2500 WLC, attach AP?

[mkoch]

Hi,

i was checking the documentation on the 2500 WLAN controller... it states "The Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports on the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller will not support directly attached APs." ... if that is true, what are those PoE ports good for?????

i have a scenario with just two APs (for now) the 2500 would be perfect IF i could plug the APs directly into the WLC... any plans to support that? Or is just an error in the documentation?

Regards,

Michael

[cozzaenterprises]

Scott:

Does that mean that you need to create an interface with an (IP address in the same VLAN/subnet as the Management interface) and associate it with ports 3 and/or 4 ?

[Scott Fella]

You shouldn't connect the AP's to the WLC.  

Does that mean that you need to create an interface with an (IP address in the same VLAN/subnet as the Management interface) and associate it with ports 3 and/or 4 ?

If you are trying to connect an AP to the WLC ports, you don't need to create another dynamic interface, because you only can have one interface assigned to one subnet/vlan.  You can just connect it to WLC port if you wish.  Any non configured port will be on the managment vlan.  Again... use a switch to connect the AP's.

Thanks,

Scott

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[cozzaenterprises]

Ahh ...

so the WLC effectively bridges by default to unassigned ports, but  presumably in untagged mode (even if mgmt interface on the mgmnt port is configured to tag)?

Basically just leave the POE ports unconfigured and they will get soft-bridged?

Will check tonight with etheral...very...interesting...and cheeky.

~BAS

[Scott Fella]

Sure let us know what you find:)

Thanks,

Scott

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[cozzaenterprises]

Quick update:

   My assumption was incorrect.  It does not automatically bridge the management interface VLAN to unconfigured ports.

Maybe if the mangaement port was untagged, or maybe on a different hardware/software versioun permutation.

If/when I get a second unit in, I'll try again. 

~Brian Seklecki

[Flavio Boniforti]

Hello everybody.

I'm also trying to configure this "directly attached APs": what is the trick to make it work? What has to be done to get my LAP on PoE port 4 to get it's IP from the WLC DHCP? join the WLC with CAPWAPP? They are physically connected to port3 and 4, get the IP lease from the DHCP server in my LAN (port1 of the WLC is connected to that LAN too), but do not join the WLC!

Thanks,

F.

[mkoch]

Hey,

i hooked the two APs into my network, they got IPs with DHCP, attached to the WLC.

i changed the IPs of the APs to fixed and replugged them into the PoE ports... that works fine

background:

IP does NOT really work THROUGH the WLC but TO the WLC, so you have top make sure no traffic (like DHCP) must pass the WLC.

This is also the reason you cannot ping, telnet etc. to APs from the wired network.

IMHO someone at Cisco forgot the ethernet bridging code on the PoE ports

Regards,

Michael

P.S: i still think cisco should fix this ASAP!!!

[Flavio Boniforti]

Hello Michael,

IP does work throught the WLC (with both firmwares 7.0 and 7.2)!

I was just attaching 2 LAPs which were previously configured as Mesh APs. After doing "clear lwapp private-config" everything worked fine.

Thus the conclusion is: PoE ports are OK to connect LAPs to them and DHCP servers sitting in the LAN (which has to be in the same range of the management interface of the WLC) will be able to lease out IPs.

Kind regards,

F.

[bartosz dworzanczyk]

jryanearl,

Can you please tell me how did you setup the interfaces for these two POE so they work?  Did you put the interfaces on the same subnet as management or something else?  I'm having the same issue where I have to aps which would perfectly plug in into the wlc.

Thank you in advance for the details.

[Scott Fella]

The only way this works is that your ports that your AP's are connected to are the same Vlan as the management of the WLC. Your clients will also have to be placed on the same subnet and you will need to setup a DHCP scope in the WLC for the AP's to get an address unless you configure the AP IP address manually. You loose out on many features also, but you can get it working.

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[arnotixet]

OK it's an old thread but I just wanted to say thanks -- for your patience :) A customer axed the same question over here in Norway, but I won't repeat it all over again :D

[jryanearl]

I ended up with more than 4 APs connected in the original office as we expanded, I connected all APs to a switch and used power injectors as it was a non-PoE switch.  When I only had 2 APs, I basically did what Scott said with manually configured IPs addresses via console connection.  However, multicast did not work in said configuration, and supporting Apple's Bonjour for AirPlay was a requirement as we develop mobile apps and use AirPlay for demo purposes.  Thus I moved to a situation where all the APs went into a layer3 enabled switch, and put a couple of the 2504 ports into the same switch.

You can do what Scott said, but you won't be able to use Bonjour, which in addition to AirPlay will affect things like printer discovery...

We're actually about to move offices, and I plan to move to a Catalyst 3850 PoE enabled switch with 3700-series APs to simplify the setup since I have to build it from scratch.

[Scott Fella]

Thanks for your follow up... This should help other who want to do this setup.

+5

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[mkoch]

We are running the APs directly off the 2504 and Bonjour works fine for us (AppleTV, TimeMachine & Printers) so something must be wrong with your setup.

unfortunatly i don't have access to the system - i rememeber i had to assign a multicast address...

regards,

Michael 

(the AP must have a static IP, but that is the only "limitation" i encountered)

[Scott Fella]

Bonjour works fine if the devices are on the same subnet. It shouldn't work if the devices are in different subnets unless you have implemented a bonjour gateway. Either way, it's still best practice to use a switch.

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