ap default group

[albertbank]

Dear Community

I have noticed that all wlans I create on my wlc 5508 are active for the default group.

That leads to issues with the ap deployment. The accesspoints are mounted by electricians and until they are configured they offer all wlans. Other vendors allow to reconfigure the default group not to offer any wlans; wht does Cisco recommend ?

[RockstarWiFi]

Honestly it's recommended to "Prime" APs before you mount them. If this must be done, I recommend having the switch ports disabled until your ready to prime them.  Priming an AP your essentially adding to the controller, updating code, defining its role and defining it's HA settings. If your not priming APs before you deploy, you may notice they are joining controllers in your Mobility Group in round robin fashion? This is by design, and can make things tedious. When priming it can be easier if you allow APs to join 1 controller until you are done priming them. You can use Master Controller Mode so all unprimed APs join a specific controller (where you enabled Master Controller Mode). This mode is not permanent and is only used for this purpose. If the controller ever reboots then it will lose the master controller role until you re-enable it. 

Hopefully this helps. 

~ Please rate all helpful post ~

[albertbank]

chrisavants

thanks for the info. nevertheless I honestly see no need for priming in my case. There is a HA pair of WLC5508 the ap gets directed to using a DHCP option. If I need to touch the ap before I activate them I create an overhead of work.

I have worked with different vendors of wireless kit, maybe that has an influence on my expectations. Vendor xy allows to detach some or all Wlans from the default group, so new accesspoints can be installed by electricians independently from the IT team. Once they have finished their batch they report mac address, serial number and position back to IT, and config work can start.

I have learnt now that Cisco requires a different sequence.

Cheers

[David Ritter · Accepted solution]

Why not activate the "Out-of-Box" RF profiles on the WLC. 

Then all 'new' AP's and any that got forgot, will energize with their default ID's with radios off and no SSID's.  Just waiting for you to configure.

http://thewifiguy.net/2013/10/24/204/

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/7-4/configuration/guides/consolidated/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED_chapter_01100000.pdf

[RockstarWiFi]

David has a good idea although I haven't done this personally it makes sense to what you are looking for:)

[manvik]

“default-group” will have all the WLAN ID between 1-16 mapped to the group. If you create an SSID with WLAN ID above 16 it will not be added to “default-group”.