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Access network design for branch, remote, outdoor, and campus locations with HPE Aruba Networking access points and mobility controllers.
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Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

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  • 1.  Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Oct 03, 2016 10:30 AM

    Just wanted to post regarding an issue we had recently with Apple products frequently disconnecting during a high capacity event.  

     

    Symptom was that all apple products (laptops, tables and phones) were experiencing frequent disconnects from the network.  When they were connected, throughput was fine, however, they were not able to stay on the network.  Other devices (Android or Windows) were not experiencing the same problems. 

     

    Our network is configured to use Client Match to assist in moving devices to 5Ghz as Prefered or Forced 5Ghz has issues with Apple products and causes this very problem (frequent disconnects). 

     

    Apparently, this is now a problem with Client Match as well.  To keep people from disconnecting on apple products, I had to disable Client Match, which created another problem of too many devices going onto 2.4Ghz.  

     

    Our only way to resolve this, was to create 2 SSID's using the same VLAN, one broadcasting only on A Band, the other broadcasting only on G band.   With this configuration, there was absolutely no problems with disconnects for Apple devices.

     

    Basically, at this point in time, it appears as though Apple products do not work with any SSID configured to work with both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, with any form of setting which attempts to steer the device. 

     

    I have spoken to other admins that have different systems (non-aruba) and they are describing similar problems, so doesn't seem to be something that's occuring only on Aruba.  Also, I hadn't seen this issue before the 10.x iOS update, so wondering if something in 10.x made it so that Client Match stopped working?

     

    With all the issues that seem to pop up regarding iOS updates, we are probably just going to keep the bands seperate with 2 SSID's moving forward, but curious if there might be something that was missed that could have perhaps made it work with them not being seperated.



  • 2.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Dec 12, 2016 02:48 PM

    May I know what AOS version you were running?



  • 3.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Dec 12, 2016 04:11 PM

    What version of code is a good question. 

     

    If clientmatch is on, band steering at the VAP level is ignored...so "force 5ghz" is not in effect.  Client Match never "forces" any devices....



  • 4.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Sep 21, 2018 08:36 AM

    Good Morning!

    Was there a solution for this case?
    I am having problem with IOS devices too, they disconnect from the network, then I have to authenticate again, because I use Radius.

    Regards,

    Júlio César



  • 5.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Sep 21, 2018 09:50 AM
    We had to create two Ssids. One for 2.4 and one for 5.

    This has been the only consistent solution. Not ideal in some cases, but we haven't experienced any drop offs for Apple devices since.


    Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


  • 6.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Sep 21, 2018 11:38 AM

    Daniel, thanks for the response, I'll do this procedure and see how the network will behave.

    Has not one of Aruba's own women volunteered for this problem?

     

    Regards,

    Julio Cesar.



  • 7.  RE: Apple Devices and Frequent Disconnects with Client Match/Force 5Ghz

    Posted Sep 21, 2018 05:47 PM

    Was curious what version of AOS the newer posts were running. We're running AOS 8.2.1.1 and didn't have any issues a few weekends ago with a large Sorority Recruitment - about 400-500 devices - almost all of the iOS Devices. They seemed to naturally favor the 5GHz radios (almost too much). With that said, only issue I had was Client-Match attempted to "load-balance" - but the iPhones just kept on Rejecting due to "No-Move/6/BTM-REJ6" - but no visible disconnects were experienced that I'm aware of - and was there for the entire day.