Wireless Access

Hello,
Can anyone help clarify this with ArubaOS 8.3, if controller HA (Active/Standby) is needed do we need a Mobility Master ? Can licenses be shared between controllers or 1 controller act as a licensing server. ?
This is for a setup with no Controller Clustering; only Active/Standby HA.

​​​​​​​Regards.

My understanding is that you cannot have active/standby in AOS 8 without using controller clustering and a mobility master. The current supported controller modes are:

 

1. Mobility Controller Master (MCM)

2. Mobility Controller (MC)

3. Standalone Controller (SC)

 

MCM cannot support APs as it acts as a Mobility Master

MC supports APs but requires a Mobility Master for configuration

SC supports APs but cannot be clustered with other SCs

 

For more information about the controller modes and AOS 8, please see the AOS 8 fundamentals guide: AOS 8 Fundamentals Guide

 

 

Good Day,

 

Need clarification regarding AOS 8.3-4. If we have 2 units 72xx series controller with AOs 8.3-4 version, is it required to have MM for HA setup of  2 units MC? TIA  

The short answer is no.  You can setup two controllers in Standalone Mode and do either a VRRP with LMS-IP  or High Availability Fast Failover between them  Please see the ArubaOS fundamentals Guide here: https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controller-Based-WLANs/ArubaOS-8-Fundamentals-Guide/ta-p/428914

 

Closing this thread because it is more than a year old.

 

 

you do not need an mm to implement HA, please see page 74 of the AOS 8 fundamentals:

 

It should be noted that clustering is not supported by Standalone controllers.  If Standalone controllers must be used then their primary redundancy mechanism is HA.

and then on page 186 you can find more details, caveats and the like

Standalone MC and Standby Standalone Topology

This ArubaOS 8 design consists of a standalone MC backed up by another standalone MC. As in the Master and Standby Master ArubaOS 6 design, VRRP is used between the two standalone controllers in an active-standby configuration. Similarly, High Availability (AP Fast Failover) is configured between the controllers so that APs terminate their tunnels on the active standalone controller in addition to setting up a standby tunnel to the standby standalone controller.

Of course there are a bunch of functionality impacts etc. that go with not having an MM, but that's a separate topic and I think already pre-determined for your environment.

 

hth.

 

My mistake, I thought HA was depreciated in AOS 8 and clustering was the successor. Didn't read far enough into the document to understand it greater.

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@mharing wrote:
My mistake, I thought HA was depreciated in AOS 8 and clustering was the successor. Didn't read far enough into the document to understand it greater.

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no worries :) the way the docs are written it makes it sound rather unappealing to not use clustering.... In regards to the HA situation, I think the term "fast failover" has been overused in this context, the document does go on to say:

 

VRRP and AP Fast Failover are configured, however inter-controller heartbeats for AP Fast Failover is not supported in this design. AP Fast Failover detection will not be sub-second since the failover depends on VRRP latency. Upon detection the actual failover itself will be
quick and simultaneous for all APs due to their existing standby tunnels

so it seems it behaves more like HA-lite from the 6.3.x time frame - not sure if state-sync works or not.

without aruba MM, both MC with Active-Active required license?

both MC active-active require license in 2 sets?

Each AP consume license. There is no difference when not using a MM except that you don't need a MM license.