Master Mobility Controller – Limitations when Master is down

[Telnet-1]

Is there a solution for the following limitations happening whem Master is down @ Master Local Redundancy ?

http://www.infinigate.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CH/Data/Aruba/Data_Sheets/MobilityControllers/DG_Mobility-Controllers-Deployment-Models-5.0-VRD.pdf

If the master mobility controller fails without a backup, the following services stop working:

*AP boot: During the AP boot cycle, the AP must discover and connect to a provisioning mobility
controller  , since Masdter is down it will not be able to reach it >>> so any AP thats is new & coming up , or Just rebooted will loose service ?!  any solution ?

*Local mobility controller policy configuration: Configuration, done either on the master or
AirWave, requires that the master is operational to push configurations to the local mobility
controllers. If the master is not available, changes to the network policy configuration will not be
possible  >>> so no chnages at configuration can be done at all , we will wait till Master is back ??? any solution ?

*Local database access is lost: If the master becomes unreachable, guest access using the local
database, as well as when roaming between locals when machine authentication is enabled, will be
lost. >>> so all autehntication fucntions will stop , no new device will be able to autheticate & associate ? any solution ?

[Victor Fabian]

so any AP thats is new & coming up , or Just rebooted will loose service ?!  any solution ?

If you use dns then you need to point the dns name aruba-master to the local 

if you use dhcp option 43 then just change it to look for the local controller

so no chnages at configuration can be done at all , we will wait till Master is back ??? any solution ?

Unfortunately if you don't have your faulty master back up and running in a reasonable amount of time or completely dead and you need make critical change then you will have make one of your locals the master and point the other local to the new master

so all autehntication fucntions will stop , no new device will be able to autheticate & associate ? any solution ?

Make sure you always export(backup) the local database from your master and import it to your new master 

Did you experienced a similar issue recently ? 

[Normal Guy]

If your network needs to have these requirement I would add on a backup Master so that the backup master can do the same things like the master and you will need minimum changes on the entire setting. CAPEx does increase a little but the overall OPEX is decrease for that matter.

Gordon

[Telnet-1]

Thx 

issue is not with adding Standy for Master , Real issue if network connection ( WAN ) between  Locals & master failed

is it really restricted to do any Conf Chnages on Local when it cann't reach Master ?  any Work arounds ? 

[Normal Guy]

Most AP configuration change have to be done by the Master controller except things like SNMP, NTP etc. I had a case in the past on this and if I didn;t recall wrongly due to urgency we change the controller from a local to a master controller. After that the controller can do any changes that is needed, we did change the DNS and DHCP to point to the "New" Master. There is definietly work that needs to be done and not so straight forward.

Gordon

 

[Nyetwerx]

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@Telnet-1 wrote:

@Is there a solution for the following limitations happening whem Master is down @ Master Local Redundancy ?

so all autehntication fucntions will stop , no new device will be able to autheticate & associate ? any solution ?

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 Associations and authentications should proceed normally even when the mobility master down.  

One failure mode that concerns me is that of a remote mobility master that becomes unreachable for an extended period for some reason, followed by a localized power event - where I'm from summer storms can cause all sorts of temporary power problems. I imagine my local APs losing power, rebooting and not being able to reach the MM. Game over until the MM is reachable. 

[jhoward]

pecific to AOS 8 Mobility Master, if you lose connectivity between the managed devices and the MM:

* AP discovery and authentication will work fine, as APs are pointed at MDs for discovery (the MM will NOT terminate APs so AP discovery pointed at the MM will not work anyway)

* You DO lose config management, AirMatch

* UCC all voice/video just takes highest priority

* Currently you will lose AirGroup assignments but that will be changing soon with later versions of AOS 8.x

No network admin who has enterprise criticality or requires high availability would build a network without the proper backup mechanisms in place. If network uptime is critical, there should be redundant links between remote and DC, in most cases there are two DCs, etc.