Controllerless Networks

 I have a couple of clients, Mac PC and iPhones, that are getting bumped off due to Band Steering. Their RF is OK, -61 to -71db for readings on the Fluke AirCheck but for some reason they last 10 minutes and get bumped. Not always, some days they will be on for 50 minutes, its random and intermittent.

 How to de-list their MACs to Band Steering?

Do you know that it is band steering?  Type "show ap client trail-info <mac address of client>" to know for sure.

If it is Client Match (modern day band steering) you can add a client to the unsupported list by following the instructions here:  http://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS_6.4.4.x_WebHelp/Web_Help_Index.htm#ArubaFrameStyles/1CommandList/add_ap_arm.htm?Highlight=unsupported

 Does the Client have to be on-line, their devices and PC are in the Watched list?

 I'll perform the Client Match unsupport commands and see what whappens, may be next week before I get results though...

 I tried a few variations of the command on the master controller to gather trail-info:

(Aruba01) #show ap client trail-info 08:60:6E:AA:55:A1

Unknown Client:08:60:6e:aa:55:a1

(Aruba01) #show ap client trail-info 08 60 6E AA 55 A1

                                                 ^

% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

(Aruba01) #show ap client trail-info 08606EAA55A1

                                     ^

% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

(Aruba01) #show ap client trail-info <08606EAA55A1>

                                     ^

% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

show ap client trail-info is controller based command.

It wont work on IAP.

In IAP, you can not exclude specific mac address from client match algo. 

 Yes I entered the commands on the master controller but I talked with Jody here at Dal and he said do it on the 7240 controller as the master does not handle the client's AP traffic so it replied ??? to the MAC address I queried.

Not finding the client's MAC. Command not for the master controller so I ran it on the 7240.

(Aruba7240) #show ap client trail-info 7C:D1:C3:F5:B0:C3

Unknown Client:7c:d1:c3:f5:b0:c3

(Aruba7240)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Client's device goes like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_3) AppleWebKit/600.6.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0.6 Safari/600.6.3

 From Client Detail on Airwave the client jumps off back back to same AP:

From the clientmatch log, it looks like your client has a big preference for specific radios, probably the 2.4GHz radios. This may be caused because the 2.4GHz has a better signal strength (less free space loss and attenuation) and clients see the 2.4 GHz signal stronger and may prefer that over the (better quality) 5 GHz signal.

If you can afford in your design, it may help to put your 2.4GHz radios 6 dBm (or more) below the 5GHz EIRP level. That makes that your client sees a strong 5GHz signal and prefer that over 2.4GHz, so band steering is not even needed in first place.

Clients connecting to 'wrong' radios, or unexpected radios may be a trigger to double check your channel and power settings on the AP's.

The Roaming Devices VRD, as well as the Very High Density VRD (www.arubanetworks.com/vrd) have some guidance on this topic as well. 

is it specific to Instant? If yes, the knobs for band steering and client match are under, RF>ARM.

as of now excluding specific clients from client match is not possible in instant.