see if you can control a step earlier in the process.

Sorry for being a bit vague, but it depends where in the process the decision is made and there is no universal answer as it depends on how you configured your network.

------------------------------
Herman Robers
------------------------
If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 16, 2024 07:50 PM
From: cptn_gridiron
Subject: Prevent IAP to Campus Conversion

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?

Check here the AP Discovery process flow. If you follow that, and find where the decision is made to convert the AP to the wrong type, you probably can remove the condition or see if you can control a step earlier in the process.

Sorry for being a bit vague, but it depends where in the process the decision is made and there is no universal answer as it depends on how you configured your network.

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?

Put them on a separate L2 network. Easiest way is assign a different management VLAN to the APs you wish to segregate.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/browse/articles/blogviewer?blogkey=8833027f-9642-409e-afdd-17618e791ad2

In doing so, the two (or more) groups of APs won't see each other. Yet, you can still create SSIDs that connect clients to the other VLAN.

If your network isn't capable of VLANs, it may work to place APs on a separate L3 subnet on the same wire. Your router will need to supply separate DHCP service for the alternate subnet, and only respond to the correct MAC addresses.

Honestly, your network sounds like it needs some deep thought and reconfiguration. And that's probably the best solution here.

Check here the AP Discovery process flow. If you follow that, and find where the decision is made to convert the AP to the wrong type, you probably can remove the condition or see if you can control a step earlier in the process.

Sorry for being a bit vague, but it depends where in the process the decision is made and there is no universal answer as it depends on how you configured your network.

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?

Thank you for all the information everyone. That appears to have been what was happening, and why there were so many issues both when it was picked up and when we merged. The wireless setup was quite a big mess and it's starting to get cleaned up, at the same time we're removing old 205s as we can and replacing them with APs that were about 15 feet from each other in some buildings.

Put them on a separate L2 network. Easiest way is assign a different management VLAN to the APs you wish to segregate.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/browse/articles/blogviewer?blogkey=8833027f-9642-409e-afdd-17618e791ad2

In doing so, the two (or more) groups of APs won't see each other. Yet, you can still create SSIDs that connect clients to the other VLAN.

If your network isn't capable of VLANs, it may work to place APs on a separate L3 subnet on the same wire. Your router will need to supply separate DHCP service for the alternate subnet, and only respond to the correct MAC addresses.

Honestly, your network sounds like it needs some deep thought and reconfiguration. And that's probably the best solution here.

Check here the AP Discovery process flow. If you follow that, and find where the decision is made to convert the AP to the wrong type, you probably can remove the condition or see if you can control a step earlier in the process.

Sorry for being a bit vague, but it depends where in the process the decision is made and there is no universal answer as it depends on how you configured your network.

Hello,

Have a very mixed network with both IAPs and Campus APs, however, whenever I plug in an IAP it's picked up by the controller and converted regardless. I turned off the auto join, but that didn't seem to help. Is there any other way to stop the APs from being added?