How to manage WLANs on MC instead of MA

[Rodrigo Garcia Gallardo]

Hi guys,

is there a way to manage WLANs on a WLC5508 configured as Mobility Controller (MC) instead of a 3850 switch configured as Mobility Agent (MA)?

When I enable the "new mobility" feature on the 3850 switch and configure it as a Mobility Agent (MA), the APs directly connected join the 3850 switch and start broadcasting the WLANs it has configured instead of the ones configured on the WLC5508.

Here are some more details:

• A WLC5508 is configured as Mobility Controller (MC) and a 3850 switch is configured as Mobility Agent (MA)
• A 1600 AP and a 3600 AP are joined to the 3850 switch configured as mobility agent (MA)
• Both APs start broadcasting the WLANs configured on the 3850 switch (MA) instead of the WLANs configured on the WLC5508 (MC)

I am new to all this "new mobility" thing, I would appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance!!

[Stephen Rodriguez]

Not yet.  I believe this is on the roadmap for a future release though.

HTH,
Steve

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[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

You can use your 3850 as simple layer 3 switch without enabling MA functionality. In that way there is no differencce to current CUWN network where all ap connected to 3850 will register to your 5508 & advertise all SSID defined over there.

But if you want to use 3850 to terminate CAPWAP (MA functionality) then you cannot have mix of CUWN & CA (Converged Access) funtionality.

Below posts will help you to understand this a little bit

1. http://mrncciew.com/2013/12/14/3850ma-with-5760mc/

2. http://mrncciew.com/2013/12/16/5760-in-ca-cuwn/

HTH

Rasika

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[Rodrigo Garcia Gallardo]

Thank you Steve, Rasika, I will read those posts.

Do you know where can I check the roadmap and see if that functionality is contemplated for future releases?

[Saravanan Lakshmanan · Accepted solution]

#What you're seeing is expected.

#Currently, irrespective of any model ie CA or mix of CA & CUWN, APs that are directly connected to 3850 terminates its capwap on 3850 itself, meaning 3850 acts as controller for its connected APs.

#Can see the challenge here that when you got many 3850 access switches with couple of APs on them, it will become hardy to make an change on any WLAN/Wireless config that requires to be implemented on other 3850s. #Contact your local SE to find on what release this fix is going on.

[Rodrigo Garcia Gallardo]

Thank you Saravanan

[Rasika Nayanajith]

Hi Saravanan,

Just need clarification on the below point, If you do not enable wireless management on 3850, then CAPWAP won't terminate on 3850. Am I correct ?

#Currently, irrespective of any model ie CA or mix of CA & CUWN, APs that are directly connected to 3850 terminates its capwap on 3850 itself, meaning 3850 acts as controller for its connected APs

Rasika

[Saravanan Lakshmanan]

Dang!!!

my bad, you're perfectly right. When wireless management is disabled on 3850, it will act as normal wired PoE switch for its connected APs.

(When a wireless management VLAN is defined on a 3850, it does CAPWAP 'snooping' on all physical ports, regardless of the VLAN membership of the port.  Therefore, even if the AP is in VLAN 100 but your wireless management VLAN is 20, the switch will intercept the CAPWAP traffic and attempt to join the AP and doesn't allow to join the AP onto external controller. )

[Rodrigo Garcia Gallardo]

Thank you Rasika and Saravanan for your valuable comments and clarifications.

Best regards