RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers
Hi John- It does not do config now, but really I'm not sure you want it to. How often do you change your WLAN network? we change some of ours on occasion, both in prod and for development- to meet different transient circumstances while our prod main WLANs roll along largely undisturbed. And when you want to make changes, to me it's important to be able to do what you want, when you want with no management system impediments, forced practices, or jumping between systems to do a little hereand a little there. ...do you really want to set up your QOS or multicast outside the Aruba interface? If ANY product (not picking on any vendor with this comment) touts themselves as a WLAN management solution, then yes, I'd expect to set up QoS, client security, WLANs, or any system parameter in a single pane of glass. Or if a vendor is better at monitoring, I'd like to see a monitoring only version at a reasonable price marketed rather than be expected to pay top dollar for a complete solution but only have it be practical for half my team's needs. That being said... everyone has their own needs and ways of solving those needs. It's nice to see a growing number of viable options and healthy competition making for better solutions. Respectfully, Lee Badman From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of John W Turner [tur...@brandeis.edu] Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 7:56 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers We have 6 controllers (though that is really immaterial since you only config the WLAN on the master) and have been deployed with 900 AP's for over 3 years. We went with Airwave about 6 months ago and are EXTREMELY happy with it. It provides an invaluable amount of visibility into the network and is a huge help in diagnosing client problems. We see this as a business intelligence tool to assist us in strategically tweaking/upgrading our WLAN network. It does not do config now, but really I'm not sure you want it to. How often do you change your WLAN network? I can see some features getting into Airwave (black listing, key rotation, guest provisioning) but do you really want to set up your QOS or multicast outside the Aruba interface? I see the Airwave and Aruba controller interfaces serving two distinct purposes: Airwave for operations and Aruba for management. -- John W. Turner Director of Networks Systems Brandeis University - Original Message - From: Ken Connell kconn...@ryerson.ca To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 8:39:15 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers We did a trial on both... For us the MMS was unreliable and some of the tools (like finding users) just didn't work. We were constantly rebooting and tweaking, but I must note we had the software version not the appliance. The airwave product for us was great with stats, finding users and what not, but the config for Aruba just isn't there yet, and for that reason we haven't committed. Ken Connell Intermediate Network Engineer Computer Communication Services Ryerson University 350 Victoria St RM AB50 Toronto, Ont M5B 2K3 416-979-5000 x6709 From: Steely, John Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:11:18 -0500 To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiple controllers I am curious if we have any Aruba shops on the list who have Airwave, but also had experience with the Aruba MMS appliance and would be willing to share your thoughts on comparing the two? Thanks in advance, John John Steely Associate Director Infrastructure Systems Department Library and Information Services Dickinson College P.O. Box 1773 Carlisle, PA 17013 717-245-1613 (Voice) 717-245-1690 (Fax) ste...@dickinson.edumailto:ste...@dickinson.edu From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:55 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiple controllers Wondering how bigger Aruba shops are centrally managing multiple controllers? From what I can tell right now, AirWave is pretty much an effective graphical monitoring tool, but is pretty anemic at configuration of Aruba. Am I missing something? -Lee Lee H. Badman Wireless/Network Engineer Information Technology and Services Syracuse University 315 443-3003 ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for
RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers
Lee and John, What's lacking in AirWave's config capabilities? Doesn't it support all the controller's configuration elements? Is this a matter of some here (CLI), some there (controller GUI or NMS)? I liked AirWave's directory-based approach. To me it allows for better configuration containment. You make a good point Lee - Aruba consider a monitoring-only option. I think a lot of Cisco shops would take notice. To be fair, I don't think anyone's NMS offers the single pane of glass for FCAPS (or whatever ITIL calls it), but I see AirWave as the product most likely to succeed. Infrastructure vendors are always lacking in the NMS space. They seem content to let someone else manage/monitor/report things better. Bruce T. Johnson | Network Engineer | Partners Healthcare Network Engineering | 617.726.9662 | Pager: 31633 | bjohns...@partners.org | 149 13th Street, 10th Floor, Mailstop 10055B, Charlestown, Ma 02129 -Original Message- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 1:28 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers Hi John- It does not do config now, but really I'm not sure you want it to. How often do you change your WLAN network? we change some of ours on occasion, both in prod and for development- to meet different transient circumstances while our prod main WLANs roll along largely undisturbed. And when you want to make changes, to me it's important to be able to do what you want, when you want with no management system impediments, forced practices, or jumping between systems to do a little hereand a little there. ...do you really want to set up your QOS or multicast outside the Aruba interface? If ANY product (not picking on any vendor with this comment) touts themselves as a WLAN management solution, then yes, I'd expect to set up QoS, client security, WLANs, or any system parameter in a single pane of glass. Or if a vendor is better at monitoring, I'd like to see a monitoring only version at a reasonable price marketed rather than be expected to pay top dollar for a complete solution but only have it be practical for half my team's needs. That being said... everyone has their own needs and ways of solving those needs. It's nice to see a growing number of viable options and healthy competition making for better solutions. Respectfully, Lee Badman From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of John W Turner [tur...@brandeis.edu] Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 7:56 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers We have 6 controllers (though that is really immaterial since you only config the WLAN on the master) and have been deployed with 900 AP's for over 3 years. We went with Airwave about 6 months ago and are EXTREMELY happy with it. It provides an invaluable amount of visibility into the network and is a huge help in diagnosing client problems. We see this as a business intelligence tool to assist us in strategically tweaking/upgrading our WLAN network. It does not do config now, but really I'm not sure you want it to. How often do you change your WLAN network? I can see some features getting into Airwave (black listing, key rotation, guest provisioning) but do you really want to set up your QOS or multicast outside the Aruba interface? I see the Airwave and Aruba controller interfaces serving two distinct purposes: Airwave for operations and Aruba for management. -- John W. Turner Director of Networks Systems Brandeis University - Original Message - From: Ken Connell kconn...@ryerson.ca To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 8:39:15 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiplecontrollers We did a trial on both... For us the MMS was unreliable and some of the tools (like finding users) just didn't work. We were constantly rebooting and tweaking, but I must note we had the software version not the appliance. The airwave product for us was great with stats, finding users and what not, but the config for Aruba just isn't there yet, and for that reason we haven't committed. Ken Connell Intermediate Network Engineer Computer Communication Services Ryerson University 350 Victoria St RM AB50 Toronto, Ont M5B 2K3 416-979-5000 x6709 From: Steely, John Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:11:18 -0500 To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Big Aruba Environments- Management of multiple controllers I am curious if we have any Aruba shops on the list who have Airwave, but also had experience with the Aruba MMS appliance and would be
