maximum of flex connect groups

[joanaschw]

Hi.

I have 20 locations with more than 100 APs and a few with around 500.
My objective was having 2xHA 5520s for the Locations where I have 500+ APs and have on remote locations Flexco Wireless and Mobility nnect APs.

I came across some Cisco documentation that limits my flexconnect groups to 50 APs.

My remote locations can have more than 1 Flexconnect group? for example, one location with 150 APs. Can I have 3x FlexConnnect groups? what are the caveats of this implentation?
I've always used local controllers to deploy smaller sites and now I came across this challenge. Should I keep 2 big controllers in HA for all sites, or should I consider smaller 3504's to implement in every site? we are talking around 20 sites and operation and management will kill me.

thank you for your thoughts

J

[Haydn Andrews · Accepted solution]

Here is the Flexconnect Feature matrix, it has details on the max latency from the AP to the WLC and details of how traffic is affected dependant on the WLAN configuration if connection to WLC is lost.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/5500-series-wireless-controllers/112042-technote-wlc-00.html

Believe somewhere around AIROS 8.0 that the max number of APs per Flexconnect group was increased to 100.

I have sites running more than 3 Flexconnect groups, just remember that roaming between the flexconnect groups will mean full re-auth for the client. You would also want to make sure that the Flexconnect VLAN mappings are consistent for the entire site.

[joanaschw]

Hi Hydn thank you for the reply,

I'm aware of that matrix but I cannot find why I should use Flexconnect over Local mode because I have all my services centralized and relying on the redundant WAN Link. 

Why I can't have simply APs in local mode, normal CAPWAP between the sites, if I have less than 100ms per site?

I mean, I can just consider them as different building inside the same Campus? 

I have L2 over WAN and I ran a test with 20 APs over 1500KM (around 1000 miles) in a specific site and they are working like a charm connected centrally to the controller.

all my services are centralized: authentication, exchange, sharepoint, vpn concentrators, etc.

[Haydn Andrews]

You can run the APs as local mode as long as the WAN meets the latency requirements and you are happy for all the traffic to go across the WAN.

I have done this before as well