Cloud Managed Networks

I've been using Central since about as early as I could as an MSP.  Around 2 years ago I was told that the new MSP version would help me, solve some of the problems I'm having, and aid in managmenet of 3000+ micro-branch sites. 

Now, two years later the best we seem to have received is a color pallet change and "Apple" style UI. 

Is there any amount of improvement to the actual functionality of the MSP side of things coming? I keep getting promises from various parties at Aruba but I haven't seen anything worth it yet. The more sites I have to manage, the worse my experience gets. 

MSP mode is cumbersome and difficult to navigate around in.  It's slow as molasses in winter if you want to change customers and now, with the new update, you can't even open multiple customers in different tabs so you can work. No contextual awareness of where you are when you're buried in a customer device tree.

We really...REALLY...need MSP mode to get some love.

Feel free to submit Ideas via

https://innovate.arubanetworks.com/ideas

I guess it is only accessable by Employees and Partners - yet.

So if you are a Partner you can submit or let your Partner / Aruba Contact do it.

That isn't the point of this post.

I've been submitting multiple ideas to Innovate but it doesn't matter when every update seems to remove usability from the platform. I was involved on a good chunk of the ground level UI/UX work in Central, especially around MSPs.

However, everything I've been pitched has been to the customers that have literally identical configurations everywhere, or single-user customers. Either that or it'll never see release/was cancelled.

It's exceedingly tiring to go through the same thing every 6 months. 

The platform need dramatic and functional improvements. Especially for those of us who can't just jump to Mobility master.

kbarrett thank you for the feedback and for being a long standing MSP customer.

I would like to get to the specifics of the issues you're facing with MSP mode and try to address those but first I do want to mention that MSP is about to get a lot more love in the coming months. The palette change is just the first of many UI enhancements that are planned. We cannot discuss roadmap on a public forum but some of the new enchacements may address the issues you've already described.

Now, about the issues you've had with MSP mode:

• You've noted above probelms with the UI navigation, these are valid points and are being worked on.
• You also mention issues with configuration management. Can you describe this futher?

Template Groups, problems with config sync to devices (by the way, the command it was apparently trying to remove is unremovable, fun huh), until VERY recently support for the 7000 series gateways. 

Flexibility of template groups has always been problematic given what the size of the corresponding .json file would have to be. Each site has specific variables and as such we can't use a uniform config and just insert new values.

We've got config bloat issues with our MAS, headaches with 8.3, and extreme worries about the ability of Central to correctly migrate non-managed devices into the platform. 

Managing subscription keys is a nighmare, no improvement to assigning device subscriptions, and this drag/shift-click/control-click thing is an abysmal failure for MSPs.

I can't just tell Central to assign devices automatically as I have over 20,000 devices that were ported (automatically, I might add) from my Activate account, many of which wouldn't even be compatible with Central.

The list goes on.

Lots of points here, many on which I would like to get some addtional context on before I can respond. I've added my comments below for some but it would be best to sync up over a call to understand this better (sending you a DM to schedule this).

Template Groups, problems with config sync to devices (by the way, the command it was apparently trying to remove is unremovable, fun huh), until VERY recently support for the 7000 series gateways.

<Sunil> Need some context on the config sync issues.

Flexibility of template groups has always been problematic given what the size of the corresponding .json file would have to be. Each site has specific variables and as such we can't use a uniform config and just insert new values.

<Sunil> Template groups and variable files allows for the device configuration to be defined programatically. Parts of the config that vary between sites would be variabalised but you still use the same base template file. This is the flexibility that template groups allow. Let's discuss why this isnt working for you.

We've got config bloat issues with our MAS, headaches with 8.3, and extreme worries about the ability of Central to correctly migrate non-managed devices into the platform.

<Sunil> Need some context on these issues as well.

Managing subscription keys is a nighmare, no improvement to assigning device subscriptions, and this drag/shift-click/control-click thing is an abysmal failure for MSPs.

<Sunil> We now have auto-subscription for MSP as well. Once enabled, devices that are assigned to a tenant will automatically be assigned a DM subscription. Similarly, auto-subscrition can also be enabled for NS subscriptions via the NBAPIs (/licensing/v2/msp/customer/settings/autolicense). This is a one time setting that would assign NS subscriptions to a device when its moved to a tenant. 

I can't just tell Central to assign devices automatically as I have over 20,000 devices that were ported (automatically, I might add) from my Activate account, many of which wouldn't even be compatible with Central.

<Sunil> There isnt a workflow to auto assign devices to a tenant so are you referring to auto-subscription? If so, enabling auto-subscription will only subscribe devices that are moved to a tenant and will not subscribe device that are with the MSP itself.

Many of these involve sensitive data to my company and customers.  My SE (whom you've already spoken to) can give you the background as well as numerous TAC cases opened and IDEAs submitted.

If you still want more information beyond that, please let me know and I'll send you a DM.  Otherwise please feel free to email me directly and we can get aligned that way.

I appreciate your responsiveness, it's the first upswing in my difficulties with Central in a while.