RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba education (was "Aruba Controller code recommendations")

[Chuck Enfield]

Q: Obviously the Controllers have code that gets updated.  Do the AP's also 
get flashed?   Do they get flashed based on the controller code level?

A: Aruba has two roles for controllers.  Local controllers terminate AP 
connections and manage the data plane.  Master controllers provide some 
control plane and coordination functions when multiple local controllers 
cover overlapping or adjacent RF domains.  A master controller, it’s local 
controllers, and all the APs connected to those locals must run the same 
code version.  This is accomplished by upgrading the code on all of the 
controllers, from which the APs will automatically get a code upgrade.



Q: Do you ever get to a point where you cannot flash the controller because 
that code level is not/will not be supported by an older AP?

A: Yes.  We are at that point right now.  We cannot move to AOS 6.5 (just 
released for early deployment) until we replace a couple hundred AP-120’s 
still in our network.  I will point out, however, that AP-120’s came to 
market around 2009, so they’ve had a pretty good run for an AP.



Q: For those of you who have rolled out 5GHz deployments, since the Aruba 
AP's appear to have fixed radios (ie one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz, rather than 
the ability to go with two 5GHz), do you ever find yourself deploying more 
AP's than you'd otherwise like to get a great 5GHz density?

A: Yes, but not very often for now.  For the AP density at which we deploy, 
with the amount of 2.4GHz usage remaining, and for our strategy of getting 
clients onto 5GHz radios, it makes sense to leave 2.4GHz radios enabled on 
most of our APs.  Large auditoriums with overhead AP installations are 
really the only locations we would benefit from having APs with (2) 5GHz 
radios.  For us, that represents a tiny number of APs on a very large 
network.  That said, as 5 GHz spectrum grows and 2.4GHz usage declines this 
will become a greater disadvantage.



Chuck Enfield

Manager, Wireless Systems & Engineering

Telecommunications & Networking Services

The Pennsylvania State University

110H, USB2, UP, PA 16802

ph: 814.863.8715

fx: 814.865.3988



From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Brian Helman
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 7:54 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba education (was "Aruba Controller code 
recommendations")



I'm going to fork this topic a little.  We are relatively happy with our 
current wireless vendor, but I've been asked to look around to see what else 
is out there.  At the NERCOMP Annual Conference a few months ago, I lead a 
joint NETMAN/WirelessLAN discussion.  I listed the wireless vendors to see 
who was using each.  I did this alphabetically, and was pretty much able to 
stop on the 2nd vendor .. Aruba.  Clearly, it's pretty popular in Higher 
Ed..



So, I have a few questions that I hope will be easy.  Obviously the 
Controllers have code that gets updated.  Do the AP's also get flashed?   Do 
they get flashed based on the controller code level?  Do you ever get to a 
point where you cannot flash the controller because that code level is 
not/will not be supported by an older AP (we've experienced this with our 
management platform, where we had to run 2 instances .. and old and a new .. 
to support older AP's and move forward in supporting new ones).



For those of you who have rolled out 5GHz deployments, since the Aruba AP's 
appear to have fixed radios (ie one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz, rather than the 
ability to go with two 5GHz), do you ever find yourself deploying more AP's 
than you'd otherwise like to get a great 5GHz density?



Thanks!



-Brian



VENDORS: PLEASE DO NOT CALL ME.  I'm gathering info.  I'll make the first 
contact if I decide to move forward.



  _

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Sidharth Nandury 
[nandu...@denison.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 8:28 AM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU 
<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba Controller code recommendations

We are running v6.4.3.7 on the controller while running v8.2.0.2 here at 
Denison University. The controller has not had any issues with it and works 
great! While there are no compatibility issues with each other, Airwave has 
had problems recognizing Cisco equipment gear. We have Cisco 2960X and S 
series switches, both 24 and 48 port. Airwave recognizes these switches as 
stack switches and instead of the particular model of switches that they 
actually are. Also, there was the issue of duplicate devices, where when 
scanning the network for devices it would add the device according to the 
MAC address of the device and then also the devices according to the MAC 
address of the management VLAN of the switch.



The code upgrade form 8.2.0.1 to 8.2.0.2 solved the duplica

Aruba education (was "Aruba Controller code recommendations")

[Brian Helman]

I'm going to fork this topic a little.  We are relatively happy with our 
current wireless vendor, but I've been asked to look around to see what else is 
out there.  At the NERCOMP Annual Conference a few months ago, I lead a joint 
NETMAN/WirelessLAN discussion.  I listed the wireless vendors to see who was 
using each.  I did this alphabetically, and was pretty much able to stop on the 
2nd vendor .. Aruba.  Clearly, it's pretty popular in Higher Ed..

So, I have a few questions that I hope will be easy.  Obviously the Controllers 
have code that gets updated.  Do the AP's also get flashed?   Do they get 
flashed based on the controller code level?  Do you ever get to a point where 
you cannot flash the controller because that code level is not/will not be 
supported by an older AP (we've experienced this with our management platform, 
where we had to run 2 instances .. and old and a new .. to support older AP's 
and move forward in supporting new ones).

For those of you who have rolled out 5GHz deployments, since the Aruba AP's 
appear to have fixed radios (ie one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz, rather than the 
ability to go with two 5GHz), do you ever find yourself deploying more AP's 
than you'd otherwise like to get a great 5GHz density?

Thanks!

-Brian

VENDORS: PLEASE DO NOT CALL ME.  I'm gathering info.  I'll make the first 
contact if I decide to move forward.


From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Sidharth Nandury 
[nandu...@denison.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2016 8:28 AM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba Controller code recommendations

We are running v6.4.3.7 on the controller while running v8.2.0.2 here at 
Denison University. The controller has not had any issues with it and works 
great! While there are no compatibility issues with each other, Airwave has had 
problems recognizing Cisco equipment gear. We have Cisco 2960X and S series 
switches, both 24 and 48 port. Airwave recognizes these switches as stack 
switches and instead of the particular model of switches that they actually 
are. Also, there was the issue of duplicate devices, where when scanning the 
network for devices it would add the device according to the MAC address of the 
device and then also the devices according to the MAC address of the management 
VLAN of the switch.

The code upgrade form 8.2.0.1 to 8.2.0.2 solved the duplicate device issue, but 
we still continue to have problems with recognizing the correct Cisco models.

We are moving to HP switches for our access layer this summer, we have rolled 
out some switches already. Airwave seems to recognize these switches correctly, 
give all the correct information but Auditing the device configuration has not 
been successful so far. It may be that I am doing something wrong, but I 
thought this was worth mentioning.

Thank you.

Regards,
Sid

On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 7:24 AM, Osborne, Bruce W (Network Services) 
> wrote:
We are running 6.4.3.x with Airwave 8.2.0.x. We see no ArubaOS compatibility 
issues, but are working with Aruba support on some specific VisualRF issues 
within Airwave that appear to be restricted to our environment.

​

Bruce Osborne
Wireless Engineer
IT Network Services - Wireless

(434) 592-4229

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Training Champions for Christ since 1971

From: Entwistle, Bruce 
[mailto:bruce_entwis...@redlands.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: Aruba Controller code recommendations

Thank you.  We are primarily looking to upgrade to be compatible with the 
newest version of Airwave.

Bruce


From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of McClintic, Thomas
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 12:10 PM
To: 
WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba Controller code recommendations

Bruce,

I was hoping others would reply to get some feedback. Currently running 
6.4.2.13, 7210 and 215s. Asked my HPE rep and they said we can stay on the same 
version unless we run into an issue that needs addressing?

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Entwistle, Bruce
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2016 12:52 PM
To: 
WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba Controller code recommendations

We are looking to upgrade our Aruba 7210 controllers which are currently 
running software version 6.4.2.4.  Looking at the versions currently available 
on the web site I see the latest GA version is 6.4.3.9 and the latest ED 
version is 6.4.4.8.  I was looking to see what others are running and what 
their recommendation would