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Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

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  • 1.  Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 20, 2013 06:33 PM

    This is my first question on Airheads so please be patient.  I am configuring a mesh network using a 620 Controller with code version 6.1.3.7.  I created the necessary mesh profiles as new but used the default profile settings.  I ensured the radio (as defaulted) is enabled to carry both client and admin traffic on both radio profiles.  The APs provisioned as they should and the point associated with the portal just fine.

     

    Here's my question: Both APs are "N" capable but only the "a/n" channel is active or "showing a green light", the "b/g" channel is "showing a red light" on the portal and the point is "showing green for a/n but the b/g is showing a yelow light".

     

    I created the 4 mesh profiles: radio, RF Management, High Throughput, and the Mesh Cluster.  I created a private VLAN and a management VLAN with 2 Client VLANs.

     

    I am confused as to why I don't see all green lights on both "N" cabable APs? 

     

    Thanks for any assistance - tail_rotor



  • 2.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 20, 2013 07:18 PM

     

    Under the RF Management > 802.11 g radio profile  make sure you have enable HT 



  • 3.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 20, 2013 10:28 PM

    If "HT" means High Throughput - then yes it is enabled. Thanks...



  • 4.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 20, 2013 11:16 PM

    If you do show ap active | include <ap-name> and it should tell you if the AP is using HT on g , it should look like this g-HT

    This might be unrelated but are you using 100 or a 1000 connection from the switch to the AP ?



  • 5.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 03:22 PM

    Sorry to take so long to get back to you...yesterday I watched the "802.11ac" presentation (it was great).  

     

    This ia a testing environment preparing to roll out a mesh network about the end of June.  The connection is a 100Mb to the AP.  I am copying the "Active AP Table":

    (test_controller_620) #show ap active

    Active AP Table

    ---------------

    Name            Group           IP Address   11g Clients  11g Ch/EIRP/MaxEIRP  11a Clients  11a Ch/EIRP/MaxEIRP  AP Type  Flags  Uptime      Outer IP

    ----            -----           ----------   -----------  -------------------  -----------  -------------------  -------  -----  ------      --------

    RC_BrnKnl_PT    RC_BrnKnl_mesh  172.16.6.25  0            MP:HT:11/12/22.5     0                                 134      M      3h:25m:48s  Outer IP

    RC_BrnKnl_Port  RC_BrnKnl_mesh  172.16.6.27  0            MPP:HT:11/12/22.5    0                                 105      M      3h:21m:22s  Outer IP

    Num APs:2

    (test_controller_620) #

     

    Hope this helps -- I am still unsure why?  I have factory defaulted the APs and configured and "ripped out the config" and configured the controller again new.  The APs still come up one channel short and no advertised SSID.  Another interesting finding: I can change the RF band to "g" and it comes up green with "a" red or visa versa.

    Thanks for any suggestions....



  • 6.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 03:39 PM

    I am wondering if you confusing the ENET LEDs with the radios LEDs.

     

    When you connect your AP to a 100 Meg port the LED is AMBER and when it is a gig is green

     

    Make sure you set the Mesh cluster RF band to use "a" instead of  "g" , it looks like you are using "g" for your mesh link

    Mesh Cluster.png

    Make sure you have HT enabled under the HT SSID Profile

    Mesh HT.png

     

    And it looks like your 802.11a radio is disabled under the RF radio profiles make sure you have the radio enabled 

     

    RF Radio Profile.png



  • 7.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 04:44 PM
      |   view attached

    I was merely testing for result configuring the RF band to "g" -- I have configured the RF band back to "a".  The channel "a/n" went to green and now the "b/g" channel is read on the portal AP.  I have verified on the controller that my settings match your suggested settings and attached screen shots.

    Thanks for taking a look...

    Attachment(s)

    docx
    conf verification.docx   87 KB 1 version


  • 8.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 05:21 PM

     

    If you go under the VIrtual AP > SSID Profile > HT SSID Profile  do you have HT Enabled?



  • 9.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 05:52 PM

    Yes the HT is enabled under VIrtual AP > SSID Profile > HT SSID Profile -- though I am confused -- I had not configured a Virtual AP profile.  The Mesh Chaper 8 didn't say anything about creating a Virtual AP profile.  Thanks....I did create a VAP but nothing changed -- still the same issue.



  • 10.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 06:03 PM
    If you want advertise the SSID to a wireless device you need that if you are trying the wired port (e1) on the mesh point then you don't need the VAP enabled


  • 11.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 06:18 PM

    Thanks...didn't know that.  I am using the E0 and do want to advertise the SSID -- thought that is accomplished in the Mesh setup.  Is there other materials I need to read?  So far I still have the same issue.  Note: I have to go to another site -- probably won't get back to you till tomorrow.



  • 12.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 06:21 PM

     

    You should follow the instructions in this document :

     

    http://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS_60/UserGuide/Mesh.php

     

     

     



  • 13.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 06:24 PM

    That is the chapter I have read and followed as best I could...still have the issue.  got to go .... Thanks for your help -- anything else I could read?



  • 14.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted May 22, 2013 08:17 PM

     

    Here's my mesh config , I removed some of the stuff you don't need to worry about:

    north-m3-backup1) # show  ap-group Gosman-Mesh-Cluster1
 
AP group "Gosman-Mesh-Cluster1"
-------------------------------
Parameter                                Value
---------                                -----
Virtual AP                                       gosman-mesh-guest-vap
802.11a radio profile                    mesh_a
802.11g radio profile                    mesh_g
Ethernet interface 0 port configuration  mesh_port
Ethernet interface 1 port configuration  shutdown
Mesh Radio profile                       gosman_mesh_radio_profile
Mesh Cluster profile                     gosman_mesh_cluster1  priority 1
    (north-m3-backup1) #show  wlan virtual-ap gosman-mesh-guest-vap

Virtual AP profile "gosman-mesh-guest-vap"
------------------------------------------
Parameter                                           Value
---------                                           -----
Virtual AP enable                                   Enabled
Allowed band                                        g
AAA Profile                                         brandeis-bot
802.11K Profile                                     default
SSID Profile                                        gosman-mesh-guest-ssid
VLAN                                                mesh_guest_vlans
Forward mode                                        tunnel
Deny time range                                     N/A
Mobile IP                                           Enabled
HA Discovery on-association                         Disabled
DoS Prevention                                      Enabled
Station Blacklisting                                Enabled
Blacklist Time                                      3600 sec
Dynamic Multicast Optimization (DMO)                Disabled
Dynamic Multicast Optimization (DMO) Threshold      6
Authentication Failure Blacklist Time               3600 sec
Strict Compliance                                   Disabled
VLAN Mobility                                       Disabled
Preserve Client VLAN                                Disabled
Remote-AP Operation                                 standard
Drop Broadcast and Multicast                        Enabled
Convert Broadcast ARP requests to unicast           Enabled
Disable conversion multicast RA packets to unicast  Disabled
Deny inter user traffic                             Disabled
Band Steering                                       Disabled
Steering Mode                                       prefer-5ghz
WMM Traffic Management Profile                      N/A

(north-m3-backup1) #show  wlan  ssid-profile gosman-mesh-guest-ssid

SSID Profile "gosman-mesh-guest-ssid"
-------------------------------------
Parameter                                         Value
---------                                         -----
SSID enable                                       Enabled
ESSID                                             brandeis_guest
Encryption                                        opensystem
DTIM Interval                                     1 beacon periods
802.11a Basic Rates                               6 12 24
802.11a Transmit Rates                            6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54
802.11g Basic Rates                               11
802.11g Transmit Rates                            11 12 18 24 36 48 54
High-throughput SSID Profile                      HT-Enable

(north-m3-backup1) #show  rf dot11a-radio-profile mesh_a

802.11a radio profile "mesh_a"
------------------------------
Parameter                                      Value
---------                                      -----
Radio enable                                   Enabled
Mode                                           ap-mode
High throughput enable (radio)                 Enabled
Channel                                        N/A
Beacon Period                                  100 msec
Non-Wi-Fi Interference Immunity                2
Beacon Regulate                                Disabled
Transmit EIRP                                  15 dBm
Advertise 802.11d and 802.11h Capabilities     Disabled
TPC Power                                      15 dBm
Spectrum load balancing                        Disabled
Spectrum Load balancing mode                   channel
Spectrum load balancing update interval (sec)  30 seconds
Spectrum load balancing threshold (%)          20 percent
Advertized regulatory max EIRP                 0
Spectrum Load Balancing domain                 N/A
RX Sensitivity Tuning Based Channel Reuse      dynamic
RX Sensitivity Threshold                       0 -dBm
Enable CSA                                     Disabled
CSA Count                                      4
Reduce Cell Size (Rx Sensitivity)              0 dB
Management Frame Throttle interval             1 sec
Management Frame Throttle Limit                20
ARM/WIDS Override                              Disabled
Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) Profile        mesh_arm_a
High-throughput Radio Profile                  default-a
Maximum Distance                               0 meters
Spectrum Monitoring                            Disabled
Spectrum Monitoring Profile                    default-a
AM Scanning Profile                            default

(north-m3-backup1) #show  rf dot11g-radio-profile mesh_g

802.11g radio profile "mesh_g"
------------------------------
Parameter                                      Value
---------                                      -----
Radio enable                                   Enabled
Mode                                           ap-mode
High throughput enable (radio)                 Enabled
Channel                                        N/A
Beacon Period                                  100 msec
Non-Wi-Fi Interference Immunity                2
Beacon Regulate                                Disabled
Transmit EIRP                                  15 dBm
Advertise 802.11d and 802.11h Capabilities     Disabled
TPC Power                                      15 dBm
Spectrum load balancing                        Enabled
Spectrum Load balancing mode                   channel
Spectrum load balancing update interval (sec)  5 seconds
Spectrum load balancing threshold (%)          20 percent
Advertized regulatory max EIRP                 0
Spectrum Load Balancing domain                 N/A
RX Sensitivity Tuning Based Channel Reuse      disable
RX Sensitivity Threshold                       0 -dBm
Enable CSA                                     Disabled
CSA Count                                      4
Reduce Cell Size (Rx Sensitivity)              0 dB
Management Frame Throttle interval             1 sec
Management Frame Throttle Limit                20
ARM/WIDS Override                              Disabled
Protection for 802.11b Clients                 Enabled
Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) Profile        mesh_arm_g
High-throughput Radio Profile                  default-g
Maximum Distance                               100 meters
Spectrum Monitoring                            Disabled
Spectrum Monitoring Profile                    default-g
AM Scanning Profile                            default


(north-m3-backup1) #show  ap  mesh-radio-profile gosman_mesh_radio_profile

Mesh Radio profile "gosman_mesh_radio_profile"
----------------------------------------------
Parameter                                                      Value
---------                                                      -----
Maximum Children                                               64
Maximum Hop Count                                              8
Heartbeat threshold                                            10
Link Threshold                                                 12
Reselection mode                                               startup-subthreshold
Metric algorithm                                               distributed-tree-rssi
Retry Limit                                                    8
RTS Threshold                                                  2333 bytes
802.11a Transmit Rates                                         6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54
802.11g Transmit Rates                                         1 2 5 6 9 11 12 18 24 36 48 54
Mesh Private Vlan                                              0
Allowed VLANs on mesh link                                     1-4094
Mesh Survivability                                             Disabled
BC/MC Rate Optimization                                        Enabled
Mesh High-throughput SSID Profile                              gosman_mesh_ssid_profile
Rate Optimization for delivering EAPOL frames and mesh echoes  Disabled

(north-m3-backup1) #show  ap mesh-cluster-profile gosman_mesh_cluster1

Mesh Cluster profile "gosman_mesh_cluster1"
-------------------------------------------
Parameter       Value
---------       -----
Cluster Name    mesh_cluster1
RF Band         a
Encryption      wpa2-psk-aes
WPA Hexkey      N/A
WPA Passphrase  ********

     

     



  • 15.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted Jun 03, 2013 06:37 PM

    Hi -- the initiating issues have been resolved -- Thank You Very Much! 

     

    A question for confirmation: I understand the recovery profile is uniquely generated on each controller the APs are provisioned on.  Context: we have a Master and several Local controllers located at several different sites.  This Mesh Network is going to be installed at a Local Controller's Site.  Not knowing Mesh Networks very well, is the Mesh Cluster and other profiles configured on the Master with the Local Controller's LMS address or on the Local Controler where the Mesh Network will be installed?

     

    Secondly: I assume the APs will show up on the Master to be provisioned and is it then the APs are provisioned in the Local Controller's Mesh Group (via the Master) that the recovery profile is written to the Local Controller or do the Mesh APs need to physically be provisioned on the Local Controller?

     

    Basically where is the Mesh Network created on the Master or Local fro installation at a Local Controller's Site?



  • 16.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point

    Posted Jun 03, 2013 06:48 PM

     

    A question for confirmation: I understand the recovery profile is uniquely generated on each controller the APs are provisioned on.  Context: we have a Master and several Local controllers located at several different sites.  This Mesh Network is going to be installed at a Local Controller's Site.  Not knowing Mesh Networks very well, is the Mesh Cluster and other profiles configured on the Master with the Local Controller's LMS address or on the Local Controler where the Mesh Network will be installed?

     

    All the mesh profiles are pushed from the Master > Local controllers 

     

    Secondly: I assume the APs will show up on the Master to be provisioned and is it then the APs are provisioned in the Local Controller's Mesh Group (via the Master) that the recovery profile is written to the Local Controller or do the Mesh APs need to physically be provisioned on the Local Controller?

     

    Once you have provisioned the mesh APs  on the master and then they are attached to the Local controller those will be tied to then you can make the provision the APs either on the master or local controller 

     

    Basically where is the Mesh Network created on the Master or Local fro installation at a Local Controller's Site?

     

    It depends they way you look at it, Master pushes the config and calculates all the ARM settings but the Local is the one that maintains the GRE tunnels either for the Mesh portal or Mesh point.

     

     

     

    What was the issue you found ?



  • 17.  RE: Mesh network 105 AP as portal and 134 AP as point
    Best Answer

    Posted Jun 03, 2013 07:34 PM

    Sorry, I could not determine a specific cause for my issues.  Besides deleting all the mesh configurations on the controller via the web interface, I used the CLI to delete the mesh recovery profile and factory defaulted the APs. 

     

    The CLI deletion of the recovery profile was the only new procedure that I did, as before I only deleted the Web interface controller settings and defaulted the APs.  I did think it interesting that even after deleting the mesh recovery profile on the controller using the CLI and taking the portal AP off line, the point AP still came up using a deleted recovery profile.  It appears that the point AP stores a copy of the recovery profile of its own and can come up using it without either a controller or portal AP recovery profile available.

     

    Though I couldn't determine for fact what caused my issue, I want to "Thank You" again for all your help.  I tried to give you a kudo but not sure I was successfull. 

     

    Again thanks from tail_rotor -- the anti-torque for this network.  (if you aren't a pilot - the tail rotor is what keeps the helicopter from spinning when the main rotor blade is turning.)