create wlans > 16

[pwwiddicombe]

I have a number of controllers of various models (5508 and 5520) that somehow have (intentionally) WLAN ID's > 16 (engineering and manufacturing); which is important because we don't inadvertently want these to show up on newly installed AP's.  Unfortunately, the individual that created these is no longer with us.

I'm migrating one of those 5508 to a 5520 pair; and  am unable to recreate that.  Hints?  Do you have to create "dummy" ones to fill up to 16 and then let the controller "pick" the next default to get 17, 18, etc.?  Then go back and clean them up...    (one of the existing ones was installed less than a year ago on a 5520, so it must have been 8.2.x.x when it was created).

GUI and CLI seem to balk normally at creating anything greater than 16.

Note these only HAVE 4 WLANS on them, then just happen to be WLAN 2,5,8,17 - so it CAN be done !

https://mrncciew.com/2013/05/16/wlan-config-via-cli-part-2/ has tutorials; but I don't know what release or settings he may have done.

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi

 I did not understand what is your problem.

Are saying that you can't create WLAN greater then 16?

 I have the same approach here, always start by ID 16 and I have no problem.

 But, every time you create a WLAN, you need to determine which ID you want.

-If I helped you somehow, please, rate it as useful.-

[pwwiddicombe]

I tried creating WLAN 16, no problem. Next time I create one, highest I can go is 15. I want 17 or higher...

[pwwiddicombe]

Interesting. ON that 5508, if I create a WLAN it allows me to select up to 512 as the Wlan index. 8.2.164.0

[Rasika Nayanajith]

Hi

"Do you have to create "dummy" ones to fill up to 16 and then let the controller "pick" the next default to get 17, 18, etc.?  Then go back and clean them up..."

When you create a WLAN, you can choose any WLAN ID number between 1-512 in most of WLCs. This mean you do not want to create them in sequence. It is not software version dependent.

It is a good practice to choose WLAN ID greater than 16, then those SSIDs will not be advertise via AP group "default-group" (if you choose a number 1-16, it will be advertise via all APs belong to default AP group named default-group). When you have WLAN ID > 16, then you have to create an AP group and then add APs to given group and map WLAN within that AP group. In this way you have better control, what AP advertise, which SSIDs,etc.

Hope that clears.

Regards

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

[pwwiddicombe]

OK - this is another one of those platform specific things. 2504 can't seem to create >16 on any version of WLC code; but 5508 and 5520 both can.
Sort of like the 5520 can't have an internal DHCP server.

[Rasika Nayanajith]

That's true.

Internal DHCP server is not meant for production networks, it has limited capability and only recommend for test/lab environment.

Therefore Cisco has removed this feature from 5520/8540 platforms where you need to use proper external DHCP server

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***