Manage remote APs by local WLC

[yasaman64]

                   Hi everyone,

this is my issue, I hope someone can help me with this:

i am new to wireless and i have two sites in two diffrenet subnets connecting together by MPLS and I need to have a wireless controller on one site to manage both local and remote APs. do i have to configure something on the controller?APs? the MPLS routers?

Thanks

[Ven Taylor]

When a lightweight AP boots up, it does a broadcast looking for the name cisco-lwapp-controller.
Create a DNS entry for this name and point it to your wireless controller's AP manager address.

Here's a link to how an AP boots up.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk722/tk809/technologies_tech_note09186a00806c9e51.shtml

You may also want to look into option 43.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk722/tk809/technologies_configuration_example09186a00808714fe.shtml

Once the AP boots up, it will reach the controller.  The controller will take it from there and upgrade/downgrade the AP and manage it.

Ven

[George Stefanick]

Simple anwser my friend .. With MPLS, if you can route to both your local and remote networks you will be fine. Its just like being in the same building, right.

You dont want to have excessive latency between your MPLS abd local network. If you dont..

You are good to go!

[john smith · Accepted solution]

Hello,

you are welcome in the wireless world

you need to do some steps to let this wireless network work smooth.

i hope you know to configure the vlans for wireless netwok.

1: install controller in Site1 and configure for local lan network.

2: join the access points to the controller.use below process

DHCP option 43 is one of the  methods that can be used to tell the AP where the controller is so they  can join.  Since the AP's come out of the box with no configuration they  don't know where the controller is.  There are a few methods that can  be used such as option 43, DNS resolution of cisco-lwapp-controller,  broadcast, and OTOP.  All you are trying to accomplish with one of these  methods is to let the AP know where one of the controllers are.  After  it finds one it will send a discovery request to every controller in the  mobility group, build a list of available controllers, then choose one  to send its join request to.

Here's a link to the deployment guide section which describes the discovery and join process:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/prod_technical_reference09186a00806cfa96.html#wp1081382

3: also let the join access points of remote site2 to the controller in site1 first than install them in site2.

4: use H-REAP features for remote site2 access points. prefer this link to understand H-REAP

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10315/products_tech_note09186a0080736123.shtml

here you done ***

please rate the usefull post.

[yasaman64]

Thank you so much Waseem, I just didnt undrestand the third step, and the first link is not working...

[yasaman64]

Waseem, Can it be done by puting IP helper with the IP of the WLC? How is that going to be done? i shoudl put IP helper on both router(the MPLS ones) on the inside interface on site 2 and outside interface of site 1? and if i use ip helper or DHCP option 43 do i still need H-REAP?

Thanks,

[yasaman64]

Thanks everyone

[fbarboza · Accepted solution]

Hi Yasaman Kamyab,

When working with the WLC if the access points will be on a different subnet then the WLC then you need to use a layer 3 discover method to get the access points to join the WLC.

You can use option 43, DNS lookup or get the APs configured with an static IP address , DG and WLC ip address via the console port.

If not the APs will not join the WLC.

Check on:

Option 43.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk722/tk809/technologies_configuration_example09186a00808714fe.shtml

DNS option.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/products_tech_note09186a00809d5097.shtml

Also make sure that the CAPWAP and LWAPP ports are open between the WLC and APs if there is an ASA or firewall becasue if  they are blocked the APs will never join the WLC.

Here is the link for the WLC FAQ

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/products_qanda_item09186a008064a991.shtml

Here is the link for the deployment guide of the 4400 WLC which is very helpfull to get understading on how the WLCs works and knowing that there are differences between WLCs features and options but the basicas are the same.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/technology/controller/deployment/guide/dep.html

[yasaman64]

Thank you fbarboza

Can it be done by puting IP helper with the IP of the WLC? How is that going to be done? i shoudl put IP helper on both router(the MPLS ones) on the inside interface on site 2 and outside interface of site 1?

[fbarboza]

Hi ,

No , the Ip helper would not work.

What happens is that once an LWAPP AP boots up it will always try all the avilabale discovery options it has to try to join the WLC, and if it does not find the WLC it will reboot and try again.

Basically on the AP is booted it will send a broadcast request in the same subnet as the IP address the AP got looking for a WLC to join (this is known as layer 2 discovery method) if there is no reply from any access point it will then try to use a layer 3 discovery method like option 43 or DNS lookup (also known as layer 3 discovery method) this are configured just so that the AP learns the IP address of the WLC on a different subnet and sends the join request in unicast from to that IP address it learned.

Finally if the previous options do not work then it will try to check if it has an static IP address configured, DG and WLC ip address.

[yasaman64]

Thank you, just one more question, how is the static Ip going to work, and what is DG? how is it configured?

Thanks so much for your help

[Stephen Rodriguez · Accepted solution]

Actually you can use the ip helper address but you need to configure the router ti forward the capwap ports 5246/5247. But this is. It really very scalable.

DG is the default gateway.

Steve

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[yasaman64]

Thanks Steve, What do i need for configuring IP helper. Is it enough to configure IP helper with the IP of WLC on both routers(the inside interface of remote site router where the APs are connected and the outside interface of the site 1 router)? and add ip forward-protocol udp 5246 and 5247 on both routers?

Is that it?

Thanks

[Stephen Rodriguez]

You should only need it I. The inside and the ip helper on the AP VLAN interface

Steve

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[fbarboza]

The DG is for default gateway.

the static IP address works because once the WLC has tried the previous options and it is not able to find a WLC to join, it will check on its configuration and use the static IP address configured to communicate on the network and then it will send the join request to the static IP address of the WLC it was configured statically when we configured the IP address, DG and WLC ip address to join.