Any experience with the Cisco Virtual Wireless Controller?

[lousferig89]

So I just landed a new position in an environment with around 50 APs across 12 locations. They are a mix of 1400 and 1600 Aironets. Every single one is running as an autonomous AP with PSK authentication, which I definitely need to fix (among other things). To give a little insight, this is a health care environment. While there are definitely some expansion plans, the foreseeable future leaves our growth fairly limited. I wouldn't see us getting more than 20 - 30 more APs within the next 5 years from an expansion standpoint.

With the way the company is structured, purchases under $3,000 USD can be done with internal approval from the CIO. Anything above must be approved by the board of directors.

Personally I think we could get by with 5508s (I'd rather have a pair for HA), but that's a considerable purchase. I'm prepared to fight that battle if I need to, but during my research I came across an alternative I had never heard of before, the vWLC. 2500s could work for now, but their max is 75 APs and it's possible we'd hit that ceiling. I'd rather get the beefier controller for future proofing.

I've read up on this for a couple weeks now and admittedly it has an attractive price point (the base license seems to be a little under $500 on CDW, and that includes 5 APs), and it costs about $100 an AP (less as you buy the licenses in bulk). We have a fairly robust VMWare environment that this could run on, thus my HA concerns would be somewhat alleviated (other than the VM crapping out). Feature-wise it (allegedly) supports what we need and want to accomplish on the WLAN.

Anyway, has anyone actually used this? What are your thoughts in comparison to standalone appliances? I've tried searching for actual reviews on it and they're relatively hard to come by. I've got the 7.6 OVA and plan on spinning it up in a VM sometime soon on the trial license, but I'd like to hear the community's opinion on it, if there is one.

The only thing I'm concerned about is how young this product is (the earliest reference I can find is late 2012), and knowing Cisco I'm sure it has all kinds of fun "features." The release notes from 7.0 to 7.6 do seem to indicate the product is getting a fair amount of developer attention, though.

[Rasika Nayanajith]

All those AireOS products that you listed EoL, therefore not worth purchasing at this moment.

My suggestion is to pick one location (less critical) to see whether you can replace those AP with new 9105 or 9120 AP. One of the AP can run EWC mode (Embeded Wireless Controller) that act as the controller for that site. You do not require any DNA subscription or any additional AP licence to purchase. The software can be download without any support contract.

Below FAQ should help you to understand this solution bit better

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/q-and-a-c67-743152.html 

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

I

[Scott Fella]

Just to add to what Rasika already mentioned, you should look at the 9800-CL since you have an existing VMware environment.  It's free to download as you just pay for support.  Then you can review the 91x0 series access points like Rasika mentioned. 

[Rich R]

To add some more to the other comments: 

"The only thing I'm concerned about is how young this product is" - it's not young - it's very OLD!

The APs will not be supported on recent versions of code at all, certainly not 9800 series.

1400 APs are standalone only, not lightweight/WLC compatible  - see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html#pgfId-590411 and went end of support in 2016 https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/obsolete/wireless/cisco-aironet-1400-series.html

1600 are more recent and supported in WLC up to v8.5 but also end of support December 2021 https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1600-series/eos-eol-notice-c51-737506.html

So you'd be wasting your time trying to do anything with all that old kit which really isn't up to current standards anyway.  The company needs to plan for refreshing the whole lot and then you need to look at catalyst 9100 APs and 9800 controller(s) or (free) EWC running on an AP but you'll need at least 1 per site (2 if you want resilience) if you choose EWC.  The APs can run EWC and serve as a functional AP at the same time so no additional cost.

Ah and of course you could also look at the Meraki range of cloud managed APs - but those are based on subscription licenses and when they go end of support (no more license renewal) they stop working so you can't keep them running way past EOL like your current APs.