Mobility Express - disable Flex standalone mode / radios when not connected to WLC

[ansjarvi]

I have 1852 MEX controller with few subordinate APs and locally switched SSIDs with PSK. Problem is that subordinate APs are no always connected to MEX (ie network) and zombi radios mess up the system. MEX central switching is not very well done. 

So my question is how to disable standalone mode or disable radios when FlexAP is not connected to MEX-wlc?

Flex docs:

"whenever a FlexConnect access point disassociates from a controller, it moves to the standalone mode. The clients that are centrally switched are disassociated. However, the FlexConnect access point continues to serve locally switched clients."

[pieterh]

I think this is contradictory to the design
one of the intentions of Flex mode is to keep the AP operational and connect clients to local VLAN's specific when the central controller is not reachable.
if you want the AP disabled when not connected to the network you may consider using PoE
-> not connected -> no power -> radios down

you may also consider configuring a secondary MEX controller for situations when the primary is down?

[ansjarvi · Accepted solution]

fallback-radio-shut is the same. Still i'd need some event manager / intelligence to poll network connectivity and shut down the switch port. 

[Cristian Matei]

Hi,

   You could use IP SLA to track WLC reachability and combine it with EEM to shutdown the port, likewise on the reverse-path, WLC ip UP, EEM enables the port.

ip sla 100

  icmp-echo x.x.x.x source-interface xxxx

!

ip sla reaction-configuration 100 react timeout threshold-type immediate

ip sla schedule 100 life forever start-time now

ip sla enable reaction-alerts

track 100 ip sla 100 reachability

event manager applet WLC_DOWN

event syslog pattern "ip sla 100 reachability Up->Down"

action 1.0 cli command "enable"

action 1.1 cli command "configure terminal”

action 1.2 cli command “interface xxx”

action 1.3 cli command “shutdown”

action 1.5 syslog msg “WLC DOWN AP DOWN”

event manager applet WLC_UP

event syslog pattern "ip sla 100 reachability Down->Up"

action 1.0 cli command "enable"

action 1.1 cli command "configure terminal”

action 1.2 cli command “interface xxxx”

action 1.4 cli command “no shutdown“

action 1.5 syslog msg “WLC UP AP UP“

Regards,

Cristian Matei.

[pieterh]

"fallback-radio-shut is the same"

No this is not the same,

1)  using PoE (Power over Ethernet) means both power and ethernet are over the same cable to the AP (no external power), when the cable is disconnected, the AP is powered down and does nothing. reconnect the cable and the AP boots up.

2) fallback-radio-shut is intended for when the AP remains powered, but has no ethernet-link (not connected to a  switchport BUT/AND is external powered using a power-brick)
-> disconnect ethernet and AP remains "operational" but with radio's down, when ethernet connection is restored, the AP does not need to boot, but only needs to switch on the radio's

3) in case the AP is powered, the ethernet link to the connected switch is up, but there is no connectivity over the lan to the MEX, that is where flexconnect is intended to keep radio's active and drop WLAN data to a local VLAN (except for the central switched WLAN's.)

[ansjarvi]

its not the same, but You need to kick the port, that's the thing i ment. So its like fixed with the tape. There is no solution for this, case closed.