5520 Controlers and IW-6300H-AC-E-K9 antennas

[CedricR]

Hello,

I have been assigned to try to recover a previous installation that was never completed. I have no doc or can contact the company who started the work....

There are 4 5520 controlers , 2 dell servers and a bunch of Antennas.

I am use to the meraki plug and play world, so I am a bit lost.

Not sure were to start.

I manage to login to the controlers, but that's all.

The antennas have fibers connections, I guess they need to be plugged into the 5520 with gbic modules right?

Or does they go to the Catalyst fiber switches ?

Does any software needs to be installed on the windows servers?

I hope someone can give me a little be of advices to start.

Thanks,

Cedric

[marce1000]

 - Antenna's on a controller ? Antenna's can only be put on access points , in fact IW-6300H-AC-E-K9 are access points , which need to be able to join a controller and then are steered and controlled by it. You may need to expand your knowledge on basic Cisco wireless networking fundamentals.

 M.

[Rich R]

Like @marce1000 said those IW6300 are Access Points not antennas.
The access points will need to be connected to a switch - either using POE (power over ethernet) copper cable or fibre with external power supplies.
The access point data sheet and specs are at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/industrial-wireless-6300-series/datasheet-c78-742907.html
Note that the 5520 WLC has already gone end of sale: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/5520-wireless-controller/eos-eol-notice-c51-744430.html
This means routine bug fixes for the software will end by January next year (2023).
So think seriously about whether you really want to commission this now when it's already on the end-of-life path with limited support?
If you decide you still want to do this then you'll need to get yourself some Cisco wireless training for a start, or you'll need to employ somebody who has that knowledge.
Anything you learn on 5520 (which runs the now very old AireOS) has limited use because the new generation of Cisco Catalyst 9800 series WLCs are based on Cisco IOS-XE which is completely different.
It might be better for you to get 9800 controllers instead and spend you time learning how to configure those instead.  Your IW6300 APs are still supported with the 9800 WLC so that would give you a much better investment.
If you want to get started with AireOS (once you understand the basics) then the config guide is at:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-10/config-guide/b_cg810.html
For IOS-XE (if you decide to upgrade to 9800) then:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-6/config-guide/b_wl_17_6_cg.html
These both require understanding of the fundamentals of Cisco unified wireless networking.

[CedricR]

Thank you for the details, that a good start.
I will have a look at the cisco course or try to find someone skilled that could do this.

Otherwise I will just replace all these with meraki devices as these devices are too much expensives and look a bit too much for our needs... A shame for the planet..

Thanks again for your advices.