WLC 5508 - What is the use of service port.

[Tarunkumar Vyas]

Hi,

I am getting hard to understand use of service port in wlc 5508,

Even after reading so much post and cisco note I am not understanig the use of (Even basic use) service port.

As I understand service port should be access port and should be in diffrent vlan.

Pleae help me to understand it in simple way....

[Ric Beeching · Accepted solution]

Hi Tarun,

The Service Port is used for Out Of Bound (OOB) Management. Whilst the default configuration on the WLC allows for access via the management interface, it is better practice to have the service port configured on a different VLAN and use that to reach the WLC via SSH / HTTPS.

If you do configure your Service Port for this kind of access, you will need to add a static route on your WLAN Controller for any VLANs you are going to access it from or you won't be able to access it. I hope that makes sense, the configuration guide should help you out with it.

Thanks,

Ric

[Sandeep Choudhary · Accepted solution]

Hi Tarun,

This port is used exclusively for Out-of-Band management. It is the only port that is active when the controller is in boot mode (useful for troubleshooting). The service port does not support 802.1Q tagging so you must configure the switch port on the other side in access mode. It does not support a backup port and a default gateway in its configuration. This last fact means that you can reach it only if you are on the same subnet (as it will not have a route back) unless you configure static routes in the menu Controller -> Network Routes.

***The service port and the management interface must be on a different subnet.The service port is also not auto-sensing so you must use the correct straight-through or crossover Ethernet cable to communicate with the service port.

Hope it helps.

Reagrds

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[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

Hi Tarun,

Like others mentioned it is used for Out of Band Management of a WLC. Many do not use this as it could leads to issues unless you properly configure it & put it onto two completely different supernets. Config guides highlighted those restrictions & below is one of them listed in 7.4 config guide

Do not configure wired clients in the same VLAN or subnet of the service port of the controller on the network. If you configure wired clients on the same subnet or VLAN as the service port, it is not possible to access the management interface of the controller.

In situations you can use it to get access by directly connecting a laptop to take configuration backup or restore configuration to a controller. In the below post I have used service port to take backup & restore the configuration to a WLC.

http://mrncciew.com/2013/01/25/backup-restore-wlc-configs/

HTH

Rasika

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[Tarunkumar Vyas]

Thnx all to help me to understand the roll of service port.

Hey Rasika, Your site is so helpfull ...