Controller Based WLANs

Product and Software: This article applies to all Aruba controllers and ArubaOS 3.x.

Master and local controllers exchange heartbeat messages every 10 seconds; which is configurable.

(Aruba) (config) #cfgm set heartbeat <time_in_secs>

• Heartbeats include the configuration timestamp.
• If master has later timestamp than the local; local state is changed from 'Update Successful' to 'Update Required'.
• When local timestamp is different from master, local requests configuration from master.
• Master initiates configuration synchronization by sending out the first packet with 8 bytes payload, which includes size of the configuration file to follow and changes the local state to 'Update in Progress'.
• Local controller parses the configuration file and pushes the new configuration to the appropriate modules
• Local starts using the new timestamp in heartbeat.
• Master changes the local state to 'Update Successful'.