Controller Based WLANs

Product and Software: This article applies to all Aruba controllers and ArubaOS versions.

The Macintosh 802.1x implementation does not have the concept of machine authentication. This is a problem for environments that either need to enforce machine authentication on a WLAN or, more commonly, need the laptop to be able to gain network connectivity even if the user is logged off. An example is a laptop in a school that is used by multiple users.

To work around this if you are enforcing machine authentication, statically add the MAC address of the machine to the internal database of the master controller. For the role, use the "machine" role from your 802.1x-profile.

To work around this for laptops that are used for multiple users where you need network connectivity when user is logged off, follow these steps:

1) Try to set up a WLAN profile under the "System" account.
2) Try EAP-TLS with certificates.