Controllerless Networks

Hello community

 

I've a general question about Airgroup. Is it the IAP which is sending queries through the network to detect mDNS and DNLA devices? Or is it  the device in the network (like printers,...) which is sending data an the IAP make only an entry in his airgroup table?

 

I've a customer which has a few printers in his network. Airgroup works fine for a certain period of time and then suddenly one or more printers are no more visible but others are still visible.

 

He would like to know if it is a printer problem (the printer doesn't send his data anymore) or if there is maybe an option in IAP (with Central) which allow us to solve this behaviour and search actively search for the devices in the network.

(After a reboot of the printer the problem is solved in most of the cases.)

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

Kind regards

 

 

Any idea? Any hint?

 

 

Is AirGroup enabled on this Instant cluster/virtual-controller?

 

Typically requests and replies will flow to the multicast destination of 224.0.0.251 and/or ff02::fb. When AirGroup is enabled, the virtual controller will start doing mDNS queries. If broadcast/multicast filtering is applied, it's possible your client device sees some mDNS for a period of time, but isn't able to get a response to it's own queries.

 

 

Thanks for your reply

Yes AirGroup is enabled and Broadcast Filter is enabled.

 

So you say -->  when I enable AirGroup, the VC sends querries to the networks to learn all the devices in the network.

 

But why the printers are no more displayed sometimes and why are they reconnect if I start the printer restart or disable and re-enable of AirGroup doen't solve the problem.

 

Thanks a lot for your help

 

What firmware version are you running, and can you share your current configuration from the virtual controller? Also, what make/model(s) printer are you trying to use, and any details about the client devices that are trying to access the printers would be helpful.

 

There are multiple ways in which AirPrint or DLNA could fail to have printers be discoverable. Starting with the above will help us get to the cause.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

All IAPs has Firmware 8.5.0.5_73491 installed.

 

The configuration of Airgroup is the following: 

- Enabe AirGroup (mDNS /SSDP) / "AirGroup Across Mobility Domains" / AirPrint / DLNA Print.

- Enable ARP Broadcast Filtering on all SSIDs

 

Or how should I provide you the config?

 

Printer models and manufacturer are very different (also the installed firmware on them). Most of the printers are Ricoh and Brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two ways to get the configuration from an Instant AP. You can get it from the CLI via SSH, or from the WebUI. Is this Instant AP being managed by itself, or is it managed by Airwave or Central as part of a larger enterprise deployment?

 

Using SSH to the CLI, ensure you have console logging enabled in your SSH client, and then just run "show run" from the AP command line. Capture the output and attached that here. Passwords are hashed, but you can also delete them from the config.

 

From the webUI, under Maintenance, there's an option to display the text configuration that can be copy and pasted to a file.

 

Thanks for the info on the printers being Ricoh and Brother. What are the client devices that are attempting to print to these printers?

Sorry for the long respond time. I had to check the config with the customer so that he is agreed with the upload.

I attached the config as a file.

 

The IAPs are managed with Aruba Central.

 

About the devices which try to connect to the printers. We tried it with MAC Books, with iPhones and iPads, with Android devices (with Bonjour apps) and with Windows Clients.

But the MAC Books and iPads are the most important devices at the customers site.

 

Thanks. Looking into the config now...

 

Thanks for this additional detail, very helpful. 

 

There are currently 4 SSIDs configured, each pointing to different user VLANs. Which SSID(s) are the users and printers connecting to? Do they share the same SSID, or are they connecting to different SSIDs?

 

What is the failure condition? Are users able to "see" the printers but not print, or is discovery not occurring?

 

Two things to look at for validation on the IAP (accessible via either the CLI or webui) "show airgroup servers" and "show airgroup users". The first command will determine whether the IAP sees the printer as a server ... useful to verify that the printer is still in the APs server table. The second command verifies that the IAP is seeing requests from wireless users .

Thanks for your feedback.

The printers are connected to an additional "infrastructur" VLAN which is not used for a SSID. But the VLAN is tagged to each port where a IAP is connected to.

 

The confidtion is that the users can't find the printers over the network and they are also not listed in "show airgroup servers". 

 

 

Ack, thanks for the additional feedback.

 

If you haven't already opened a case with Aruba TAC, I would recommend doing so in order to work this in parallel. I'm continuing to research as well as time allows.

If your wireless printer connection isn't functioning smoothly, downloading different apps or deleting existing ones won't help.

Not sure what this is in response to, there has not been a suggestion or question about downloading or deleting apps that I've seen.

 

---

@Beckma1n wrote:
If your wireless printer connection isn't functioning smoothly, downloading different apps or deleting existing ones won't help.

---