Security

Hi All,

 

We have a client that currently has a single Dell OEM'd ClearPass running in VMWare.

 

They would like to add HA, and as they have been migrating their APs and support directly to Aruba rather than Dell - they'd like to do the same with ClearPass.

 

An Aruba SE mentioned that we can purchase ClearPass support directly from Aruba for the Dell OEM'd ClearPass server, then backup, install Aruba ClearPass, restore, apply licensing and gain support.

 

Another Aruba SE felt that there would be licensing issues with this approach, and potentially backup/restore isses as well (due to Dell customising the platform)...and that it would not work.

 

Anyone have any experience with this?  Any help appreciated...Cheers

 

Hi,

 

Have you had a chance to solve this issue?

Regards,

 

Kanes.R

For both i would strongly advise to contact your Aruba SE. He or she can go through the correct channels to get the answer.

Hi,

 

I just went through something similar.

For ClearPass I would discourage an export/import of the Dell ClearPass config to an Aruba ClearPass. I did this once before and well, your ClearPass will have a seirous identity crisis. This process may have improved over the years though so I could be wrong.

 

I opted to rebuild the environment, running both Dell and Aruba ClearPass's side by side. This guaranteed there would be no issues with the import export.

Hi MVP,

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. 

I litterally did this two weeks ago. Backed up clearpass configurations and licensing. Shut down the Dell clearpass manager and redeployed Aruba clearpass. Restored configs from backup, (you'll have to make sure you check the ignore version). Only thing I had to do after was add the manager back onto the domain. Oh, and the setting we had for default minimum password characters was changed from 4 to 8. Other than that, it was a smooth conversion.


**Edit, you'll have to make sure Aruba deactivates your licensing for sure, or then you won't be able to reactivate after you redeploy the server.

You were able to restore the configs from the backup from the Dell applicance? That is interesting.

 

Are you seeing any weird branding in the Aruba ClearPass after the restore?

 

When I tried this several years ago the Aruba ClearPass ended up being half Dell and half Aruba.

No I haven't seen any Dell/Aruba mixing. It is all Aruba software, only restored the configurations (yes successfully) from the Dell Clearpass appliance. There was only one minor change that did not restore which was a setting that set the minimum required characters for guest portal passwords from 4 to 8 when it would only issue a 4 character password. But that was an easy fix.

That is pretty cool!

 

Thank you for the info. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

 

I rebuilt everything haha. 

In my case though it was good as it gave me a chance to clean a lot of stuff up.