Wireless Access

Hi everyone -

Not sure just what to do here. I have an aruba 800 system that we are going to be replacing with an aruba 3400. I have both controllers on the network right now but am already seeing issues (ap's not being able to associate with the 3400, the wireless network not working at all....) So we need to have the old system running until the new replacement is ready. We are doing a fresh start so everything is going to be new and clean. I'm having issues with just what to set the new one as (local, master....) let alone trying to get the AP's to associate with it, not the old one (we are replacing the ap65's with ap105s, adding more, we will be also deploying the RAP's too). I"m on a deadline of 2 weeks to get this going so any assistance, advice or help would be most appreciated.

Thank you

Lirria

How are the APs currently finding the 800?  Are they on the same subnet, option 43 in DHCP or DNS (probably "aruba-master")?

Once we know that, we can figure out how to convert to the 3400.

Probably the easiest way I have seen this done is to make the 3400 a local controller (assuming the 800 is already a master) connected to your 800.  Once you get that working, the 3400 will have all of the VAPs, SSIDs, authentication profiles, roles, etc.

Then, when you want to switch over, take the 800 down, make the 3400 a master (it will retain the config), and re-point the APs to the 3400 as the master (either DHCP option 43, DNS resolution or just let the APs find the 3400 on the same subnet).

Right - its using the arubamaster. The thing is I have issues with the current 800 configurations - the ssids just don't work correctly and we want to change it all over to the new (correct method) So it's brand new ssid's, configs etc.

Do I need to plug the 3400 into the 800 or just on the same network good enough. I do know when they were both masters it pretty much shutdown wireless all together (oops, my bad - wasn't thinking....)

:)

Sounds like I"m close at least, that would be good.

Lirria

If they are both on the same subnet as the APs, you may have a problem.  The APs will do Aruba Discovery Protocol (ADP - a multicast protocol) to find their master and both will respond.  Some APs may go to one master and others to the other.  Not good!!!

If you are using aruba-master to find the master (and the APs are not on the same subnet as the controllers), you shouldn't have an issue with both controllers on the network.

What you want to do is to start over.  Run through the wizards to setup your master.  Make sure your authentication works (under the diagnotstics page on the GUI or the "aaa test-server" command in the CLI).  Connect a test AP to your new master and make sure you can see your SSIDs and authenticate properly.

For best practices, check out the Campus Mobility Controller VRD v8 on the Aruba support site.

One thing that I have done in this situation is disable adp on the new controller until everything is configured.  This can be done in the CLI

(config) # adp discovery disable

This way, APs will not connect to the new controller.  Once you have configured everything in the new controller, you can change your DNS setting (aruba-master) to point to the new controller and then run tthe command

(config) # adp discovery enable

At this point, things should transfer over.  As mentioned, make sure that your authentication is working using the AAA test server (either in the GUI or CLI) before hand.  Then test, test, test...

Just what I have done in the same situation.  We have been known to change out the controller in our office often due to testing and have never had any issues doing this.  Fortunately, in our sitation, we have a relatively small network.  The only problem that I run into is with our RAPs.  We do not use the self provisioning feature and, everytime that we change controllers, I have to reconfigure the RAPs (not a big deal for me however).

Sounds like a plan - I'll go ahead and do that and keep my fingers crossed - this week at least is a holiday week so most people (hopefully) will be pretty mello about the wireless - at times I'm happy we have 160 people using wireless, and at times no so much :smileyhappy:

thanks!

Lirria