Controllerless Networks

Apologies for the newb question, but I'm a server guy just dipping my toes into Aruba for the first time.

I have 2 IAP 515s.

One of them will be primary and has the proper wired backhaul and PoE+.

I would like the other to be a Mesh Point (I hope I got the lingo right) so it is just relaying wireless clients back to the primary.

BUT, then I am also hoping to connect 1 small wired device to one of the Wired ports on the MP in order to use the Mesh as the network access.

Can someone point me in the right direction as to how to do this?

I setup the Primary and then plugged the second unit into the same PoE switch temporarily and it successfully joined the first.

I've since moved it to a 12V power brick and let it boot up, but it doesn't appear to be reachable because I can't ping the static device IP and when I login to the Primary, it doesn't show in the list of APs like it did when it was wired.

I don't mind a little RTDM, but not sure what to even look for.

Thanks

PS: I did turn off ESSID or something like that which I found noted in a Guide somewhere.  It needed to be OFF for Mesh to work was what it said.

Hey, to confirm you've created a SSID for the mesh link and also disabled Extended SSID too? On the Mesh Point have you enabled Bridging? 

Edit -> Uplink - > EthX Bridging Enable

Bridging on AP2 was not enabled, so I will do that.

But I don't quite understand what you meant by Created an SSID for the Mesh Link.

Under Config / Networks, I have 3 profiles.

Guest

Corporate

default_wired_profile

If I tell it I want to create a new Network, it asks Guest/Employee/Voice and I don't see Mesh.

Sorry, I mean you need to create a PSK network for the Mesh Link.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controller-less-WLANs/How-to-Configure-a-basic-Instant-mesh/ta-p/205027

AP2 says its Mesh Role is Portal, but I can't find anyway to change it.

It also doesn't show up in my list of APs unless I connect Eth0 to my network.

I feel like there is some Mesh toggle I just am not seeing.

Found this:

https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/Instant_83_WebHelp/Content/Instant_UG/mesh_network/Instant_Mesh_Setup.htm?Highlight=Mesh

Now I'm hunting for the Virtual Controller Key

The virtual controller key is used to differentiate whether or not Instant APs belonged to the same cluster. Was both of these APs part of the same cluster when you was completing the configuration? There is crucial parts such as the country code and configuration which is sycn'd when an IAPs are part of the same cluster.

Which version of code is this? The Mesh Role Detection might be kicking in (If an Instant AP boots up and discovers that the Ethernet link is down, it acts as a mesh point). In a static IP address scenario, the
Instant AP pings the gateway. If the ping is successful, the Instant AP acts as a mesh portal. Otherwise, it acts as a mesh point. That being said, If the Instant AP is set to Ethernet 0 bridging, it always acts as a mesh point.

Craig is spot on, if you want to ensure that the mesh point is ALWAYS a mesh point, you want to set eth0-bridging on the mesh point as part of the config. If you want to post the configuration of both your APs, each as a text file, we can look at it.

Well something went sideways as I was offsite today.

I moved all the APs back to the PoE switch to get them happy.

I have 3 515s total, for now nicknamed A/B/C

Well now A and C are booted up but no longer talking to each other...

And B is powered on but not pingable, not showing on either console.

Earlier today before going offsite I changed C to enable Eth0 Bridge and then rebooted it, and set A to be the Preferred Primary, but didn't reboot it yet as some people were using it at the time.

At this point maybe it makes more sense to Factory Reset B and C and then try again at setting up the Mesh.

Attached is a dump of the config from C.

I did a Compare in Notepad++ to A and the only thing different between them is the WPA Pass phrase.

No idea why it changed.

Attachment(s)

515-config-C.txt   3 KB 1 version

PS: What's the difference between Eth0 and Eth1?

It seems like there has been lots of swapping and changing when the IAPs may have not been part of a formed cluster. Do you have the ability to bring the all back and start from the beginning? Create the cluster, disable extended SSID, create the mesh SSID (try a simple WPA2-PSK SSID to start with...) and get the mesh working before moving the APs  to their final locations? Don't forget that it is important to reboot after disabling extended SSID as this new setting only takes affect after a state change (i.e the reboot).

So I somewhat did that.

I paperclip Reset B and C and they properly came back online and joined up with A again.  This is all in, what I assume is, the "New UI".

I confirmed Extended SSID is disabled

- Configuration / System / Show Advanced / Extended SSID = OFF

- Does it matter that in the Config / Networks there is an ESSID?  I assume thats different and is just the name people see when they search for WiFi.

Create the Mesh SSID:

- No idea how to create a MESH SSID. 

- I have created an Employee and Guest Wireless network

- - Corp is using WPA2-Personal, WPA2-AES according to Dashboard/Networks. Simple 8 charachter passphrase for now.

- - Guest is OPEN, using WPA3_OWE according to same.

- I have verified the VC Key and VC Country are set globally (Maintenance / Config) and also SSH'd into each AP and verified the same there (show cofiguration)

- show cluster on AP "A" shows me details from A, B and C.

 - - A is the current VC

- show cluster on AP "B" only shows me details from B

- show cluster on AP "C" only shows me details from C

After I changed the settings on B and C, post factory reset, mainly just giving them static IPs and changing their names, I saved and rebooted ALL 3 APs using Maintenance / Reboot / Reboot All.

I then waited till everyone came back to life and was happy.

Unplugged C from the PoE switch.

Moved it to about 15 feet away from A and maybe 20 feet from B, and plugged it into a 12V power brick.

The Green System LED blinks like its booting, but never goes solid like the others on the PoE switch do.

There is Nothing plugged into the E0/E1 ports, USB, etc, just the power brick and thats it.

After a while i see a Red LED and then it reboots shortly after and looks like its in some form of loop.

New config dump attached.

I've hidden a few fields like passwords, passphrases and company name, but otherwise this is the complete dump.

Aside from AP Name and the encrypted passphrase, A/B/C are all identical in their config.

EDIT: Poking around in the CLI I see these 3 commands:

mesh-cluster-key
mesh-cluster-name
mesh-disable

Do I need to specifically configure the Mesh Cluster and Key?

The online help didn't say I needed to do that, so thinking thats perhaps for more complex configurations than my little 3 AP environment.

Attachment(s)

515-config-attempt2.txt   3 KB 1 version

Well I feel dumb now...

There was a Firmware Upgrade, but the AP "check for new firmware" screen apparently doesn't work out of the box.  I guess I'm supposed to register the AP with my account or something?

I went to the site manually and found there is an 8.4.0.1 and 8.4.0.2 and 8.5.0.0 all available (I was on 8.4.0.0)

Co-worker showed me this little gem in the 8.5.0.0 Release Notes:

The Aruba510 Series campus APs now support the following features:

• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
• ClientMatch
• Cellular modem support-
• Hotspot
• Mesh

So apparently the 515 is so new, the shipping code didn't have support for Mesh YET.

I upgraded to 8.5.0.0, bounced all the nodes as part of the upgrade, moved the AP back to the brick and Voila, after like 8 miutes it finally came up and shows its part of the VC and the Mesh Role = Point.

So thats all good.

I've plugged the printer (my wired device) into E1 though and still no go.

So 1 down, 1 to go.

Will try the E0 as Bridge setting now that the Mesh Point is working and move the cable over.

OK so last update i hope for a while...

In the default_wired_port_profile the Admin Status = DOWN.

I changed that to UP and within a minute of making that change, my printer started to ping.

So I think I'm in good shape for now.

Will probably read the entire USer Guide cover to cover before I come back and start messing with VLAN Tagging and such

Good deal, nice work. Thanks for the excellent updates and documentation. Sorry I'm just now getting around to catching up on Community.