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Broadcast SSID on only one IAP in a group

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  • 1.  Broadcast SSID on only one IAP in a group

    Posted Sep 05, 2014 02:28 PM

    Is it possible to broadcast an SSID on only one IAP in a group? We are managing these aps through Aruba Central.



  • 2.  RE: Broadcast SSID on only one IAP in a group

    Posted Sep 05, 2014 02:35 PM

    You can do this with the "AP-Zone" feature of IAP v. 4.1.  Unfortunately, however, the AP-Zone feature is not configurable within Central -- only via the Instant UI.  It may be added into Central near the end of the year.

     

    Take a look at my training video here:  http://cloud.arubanetworks.com/instant-training and scroll down to Module 20.



  • 3.  RE: Broadcast SSID on only one IAP in a group

    Posted Sep 05, 2014 04:00 PM

    So in order to accomplish this I would need to remove these APs from Aruba Central and then manage them through the VC?



  • 4.  RE: Broadcast SSID on only one IAP in a group
    Best Answer

    Posted Sep 06, 2014 11:45 AM

    You would need to remove the IAPs from Central; however, after configuring Zones in the Instant UI you can put them back under Central Management.

     

    Disclaimer:  This is not supported and my test was really quick so proceed at your own risk. 

     

    I just tried it on a single AP swarm (IAP-225 on v.4.1.0.1).

     

    To test :

    -I removed the IAP from Central mgmt.

    -Deleted a couple of SSIDs on the IAP locally

    -Added a unique zone name on the two remaining SSIDs (zone1 and zone2)

    -Added Zone1 to the AP

    -Confirmed that now only one SSID was seen (zone1)

    -Added the IAP-225 back into Central mgmt.

    -Saw that all the SSIDs I deleted via the local IAP UI came back in the UI

    -Verified that the SSIDs that I had previously deleted were broadcast – they had no zone name tied to them.  The SSID that had a zone name but that zone was not configured on the AP did not appear.   The last SSID with a zone configured that was also configured on the IAP is broadcast.

    -Checked the config and found that the Zone was still there.

     

    So, it looks like the zone config is left in place.  

     

    This config is not known to Central, what it means is

    • If you configure this on an Swarm, and import the config to Central, central will not have this command of wlan, other supported lines in wlan will be imported.
    • When central tried to send config to device, it will not send this (zone) line.
    • When Swarm has zone in its show running config, and Central doesn’t have zone, this will not show dirty diff.

     

    Above 3 points means that you may be able to do this in production with the following concerns:

    • You will have to go to each Swarm, disconnect this from Central, configure zone, and connect them back to central.
    • If you move Swarm to another group in Central, central does config “write erase” and sends config again, i.e. at this point central will send only the config it knows, i.e. zone config will go away
    • When we start supporting zone in central, the possibility is 1st behaviour would be it will wipe zone from all SWarms where it is configured (for all wlans where it is configured)
      1. The silver lining for this behaviour once Central supports is, after that you can configure on one Swarm, import the config, and all other Swarmss in this group will get this config, i.e. you do not need to go through pain of configuring at each Swarm