Controllerless Networks

How many IAP's can I put in one cluster?

In general, the IAPs have no pre-defined limit in firmware.  

 

If you are using the majority of the common IAPs(105, 115, 135, soon to be 225) you can easily scale to dozens of IAPs in a single cluster. This enables you to cover a significant area in a building or campus.

 

You can have multiple buildings/campus locations covered with seperate clusters to scale your network as larger as you need.

 

Remember, all IAPs in the same cluster are in the same L2 domain, so common/traditional best practices apply ... e.g you can't make that L2 domain infinately large...without consequences.  

 

I typically deploy IAPs when I have a building that needs 10,20,30,40,50 APs.   Works well every time.

 

JF

Hi jfernyc,

 

If I would recall correctly, IAP-92/93 has limited to 16 APs per cluster. Also if you mix your other IAPs with IAP-92/93 in a cluster, this cluster will also limited to the 16 APs. Did Aruba fix this limitation or is it still the same?

 

 

Good morning,

 

Yes, this is the one exception to the general rule/guidelines I outlined in my post.  IAP-93 has been limited to cluster size of 16 due to the resources onboard that IAP. (minimal)

 

Having said that, I never use the IAP-93 so I have never had that limit come into play ;)   More typically, it's been the IAP-105, without the limit.

 

My new standard IAP to leverage is the IAP-115, great mix of performance vs. cost.

 

JF

Assuming your VC master is _not_ an IAP-92/93 - you can scale beyond the 16x IAP's Jferync cited. The limitation of the 92/93 is based upon the memory footprint in the AP itselt, the larger 105, 135 etc have more horesepower for VC Master tasks.

Hi,

 

Currently i have 35 IAP105 and 2 IAP 175 installed in 1 cluster. for the new block we are planing to put 35 IAP 205, i need to confirm whether it will support the number of APs mith mixed APs enviroment or for the new block L3 mobility needs to be enabled?

Also i need to confirm one thing, In case of L3 mobility  do i need to replicate the guest database on the new cluster? 

 

 

Yes, you can mix all of those into the same cluster. L3 mobility is not needed. Just be sure they are all running the same version of code before attempting to join the cluster.

Thanks Tim it worked, so far i have connected 24 IAP 205 after updating the firmware and they all got sync. 

But the radios for IAP 205 arent coming up

i have witnesed this problem before while working on controller with AP 205 and the problem got solved after changing the regulatory domain from AE to US (think its kinda bug when selecting AE)

While configuring the IAP205 i selected AE initialy using instant SSID and after that the radios are not coming up.

For now i have 60 plus Aps mixed 105 and 205 and the Re. Domain is AE. i want to know how can i change the Re.Domain from AE to US? and changing the domain will cause me to loose the config also?

well i have changed the Regulatory domain from AE to US and the radios are up now :) no harm to configuration.

Can I mix IAP-205 with IAP-225?

Yes, you can have different models in one single cluster.  Upgrading the OS when you have a mix of AP's has been tricky at times but it works.

 

 

Hi Heureux,

 

Absolutely . we can mix IAP 205 and 225 in the same cluster but ensure that they have same image version :)

Hi Heureux,

 

Absolutely . we can mix IAP 205 and 225 in the same cluster but ensure that they have same image version :)

Hello,

 

We are planning the deployment of a large wireless network at a new facility. We have never worked with ARUBA before so I would really appreciate some help. I am currently working on a PoC with a IAP-225 as the virtual controller and a IAP-205 as part of the cluster.

Moving forward, this new facility will require easily over 100+ IAP to cover the campus. Devices include personal mobile devices and work laptops.

So my concerns are:

1. How many Virtual controllers do i need for a network this size? Or is a single IAP-225 able to have a cluster of a 100+ IAPs?

2. If more virtual controllers are needed, what are your recommendations as far as cluster size?

3. The IAPs we are going with is the 205. How good is the range in this model?

 

Many thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions.

I would definitely recommend using IAP-215 for all 100+ APs, instead of a single 225 and others being 205s. 205 is mainly targeted for free, public wifi networks. Campuses should use the 215.

Thanks,

Yan Liu
Director of Product Management
Aruba Instant
US: +1 650 996 3520
China: +86 136 212 16844

Thank you Yan Liu for your valuable input.

So to be completely clear, we could get a single IAP-215 to handle a cluster of 100+ 205/215 APs ?

This facility will be a manutacturing/office environment and out in the shop floor wireless coverage will be crucial. So we would like to go with the more robust model, which if the 215s are the case then we will definitely move forward with that.

Yes, I am recommending to use 215 for all APs. IAP is a distributed architecture so it works the best when all APs have similar hardware capabilities.

Thanks,

Yan Liu
Director of Product Management
Aruba Instant
US: +1 650 996 3520
China: +86 136 212 16844