topic Re: Cisco Wireless in Wireless

Cisco Wireless

ironising84 — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 20:05:31 GMT

At my company we are currently using a Cisco WLC 5508 to manage our wireless network across 2 dozen+ office locations across the US and Canada.

We're starting to run up against the license limit of WAP's on the current controller. We're in the process of adding another (at least) dozen sites to our infrastructure, with 1-4 AP's per site. After looking at the cost to purchase additional seats on the controller we've begun looking at other options for our wireless needs.

Has anyone here run into this issue? And what was your solution? Did you pony up the cash for the additional seats on the WLC? I have trouble fathoming managing 75 WAP's without a single pane of glass to control them...

Re: Cisco Wireless

Mark Elsen — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:56:18 GMT

- The 5508 is EOL and you can not buy licenses for it anymore. You may look at the next XE-based controller platforms, as AireOS is being phased out too.

Re: Cisco Wireless

Leo Laohoo — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 23:41:59 GMT

Cisco Mobility Express

Re: Cisco Wireless

Rich R — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 15:59:55 GMT

I'm sure this is a duplicate question that was asked a few weeks ago! Anyway ...
Mobility Express (like AireOS soon to be retired so don't do that) or EWC for the new Catalyst 91xx APs are only for a single site which means 1 per site = 36 'panes of glass' not the single pane of glass he/she is looking for.

To avoid the question being asked again you really only have 1 viable choice for 'a single pane of glass' - upgrade to a new 9800 WLC (there's a whole range of different sized options to choose from according to your needs) and that will service all your sites.

Re: Cisco Wireless

patoberli — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 16:47:09 GMT

Or alternatively you might look at Cisco Meraki, a cloud based solution, for which you pay a yearly usage fee. If you stop paying it, you can't use your wireless anymore though.