Management Port in WLC 8540

[sushil220787]

Hello 

Can you access GUI of WLC 8540 using Management Port ? So far I have accessed the WLC GUI via Service Port.

[Leo Laohoo]

Yes, HTTP or HTTPS.

[Freerk Terpstra]

In addition to Leo: be aware that the WLC only has one routing table. Using the service-port can cause asymmetric routing for traffic initiated by the controller towards hosts on the subnet on the service-port or configured static routes on the WLC itself.

The 8540 controller is basically a UCS server, so we only configure the in-band management interface and the CIMC interface for box/hardware monitoring.

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[sushil220787]

Thanks for your answer. Its really helpful. Have a question though - What do you mean by one routing table ?

[Freerk Terpstra]

The WLC is not a router of course, but it does have a IP routing table just as your PC for example ("route print" on any Microsoft Windows based system).

Most switches and routers these days are using a separate routing table (also called a VRF) for the out-of-band management interface. By doing this, the out-of-band management network is completely isolated from any "production traffic". This is very beneficial from a security point of view, but also from operations since a faulty routing change for example will most likely not result in being lock-out of your own management access.

Since the 8540 WLC does not use a VRF for the service-port (which is the traditional out-of-band management interface of a WLC), the WLC will also use this interface and related static routes to handle production related traffic. This might cause the asymmetric routing issue I was referring to earlier. Hope this clarify things :-)

Please rate useful posts... :-)