Good information. And good discussion. Lee Badman | Network Architect (CWNE#200) Information Technology Services (NDD Group) 206 Machinery Hall 120 Smith Drive Syracuse, New York 13244 t 315.443.3003 e lhbad...@syr.edu<mailto:lhbad...@syr.edu> w its.syr.edu SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY syr.edu
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> On Behalf Of Miller, Keith C Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2020 12:07 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Who has transitioned away from Aruba, and why? Hi Lee, While we’ve experienced the issue with Intel NICs not being able to see SSIDs advertised when .11ax is enabled, a driver update has typically resolved that problem. The problems we are seeing range across many different device platforms ranging from Apple devices (iPhones and MacBook Pros) to Lenovo laptops and Samsung phones. I definitely do not believe it’s client related at this point. Regards, Keith O: (919)962-6564 M: (803)464-2397 From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> on behalf of Lee H Badman <000000db5b77bd95-dmarc-requ...@listserv.educause.edu<mailto:000000db5b77bd95-dmarc-requ...@listserv.educause.edu>> Reply-To: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> Date: Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 11:45 AM To: "WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>" <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Who has transitioned away from Aruba, and why? No insult meant to anyone’s intelligence, but are you also looking at client device drivers etc in the context of these issues? Depending on which client NIC is in play, the device makers haven’t been doing us any favors of late. Is very possible for example that hundreds of AD-managed laptops may all have same bum driver. Just asking… Lee Badman | Network Architect (CWNE#200) Information Technology Services (NDD Group) 206 Machinery Hall 120 Smith Drive Syracuse, New York 13244 t 315.443.3003 e lhbad...@syr.edu<mailto:lhbad...@syr.edu> w its.syr.edu SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY syr.edu From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> On Behalf Of David Morton Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2020 11:39 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Who has transitioned away from Aruba, and why? Ryan, we have been experiencing some of the very same issues. Since installing 515s and resulting 8.5.x code in our offices (always our first step to any migration) we too have experienced unexplained periods of no connectivity. In most or all the cases I’ve personally experienced, I believe that I remain connected at an 802.11 standpoint but will have that 30 seconds to a couple of minutes of no IP connectivity. We have now deployed 515s and 8.5.x in one of our residence halls so I am concerned about their experience as well. Just before the holiday break we had a series of very high-profile outages that impacted our students leading up to and during finals week. The issue got so bad that our CIO had to issue a letter to students explaining the problem and what we are doing about it. This is the first time that this level of communication was needed in my 15 years at the UW using Aruba. We too are a heavy Juniper shop and have recently received a MIST demo kit. We haven’t done anything with it yet due to lack of resources, but if things continue on the current path we may give it a more serious look. David David Morton Director, Network & Telecom Design/Architecture University of Washington dmorton @uw.edu tel 206.221.7814 PS I am currently on medical leave so if you wish to reply off-list, please direct it to Amel Caldwell, amelc@ uw.edu<http://uw.edu> On Jan 9, 2020, at 8:15 AM, Turner, Ryan H <rhtur...@email.unc.edu<mailto:rhtur...@email.unc.edu>> wrote: All: We’ve been an Aruba shop for a very long time and have around 10,000 access points. While every relationship with vendors have their ups and downs, my frustration with the Aruba is finally peaking to the point that I am considering making the enormous move to choose a different vendor. The biggest reason is with the 8.X code train, and bugs that we just don’t consider appropriate to use in production. It has been one thing after the other, and my extremely talented and qualified Network Architect (Keith Miller) might as well be on the Aruba payroll as much work as he has been doing for them to solve bugs. Just when we think we have one fixed, another one crops up. The big one as of late is with 515s running 8.5 code train. We have them deployed in one of our IT buildings. Periodically, people that are connected to these APs in the 5G band will stop working. To the user, they are browsing a site, then it becomes unresponsive. If they are on their phone, they will disconnect from wifi and everything works fine on cell. Nothing makes an 802.11 network look worse than switching to cell and seeing a problem resolve. Normally, if the users disconnect then reconnect, their problems will go ahead (but I think they end up connecting in the 2.4G band). We’ve been working on this problem with them for months. It always seems as though we have to prove there is a real issue. I’m fed up with it. We are a sophisticated shop. If we have a problem, 9 times out of 10 when we bring it to the vendor, it is a real problem. I’m extra frustrated that due to issues we’ve seen in ResNet on the 8.3X train that we don’t want to abandon our 6 train on main campus. To Aruba’s credit, we purchased around 1,000 515s last year (I think around February). When they could not get good code to support them on, Aruba bought back half of them. I asked for them to buy back half because I thought for sure with the 315s that we would have instead, the issues would be fixed by the time the 315s ran out. Not looking to be the case. So, with that rant over, we are seriously considering looking to move away from Aruba (unless they get their act together really soon). There are other bugs I’m not even mentioning here. For those of you that made the switch to another vendor, I would be curious how long the honeymoon lasted, what were your motivators, and were you happy with the overall results? Of course, this is a great opportunity to plug your vendor. As I see it, we have 3 choices…. Something from Cisco (we had Cisco long ago and dumped them for bugs), something from Extreme (we are a huge Extreme shop so this makes sense), something from Juniper (Mist). Thanks, Ryan Turner Head of Networking The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill +1 919 445 0113 Office +1 919 274 7926 Mobile r...@unc.edu<mailto:r...@unc.edu> ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community
