Cisco vWLC - Issues while implementation - Best Practice design recommendations

[Christian Engelbrecht]

Hi Forum,

I'm dealing at the moment with the implementation of a virtual Wireless LAN controller in one of our customers environment.

Customer is facing several issues and I'm not pretty sure how to solve them - so maybe the supportforum could give me answers / hints.

1.) Customer complains about not being able to see more than one port on the vWLC when implementing a second vNIC in the VMWare (via show port summary command from the vWLCs CLI). As per my understanding the vWLC will always only show one "physical" port and n interfaces (depending on how many interfaces are created on the vWLC) - the mapping is done via the vWLC - so basically as an administrator we are not able to see the exact mapping and always only one "physical" port?

2.) Customer told me that the vWLC is basically working except the bridging between the CAPWAP tunnel to the VMWare to the router - I'm not pretty sure what he means by that but I guess it has something to do with the tagging of the dynamic interfaces / VLANs to the ESX and subsequent from the ESX via vNIC to the vWLC - any hints? (Also please consider design details from question 3)

3.) Is it ok to TAG all VLANs via one vNIC without using the service port? I mean create one vNIC that is carrying and tagging the management and the data vlans? Or is it mandatory to seperate the management from the data vlans by using a dedicated subnet with the service port? Any best practice suggestions to get the controller work - especially on the VMWare part?

If you need any further details please feel free to ask

Regards,

Christian

[Francesco Molino]

Hi

on vWlc you can have 2 ports:

• service port 
• data port (included all dynamic interfaces for wlans and management)

For the data interface, you'll need to tag all vlans needed for your config.

The capwap tunnel is mounted from your AP to your wlc management interface on a default setup.

I'm sorry but I don't understand your question 2.

Hope this answered your points.

here a Cisco documentation:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/virtual-wireless-controller/113677-virtual-wlan-dg-00.html

Thanks

PS: Please don't forget to rate and mark as correct answer if this solved your issue 

[Christian Engelbrecht]

So basically I'm assuming right that I can use only one vNIC on the VMWare to use tagging on the data port to make the vWLC work (also for the management VLAN) - is this right?

Lets say I have four vlans -> one for mgmt traffic, three for the dynamic interfaces that will be associated to the corresponding SSIDs. I can realize the setup using one vNIC enabled for tagging and then tag all the vlans on it (lets say 2 for mgmt, 3/4/5 for the data vlans) - this should work too right? Are there any special considerations for DHCP mode on the interfaces? 

Or lets say it in this way: Is it mandatory to use the service port for a dedicated management vlan?

[Francesco Molino · Accepted solution]

You're right you can tag vlans for management and datas is not mandatory to use the service port. You're management interface will also be the AP manager interface on which APs register. You can't have 2 management. You can have 1 management officially and 1 for AP manager. 

Internal Dhcp on vwlc is not supported. You need to do a relay dhcp. If you need more information let me know. 

Thanks 

PS: Please don't forget to rate and mark as correct answer if this solved your issue 

[Christian Engelbrecht]

ok then the vWLC part is correct - I need to check further on the VMWare part (but I do not have access to this part as it is under the administrive domain of the customer).

I do not have two management interfaces  - just one. APs are also able to register already - so no issues on this side.

I will talk to the customer tomorrow to check what issues he is facing.

[Francesco Molino]

Ok if you need more help let me know.

Thanks