Wireless Access

Greetings. My company just acquired and new site and they currently have IAP-305's connected to my AirWave management console. They have just informed me that they currently have a wireless bridge thats connecting two building together and would like to upgrade that bridge to use two Aruba AP-387's. My company usually connects buildings with underground fiber, but in this case, I would like to attempt this bridge setup.

Is it possible to setup two AP-387's in bridge mode in order to get the two buildings connected? All of the IAP-305 are on a virtual controller in a cluster managed in AirWave.

You can indeed. You have a few options you would want to consider.

First I would recommend that you run the 387 in the latest 8.6. There were changes to the default 60Ghz behavior in 8.6 that makes it much more stable and secure that could not be pulled back in to 8.5. 

Also, while you CAN pull in the 387 into the same VC as the other instant APs on the network, you may want to keep them separate so that you can fully manage the bridge separately from the rest, and also prevents you from having to upgrade both indoor APs and the bridges when code upgrades occur.

From there, you can absolutely carry native and trunked VLANs over the mesh PtP. Note that max distance for the AP-387s is 400m. They are configured exactly like other Instant AP mesh devices which you can find setup in the user guide or multiple posts here on Community.

Thanks jhoward. ill give this a try and come back if i run into an issue.

I ran into an issue. when the AP-387's are connected to the network, they attempt to connect to the current VC thats configured. The issue with this is the AP's are 205's running 6.5.4.15_73677 firmware. Airwave is throwing up an error stating that the 387's are looking for the Hercules version of 6.5.4.15 which there isnt one from what i could find. Do to the company that these are being installed having a flat network instead of a vlan network, i cannot see how i can separate the 387's from trying to connect to the current VC. Is there a way via ssh to tell the AP's to ignore the master ip address of the VC?

Follow this guide. The key is “standalone mode”, which will prevent the bridge APs from joining the existing cluster.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controllerless-Networks/Configuring-AP-387-for-Point-to-Point-link/m-p/554115

I just put a full config in another thread

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Wireless-Access/AP-387-Bridge-setup/m-p/639082/highlight/true#M97801

thanks, ill try this and see if it works for me.

so when i ssh into the 387's and try to go into the config terminal i get an error stating something along the lines for not being able to use configuration terminal due to it being degraded.

and i assuming this is because the 387s are on the same subnet as the current virtual controller and is trying to connect with the vc. 

the only way around this would be to create a new subnet and vlan and place the 387s in it until im done with configurations.

But i do have a questions. is it possible to install 6.5.4.15_73677 on the 385's? the reason being is the logs are reporting the below when trying to connect to the VC. Im thinking if i let it install this firmware on the 387's then i can go in via ssh and modify the things i need to do standalone mode. But i dont want to brick the 387's if they cannot take this firmware.

"Could not find suitable firmware image:6.5.4.15-6.5.4.15_73677(Hercules) for ArubaInstant"

Did you try "standalone mode", based on the few posts above?  That would eliminate the AP having to connect to the existing cluster.  I don't believe there is a Hercules build for 6.5.x, so standalone mode would be your only option.

im going to try that once i get the AP-387 on its own network.

Since the VC that the AP-387 is trying to connect to is managed by AirWave, i cannot make any changes via SSH or the GUI. And on AirWave, i cannot see the AP-387 due to a firmware mismatch. I will reply back once i have the AP on its own network.

got the ap working in standalone mode after connecting it to a console cable. ill now follow the bridge guide that linked above. thanks for the help.

Update... after having Aruba support help, i have 6 IAP 305's and 2 AP-387s in a cluster. The 6 IAP 305's and 1 of the AP-387's are in portal mode. We have disabled extended SSID and created the mesh-link. As soon as i place one of the AP-387s to eth0 bridge enable to become the Point AP and reboot it, it disconnects no longer shows up in the cluster. Aruba tech support cannot figure out why this is happening. If i connect a console cable to the AP, its able to ping the portal AP-387 but none of the portal IAP-305's. All of the devices are on 8.6.0.2.

disregard the last post. I figured out i needed to reboot the entire cluster and it all works now.