Network Management

Hello,

I am trying to automate the provisioining of new AP's. We have been purchasing IAP's to give us the flexibility to move to controllerless network in the future (may never happen).  I am trying to setup aruba activate to convert the IAPs to CAPs. This seems to work without issue. I created a provisioning rul to convert from iap to cap, one of the other options is the group i want  it put in. I entered our primary group that all our AP's are in for our campus. i have been manually moving individual AP's into the test folder i created in Aruba.Activate before i try creating any more rules for provisioing ap's as they are purchased. Currenlty after i add an ap to the fodler nad the provisioining happens (status updated to provisioing from shipped). When i look at the controller (7205) it has placed the AP in the default folder and not in the primary group i wanted. I am not sure why. For the first couple ap's i tested with i needed them ready to go so i ran through the AP wizard on the controller to add it to the primary group and change its name. (have two controllers in a master <-> local setup)

Any thoughts? is this in the right category?

I think it is the right category. Just I took a look and when you create a provisioning rule, there is a placeholder that tells the AP group provisioning is not supported at the moment:

I'm pretty sure it is in there for future, but it appears expected that the AP Group setting is ignored.

You would actually need ClearPass Policy Manager to do this.

Here is how it should work:

You add activate to ClearPass as an endpoint context server:  http://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ClearPass/Aruba_CPPMOnlineHelp/index.htm#CPPM_UserGuide/Admin/EndpointContextServersAdd_ArubaActivate.htm?Highlight=activate which synchronizes the names and ap-groups of your devices in activate.

You then configure the Aruba Controller to Offload the Controller Whitelist to ClearPass Policy Manager:

http://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS_65x_WebHelp/Web_Help_Index.htm#ArubaFrameStyles/Control_Plane/Whitelists_on_Campus_and_Remote_APs.htm

Long story short, you would:

- Configure the names and ap-groups of devices in Activate

- ClearPass would synchronize with Activate

- When the APs come up, the controller would look up the mac address of the device in ClearPass and apply the name and ap-group automatically.

Unfortunately, you cannot do this activity with just the controller and activate, unless something has changed recently.

intersting. i had seen some references to airwave being used in conjunction with activate but did not know clearpass could be used as well. 

I looked at those documents and i am not seeing the same options in clearpass policy manager. They also reference rap's but i dont have any rap's, only cap's. 

I also have airwave which i have seen mentioned as being able to work with activate. Any pros/cons between airwave or clearpass for zero touch config?

You are not seeing the same options in the link I sent?  Please be specific.

So, Airwave would only be used for configuration of IAPs, not conversion of IAPs to CAPs.  CAP conversion requires a controller, but Airwave would only monitor that, not manage it, like it would IAPs.

says to navigate to:

Navigate to Configuration > Security > Authentication > Servers

unders configuration I do not have security.

There is an Authentication but have methods and sources under it.

Which instructions are you talking about?  That seems to be instructions for the controller.