topic Re: 3850 Switch wireless controller in Wireless

3850 Switch wireless controller

kashifglobal12 — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 18:37:44 GMT

Dear Community,

I need my 3850 switch works as a Wireless Controller but i am facing some problems. I have 2 3850 switches which are deployed on different location on a same office. I have 5 access points and need integrate with the wireless controller 3850. The problem is 3 access points are connected to first 3850 and other 2 access points are connected to second 3850 and there is a limition in 3850 wirless controller is that all the access points must be connected to one switch which also acts as a controller.

Is there some way to manage all access points through one controller deployed in distributed environment?

Re: 3850 Switch wireless controller

Mikey Boy — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:03:03 GMT

Yes you can have two switches running as AP controllers, you can then configure mobility between the two. You will need one device to be a mobility controller and the other configuring as a mobility agent.

What code version are you running? In newer 3850 code converged wireless access is not supported.

Re: 3850 Switch wireless controller

kashifglobal12 — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:57:48 GMT

Dear Mikey,

Thank you for your reply. I don't have access to switch right now but can
you tell me which IOS version is for converge deployment. Another thing is
that you said two switches runs as a mobility controller and configure
mobility between them but how the controller able to transform as a
mobility agent?

Re: 3850 Switch wireless controller

Mikey Boy — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 13:15:40 GMT

Hi, the last release of code is detailed in the below document, I believe it is 16.3.3

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html#pgfId-393627

Also regarding the MC/MA and switch peer groups you will have to do some reading as there is quite a bit to take in:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3850/software/release/16-1/converged_access_deployement_guide/m_conAccess_deploy_guide.html

I would suggest that from personal experience, unless you absolutely have no other option I would avoid converged access.

We had a few customers using it and it is not the easiest thing to support and is also quite buggy.

Regards