Advantages and Disadvantages of having the APs and the WLC Management on same subnet

[jlarriega]

Good day Experts;

I have a 5760 WLC running as a centralized mode with 3702 AP terminating the CAPWAP tunnels on the 5760, I've also have another 5760 WLC with HA license, running on standby mode.

I have two questions:

1.- Can you please confirm that I don't need to configure "AP Manager" on the 5760 WLC (i.e. I don't need the following statement:   "wireless ap-manager interface vlanx" ). I don't need this configuration statement even the APs are on a different subnet than the Management of the WLC.

2.- Are there any advantages and/or disadvantages of having the APs and the management of the 5760 WLC Management on a different subnet/vlan?   

Thanks;

Juan

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

Hi Juan,

1. Can you please confirm that I don't need to configure "AP Manager" on the 5760 WLC

Yes, you do not want to create ap manager interface on 5760. Just management interface & that will do everything. Below should cover basics of the 5760 config

http://mrncciew.com/2013/12/12/getting-started-with-5760/

2.- Are there any advantages and/or disadvantages of having the APs and the management of the 5760 WLC Management on a different subnet/vlan?   

If you put AP management on the same vlan as WLC management, then AP broadcast discovery messages will reach WLC management. So you do not want to configure any WLC discovery mechanism (DNS or DHCP option 43) for AP to find WLC to register. This is ok for small scale deployment, but if you have 500-1000 AP these AP broadcast reaching WLC will be problematic (burden WLC). So it is recommended to seperate AP management to WLC management in large scale deployment. In that case you have to define a way to AP to get WLC IP information (DNS or DHCP option 43 is most common)

HTH

Rasika

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[jlarriega]

Thank you Rasika for your prompt response.