Controllerless Networks

Hi guys,

We have been trying to perform a client bridge configuration on a RAP3.

I've searched for tutorials but have not found anything.

Case: we have a thin client in production that only has a wired connection.

We need to get this device connected to the wifi. In order to do this we have been trying to configure a RAP3 as a client bridge to the existing Aruba wireless network.

I was able to configure the wifi uplink (the RAP is getting an IP from the windows DHCP server)

I've configured eth0 bridging on the RAP, but when i connect a client to eth0 i'm not getting an IP from the Windows DHCP server. However, when i activate the virtual controller DHCP server option on the wired port profile, I get an IP address and I can ping resources on the normal network.

When I configure the wired port profile to use network assigned DHCP, it's not working. 

The vlan configuration is default for both the AP management network and the wired port profile.

The wired port profile has PoE disabled, admin status enabled and  link type access.

Does anyone have a clue what else I can try?

Thanks.

BICT Networkadmins

Hi Friend,

Here you are talking about two different things,

1. Uplink bridging

2. SSID on bridge mode.

If your requirement is SSID on bridge mode and you want all the clients connected to that SSID to get IP from the local (Remote office ) network, you have simply select the forward mode in VAP profile as "Bridge mode" ( optionally you can select "Always" or "Persistent" as the RAP operation mode).

When a client selects a Bridge mode SSID, client traffic will be bridged to the uplinked device , we need not configure anything on the wired port.

Ensure that, DHCP is reachable from the up link device.

Please  feel free for any help on this.

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

We are not trying to perform SSID in bridged mode.

We want the thin client to connect to the corporate wifi via the RAP device while getting an IP address from the windows DHCP server on the network.

Corporate wifi -> RAP3 connected with wifi uplink -> Thin client connected to RAP3 with UTP cable on eth0

Kind regards,

HI,

Is the wired AP option enabled in Wired-Ap-Profile mapped to the eth port where the client is connected ??

I believe the SSID is in tunneled mode and the thin client is expected to get an IP address from the datacentre.

Please ensure the wired-ap-profile is configure properly so that the traffic is tunneled through the GRE and hit the controller.

Please feel free for any further help on this.

Hi,

I should have mentioned this from the start, but we are not working with a controller.

We are using Instant configuration with a virtual controller.

Does this require the same settings? I guess not.

Ok.

Are you deploying RAP3 as an IAP or RAP ?

If it is RAP mode you can not terminate RAP on a VC. if it is on IAP mode first it should form a cluster with the VC then you can connect a wired client.

Please bring some clarity, we can resolve the issue if we understand the topology and deployment mode.

Hi,

Sorry for the mixed signals, let me try to clearify the setup.

I have a RAP3 that i'm running in standalone mode.

We do NOT want the RAP3 to connect to a (virtual) controller.

We only want to use the RAP3 as a device to connect the wired client to the wifi network.(client bridge)

Important is that the client must receive a DHCP address from the network so that we can manage the client from remote. The client could be a thin client, a printer, a desktop pc,...

We currently have configured the RAP3 to connect via wifi uplink to the existing wireless network.

The part that is not working is the DHCP on the client. The client is not able to get a DHCP address from the network DHCP server.

I hope this explains our needs.

HI,

Now I got complete clarity on your requirement, to achieve this you should configure the following two things,

1. You have to select the uplink as WiFi and configure it properly as shown bellow.

2. Select the Client IP assignment as "Network Assigned" and VLAN as "Default" if you want Client to get IP from the same subnet of the IAP or select "Dynamic" if you want to assign a separate VLAN for the Client.

For your ref:

If you have done the above already , please share the out put of "show log system" from the IAP.

We configured the uplink and the connection is ok.

The RAP receives an IP address of the DHCP server.

The client however does not receive an IP address.

On the WLAN configuration of the wifi, the DHCP is network assigned but is configured with static VLAN 79.

I configured the wired profile on the RAP with vlan 1 (default) and with vlan 79.

Both are not working for the client.

Attached you can find the output of 'sh log system'

This is the configuration of the RAP 

And this is the configuration of the wired profile

Attachment(s)

sh log system.txt   9 KB 1 version

HI,

Now I got complete idea about your issue. here is the work around,

first let me explain the limitation of the Wifi uplink. here WiFi uplink can not tag the traffic because the other end there is another AP which will treat the RAP3 as a client and can not expect tagged traffic. 

Therefore you need to select Client IP assignment as "Virtual controller Assigned" so that VC will provide IP address from it's internal DHCP and NAT Client out going traffic with VC IP address.

For your ref :

The above solution should work, Feel free for any further help on this.

Hi

I tested the setup before with the DHCP provided by the virtual controller and this worked.

But am I correct then that there is no way to connect to the client in this case?

The only known IP is the one of the RAP and there is no routing possible for the DHCP subnet of the VC

Yes My friend,

This is not a product limitation, it is how technology works. We can not expect a client to send a tagged traffic similarly here RAP3 can be treated as a client.

Feel free for any further help.

Hi 

Sorry i think I have the same requirement meaning i have an existing wifi network and i want to use a standalone RAP to "bridge" the existing wifi VLAN with a host connected to the RAP ethernet port.

this means when i connect a host in the RAP ethernet port, i want this client to be in the same vlan to the wifi/SSID client vlan that the RAP is using as an uplink.

Can you please confrim if this is possible or not?

The user who opened this post was talking about Natted traffic and reaching clients from the public side of the NAT.

If I understand you correctly, you want to put a client bridge on the wired side of a RAP so that the devices are "passed through".  Yes, this is possible conceptually.  If you have a way to test it, please do before you make a major purchase, so make sure your application is satisfied.

I want to use the AP as a "bridge" so that the uplink wifi network and the AP wired port is in the same network/vlan. I think this was the original requirement of the poster as well.