topic Re: Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3? in Wireless

Change Wireless Access Point configuration from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 05:42:09 GMT

I have read that it is a best practice (regardless of router/switch model) to use vlan1 primarily as a "management" vlan and not to place additional traffic on it for the other network segments. If this is true, I am trying to configure vlan2 as my wired interfaces to the router and vlan3 for my wireless access point with each having their own dhcp pools. Any thoughts or assistance in the interface confguration is appreciated.

Re: Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

Scott Fella — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:56:55 GMT

I don't know about that. Most of the installs I see, they try not to use vlan 1. I guess its really up to you though. Moving the wlc from vlan 1 to vlan 3 should not be a big deal and should be fine.

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Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

George Stefanick — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:35:18 GMT

Hi Bill,

Welcome to CSC.

Myself, if its a large install then yes I would put the WLC managment on its own vlan and here is why. On the new controllers, the managment interface not only allows you to manage the WLC but it also terminates the tunnels for all the access point connected.

Keep in mind these tunnels carry all the wireless data traffic inside the capsulated frames. So you will see a bit of traffic over vlan 1, in your case.

How big of an install do you have ?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:26:24 GMT

Hi George,

Thanks for your feedback. The install i'm focusing on is for a small office (Cisco 891 ISR) with 4 wired and 4 wireless devices. However, I want to build this config for future larger buildouts for branch offices such as my 2911 in my lab.

I'm currently unable to have my wireless lan controller use vlan 3 and wireless devices continue to pull 10.10.10.XX from the dhcp pool. Below are snippets of my interfaces and I attached my full config as well if that helps. I've been struggling with this for a while and any assistance is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

!interface wlan-ap0

description Service module interface to manage the embedded AP

ip unnumbered Vlan3

arp timeout 0

ip dhcp pool dhcp_vlan1

network 10.10.10.0 255.255.255.0

default-router 10.10.10.1

dns-server 75.75.75.75 8.8.8.8

ip dhcp pool dhcp_vlan2

network 10.10.20.0 255.255.255.0

default-router 10.10.30.1

dns-server 75.75.75.75 8.8.8.8

ip dhcp pool dhcp_vlan3

network 10.10.30.0 255.255.255.0

default-router 10.10.30.1

dns-server 75.75.75.75 8.8.8.8

interface Vlan1

ip address 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0

ip nat inside

ip virtual-reassembly

interface Vlan2

ip address 10.10.20.1 255.255.255.0

ip nat inside

ip virtual-reassembly

interface Vlan3

ip address 10.10.30.1 255.255.255.0

ip nat inside

ip virtual-reassembly

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:28:44 GMT

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your feedback, vlan 1 seems to work fine with a small number of users, I'm just concerned scaling to larger build outs. I'm having issues just trying to have the WLC pull ips from vlan 3. I attached my config if you had any ideas well, thanks much!

-Bill

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

George Stefanick — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:33:42 GMT

What model WLC do you have?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 04:46:53 GMT

it's an integrated 802.11n wirless controller with it's own separate IOS. I realized that when I changed the WLC interface to vlan3 I couldn't log into that WLC interface....so I"m thinking I need to configure the WLC interface to vlan3 but am not sure how to do that. I attached the WLC config as well...any help is appreciated.

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

grabonlee — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:06:21 GMT

Bill,

Your last post is very confusing and I would like to clarify some issues.

Firstly, The Cisco 891 ISR can't be or have an integrated WLC controller module. The WLC module (SRE) for ISR routers starts from 1900ISR router upwards. The 891ISR can function as an autonomous AP or unified WLAN mode, which means it connects to an external WLC at the Head office. For the embedded APs in the ISR to function in the unified WLAN mode, the ISR has to be upgraded to the Cisco Unified software and for this to happen, your router must be running the IP Base feature set and IOS 12.4(22) YB software.

From your comments, it seems that you are trying to have the router function in autonomous mode and at the same time make it join a WLC. To best of my knowledge this is not possible. You would have to use a light-weight AP connected to the WLC via router and the embedded AP on the router function in Autonomous mode only.

Please could you post a network diagram showing where the WLC is in the network.

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 20:28:28 GMT

Hi Osita,

Thanks for feedback, you make a a great point which I misunderstood. I assumed that by logging into a separate IOS session for the wireless interface that I had a true wireless lan controller for my 891W. I reviewed the documentation and it states "Cisco 890 series wireless models include the integrated access point...and can be used in either autonomous or Cisco Unified WLAN modes." Since I don't have any wireless controllers on the network it is operating in autonomous (standalone) mode. I'll rename my posting to avoid further confusion.

My original issue is that I would like to have my all of my vlan3 dhcp traffic on my wireless interface, however, now I'm unsure if that is possible if it is acting as an AP. I'll need to do more research, or if you can provide guidance in the wireless interface configuration commands that would be helpful as well.

Thanks!

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

grabonlee — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:06:41 GMT

Hi Bill

Now that we are on the same page, there are many things wrong with your wireless configuration that will make it not work. For example, for the Router config, you didn't specify switchport trunk native vlan 3 and switchport trunk under the

Wlan-GigabitEthernet0.

Please see the link below and it may help you. Let me know if you have further problems.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-16145

Change Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) from vlan1 to vlan3?

william.shelley — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:45:28 GMT

Thanks for sharing the article, I think this was exactly what I was looking for.