Controllerless Networks

Hello Aruba community !

I'm currently looking for some Guide or Documentation on how to properly configure a Point to point wireless bridge with 2 IAP 387. I can't found this on the support portal. Does anybody knows where i can found this ?

The 387 will follow the same setup and configs as any other Instant AP mesh setup (except with the 387 since it doesn't terminate clients, you don't need to create a VAP to preserve the config). Otherwise, bringing them up, applying the correct settings, and enabling bridging on the mesh point is all that's needed.

Thank you for this fast answer, so if i understand this properly my configuration steps will be :

- Create a VC 
- Set IP / GW on both IAP

- Disabling Extended ESSID

- Enable Bridging on Eth0

- Connect the remote access point on the remote switch 

Am i correct ?

Are there currently, or will there be, any other IAPs on the same VLAN where the 387s are going? Additionally, is the plan to use the backhaul to carry other IAPs of the same VC between both sides over the mesh? If so, post that here as the below steps will change.

For a single VC, assuming the above does NOT apply, the easiest thing to do is listed below, and provides the best check to ensure everything is good before hanging them up

1. Plug them both in to the network and bring them up, update the firmware and DRT

2. Define the wired port profile as needed (access, trunk, VLANs, etc)

3. Disable extended SSID (not really necessary but I do it anyway)

4. Before rebooting, enable eth0 bridging on the mesh point only

5. Reboot the two, and after the point goes offline, move it to a power injector or a separate POE switch not connected to the same L2 the portal is on.

6. Give it 10min or so to let it all reboot (watching and waiting seems to make it take forever), verify the portal and point are up in the VC.

7. Test/verify that the mesh backhaul is working and carrying whatever traffic or VLANs you configured

Easiest way to verify since we don't have mesh in the GUI yet will be to log in to the portal and point and run 'show ap mesh links' and 'show ap mesh neighbors'. When staging, it's common that that the link won't run at full speed, when the APs are too close together.

Thanks for this reply, i managed to turn the second ap in point mesh mode. One little question more, when we set the vlan config on the wired profile, we set the egress tagging from the mesh ap or the ingress of the portal (or the two are the same) ?

Sorry if i made english mistakes.

Regards

Russel

They just have to match the ports that the portal and points are uplinked to. Any switch port config and wired port profile configured on the portal and point(s) must match and apply to all traffic in either direction. IAP mesh runs in bridge mode so anything tagged with X must match what the switch will carry

Hi Jerrod,

Thanks for the info you posted here. Can you also describe the other use case where (as you asked):?

"Additionally, is the plan to use the backhaul to carry other IAPs of the same VC between both sides over the mesh?"

That better describes our environment - we have a single IAP cluster, Airwave managed, 100 AP's on main campus, with one outbuilding (using point-to-point AP-387 pair for bridge) where we want to deploy a couple more AP's as part of the same cluster. 

I have attempted to follow your previous post for setting up a standalone mesh with the two AP-387's https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controllerless-Networks/Instant-Mesh/td-p/307556.  (isolated on their own native VLAN, tagging the VLAN's I intend to trunk) Following your guide, I believe I have everything completed, with the Mesh Point and Mesh Portal roles active - but the mesh will not come up.  I suspect the issue is that both AP-387's are the base 8.4.0 release, no updates (since they can't talk to my IAP cluster or Airwave for easy update) and I need to install updated firmware with updated DRT file.  But any insight or tips would be appreciated.

UPDATE: I had success doing exactly the use case I described and now have the AP

's (along with other devices) in our outbuilding up and running to our main IAP cluster over the standalone and isolated AP-387 point-to-point mesh.  Key for me (apparently was upgrading the firmware on my mesh point AP from 8.4.0.0 to 8.5.0.2.  That thread is here: https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controllerless-Networks/Instant-Mesh/m-p/307556/thread-id/23893/highlight/true