Aruba IAP Mesh Mac addresses

[JasT]

Hello all,

I am trying to work out the toplogy for an IAP mesh network but I'm having a couple of problems.

How do I see the Mac address of the mesh SSID. If I do a show bss-table the IAP doesn't show the Mac that it is using on the mesh portal.

I am also using show AP mesh link to other AP's to work out the mesh but the Mac addresses of the portal's don't show in the BSS table.

I wish are was an easier way by using the AP name or somthing graphical in central but I haven't found anything.

[Craig Syme]

Ignore, you've already tried this! :)

[jhoward]

show ap mesh neighbor will show parent/children BSSID

Mesh visualization is coming in a later version of Central (it's being worked on as we speak)

[JasT]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I think that shows what I need, I can also sort of work it out using the 5Ghz channels. I am surprised that the way some AP’s have meshed together. 1 AP has chosen a portal which is quite a long distance away and there are two much closer.

[jhoward]

Much of it is a race condition, if the far portal was up before the others, or the others rebooted, that could explain part of it. If the intenst is to control the topology, you can define the mesh cluster used between points and portals.

[JasT]

Hi Jerrod, in an IAP cluster I thought that the mesh forming was automatic with no control, how can we control which AP portals mesh with which points? 

When the mesh is formed don't the AP negotiate a better path / link occasionally?

[ariyap · Accepted solution]

we have much better mesh control in instant version 8.4.x

Here are the new enhancements

1. Role Assignment enhancement for Mesh point to send loop detection packets for IAPs that are in Mesh point role before turning them back to Mesh portal IAPs.
2. We can now have more than one mesh cluster in an IAP swarm and manually configure mesh clusters and assign it to specific IAPs
3.  IAPs in Standalone Mode can now connect to a mesh cluster

Check this technote.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controllerless-Networks/Wireless-Mesh-enhancements-with-Instant-8-4/td-p/536790

[JasT]

Great stuff. In the tch note I have found the command 

sh ap mesh cluster topology

This shows exactly what I wanted! The commands isn't in Central troubleshooting but when I SSH and run it to the VC it shows the output I wanted.