Good day,
I have a home lab set up and I'm looking for guidance on HomeKit functionality that relies on mDNS. While I have an IT and networking background, I am not a network engineer. I am not clear if I need to utilize AirGroup in my home environment.
Basics:
3600 running 6.3.1.25
5 IAP's (225's)
Single VLAN
Recently changed from "Tunnel" to "Bridge" mode.
My HomeKit devices report "Not Responding" occasionally. I expected this during build out as I had Client Aware off while the 5 IAP's figured out what channels and power strength were optimal. I disabled Client Aware a day later when things looked settled.
I orignially had AirGroup on and all was well, however I disabled it when I read it was meant for forwarding mDNS and other traffic across VLAN's and still had an occasional device report "Not Responding". All seemed to work well.
I moved one of the IAP's and disabled "Client Aware" for a day again to let the controller optimize again. After disabling a day later, I still have a few "Not Responding" devices.
What has drawn my interest is this - While the Apple Home application may report a device as "Not Responding", the devices are connected to the IAP. They have an IP. I can reach some of them via their native applications which I assume rely on their own protocol or perhaps a cloud service, so they are connected. This suggests to me there's still something I have incorrectly set that is causing issues with mDNS.
My questions are:
Does AirGroup need to be enabled for a single, flat VLAN for mDNS to work properly?
What other settings, if any, should I be adjusting to ensure mDNS is functioning correctly?
Does the IAP's being in bridge mode affect mDNS vs. being in tunnel mode? I recently adjusted this setting to "Bridge" as my controller doesn't hang off my core switch.
Thanks!